Slapping through the string

And now I’ve learned a new English word!

3 Likes

It’s a good word, but also a hard word… it kinda implies an intent to make things more complicated, and I don’t think that is the case for Scott. He is just meandering and dithering… :grin:

2 Likes

I somehow aggree. Obfuscation is, as I undestand, action with the INTENT to make things obscure and uninteligible on purpose. I also believe that Scott simply tries his best, however, no matter how the linguistic reality is, his ability to communicate in concise way is … something to be improved upon a lot. A lot.

2 Likes

Correct. It is the action of obscuring something intentionally.

1 Like

Or at least, it seems to be on the internet, in part thanks to certain bass teachers pushing it so hard! Not sure how much that’s translating to real-world gigging.

Or have really good bounce technique. I can slap the G string just fine.

Yeah, he does seem to be flailing a bit less :stuck_out_tongue: but it’s still the bounce technique for full-on slap passages:

I see him doing thumb-through sometimes, but more so when he’s primarily popping a melody, and there’s just one thumb here and there. And of course when he’s double-thumbing.

Yep, no such thing as “thumb through” if you’ve got your thumb pointed down, it’s bounce or die!

No way, that’s 100% bounce, that dude is modeling Mark King full on, even with the thumb tape! Note that he has no problem slapping the G string. Watch his forearm rotating, that’s the giveaway that it’s a bounce.

Yes, they are both good for different reasons! I just don’t know where this (totally wrong) idea came from that going through is “better” and somehow replaces bouncing.

6 Likes

Here’s a longer and much more nuanced video on the subject.

Interestingly it has had 24k views in 5 years, and Scott’s has had 53k views in 3 days. Perhaps Scott is onto something with the inflammatory titles :wink:

(I hope you don’t mind me linking these videos, Josh!)

1 Like

Davie504 has gone into a long thing about what videos get the most likes, clicks, views, drive subscriptions, etc. He was bummed that subscribers keep going up but people stopped watching videos of him playing bass. At some point, when it’s your livelihood, you start may give in and start sucking up to your audience.

My instructor has me working on a third technique for slap, and I really like it.
It’s not a slap through, and its not a BIG bounce.
Basically, you make an arch using the bottom of your thumb in the palm area to your index fingers tip. You rest these both on the body of the bass.
When you slap, it all goes up like normal, but when you come down, you stay down. Your two points of contact with the bass body stop on the body, and the tendon in your thumb acts like a spring and slaps down on the string but bounces up off it again (but your don’t move your hand or arm away from the bass).

The benefit of this technique is immediately clear when you slap ANY string above E. That lower part of your thumb where it goes into your palm now mutes the lower strings perfectly. It takes some getting used to but man is it cool.

1 Like

Well, you have to make some kind of content for YT so might as well make something controversial right? :slight_smile: it’s like “why you shouldn’t play a 5/6 string bass” or “why you shouldnt play a pbass”. The same ol same ol doesn’t get clicks and doesnt get recommended to people.

He doesn’t say it’s wrong to use bounce slap in the video, he says it’s wrong to overuse it and that sometimes slap through is a better technique.

1 Like
3 Likes

Stay tuned for SBLs “5 reasons why you shouldn’t play bass!” video.

1 Like

I like his videos, it’s a vlog so you have to take it for what it is… Usually the video isn’t as controversial as the title.

The video actually doesn’t say that using bounce slap is a mistake, he says it’s a mistake to overuse it. Most of the time I see Scott slap, he uses a thumb down bounce technique.

He’s still misconstruing the reality - 90+% (or some overwhelming % like that) of slap bass is bounce slaps, if you look at pros through history. Fast stuff, slow stuff, G string slaps, E string slaps, it’s all totally doable with bounce slap, and that’s how it’s mostly been done.

To say mimicking that is a “mistake” is just gonna cause endless confusion, especially for beginners. I still think he should choose his words more carefully and not make “trickbait” titles like that.

5 Likes

I’ll let you know as soon as I find my magic producer switch :wink:

2 Likes

Ouch.

Nice one.

1 Like

Ha! You have to blame Lee Sklar for that one. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

4 Likes

I just recently discovered his YT channel, he has a lot of great content! It’s wonderful that so many great musicians take time to share things like that.

1 Like

I get this, i really do. I Started on an es300 and could NOT get a slap tone. Action was medium,so it should hav3 been good. But to get any slap i was playing at the bridge.
Continued slap and dialed eay back on impact, cycled up slow until i got good tone at the end of the neck. I really think it’s just a feel thing. Look at Marcus Miller-his hand barely moves and he’s killing it. Check out Josh’s video on slap, it’s got a lot of good info

:star_struck::star_struck::star_struck:
(runs off to YT)

2 Likes

She’s awesome. Working on her sixth solo album now :slight_smile:

1 Like