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Hey. How you doing? Scott from Scott's Bass Lessons here, hope you're well.
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Today we're going to be talking about slap bass. It's something that I've
got a little bit of an issue with teaching sometimes because so many people
get stuck in what I call the 'slap void'. It's because it sounds so cool,
slap does sound cool. But you've got to make sure that whatever you're
playing relates to your knowledge on the fret board and it isn't just
something that sounds cool. You should be always looking into why it sounds
cool and what chord tones are being used within that groove and that kind
of thing.
I do teach a lot of clinics where there'll be a lot of guys playing slap
bass and all the riffs they're playing are in the key of E. I'm sure you
know what you mean. I'm sure you know a slap riff and I'm sure it will be
in the key of E probably. And it's really important that you learn how to
play in different keys. For instance, when I'm doing these clinics, if I
can shout out over the din to everybody, over the noise, 'Can you play any
slap riff in the key of B flat-minor or C-minor?' for instance. Everybody
just stops because nobody can actually play any of the slap riffs in any
other keys. They can only use that open E-string. So today we're going to
be looking at a slap riff, specifically in the key of C-minor.
Now before I show you the riff, I just want to look at some C-minor
arpeggio notes or chord tones, whatever. It's the same thing. So the
position we're going to be using within the riff is going to be around
here. It's the fifth to the eighth fret, okay? One, two, three, four, oops,
five, six, seven, eight. It's around this area. So we need to familiarise
ourselves with the chord tones in this area before we start playing the
groove. So here's the arpeggio really slowly, okay? So we've got a C with
our little finger. An E flat with our second finger. A G with our first
finger. A B flat with our little finger and then finally a C with our first
finger. So just once more, C, E flat, G, B flat, C, and also we can use
this B flat down here because, that's the B flat there we can use this one
down there. Then there's the C and we can also use this E flat here. Okay?
Now the riff, I'm going to play it without the backing track first so you
can hear it in its entirety, okay? So one, two, three, four. So there you
can see I'm kind of using all of the chord tones that are under my fingers
and I'm even sneaking over here as well sometimes and that's because we've
got a C-minor arpeggio here, which is C, E flat, G, B flat, C and then it
just starts repeating itself, C, E flat. But within that riff that I'm
playing I'm actually playing a D as well, but we're going to get to that in
a minute.
So let's break that riff down into small sections so you can see what's
going on. And there's something you should really take into consideration
as well, technique-wise when you're playing slap, it's the right arm motion
that's really important. You don't want to be doing this. It's not sort of
an up and down motion like this. The motion comes from the elbow and is
more of a twisting, like this. Imagine you're sort of like grabbing a
doorknob and twisting it like that. It's that kind of movement that I'm
making. It's obviously not as big as that. It's like really, really small
movements like that. But that's the movement. So if I play here, you can
see the rotation of the arm. It's not this. It's a rotation. So you want to
make sure that you're rotating like that. And all I'm using is the thumb
and I'm using the index finger for this particular riff. Sometimes I do use
the middle finger, but for this particular riff, I'm just using the thumb
and the index finger. And also something to take into consideration
is, imagine an acoustic guitar player strumming.
He's always got that strumming motion in his right arm and this is exactly
the same as what I'm doing when I'm slapping. My arm is almost constantly
going and then I'm just picking up the notes that I want to play. I'm not
going to go and, thumb-thumb-pluck-pluck-thumb-thumb-pluck. It's constantly
moving like this.
I'm going to play the riff really slow before I break it down even slower
for you, but here it is really slow and I want you to concentrate on my
movement of my right arm and how it's constantly like this, okay? Two,
three, four. See how it's constantly moving? Okay? Constantly moving.
Now, let's break this riff down into learnable sections. That's really
important, when you're learning something like this, don't just jump in and
attack it, trying to do it all at once. Try to break it down into learnable
sections. By doing that you're going to have so much more, you know, such a
better chance of getting it clean. The way you play, it's going to be nice
and clean. If you just jump in and try to do it all the time, generally it
will be a little bit messy, a little bit rough around the edges.
So let's break this down into nice little learnable pieces. Okay. So the
first bit is a hammer-on from the B flat to the C. Now in relation to C-
minor, that's the flat-seven to the root. With the right hand, all I'm
doing is thumb, hammer, thumb. Okay? Thumb, hammer, thumb. And then we've
got... and I'm plucking and holding the B flat down with my little finger.
And that's kind of the first bit of the riff. Like, I'm cutting these short
and you can do that. I can leave them long or I could cut them short. I
kinda like them short. When you're trying to learn a riff like this,
sometimes it really helps just to loop a little section of it around. So
let's try that.
Now the next section is a slide, now remember we've got to think about what
the riff is in relation to the tonality that we're playing over, which is C-
minor, okay? So we're kind of sliding into the minor third, remember?
Here's the arpeggio. I'm sliding in to the minor third and then plucking
the octave. So here we go again. And that slide's a really big part of the
riff. So thumb, slide, thumb, pluck. First part, and if you listen to that,
them two sections, there's a little bit of some ghost notes in between that
as well. Hear that? Remember I talked about that constant movement? That's
why it's there so I can pick out the ghost notes in between the actual
riff.
Now the next part is really similar to this part. All it is, is second
finger and hammering on with the third and then I'm plucking that B flat
under there as well. Yeah? So really slowly through the entire thing. First
section. Second section. Third section. And again first section. First,
second, third. Now there's a cool little riff I did as well and it's like a
little fill and I'm going to put that in right now just so you can hear it
and then we'll slow that down as well, okay? So here's the riff in its
entirety and I'll put that little fill in as well. Okay?
Now remember I talked about this C-minor arpeggio here and that's where
this is coming from. So it's the flat-seven of the C-minor, thumb, hammer,
thumb and then I'm plucking on the E flat and then sliding down to the D.
And that D is that, you know, real sexy note, the ninth. And then I'm
sliding up from the 13th of the C-minor, we're getting complicated. Now the
13th, you could think of it as the 13th or just a sliding, a passing note,
to the 7th of the C-minor. Okay? So that little riff there is... really
slow and it fits into the riff like this. And again. So let's hear the full
riff up to speed. So now, let's take a listen to this groove with the
actual backing track.
Now if you want to download this backing track, if you're watching this on
YouTube, hit the link below. It will take you to a page. On that page will
be a video and right underneath the video, it will say something like,
'Download backing track'. If you're watching this on Scott's Bass Lessons,
just look there below the video and there's a little link you can download
this from. Download it straight away and you can get a little PDF on there
as well, which will take you through part of the riff. Let's take a listen
to the riff.
So now you need to get the information I've given you and put it into your
own playing. A great idea is just to get a normal slap riff that you
normally play and try to transpose that into a different key. That's a
great way to get started. Although sometimes, they just don't lend
themselves to it because you're using the open string and then you're
playing up here. So, you know, you'd be jumping around like a crazy man.
But, you know, go through your riffs, see if there's anything that will
transpose and give it a go.
With this specific riff that we've done today. That can transpose as well.
This is the great thing about bass. If you learn one thing in one area, you
can just shift it around. You know, we've got it in C-minor here. I could
do it in B flat. D. E flat. You know, you can just shift it around. That's
what the best thing about guitar and bass is, the transposing is so easy.
So next time you're in a situation, you're playing with a band maybe in the
key of E flat minor, you play and you think, 'Oh God, it's be great to do
sort of like a slap kind of riff on this kind of thing.' You know, try to
use the chordal tones to figure out where you can actually, you know, if
you can put a slap riff into the song you're playing. Some of this does
need a little bit of practice. It's something I had to work on when I was
younger. I was one of them guys, you know, I could just play in E and then
one day I just thought, 'Wow. I really want to play in', it was a tune, I
think in G-minor or something. I really wanted to play a slap riff on that
and that's when I realised that I needed to do a little bit of work and
work out how to play slap bass across the entire instrument and not just in
the key of E or E-minor.
Hopefully, you've enjoyed this lesson. If you have done, which I hope you
have, click the 'like' button below. It really helps spread the word about
my lessons. And don't forget, the backing track is downloadable. If you're
watching this on YouTube, click the link straight below this video. It will
take you to my website. You'll be able to download it from there. If you're
watching it on my website, it is right underneath this video. And other
than that, make sure you subscribe to our website because I'll send you
loads of cool goodies. Take it easy and get in the shed.