Taking Your SLAP BASS from (Beginner to PRO)

so whenever I started learning how to play bass I wanted to play stuff like this [Music] on base is probably one of the biggest techniques anybody who learns how to play bass wants to know because it's such a big part of the fingerprint of playing the bass now whenever I started to learn how to play I got my hands like you know on the base and I start trying to slap and I was like man okay how do I do this and I realize it's not as easy as it seems with all these Pros that play it after playing and being a part of the pro music industry for over 10 years now and being around a ton of professional bass players that are incredible at slap based there are three elements that every Pro knows when it comes to playing slap one technique two tone three application so basically how to play it how to make it sound good and when to use it so the way I'm gonna break each of these down is I'm going to teach you about it and then give you a couple of ways you can practice it and develop it so you can throw it into your playing so whenever I was learning how to play slap on bass nobody told me ever what singles were so basically what I consider a single is where you slap and pop one time just like that for a lot of people you're probably just like ah okay how does that help me transform my bass playing something I didn't understand is like the rhythmic aspect of slapping and like all the in-between stuff it's not necessarily easy to do clean when you don't have a lot of muscle I don't think you're naturally built with muscle to be able to play stuff like this whenever I was starting to do this I was like oh my gosh I do this like I just maybe like 20 seconds and my arm would be like dead I'm like what in the world's going on you have to work your right hand out on this technique to kind of get your gains and your strength and in your accuracy so one thing that I do to help me first get started into developing this is slapping and popping without pressing down on my left hand just kind of laying my fingers there and just slapping and popping I'm just slapping on my a string and then popping on the G string and just doing that just getting my hands used to it and you can do this with the metronome and I would start off slow because the whole point is to be consistent and even you don't want to be like you don't want to be like that you want to be able to be [Music] constant and even like this because what that starts to do is develop good accuracy and technique for when you're playing percussive another way you could use this is slapping and popping octaves if you don't know what an octave is all it is is just if you play a note you go up two strings and down two Frets which I call the two by two Rule and you get the same note okay you hear this all the time in slap and so what you could do is just practice going back and forth with your metronome playing actual notes so just make sure you go close your door somewhere where nobody can hear I would even plug into an amp per se or into a computer I would just literally go just without anything plugged in and just practice this because if you have anybody in your house it's gonna get annoying super super quick so another thing you could do is use these octaves on the major and pentatonic scale on one string [Music] and you can also do it on the pentatonic scale and other scales as well now the other way of practicing this which is a little bit more difficult but doing it on the same string sounds crazy I know but I'm telling you it will help you get your accuracy up with your right hand so basically let's say I'm gonna play the a flat minor pentatonic scale foreign watch this so all I'm going to do is play slap pop on the E string only like this and then I'm going to keep going up on each note of the scale [Music] [Applause] [Music] this may make this technique a little harder to do but what it does it helps you become way more accurate when it comes to playing because this is like cool technique I use all the time to kind of give emphasis to certain notes so now the next technique that Pros know are ghost notes and how to use them in slap this was something that nobody taught me this was something I just saw a lot of bass players doing and I was like what is that you know how why is it so percussive and so all it is is ghost notes with slap and so if you don't know what a ghost note is all a ghost note is is a note that doesn't have a pitch or a tone to it it's just this a thud now a lot of people teach this with finger Style but not many people talk about it with slapping so basically all you're doing is instead of playing a note slapped down like that you just lift up your finger on your left hand and you just lay your fingers over it you just do this you slap and there's nothing there the reason why this is so essential is because it gives you this ability to be really percussive in your playing and kind of accent things that the drums are doing or even just accent rhythmic things that kind of make the groove sound better and more spicy here's a Groove without any Ghost Notes [Music] now here it is with ghostness foreign would be super honest with you this is one of those secrets that nobody told me about it started transforming everything I did with slap now there's a couple of ways that I practice this to really get it under my hands one was to play a ghost note in between each note of whatever scales that I know and I would do every position every mode you know everything so let's take the major pentatonic scale for example [Music] and we're going all the way through to the G string all I'm going to do is as I'm going up I'm going to play a ghost note in between every note like this [Music] so practice it with the metronome and really get my hand used to it because the reason why metronome is helpful because it pushes you to that next level when it comes to playing unspeed and really getting it locked in so now another way of practicing this is that I would do it with my pop because you can't just do just your slap and just get it good with your slap you got to be able to do it with your popping finger as well so for this one what I would do is instead of slapping and doing a ghost Note with my thumb I would slap and do a ghost Note with my index finger on the pop so [Music] so does this technique remind you of something it's that same idea of the single slap pop technique exercise that just went over just a second ago but instead of doing it with each note being clear you're doing one muted so whenever you practice this with your metronome just take your time start off slow even if you have to start off at 20 BPM go from there 20 take it up 10 BPM next time 5 BPM 10 BPM like whatever it is just walk your way up to the place that you want to be so one huge thing that every pro bass player knows about slap is Hammer runs pull-offs and slides are King they're like literally in every slap Baseline you could think of so if you don't know what a hammer on is all it is is where you play a note and then you hammer on with your finger without using your right hand like this [Music] now all the pull-off is is where you do the same kind of concept but instead of going and hammering on you're going to pull off [Music] to get the note up under your finger so basically all I'm doing is plucking with my left hand so I can get this note sounding clear [Music] so slides are a lot like Hammer runs but the key is that you're using one finger and you're just keeping it pressed down until you get to another note like this [Music] so here's me using some Hammer ons and pull-offs and a slap Groove [Music] so the way that you could practice all three of these is by using them in your scales so one way I like to develop my hammer-ons and pull-offs is I'll play scales without using my right hand like this [Music] because when you're ascending you're working your Hammer ons [Music] and when you're descending you're working your pull-offs [Music] for slides what I like to do is slide in between notes of the pattern of the pentatonic scale like this [Music] you could go backwards as well foreign so if you're thinking man Travis you went through that really fast just know I have a video that's called how to improve your slab base overnight I'll link it up here and I promise you I go into it a lot more details so you can understand and grasp it and practice it easily today's video is sponsored by hellofresh if you follow my channel for any number of years you probably recognize that I have had a bit of a transformation when it comes to my weight in the past few years companies like hello fresh really help when it comes to watching what you're eating to make sure you're not eating too much takeout and you're able to just make simple meals at home so the way it works is that you go to their website and you choose whatever meal plan is the right one for you depending on how many meals you want per week and then they send it to your door and all you have to do is just go and grab the box and open it up and all the meals that you selected are prepared in these little bags that have all the ingredients ingredients with them so the next step is to open up the bag of ingredients lay them all out and get to cooking all the instructions are laid out on these cue cards that they send in the box when they send your meals they are super easy to read and easy to understand me and my wife connect over cooking all the time and I will say hellofresh has really helped with these simple recipes that we make weekly go to hellofresh.com and use code Travis dykes21 for 21 free meals plus free shipping so now the next category is tone tone is something that every Pro knows about especially when it comes to slap bass one huge hack that really helped me with developing better tone and cleanliness when I play is slapping closer to the bottom of the neck which about right right here a lot of times you see a lot of bass players that play way back here and their tone just like it doesn't sound like a lot of the funk and R B stuff that we like to hear at least me I mean I don't know what you guys like but for me I like hearing that really nice clean even tone this like [Music] the way that I've achieved it over the years in a way I don't know if everybody does it this way but this is the way this helped me but I slept right down here at the bottom of the neck if my thumb accidentally goes through the string or anything like that it just gets caught right here at the the end of the neck and doesn't go and get caught up under the string so even if I make a mistake or my accuracy isn't perfect if I hit it like that it actually gives me a little bit of a space to recover versus just going through and just getting caught and losing the groove so if I slap back here you get this tone [Music] but if you slap right here you get this tone [Music] for me I like the tone up here a little bit more you can let me know in the comments if you like the one back here a little bit more I know some people slap back here because they like the tone of it but I generally like this tone [Music] so now the next tip with tone that I feel like it should be just like a given but playing even okay whenever I first started playing I was playing like this I was playing like like one thing could be my pop would be way louder than my my slap so what you have to start doing is learn how to play evenly to where you get the same volume out of your slab and your pop now one way that I help my pop is instead of using my arms and like pull it off like that I use my wrist and kind of have this this motion like this and what that does is it causes me to have more of an even go with my pop and my slap because it's just a Twist of the wrist and so what you do you twist your wrist back and forth to get this even tone between your thumb and your index finger now another way that people achieve evenness when it comes to slap playing is using a compressor the compressor that I use is the API Transformer LX y'all have seen it you've probably seen it in every like playthrough video that I've ever done on this channel but you don't have to have one to get really good tone the key to using a compressor is to not over use it and a lot of people overuse it because it destroys your tone because you start getting a side because oh man it sounds super Slappy and it sounds super even so you crank it up and you you're like yeah this is great it makes me sound better it makes my bad technique sound good that's not what it's supposed to do it's supposed to actually add and give it just a little bit of an evenness but also kind of boost some of that tone I don't know what that was just make sure when you're using your compressor to not over use it so I'm going to show you real quick on how my compressor is not up a ton and I'm going to cut it off and let you hear what it sounds like with and without the compressor let me know in the comments if you can hear the difference [Music] [Music] so now the last tip when it comes to tone is having a bright but Punchy tone with low end a lot of times when I was a beginner and I was learning how to play I would just hear these guys in their tone but just you could hear the highs and I was just like ah I need to make sure my eyes are boosted all the way up and so I would take my base and I would turn up all my highs and my tone would sound like trash because the thing is you got to realize you're playing a bass so the low end still needs to be very present so what I've learned is that you have to have that presence there but you also have to keep the low end there as well there's two main type of Base configurations that I see a lot especially if you're a beginner or even if you're you know Advanced player professional right here is a Fender Squier precision base this is something that a lot lot of you guys have on these type bases you have a volume and a tone now a lot of times to get a good brightness out of these type bases I like to have my tone all the way up instead of like dialed back at all now if you have crazy bright strings then yeah feel free to dial back on your tone to where it feels nice and even let me give you an example of what the tone turned back what it sounds like [Music] now this is with the tone back up foreign [Music] k534 it's a five-string bass I have a three band EQ which is highs lows and mids on these type bases what I like to do is if my strings are really dead I'll boost the highs just a little bit you don't want to boost them too much 95 percent of the time I have all of my settings flat just so you know 95 probably 98 of the time but if my strings are really dead sometimes I can boost the highs just a little bit but not too much to where it overtakes the lows and it doesn't feel like a bass anymore so while I have this base I'll talk about the last part of this which is strings strings really make a huge difference when it comes to your tone I have on this base Elixir nickel wound strings which I've been kind of experimenting with this just check them out especially with like gospel and Slappy kind of stuff they are they have a pretty bright sound so now great strengths really really play a huge part in this whole Gambit of getting good tone so make sure if you're wanting to get good slap tone get you some great strings I'll throw a couple in the description there are some go-to's for gospel Funk and R B that I use all the time so now the last category of all of what the pros know is how to apply your slap in songs in different places because sometimes when you slap it doesn't work in every song trust me I know I have made a lot of mistakes playing slap in places that it just has no reason to be a part of playing slap and worship songs or playing slap and ballads I'm like what what is this because you get excited sometimes you start learning these techniques and you're like oh yeah I can slap I could I could do this let's use it in everything but it doesn't necessarily go with everything so one huge thing that every probe knows is where to use slap to where it's not cheesy or taking away from the music so some common genres that you'll encounter a ton of slap is Funk gospel r b pop soul I mean there's a lot of different job Fusion just no you encounter it a lot but some places that you're not going to encounter it like is are like ballads or songs where it's just piano or just very minimal instruments unless it's something really groovy and the thing is there's nothing wrong with trying to find a place to add slap in some of these songs but it has to enhance the song and not take away from it and a lot of times if you do not use slap right you'll take away from the song just as much as you add to it so I've been a producer for some years now and one thing is super evident and also just being around Pro players is that Slappy's used to create energy and what I mean by energy is like if you ever hear a slap Bass slot on something it's usually on the the drop of the song and it's like [Music] not normally a place where it's low energy so knowing that if you go into a course you're going to a spot where there's like um where you could create like a high energy moment know that slap can create that so like if you're in the moment and you're just playing a stage and you didn't practice doing slap in this area but everybody's just filling the moment and everybody's just improvising that could be a place to throw it if it's high energy but if you're on stage and y'all are playing a ballot is piano it's you and it's like a drummer with a cajon it probably isn't a good practice to throw some slap in the mix you know unless it's a song that already has it or needs it or something gets you practice so now something that is learned with experience and I will say I've learned this but just playing on sessions and different things like that that you can add slap when there is a simple drum Groove and it really adds a lot so let me give you an example of this so I got my drum machine here and all I'm gonna do is just play you a little Groove so this is a pretty simple Groove it's nothing it's not really showy it's not really doing a whole bunch it's just simple this is like a Groove that you could add slap to and give a lot of life [Music] so being watchful and listening and hearing these moments where they're simple drums I promise you when you start adding and creating some grooves to it people be like man how did you know that that was going to work assess the song is this a high energy song is this a groovy song this is a fun song is it going to be a cool moment and then make the Judgment call based off of that so guys I know this video was a ton of information so if you need to slow it down or need to go back to this particular part check out the chapters that I have Linked In the description below and if you like this shirt or if you want to help support this channel feel free to go check out my merch on my website travestykesmusic.com it'll be linked in the description as well and if you're wanting more videos about slap face feel free to go check out this video where I teach you how to improve your slot base overnight foreign [Music]

Channel: Travis Dykes

Views: 161,937

Keywords: bass, music, New Music, HowTo, Style, Bass Guitar, Travis Dykes, education, educational, slap bass, slap bass lesson, how to slap bass, slap bass technique, beginner slap bass, slap bass tutorial, bass guitar, bass lessons, beginner slap bass lesson, how to play bass, intermediate slap bass, slap bass tone, slap and pop, fender bass, precision bass, precision, fender precision bass, fender squier, 4 string bass lesson, 4 string bass, hello fresh, hello fresh unboxing

Id: Q9AJaEshmNo

Length: 23min 10sec (1390 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 22 2023