slap bass

Taking Center Stage With an Advanced Approach to Playing the Bass Guitar

Most bass guitar instruction for beginners follows a fairly common, standard progression. In addition to picking up the musical theory necessary to really understand the instrument, beginners work on the physical skills that masters take for granted. In most cases, this will involve a steady escalation through a variety of relatively basic, established techniques.At a certain point in the process, advancing bass players will discover that there are wholly distinct ways of approaching the instrument. Although the classical progression is something that just about every player will be well served to learn, there are a range of more novel and distinctive approaches that can be just as valuable.One of the most spectacular and useful of these is the style of playing known as "slap bass." While those who follow the classical approach to bass guitar are normally taught to pluck the instrument's strings in a gentle, highly controlled way, this other option is far more aggressive in both its mechanics and its results.Slap bass involves snapping the high strings of the bass guitar with enough force that, instead of simply vibrating cleanly, they actually whack against the fret board when released. Instead of the relatively even, low-pitched hum that a conventional pluck produces, a slap of this sort emits a percussive, fast-decaying sound that is much tighter and more intense.On the lower strings, how to play amazing slap bass lesson differs a little bit. Instead of snapping the fatter strings with the fingers, players who use this approach normally smack them with the meat at the base of the thumb. Just as with snapping the high strings, this will make the low ones bounce against the instrument's frets, producing the same basic kind of sound.In either case, what results will be something much more striking and intense than the sounds produced by the classical bass guitar techniques. Whether for funk, rock, dance, or another kind of relatively high-energy music, slap techniques can be a great way of bringing out another side of the bass guitar.In fact, many of the masters of this approach take on much more active, prominent roles in their bands and care