Thumb down slapping feels a lot more natural, but I’m still very sloppy with it, and I find it’s more accurate to play thumb up, or at least sideways, and I want to try learning some Marcus lines that involve double thumbing. The thing is, with double thumbing you need to play through the string with your thumb, and so far when I try that I always get two sounds, one my thumb first hitting the string and a second sound, separated by some small time, the string actually vibrating when the thumb lets go of the string as it goes through.
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that’s how it should work
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@beecherscoville Could you post a video? It doesn’t have to high quality. Just good enough that we can hear what you hear.
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I’ll have to do a video but what I’m trying to do is the super simple exercise at 3:23 of this video:
Ian seems to use his whole arm for each thumb slap, totally different from Josh’s approach. But really interesting quote from Larry Graham’s playing at 14:00 or so and from Marcus at 19:30.
Yes there are many different ways to slap, you need to experiment and find what works for you. If you’re not getting the sound you want, either your technique is wrong or your setup is wrong.
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I’m in the process of “converting” to thumb through and I feel your pain. I was quite used to and getting competent with the bouncy thumb stuff and this is a whole other beast. It’s really frustrating because it feels like I’m starting from absolute scratch. It’s almost like I just picked up a bass for the first time.
After a couple months of just going through the major scale over and over to get used to it I’m finally just starting to get comfortable with thumb through. As many here in other threads, Josh, SBL, Charles B and more have said: you have to embrace the suck. Own it, love it, accept it. Easier said than done, mind you, but it is difficult and it’s not something that can or will be learned quickly. Especially when compared to every other bass techniques.
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You say that’s how it should work, you mean you should be getting two separate sounds with each note?
Thanks, MC, did you have the same two – sound problem I’m having?
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Initially, yes. It’s purely a technique thing. The tendency, especially if you tried to learn slap via BassBuzz or the countless “intro to slap” videos on YouTube is to bounce off.
Instead, you’re almost using your thumb as a pick and you’re chopping the string like a karate fighter. It’s one smooth motion. In some ways, you’re no longer slapping but striking.
I’m not exaggerating when I say you truly have to un-learn everything you know about slapping so far.
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Yeah. Your thumb is not really slapping on the upstroke with this technique. It’s more of a pick. But if you want, you can also whack it on the upstroke like that for a slap. It’s cool. Just do it fast and smooth and it will sound good.
I’m not very good at it but it is probably the primary slap technique I see here in Japan.
I don’t know what you mean by upstroke. I’m not doing any upstroke yet. I’m just talking about what, at least, I am calling the downstroke. What Ian shows at around 3:23 of the video link. And I can’t imagine that you want to have two separate sounds for one note.
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Ahh, I thought you meant when you were double-thumbing upwards, sorry. The idea behind double thumbing is you can immediately come back up with an upstroke after thumbing down through.
100%
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one thing i quickly discovered about this technique is not ever made clear in any of their videos. they always talk about playing through the string. if you actually try to do this (from the side of the string, as you would with a pick downstroke), you will find out you can’t really do it. if you strike what is the side of the string (which is the side you are looking at when you look down while playing) it will present a barrier to playing through it. this doesn’t really happen with a pick because it’s flexible. with your thumb you really need to strike the string on it’s top side (the side your fingers come in contact with when you fret them) and play through the string downward from there. it’s really a precision aiming thing that is hard to get down. this is what gives the string the downward movement to make it hit the frets with a clank. it also doesn’t really take much force as you can see a lot of times when they are playing and it looks like they are lightly hitting with their thumb.
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Thank you, this is what I was asking about. I guess that my thumb clumsily hits the string too much on what you’re calling the top, catches there, and then sounds again as I push through and it releases. Or I’m too far off the string, and my thumb just lightly brushes the side of it. Occasionally, I hit the happy medium, hitting it just far enough off center to go through in a single motion with a decent sound. That’s what I’ll be practicing. 
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yep it took me a while to figure that out, i wish they would make that clear in their videos. but still the sbl thumb stuff is top notch.
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Did you look at Ian‘s video that I link to in my original post? I thought that explained it pretty well, and I’ve googled around quite a bit. The only thing was he made it look too easy (at 3:23) I think, cause I was unable even to get that basic downstroke. The other weird thing is he looks as if he’s moving his entire forearm up and down rather than rotating it, but I guess everyone has their own physical approach.
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yes that’s what i’m talking about, ian is part of sbl. and i have the whole sbl slap bass course and it does a great job of explaining the technique but it never really specifically explains the angle of attack thing which i wish it would. as for the rest, the confusion lies in what technique you are using. the technique that josh uses where you rotate the forearm and bounce off the string (or see-saw) is not the same technique as double thumb which josh does not teach. in double thumb you do not rotate (well not much anyways), you do not bounce and you do have more up and down forearm movement because you are basically just using a pick technique but with your thumb rather than a pick. it should be noted that many people find the bounce/see-saw/flea technique much easier to get, it just means you later won’t be able to double-thumb with it. which might make no dif to someone. and of course, you can learn both and alternate.
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OK, although I don’t know what confusion you’re talking about, there’s no confusion here at least.