Slapping

[Mornats]

[bubinga5]

erm ok. not really into tapping but done well i still like it hear it. couldn't find an appropriate Batman pic anyways. can't see the big deal about slapping, its just another technique.

Edited March 13, 2014 by bubinga5

[thisnameistaken]

Tapping never sounds good though.

Slapping… Mostly people don't like it because most people who do it don't do it for the sound, they do it because they want people to look at them. I remember once being at a jam night and Dave La Rue turned up and slapped all night, and behind the stage was a massive beer-advertising mirror and he spent the whole time looking at himself in the mirror slapping. A lot of slappers are like him.

I've started doing more slap bass lately because I'm putting together a sort-of old-school hip-hop band, so I'm trying to slap like Doug Wimbish did on the Sugarhill Records releases, simple stuff and heavy-handed, or like some of the other late '70s guys early '80s guys, slapping like they used to do before Mark King turned it into a competition. I make it a point that you can hear every note I slap because I left space for it, unlike the trade show clowns with their ridiculous super-tempoed double-thumbing bull****. That's why everybody hates slap bass these days.

[JTUK]

Unless you make it an integral part of the song..... and you can get it to underpin the song..which isn't so easy, I generally have a 2 bar rule for fills...anything else gets into w***ing territory.
Mark King gets a lot of flak but you could also blame people like Flea.
Like most things, if you haven't got anything to say, then just...don't

But that isn't going to work

[Mornats]

I'm just so sick of watching demo videos of basses and/or amps and having nothing but a slap-fest racket going on. That's when the video become more of a bit of w**kery for the player than a demo of the instrument. Beside, IMO, all basses sound the same when slapped - like they're just been thrown down the stairs.

[bubinga5]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1394747319' post='2394856']
Tapping never sounds good though.


[/quote]really.? subjective of course, but i think it can be very musical in the right context.

[bubinga5]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1394748065' post='2394873']
I'm just so sick of watching demo videos of basses and/or amps and having nothing but a slap-fest racket going on. That's when the video become more of a bit of w**kery for the player than a demo of the instrument. Beside, IMO, all basses sound the same when slapped - like they're just been thrown down the stairs.
[/quote]with respect i couldn't disagree more with what you've just said. i would say stop watching crap demo vids. and imo no, not all basses sound the same slapped, you live in a different world to what i can hear in more ways than one. i think maybe listen to some guys who can play, before come out with such bold statements.

do you have a grasp of the technique yourself.?

Edited March 13, 2014 by bubinga5

[visog]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1394747319' post='2394856']
Tapping never sounds good though.

Slapping… Mostly people don't like it because most people who do it don't do it for the sound, they do it because they want people to look at them. I remember once being at a jam night and Dave La Rue turned up and slapped all night
[/quote]

Agree about the tapping - nearest I've got to liking it is Victor's 'Norwegian Wood'.

You were at a Jam night and Dave La Rue turned up!? Where???? Who, How? Was Jaco there too?

Edited March 13, 2014 by visog

[bubinga5]

whenever i hear someone say, they do it for the sound, sorry (TMIT), or its a slap fest, apart from other amazing bassists, i think of Mr Kabas. imo some of the most musical slap playing. well that I've heard . it can be done so well, i actually forget he's slapping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOJzRxlBRhI

Edited March 24, 2014 by icastle
Link fixed.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1394750463' post='2394927']You were at a Jam night and Dave La Rue turned up!? Where???? Who, How? Was Jaco there too?[/quote]

It was this weird bar basically on a strip-mall in Tom's River, New Jersey. My guitarist-at-the-time organised the jam night, and that night I'd gone to say goodbye to some local musicians because I was heading back to the UK the following weekend after three years living over there.

I remember I got talking to some people who I hadn't met before and about an hour in one of them asked where I was from. I hadn't realised what a local accent I'd ended up with until that point, and indeed I was totally ridiculed when I moved back to ****ing Wakefield!

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1394751464' post='2394947']
whenever i hear someone say, they do it for the sound, sorry (TMIT), or its a slap fest, apart from other amazing bassists, i think of Mr Kabas. imo some of the most musical slap playing. well that I've heard . it can be done so well, i actually forget he's slapping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOJzRxlBRhI
[/quote]

That's maybe a bad example, because it's not as good as the original bass part on the recording.

Edited March 24, 2014 by icastle
Link fixed.

[Mornats]

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1394749140' post='2394893']
with respect i couldn't disagree more with what you've just said. i would say stop watching crap demo vids. and imo no, not all basses sound the same slapped, you live in a different world to what i can hear in more ways than one. i think maybe listen to some guys who can play, before come out with such bold statements. [/quote]

Perhaps, the bad ones are just so bad. There is of course good slap bass but I'm sure you could agree that there's a lot of rubbish out there done for someone's own self-gratification. It does give it all a bit of a bad rep and gets very very tiresome.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1394749140' post='2394893']
do you have a grasp of the technique yourself.?
[/quote]

That's not a requirement to liking or disliking something.

The cartoon above was meant to be light hearted by the way

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1394749140' post='2394893']do you have a grasp of the technique yourself.?[/quote]

Ooh. See this is another problem - the suggestion (belief?) that the only people who have anything bad to say about slap bass are people who "can't do it".

Edited March 14, 2014 by thisnameistaken

[Sonic_Groove]

I have just remembered why I stopped coming to this site!

Edited March 13, 2014 by Sonic_Groove

[Skol303]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1394747319' post='2394856']
Tapping never sounds good though.[/quote]

I beg to differ. Well, I don't actually beg... I just differ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAmX3yDkx2M

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1394748065' post='2394873']
I'm just so sick of watching demo videos of basses and/or amps and having nothing but a slap-fest racket going on. That's when the video become more of a bit of w**kery for the player than a demo of the instrument. Beside, IMO, all basses sound the same when slapped - like they're just been thrown down the stairs.
[/quote]

This. Once the demo descends into slappery, I stop it and look for the next one. Tells you nothing about the kit being demoed.

OTOH I rather wish I [i]could[/i] slap. Just a bit, for those songs where it's needed, like the riff in Car Wash

Edited March 13, 2014 by JapanAxe

[Gust0o]

[quote name='Sonic_Groove' timestamp='1394753998' post='2394986']
I have just remembered why I stopped coming to this site!
[/quote]

[JellyKnees]

Well, it's just another technique, isn't it? Like an ingredient in a recipe, probably akin to chilli or something. So go easy on it - put too much in and you will ruin the dish, but use just the right amount in a tasteful way and it can be delish.

[Conan]

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1394806131' post='2395440']
Well, it's just another technique, isn't it? Like an ingredient in a recipe, probably akin to chilli or something. So go easy on it - put too much in and you will ruin the dish, but use just the right amount in a tasteful way and it can be delish.
[/quote]

Exactly. You never get threads where people say "I'm sick of all this finger-style playing" or "Why do people play with a pick, it sounds horrible".

So why all the hatred for slap? If you don't like it, don't listen to it!

I like it when it's well done, and I play a bit of it myself (when it is appropriate). I also played in a lot of original bands in the 1980s when slap was very popular. In fact, you couldn't get into some bands if you couldn't/didn't slap!

Mark King gets a lot of stick for his slap playing, but his fingerstyle is pretty damned good too! And he does all that whilst singing!

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited February 19, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[CamdenRob]

In my youth I played mostly slap in metal bands, was kinda the done thing back then.

When I used to teach, it was the technique that most beginners wanted to learn first. Guess it would have given them something to show their friends.

People who don't know anything about bass love slap. Whenever we have people over they always want to see crazy slap and tapping, but that sort of thing never makes it out of my house these days, more of a party trick, it wouldn't really suit the projects I'm involved with at the moment.

In my experience flash slap makes people notice you but good technique and musicality gets you into good bands.

Edited March 14, 2014 by CamdenRob

[steve-bbb]

Somebody pass the the popcorn please

[EliasMooseblaster]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1394809459' post='2395487']
Exactly. You never get threads where people say "I'm sick of all this finger-style playing" or "Why do people play with a pick, it sounds horrible".

[/quote]

Well...maybe not here, but have you looked through the threads on Talkbass lately?

I don't like the sound of it, but then I don't listen to a lot of funk and fusion anyway so it's not often there to annoy me. I have heard it in contexts where it actually detracts from the music, though these are usually only in the same places where kicking in some crazy envelope filter, or two-handed hyper-speed tapping, or just dropping your trousers and flaying your genitalia against the strings would have been similarly inappropriate.

For example, desperately slapping away underneath a sonic wall of two distorted guitars and straight-eighths drumming just ruins any feel your music might have had. I also wanted to punch the guy at that blues jam who thought it would be ever-so-clever to do a super-fast slap solo in the middle of a slow 12-bar. The kids in guitar shops slapping badly are surely no different from the young metalheads guitarists who are trying to shred their way through some Pantera in a shop where they don't realise no one gives an airborne sh**e.

On the other hand, the first time I heard Marcus Miller playing a particularly tasteful solo piece which featured slapping and popping, I began to understand what the fuss was about. It's not really for me, but to each their own.

[discreet]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1394748065' post='2394873']
I'm just so sick of watching demo videos of basses and/or amps and having nothing but a slap-fest racket going on.
[/quote]

I tend to agree. I don't dislike slapping [i]per se[/i] - it has its place - but when for example I'm watching an amp demo vid and the player uses the slap technique to the exclusion of all else I find it annoying - I play pick and fingerstyle with flats, so I'd like to see at least a little bit of pick and fingerstyle playing in a demo vid. With flats. It's not too much to ask, is it?

[Dingus]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1394747319' post='2394856']
Tapping never sounds good though.

Slapping… Mostly people don't like it because most people who do it don't do it for the sound, they do it because they want people to look at them. I remember once being at a jam night and Dave La Rue turned up and slapped all night, and behind the stage was a massive beer-advertising mirror and he spent the whole time looking at himself in the mirror slapping. A lot of slappers are like him.

I've started doing more slap bass lately because I'm putting together a sort-of old-school hip-hop band, so I'm trying to slap like Doug Wimbish did on the Sugarhill Records releases, simple stuff and heavy-handed, or like some of the other late '70s guys early '80s guys, slapping like they used to do before Mark King turned it into a competition. I make it a point that you can hear every note I slap because I left space for it, unlike the trade show clowns with their ridiculous super-tempoed double-thumbing bull****. That's why everybody hates slap bass these days.
[/quote]

This mirrors exactly my own thoughts on slapping ( and tapping, which invariably sounds crap and completely inappropriate on a bass guitar. Even if you can tap on a bass , why would you?).

I slap, but I am trying to slap like the old school players did back in the'70's / early 1980's before slapping became an Olympic event and, most importantly, it still sounded good within the context of the music. I love of a lot of black American music from that era, and slap bass is big part of that sound. There are actually a whole host of different styles of slap, and the best exponents all seem to have their own take on it.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Dingus

[Dingus]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1394751840' post='2394957']



I remember I got talking to some people who I hadn't met before and about an hour in one of them asked where I was from. I hadn't realised what a local accent I'd ended up with until that point, and indeed I was totally ridiculed when I moved back to ****ing Wakefield!

[/quote]

To be fair, in Wakefield most people think going to Leeds for the day is a foreign holiday .