Advanced Slap Bass Techniques

There is a school of thought – generally among non-bass players – that the bass line should only be heard droning monotonously along in the background, with a simple beat hammered out by the drummer. The lead guitar should shine proudly at the front, be the loudest, and receive all the plaudits.

Well some of the advanced techniques presented here, when executed properly and skillfully, can happily put that myth to bed! The special slap techniques sound great and are fun to play, but do use them with a little reserve – otherwise they won’t be special any longer! As session bassist Ed Friedland has said, “too much of this stuff can be a little obnoxious, so use it sparingly”.

Double Pop Triplet

The first technique is called the “double pop triplet”. It is played as a true triplet – three smooth evenly spaced notes. Slap the E or A string with the thumb, and at the same time position your index finger under the D string and your middle finger under the G. After the thumb slap has sounded, smoothly rotate your wrist away from the bass, so that firstly your index finger pops the D string, and as you continue rotating the wrist, the middle finger pops the G string. It is like peeling your hand away from the strings – and has been called “the funk peel off”.

Practise this until it sounds smooth and the notes are evenly spaced. Here’s an example so you can hear how a double pop triplet can be incorporated into a slap bass line – notice that he plays the double pop followed by the thumb slap (P-P-T) which is a simple variant on the T-P-P technique described here.

Double Pop Flam

The “double pop flam” is played in a similar way to the double pop triplet, the difference being in the rhythm pattern. A flam is what a drummer does when he hits the drum with both sticks, one followed very quickly by the other – so there is a slight gap between the popped notes in a double pop flam.

The rhythm pattern for this technique is a dotted eigth-sixteenth rhythm with an added grace note preceding the sixteenth. Slap the E or A string with the thumb while positioning the index and middle fingers under the D and G strings respectively. Then “peel off” by rotating the wrist, popping the two strings, D then G, leaving only a very small gap between the popped notes. This technique is easier to do than to describe!

Left Hand Slap Triplet/Machine Gun Triplet

The left hand slap was introduced in my article on the Basics of Slap Bass. In that article, the practice tips section suggested left hand slap triplets without naming them as such. This technique is used widely in the slap style, and there are variations in the method of playing them. Slap the E or A string with the thumb, followed by a left hand slap and then a pop on either the D or G string. This can be abbreviated to T-LH-P. Some players invert the slaps, having started the sequence with a thumb slap, to get T-LH-T-P LH-T-P etc.

The incredibly fast triplet runs – called machine gun triplets – used frequently in Mark King’s bass solos, move this pattern all over the fingerboard and allow the popped notes to sound (here’s an example). It is very common for bass players to play all the notes as ghost notes for percussive effect during a slapped melody. This is a technique to experiment with until comfortable.

Slap Pop Sixteenth Note Triplet

The next technique is called the “slap pop sixteenth note triplet”. It is actually a sixteenth note triplet followed by an eighth note, with an even rhythm over the four notes. These are played on pairs of strings, either the E and D, or the A and G strings. So to play a slap pop sixteenth note triplet mute the strings, and thumb slap the E string whilst positioning your index finger under the D – this is done on the downward hand movement. Pop the D string as you lift your hand away from the bass, and then repeat the same action. It should sound smooth but fast in a 1-2-3-4 rhythm (like “trip-uh-let-a” if you were singing the rhythm pattern).

Practise the technique on the E/D and A/G pairs until you are happy, and then it can be introduced into slap bass lines to add more percussive interest.

Double Thumbing

This final advanced technique relies heavily on a method of playing slap that I briefly touched on in the Basics of Slap Bass article. Some bassists slap by bouncing their thumb off the strings, and others push through the slapped string so that their thumb comes to rest on the next string – in other words their thumb will stop on the A when slapping on E. It is important to be comfortable with both of these methods of thumb slapping, but for double thumbing, you must do the latter and push through the string.

To do the double thumb technique, slap the E string so that your thumb pushes through and ends up resting on the A string. Then as you bring your hand away from the strings, use the back of the thumb to pluck the E string a second time. So you should be striking the E on the downward motion and plucking it on the upward motion. This can be quite a tricky technique to master, so lots of practice is required! Here’s a nice example of the double thumb slapping technique.

Other Techniques

Some other techniques are very handy for slap bassists but occur in fingerstyle playing also. These include the string bend to give a vibrato effect; the upper mordant (or trill), where a note is popped followed by a hammer on to a higher pitch, followed by a pull off to the original note. Another part of the slap bass player’s repertoire is the strumming technique – so bassists can play chords! Simply fret the correct notes and “flick” your fingers down the strings – practise this carefully as it is very easy to injure your fingers if you catch the strings too heavily.

If you practise all these techniques diligently, you’ll never be at a loss when required to slap out an interesting and entertaining bass solo!