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Tapping, How to learn?


Mikeg
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Billy Sheehan did a great video years ago (if you can get your head past the dreadful hair and apalling interviewer) in which he really broke down his approach to tapping. He made it incredibly clear how he went about it.

It is almost certainly on youtube somewhere...

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Interested in the Jean Baudin book too- from memory I think it's transcribed for 5 strings but I'm sure you could get most of the value anyway.

In the meantime, try playing with one hand only, e.g. scales with only the left hand, no picking or plucking. Then try it with the right hand only. Then you can try putting them together. That's a start at least :)

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[quote name='Mikeg' timestamp='1323111241' post='1459470']
Sadly im too far away from anywhere to have regular tuition. And that book does look good, from what I can see on youtube Jean plays bass's with silly amounts of strings, can the book be learned from with a 4 stringer?
[/quote]

That isn't close minded at all.

The entire book is done with his 5 string.

Though the sound clips are from his 11 string, and not silly bass.

He is a wonderful teacher, i've had several lessons from him very down to earth and his bass lines are AMAZING

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Alternatively, spend some time learning something useful like how to read music or some advanced theory :)

That classical fugue showed everything that is wrong with that technique. Take a perfectly servicable piece of music and turn it into a juggling act with no musical merit.

Two things to watch and then think about.....both Michael Manring. The second one Manring could probably do standing on his head in terms of his technique. But which one got him a gig outside of someone's living room :)

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra2KOyas"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra2KOyas[/url]

[u][color="#0066cc"][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KDum0b2z8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KDum0b2z8[/url][/color][/u]

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Manring was also a sideman for Michael Hedges. Watch this and ask yourself where Manring got his concept from!

[u][color="#0066cc"][u][color="#0066cc"][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wid_dZUFKw&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wid_dZUFKw&feature=related[/url][/color][/u][/color][/u]

Its great but is it worth the investment required? Its your call.

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[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1323606632' post='1464871']
Alternatively, spend some time learning something useful like how to read music or some advanced theory :)

That classical fugue showed everything that is wrong with that technique. Take a perfectly servicable piece of music and turn it into a juggling act with no musical merit.

[/quote]

Maybe you should brush up on music history as that Fugue isn't classical :)

And technically he didn't play it as a fugue either!

I enjoyed it but each to his own, (don't worry Bilbo i too love jazz! Although i find jazzy bass playing very difficult) and how do you know we can't read music or know some advanced theory? (depends on what you mean by advanced i guess haha!)

But i can read bass, tenor, treble, alto, and contra-bass clef better than i can read english :)

Sorry if that sounded really like lash-out-ish it was all in mild humour my friend!

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[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1323611167' post='1464974']
The OP presumably asked about approaches to tapping because he's already decided he wants to learn how to do it. I have great respect for your musicianship and integrity Bilbo, but I'm not sure that trying to talk him out of it is the right approach in this situation.
[/quote]

Plus the one!

Didn't mean to try and start an arguement btw the guys just incase anyone thought i was simply looking for one!

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Me neither, just telling it as i see it. I have been aware of these types of players for decades now and every player spends some time with these techniques but I can say that in all my years of gigging and watching bands, I have only ever seen these tecniques employed on youtube and never as anything other than a contrived 'solo' spot that amounts to nothing more than a circus trick. The best tones from bass are rarely achieved with the r/h slamming into the strings and pull offs are equally limited in tonal colour. In short, most of it sounds ugly (Manring is the rare exception and I liked the way Kevin Glasgow used it on a video he posted here). IMHO, its an attractive part piece but, musically, its mostly wasted time. But, as I said, its the OP's call.

As for the classical comment, I wasn't being ethnomusicologically specific, just referring back to the earlier post. :)

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And that Niti video just confirms hows bad tapping sounds!

I guess he is a great teacher (an established reputation) but he is also selling a product and is not going to 'not' sell videos of techniques that are useless, he is going to fill a perceived market need.

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Well
[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1323606632' post='1464871']
Alternatively, spend some time learning something useful like how to read music or some advanced theory :)

That classical fugue showed everything that is wrong with that technique. Take a perfectly servicable piece of music and turn it into a juggling act with no musical merit.

Two things to watch and then think about.....both Michael Manring. The second one Manring could probably do standing on his head in terms of his technique. But which one got him a gig outside of someone's living room :)

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra2KOyas[/media]

[u][color=#0066cc][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KDum0b2z8[/media][/color][/u]
[/quote]

The first one got him an Endorsement deal from Markbass and famous to the point of infamy amongst bassists for being amazingly creative, whereas there are how many people scraping a living reading the dots to someone elses music in Show bands/Cruise ships bands. Not detratcing from them, but they are in a different league, and as you say he can do that standing on his head.

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[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1323674208' post='1465566']
And that Niti video just confirms hows bad tapping sounds!

I guess he is a great teacher (an established reputation) but he is also selling a product and is not going to 'not' sell videos of techniques that are useless, he is going to fill a perceived market need.
[/quote]

Totally agree with you on the two handed tapping thing for the most part....The only player I've heard who uses the technique well (IMO) in a band setting is Roscoe Beck when he was part of Robben Ford & The Blue Line, but that was more to do with the fact that the band was a trio and Beck was using it mostly when Ford would be soloing.

It's not really a technique that I personally would really like to spend a lot of time working on (like yourself Bilbo, I'm more interested in the music side of it and improving as a musician than anything else), I posted the YT vid as the OP was interested in getting a start on it, but I think we both agree that it's the OP's call if he wants to continue with investigating it as part of his learning process.

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[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1323687404' post='1465692']
An endoresement from Markbass!! Hasn't everyone got one of them :) Seriously, there are issues here but I am hijacking someone else's thread so will apologise and go and start one of my own!!
[/quote]

Please do so we can debate there :)

I like the sound of tap, you don't we've agreed to disagree.

Why isn't everyone in life as civil as basschat?!

Though i take mild offence as i tap pretty frequently in my band, and it's not as a solo thing or a lead thing usually, just a way of doing somthing i like to do, which it think sounds cool. I believe there is a genre called Jazz built on doing what you want in music, you may have heard of it? :)

Seeing your sig gets me in a jazzy mood, time to break out Nostalgia in times square '93 me thinks!

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