Slap Bass 10 Minute Workout - Practice Along with Me - Bass Practice Diary - 4th August 2020

Slap Bass 10 Minute Workout - Bass Practice Diary - 4th August 2020

This is the third 10 minute bass practice workout that I've released, but the first to feature slap bass techniques. There are a lot of videos on YouTube of bass players teaching and demonstrating slap techniques. They're often fast and flashy and they almost always involve using lots of open strings. There's nothing wrong with that, because those things are fun to play. But, in this video I've tried to zero in on what I think are the fundamental techniques that bass players should practice, so that they can use slap bass techniques in "real world" music situations.

What are the fundamentals of slap bass?

If you follow my Bass Practice Diary videos, then you probably know that slap bass is not my "main thing" on bass. The vast majority of what I do is played finger style, but I like to keep my slap bass chops ready for when they're needed. This line, that I've written is typical of the kind of exercise that I'll set for myself when I'm practicing slap bass.

I'll start by asking myself the question, what do I need to be able to do in order to execute slap bass lines quickly and accurately when they're put in front of me on a gig? Then I'll come up with a line, like this one, that I feel tests me on the fundamental techniques that I need. So, I haven't included any advanced techniques like double thumbing or machine gun triplets. Those are great techniques for playing slap bass solos, but I'm more interested in the fundamentals that I need to make my slap bass lines sound good.

For me, the fundamental techniques of slap bass are the thump with your thumb, the pull with your index finger, the hammer ons and pull offs with your left hand for playing legato lines and dead notes. When I'm practicing these fundamentals, I'm concentrating on trying to get my timing as well as my tone and dynamics even. So all the notes can be heard and nothing is coming out too loud.

Bass players often use compression on their slap bass lines to even out the dynamics. It's ok to do that, but I would strongly recommend that you don't use compression when you practice. You need to learn to control the dynamics with your hands. Using compression will subconsciously teach you that you don't need to control the dynamics because the compression does it for you.

The 10 Minute Slap Bass Workout

If you've done one of my workouts before, you'll know the format by now. I divide the 10 minutes up into four exercises, each practiced for 2 minutes (roughly). And then the last 2 minutes is for putting all four exercises together into one line. Each exercise is practiced at four different tempos, roughly 30 seconds at each tempo. The first tempo should be very slow to help get used to the notes in each new exercise. And the last tempo for each exercise should be pushing you to the edge of your comfort zone.

The last tempo should be challenging but not impossible. It's a mistake to try and go too fast. You need to push yourself in the last 30 seconds but I think it's a much bigger mistake to go too fast than too slow. I've set the tempos in this video at tempos that work for me, 40bpm, 55bpm, 70bpm and 85bpm. If those tempos don't work for you, then do the workout in your own time at your own tempos. You only need a metronome or a drum beat, which you can find for free online.

The line is based around a jazz III-VI-II-V in the key of E major. The line itself uses hardly any open strings. I've done this deliberately, because it's harder to play slap bass without using open strings. Typically, when I've been asked to play slap bass on gigs, I'm very rarely required to play in keys like E and A where I can use lots of open strings. It's more often in keys like F and Bb because those are popular keys for keyboard players and horn players.

My line is in the key of E. However, I've chosen the chords G#m7 - G7 - F#m7 - F7. Therefore, there isn't much opportunity to use the open strings on the root notes. However, once you've learned the line, you can resolve it onto an E chord, which is fun because you can then bring in the open E string.

[billjaynes]

I remember seeing the great Buddy Rich at our community college when I was functioning as the school's jazz band bass player somewhere around 1981. His bass player took off on a slap solo and all the guys in the band turned to me and asked if I could do that. I couldn't. I couldn't then and I can't now at 60 years old but this descending pattern has given me some confidence to try. I recently "restored" a P Bass that tropical island ants almost completely ate. It's now encased in epoxy and is fretless--the first bass I've had since my freshman year of college. I'm a guitarist but with this "new" bass I'm excited to begin learning what I heard Buddy Rich's bassist do so long ago whether or not I'll ever be able to tell the guys in that old lab band that I now know (eventually) or not. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you have put up. Great stuff!

[jasonlhidalgo]

Great practice routine . Each part separated. That's how us old guys did things. Leaving mistakes in is great. Takes the he's always perfect I could never do that stress out of it. Mistakes are part of practice. Especially when describing everything as much as possible when playing . Love it

[chopshop]

Most awesome lesson. Thank you so much Johnny, cheers from Vancouver, Canada.

[ElectroSpark]

This is awesome, just what I was looking for! I normally never play slap and this feels quite hard right now but I'm hoping to keep up the practice everyday :)

[mannypineda]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, God bless you.

[stuartmarven]

Nice line and I like the format of the lesson/workout. Thanks.

[franka]

What are the best strings and gauge for slap bass?

[ronaldjaramillo]

Just wanted to say thank you for the lesson very cool 👍👍

[edwardmorris]

This was a great workout, thanks again Mr.Cox!

[mlem]

Fabulous lesson for this guitar player

[shugemery]

Thanks and cheers Johnny~ Great workout. Applying this drill to bass ...which is new a new instrument to me. And also my mandolin which I've been at a long time.

[rusyandifishing]

wow that's cool... I just watched it, I'm already interested in learning with you.. teri.

[kronokiler]

Muchas gracias por este ejercicio tan precioso

[riskromer]

this is cool. Excercise 2 is missing a note at the end of the bar

[funkstermak]

You’re a genius.. I’m even practicing your mistakes ! 🤣

[kudosbudo]

1:03 no lost already. how are you playing each note? The slaps sound different to each other.

[SATXbassplayer]

Fantastic!! Do you give Skype lessons??

[Ronno]

Liking your keyboard playing too - what kind of chords are you playing?

[morenoh]

Are you striking through the string on any of these slaps? Thoughts on slapping through for using the thumb on the up stroke like Victor wooten.

[blackwolf]

Everything awesome except for that last part, toooo much talking makes kinda hard to concentrate 😢