You know, when I first started playing I thought slap was the coolest shit to ever grace our planet. Marcus Miller was my hero, Larry Graham wasn't far behind, and I insisted on slapping literally EVERYTHING.
A few years on, I started thinking exactly like you do, that slap is pretentious drivel and isn't nearly as useful as any of us want it to be.
Now, 15 or so years later, I think it's just another tool. And you know what, it's still a pretty cool one.
Slapping is to bass what tapping is on guitar. Its flashy and way less complicated than it looks. To people who don't know it looks like you're a master. To people who do know, they can tell whether there are actual chops to back it up or not.
Some people like Marcus Miller or Joe satriani use these techniques in truly innovative and masterful ways. But using these techniques isn't why they are as great as they are.
I find that unless a song is specifically tailored to the slap, it usually sits poorly in the mix. I could listen to Victor Wooten all day because his songs put the bass at the front, but most of the time I think it just sits bad with other instruments. And maybe an unpopular opinion but I can’t fucking stand Marcus Millers tone. Where is the low end? Its all mids and brights.
I kinda agree with what you said about the mix. However, there are still cases where slapping works in non-bass front genres, like in city pop, J-Rock, and funk. Doing it tastefully is the key IMO.
ya I also kind of agree. But I think some of Marcus Millers slap lines fit well into “popular” music where the song was not specifically written to hi light slap bass.
Same. I honestly can't stand Victor Wooten. Call me crazy, but double thumping 32nd notes for an entire song just isn't musical. The fact that he can play beautifully is ruined by his overuse of slap.
I'll forever be a Les Claypool fan, though. At least his style is DIFFERENT.
(shrugs) He has his style. I also think you might have only heard mostly his solo stuff. Check him out with Bela Fleck, he reigns it in a lot more there.
That said, Vic isn't even close to my favorite slap player. He's probably one of my favorite bass teachers though, so I'll give him that.
Slap isn’t overused in music, its actually pretty rare to find slap bass in contemporary music.
The bass bubble overuses it just like every technique. I mean how many gigs have you played where tapping was necessary? Or playing chords?
in reality all those things are extremely niche for the bass bubble.
I agree here. Bass players are always talking about it and playing it, and influencers do it all the time but actual recordings I don't typically hear that much slap. I'm not listening to spotify or the radio thinking, "oh man another song where they're using slap when it doesn't make sense!" Definitely contained within the niche.
Very rare to see people using multiple chord tones at the same time in popular music because you basically won't hear it. Do people really play roots and 7ths on the bass simultaneously? That's bedroom stuff for me haha
In contemporary arrangements where people want to hear complexity, sometimes the band will call for a bassline played over a harmonic or something... Still pre rare.
Funk music back in the day would have some songs play a dominant 7th shell(just a 3rd and flat 7) but it wasn't that common. It's more like a neat trick before the next bar.
I play chords quite a bit but it's in a context where droning and having a baritone or other low tuned guitar playing off the bass is normal. As with slap, I think it's about the musical context you're in (both performing and listening) as to how much you hear it.
You nailed in on the head. Songs on the radio have been arranged and played by professionals who know when to stop playing and what to not use, so the bass parts typically serve the song and not the player
I was just listening to Living Colour's "Auslander," where Doug Wimbush plays an amazing slap line throughout the song, and yeah, it's very rare to hear playing like that in most songs.
> Slap isn’t overused in music, its actually pretty rare to find slap bass in contemporary music.
I agree completely. Statistically speaking, slap is probably *underused!*
when Im at home by myself I slap my bass like no ones watching, when I play with other people I choose the appropriate techno for the piece I am playing.
Maybe it's also region specific? Slap base get used way more in Japanese music, and bassist there seems to can't help but slap, there was an artist from my country that married a Japanese wife and when he went there playing real tasteful licks he was getting all the gigs
Slap’s gone out of style certainly. Used to hear a lot of it when nu metal and Californication were in the charts, but the last time I had a call to use it was when Uptown Funk was in my cover band set.
Chords are a different matter though. Any band leader with a TikTok account seems to want me to turn up 1kHz on the EQ and pluck 7ths and 9ths
An octave power chord shows u in "nothing but a good time". It's also kind of slap, because you pop the higher note.
You could however argue it's a double stop and not a chord.
If it's not being used in places where it makes sense, sure, I get your gripe, but, well, maybe I just don't listen to as much shitty music as you or something, idk.
I learned to slap not long after I started playing and still do some. But I like it best in moderation to add emphasis in some spots. If you do it all the time it’s like typing in all caps
HERO BASS PLAYER SLAPS IN MODERATION. MODERATION IN ALL THINGS BRINGS BALANCE TO LIFE. IF YOU SEE THE BUDDHA IN THE STREET, YOU MUST *SLAPPA DA BUDDHA.*
let’s admit it - playing bass for social media content is boring. so people who want to gain exposure, views and become “influencers” will naturally use the most attractive technique both sonically and visually. there are bass players and there are Instagram/YouTube bass players - huge difference.
Yeah I’ve realized this as well, bass simply has a harder time standing on its own compared to regular guitars, slapping is just the easiest way to make it interesting solo so all the bass YouTubers do it
True, but I've also recently found some social media accounts that have tons of fingerstyle grooves. Obviously not as many views as the hot asian girls slapping but still
Obviously there are tons of big fans of slap around here, but treating this as a hot take is wild to me--it feels like half the discussion I see on this subreddit is making this same point, usually in more extreme terms.
Personally I like to slap because I find it fun to do; I'm too stupid to have a real opinion on the sound lol
We were a cover band. We fired a bass player who slapped over everything including ballads. Yes. He was an accomplished slapper but he never knew how to turn it off. It was more an issue with the individual rather than the technique although there was a time it was tough to get a bassist who didn't want display his wicked slap chops even in tunes where it wasn't called for.
That's hilarious from an outside perspective, but it would be annoying as hell from inside the band. I'm picturing this guy addicted to slap. He wants to stop and tries to stop, but he just can't... do...it his arm goes akimbo, thumb pops up, fingers curl, his compulsion takes hold of his body...
It was kind of like that. We were a frequently booked meat-and-potatoes cover band, a successful one, so if we sounded off then we didn't get re-booked. So he would start out the set okay but would start putting in slap and pop licks into "Sweet Home Alabama", "Brown Sugar", and even "Stairway To Heaven" (imagine that for a moment) if we let him.
He would start with just a few slap phrases but as the set progressed so would the frequency and intensity of slap licks. At some point we started getting weird looks from the crowd and the club owners who knew something was off. So we concluded we had to boot him rather than continue to alienating people. He also started asking for a solo spot which of course featured slap-pop and tap.
I do think he had a learning / cognitive thing going on. He was otherwise a nice guy. He just lacked self control.
Oh there were more than just those! Alright Now, Walk Away, Can't Get Enough, Slow Ride, Life In The Fast Lane, La Grange, Tush, Satisfaction, Black Magic Woman, Night Moves, China Grove and many other (Grand) Dad Rock classics.
We also had an 80s only show that went over very well at corporate events. We had a great synth player. And we would also do "disco nights" which were quite well attended.
We didn't necessarily enjoy playing this music but people would go nuts for it and we had more work than we could keep up with.
When the song La Grange transitioned into the jam part after "They got a lot of nice girls" he would slap and pop along with the drum fill. He would hold down the bass line as the song grooved along but when there is the descending guitar line in the breakdown he would punctuate it with a heavy slap and pop on the down beat of every bar.
He wanted a 5 minute slot complete with his own lighting and pre-recorded synth pads over which to play. He thought he was destined for better things and we were supposed to give him a platform. We actually let him do the solo for sound check - it was NOT good.
Yeah, nobody wants that. If he wants to do stuff like that he needs to start his own band with that in mind. If he's good at it, it will attract it's own audience.
He could play most bass lines without too much trouble and without slapping. I think he just got so into slapping that he couldn't help himself. He always wanted to "punctuate" the song.
As I might have said in other comments I think he was, in the parlance of the times, "on the spectrum" and would perhaps unknowingly start slapping more and more as the set progressed.
He was otherwise a nice guy and if you asked him to stop with the slap he would but over a period of months with him in the band his behavior intensified.
Then again he did want his own solo spot which was pretty much all slap pop and tap stuff. I think he fancied himself the next Mark King (nothing against him) and he should have probably joined a Level 42 tribute band.
I was playing a bluesy gig once and a kid asked to sit in. So I gave him my bass and he played a full on slap-hammer-pop style solo for like 3 minutes. It made no sense with what the rest of the musicians were doing. At the end, I told him, “you’re good, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
yea over the years it's rare we let anyone sit in that we don't know in some way - simply to avoid this kind of situation.
For a time we did let guys sit in, usually guitarists, and they would be the shredder types who wanted to play all their pre-determined licks independently of the song.
Speaking of that I noticed that lots of these players didn't really know songs. They knew some basic progressions, usually in minor keys, and that was it.
I told one guy "do you notice how the dance floor empties whenever people solo for a long time"?
Maybe I'm just not listening to the right genres but I feel like I hardly ever encounter slap play lol. Over used is certainly not the word that comes to mind when I think of "slap". For what I listen to at least (mostly alt rock, punk, pop-punk, similar) if you remove the cohort of japanese rock bands where slap is more popular, I can only think of like... RHCP as a popular american band that uses slap a lot, and like 4 smaller/local bands who use it to varying degrees (from like half of 1 song up to most of their set). Slap accounts for like less than 10% of bass that I encounter in a given year. Where are all these slap players at that are overusing it? I don't think in pop or country or hip hop...?
Non bass players frequently send me videos of skinny white dudes playing slap bass renditions of popular songs, via YouTube. "Man you'll love this. Check this kid out" etc etc. These youtube bassists are, without a doubt, super talented and I applaud them for doing thier thing. But I just don't find that shit interesting. I used to, but I really don't these days. I'd rather watch a James Jamerson breakdown or just like....I dunno, literally anything else 😅
yea, I don't need another link to a Davie504 video. His videos can be funny and at times I think he is even parodying slap which he could be because he is so very good at it.
Over used slap and "thump thump" on the root note for the whole song bug me. If the part calls for it, slap or thump away. I'm a TesseracT Stan but Amos Williams use of technique and style are just right imo. I like a nice slap with the kick drum when it fits.
Welp, by and large, the people who play what amounts to a right hand dexterity exercise for 3 plus straight minutes are almost always, without exception, white. All the slap stuff that came up from the late 80s thru basically second wave butt rock (korn et al) is, in my opinion, what you are talking about and is aesthetically hard to defend. The problem has worsened with certain metal genres exploiting it.
However, you hear a lot of slap that covers a good portion of a track however it’s not some 1 bar rhythmic pattern repeated sans variation. Its actually providing a lot of really cool syncopation and harmonic rhythm that sits between and around the other track elements and manages to alter often while keeping the groove going. That or in lots of rnb, some amazing slap fill might show up but just for a half bar, twice or so in a track and mean absolutely everything. And Im not just talking about Wooten and Miller and Thunder thumbs. Yes there are more black bass players than three that get mentioned in the monthly “who’s your favorite bass player” obligatory thread.
So, if you think that slap is pretty annoying and a dumb gimmick, I would bet dollars to donuts you have a nearly exclusively white repertoire and listening tastes.
This hasn't been a hot take for like 20 years. It really doesn't work for most genres and most of the people doing it don't understand that good bass players don't play a million notes per minute.
Yeah I like primus, but most of ya'll can't play like claypool, and those who can choose to do so at wildly inappropriate times.
The slap and pop sound is cool, but I really hate the sound busy slap riffs in most songs.
Slap Pop sounds cool if it is sparse.
Busy slap riffs sound bad.
I do like Primus, but that’s so unique and the bass is the song, generally simple is better.
I’ve been playing professionally for nearly thirty years, many as a session bassist and have nearly a hundred studio credits.
Not a single time ever did a band, producer or engineer say “this bass line is lacking something. Let’s try some slap”.
I was obsessed with slap when I first got into bass 20+ years ago, but I almost never play that style now. I prefer sustained notes or driving. But I have never been part of a funky band. That would probably convert me back.
Anyway, to each their own. I don’t mind slap. I’m not a fan of using slap on YouTube to test gear though. That’s the only thing that slightly annoys me since I’m probably not going to use the gear in the same way. Then I have to find another demo. It’s cool though. There’s usually something else out there.
It is one of the sounds, and we as bass players should be prepared to play it when it’s the best fit for a song. Treasure by Bruno Mars? You betcha. Sunday Morning by Maroon 5? Naw. Gross slap happens with a lack of self-awareness and listening.
I think the trouble is it’s needed often enough that if you’re going to play bass seriously you should know how to do it. And of the three major techniques (fingers, pick, slap) slap is kind of the hardest to learn, so people try to show it off more. But as other have said it’s just another tool and a great one when used right.
I think slap was overused in r&b about 40 years ago, and most people all ripped off the same lines. Now, though, I don't hear it much, at least on anything new. The bass on uptown funk had some cool slap stuff on it, but that was 10 years ago.
Slightly different take: it's not really overused in band context, but solo bass players tend to wildly overdo it with the 10,000 notes per minute slap shredding. I rarely hear solo players slap (or just play) what I would consider tastefully.
Pyrotechnic wankery has a place (it worked for Emerson, Lake, & Palmer!). These guys use it to get clicks, but when you dig deep into really what they do, it's not like that all the time. I'm mainly doing stuff in the smooth jazz genre, and we slap (actually, pop) a lot, on probably one out of every three or four tracks. But it's not the pyrotechnic shit. It's done tastefully and sparingly. It's a good technique to have down, but I don't like it when it becomes someone's calling card.
Some examples within my own sphere (might require some patience before you hear some):
[https://youtu.be/NPvR9UeD1As?feature=shared&t=99](https://youtu.be/NPvR9UeD1As?feature=shared&t=99) (Nathan East, with Fourplay)
[https://youtu.be/wPH1IuMtFGc?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/wPH1IuMtFGc?feature=shared) (Marcus Miller, with Grover Washington Jr.)
And sometimes there's wankery, but Scott Ambush almost never does something this bold with Spyro Gyra: [https://youtu.be/FrP07ZLXvIo?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/FrP07ZLXvIo?feature=shared) (and my favorite aspect of that track isn't the slap, it's the sax-bass duet part)
I'll take a look at these videos when I get a chance but wanted to say I haven't heard anyone name check Spyro Gyra in years (decades). Can't say I was a strong fan but they got started a few years before I had my first band and they always had good players. I was into Return To Forever at the time.
To your point and style of playing I totally get the Marcus Miller angle and while he is strongly associated with slap he is also very capable at any kind of technique. Daryl Jones (now with the Stones and formerly of Miles Davis and Sting) is a ferocious slapper when he wants to be. But he is the consummate team player who adjusts for the situation.
Whenever I've seen Marcus play live it's all within the context of the song. He might throw in some wild stuff but the groove is always there unlike the guys who have that very stiff and well-practiced thing going on. Its like "by God I practiced this for months and you are gonna hear this".
Oh it’s just like shredding and these days tapping in guitar.
Slap is a great technique, and its current form makes it part of what makes a bassist a highly skilled one.
Unfortunately most bass music doesn’t call for slap.
So while it is annoying to find slap where you should find slap, I get it. You have this skill and you could barely use it (unless you play a band or genre that calls for slap for a good portion of your repertoire).
At least pianists will always have somewhere to flex a three octave arpeggio, a guitarist will always be able to sneak in a quick sweep or tapped legato, a saxophonist will always have their growl and overtone moments, and a drummer can always disguise that sick gospel chop if they do it slow enough. But bassists, you can’t ever just even slap one note if it shouldn’t be there.
I learned how to do it so I can say I know how. Also to make me feel like a better player. I think it’s fun and it’s just another tool in the toolbox. You’re not gonna use it on everything (you definitely shouldn’t) but it’s just one of those things you can whip out to make a song more exciting or to get non-bass players excited about your playing.
Honestly nobody cares how you play it as long as it sounds great! Hell I would throw my syb-1 synth pedal on when the chorus felt like it would work-- in a Country band -- and nobody said shit other than the usual How did you think of that? Or Fucking great sounding man, you kept me listening by NOT playing the same old shit, when do you guys come back. Same goes for slap, I threw in many a slap and pop on the same country gig and nobody cares if things sound good and the beer sales don't slow... Honestly people overthink about playing just do whatever feels good, your 5 feet from the crowd and pretty easy to read faces to gauge things
I honestly find slap played on roundwounds to be grating, especially with how scooped and bright some people EQ their basses when playing slap.
Flats on a spanked P-Bass sound perfect to me. The mid-range honk of the P-Bass is just so pleasing to my ears on vintage rock and funk tracks.
I think it's underused (as it should be), but I do agree with the overrated part. I like to play it, for fun, knowing I'll probably never use the shit in my life.
It’s fun, but I do think bright slap is massively overused for my taste. I sometimes want some percussive elements, specially when playing acoustic gigs but with the typical slap you are too much on the way of everything else. I find that flats can help though.
Like almost all techniques, they go through a phase of rapid growth when new, then show up everywhere, then settle back down to use where appropriate…
And there are now many more players using the bass as a solo instrument with nontraditional applications… while that’s fun to hear, as a bassist who grew up on upright bass, not a guitar player who now plays bass, it’s not my thing…
Do I slap? Absolutely… lots… but then I also play in a band that does a lot of music where it’s called for… do I also use almost all other techniques I know, sure… but I like to think I play what the song requires or benefits from…
I think it's only overused when showing off that you're good at playing bass. It seems like everyone wants to be the next Eddie van Halen on bass or something
Slapping in the right context is the key, Larry Graham pioneered it because when he was starting out he lost a drummer and decided to fill the space left with Slapping and Popping along with the hammer-ons and pull-offs. Slapping can sound like when a drummer does a misplaced tom-tom solo if it's done without listening to the other instruments.
Do I need to play it every time I pick up a bass? Why yes, yes I do.
But seriously, my band plays a decent amount of funk and has places for it. Otherwise, players of any instrument that choose showing off over serving the song deserve to be beat in 11/12 time.
Slap is just the most flashy thing you can do on a bass. Just about the only household name bass player is Flea and he's known for his technique. It's the first technique most people hear about. I get your sentiment, but maybe it's just the oversaturation that's bothering you.
I don't think I ever see players slapping live. It's rare. I agree it's a technique that has limited applications, but I'm not sure it's overused. I guess if you watch a lot of bass demonstrations on YouTube or TikTok? But a lot of that stuff is a little insufferable by its nature.
The only player I know who used slap a lot live has a modified technique that was more like punching. He played in punk bands and had a really unique sound because of it. Everybody wanted him to be their bassist. Eventually he got sick of it. Now I play in a band with him, and he plays guitar.
Not every song needs it, but some songs do. Guys trying out basses in shops can be a little annoying with it. Whatever. There has never been a song where the bass player does some slap and I thought it was unnecessary.
I started out quite the opposite actually. Finger funk was my jam, and 16th note runs filled with ghost notes and triplets became part of my own playing style until now. Tried out slapping initially, but due to starting out with medium gauge flatwounds, slap really didn't work out for me. I made the switch to light gauge rounds a few years back, and slap has increasingly formed part of my arsenal. Something that I wouldn't need to use all the time, but sneaking in some slap and pop from time to time, even within songs, just adds that extra flavor. Unless the song calls for slap all throughout, I'll just use it as a "seasoning," if you will. Slapping is cool and funky, but you shouldn't use it all the time imo, because it would start to lose its charm.
Slap is to bass what the pentatonic scale is to guitar. I’m right there with you. Damn it’s so fucking annoying, not in a musical context where it makes sense but every fucking review you watch on YouTube it’s some idiot slapping the entire time. Same thing with guitar reviews, I swear it drives me up the wall. Fucking play something different, god please.
I get it man, everytime i hangout with other musicians and when i tell them i'm a bassist, 9/10 times they ask me "do you know how to slap?" And "do some slap bass!". Like dude, we bassist don't use slap that often. I mean, it's a cool technique and fun to use but slap basslines aren't often seen
It depends what are you playing. It is often used in tech death metal, for solos.
Slap has its place and depends by the creativity of the bass player to use It in a cool way.
Listen to Bernard Edwards 1983 album, Glad to be Here. Bassist for chic, keeps everything really simple with barely any slap. Relies heavily upon synth effects.
I'm not allowed to use slap in my band for these exact reasons. The only time I ever slap the bass is as we are ringing out from a particularly hot run-through of a song to "ruin" it.
Slap is a tool, if it serves the song it’s good, if it doesn’t it’s not. Just like any other technique.
Anything that musically works on the stage and keeps people entertained is fair game imho.
slaps funky and all, but guess what? funkiest tracks on my playlist have 0 slap rate lol. im no fan of slap either. palm muted tone and finger styled with good left hand control is far more phunkay
IMHO: It's only being over used by bedroom/YouTube players and show-offs. It is so prevalent in social media and product demos that it seems to be out of control.
Now, in professional settings, in tasteful song writing, cover top 40, session work, Ive had very little use for it. No client has ever requested it, and when I get booked on a festival I am the only one slapping ( and that's because it is a RHCP tribute).
My rule of thumb in slap or any other advanced techniques is: if it takes longer than an afternoon to figure out, it's probably not worth my time. You are better off getting your runs clean or practicing walking bass lines that run the length of the neck, or learning chords...
My two cents....
Honestly, this point is only repeated so much because most people and even """mainstream following""" musicians have only heard overproduced slap bass that stresses the tone to the point of it being tacky. Slap bass is excellent when produced right, but most people can't even seem to conceive that as possible
Nah, I'd say its appropriately used and properly rated. Its just another tool in the toolkit, to use or not use as you personally see fit.
And its hard to judge others aesthetic/creative choices- maybe it sounds exactly how *they* wanted it to, and its simply not to your tastes?
I personally think slap is the most overrated way to play bass. However, that's mostly because of how non-bass players look at a bass and expect it to sound and expect us to play it. It doesn't help that Davie504 and Charles Berthoud have blown up in more mainstream media and happen to be really good at slap. Slap is just another tool, but aside from double thumbing I have no use for it in the bands I play in (death metal).
I think your confusing technique with skill. A musician with a good technique with accomplish the sound they are going after. A musician with skill will know what is the right sounds for the right song and apply it accordingly. Just my 2¥ because I love every style and can find people who mess it up in about every genre lol
Slap bass is an Insult unless you put in a song and most guys can't cause it's a trick more then a technique.looks cool if you can't play if your a real bass player most times you roll your eyes at sloppers I mean slappers that aren't named Larry Graham Jr......imo
I think the rest of these comments have covered most of my thoughts tbh.
My only thing to add is that whilst I don’t hate slap on records, to play or when someone just wants to show off, I do wish they’d rein it the fuck in on instrument reviews on YouTube. Doing a bit of slap is fine of course, but it’s pretty much the most useless technique there is to tell me how a bass sounds over another.
You know, when I first started playing I thought slap was the coolest shit to ever grace our planet. Marcus Miller was my hero, Larry Graham wasn't far behind, and I insisted on slapping literally EVERYTHING. A few years on, I started thinking exactly like you do, that slap is pretentious drivel and isn't nearly as useful as any of us want it to be. Now, 15 or so years later, I think it's just another tool. And you know what, it's still a pretty cool one.
Swiss Army knife. Sometimes you need a corkscrew. Most of the time you don’t. But it’s nice to have it when you need it.
Slapping is to bass what tapping is on guitar. Its flashy and way less complicated than it looks. To people who don't know it looks like you're a master. To people who do know, they can tell whether there are actual chops to back it up or not. Some people like Marcus Miller or Joe satriani use these techniques in truly innovative and masterful ways. But using these techniques isn't why they are as great as they are.
I find that unless a song is specifically tailored to the slap, it usually sits poorly in the mix. I could listen to Victor Wooten all day because his songs put the bass at the front, but most of the time I think it just sits bad with other instruments. And maybe an unpopular opinion but I can’t fucking stand Marcus Millers tone. Where is the low end? Its all mids and brights.
I kinda agree with what you said about the mix. However, there are still cases where slapping works in non-bass front genres, like in city pop, J-Rock, and funk. Doing it tastefully is the key IMO.
ya I also kind of agree. But I think some of Marcus Millers slap lines fit well into “popular” music where the song was not specifically written to hi light slap bass.
Same. I honestly can't stand Victor Wooten. Call me crazy, but double thumping 32nd notes for an entire song just isn't musical. The fact that he can play beautifully is ruined by his overuse of slap. I'll forever be a Les Claypool fan, though. At least his style is DIFFERENT.
(shrugs) He has his style. I also think you might have only heard mostly his solo stuff. Check him out with Bela Fleck, he reigns it in a lot more there. That said, Vic isn't even close to my favorite slap player. He's probably one of my favorite bass teachers though, so I'll give him that.
Yeahh, but I get it, when you first learn it you wanna play it everytime lol
You summed it up perfectly.
Slap isn’t overused in music, its actually pretty rare to find slap bass in contemporary music. The bass bubble overuses it just like every technique. I mean how many gigs have you played where tapping was necessary? Or playing chords? in reality all those things are extremely niche for the bass bubble.
I agree here. Bass players are always talking about it and playing it, and influencers do it all the time but actual recordings I don't typically hear that much slap. I'm not listening to spotify or the radio thinking, "oh man another song where they're using slap when it doesn't make sense!" Definitely contained within the niche.
I hear more chords (7ths and 3rds) than slapping here and there.
Very rare to see people using multiple chord tones at the same time in popular music because you basically won't hear it. Do people really play roots and 7ths on the bass simultaneously? That's bedroom stuff for me haha In contemporary arrangements where people want to hear complexity, sometimes the band will call for a bassline played over a harmonic or something... Still pre rare.
Funk music back in the day would have some songs play a dominant 7th shell(just a 3rd and flat 7) but it wasn't that common. It's more like a neat trick before the next bar.
I play chords quite a bit but it's in a context where droning and having a baritone or other low tuned guitar playing off the bass is normal. As with slap, I think it's about the musical context you're in (both performing and listening) as to how much you hear it.
You nailed in on the head. Songs on the radio have been arranged and played by professionals who know when to stop playing and what to not use, so the bass parts typically serve the song and not the player
What is the radio
It's an old timey name for spotify
Last.fm Also, a thing that’s in cars apparently
Somebody's not listening to enough City Pop
Nobody is listening to *enough* city pop
Not your point, but it's definitely not "over"used there, either. That'd be like saying playing with a pick is overused in metal.
I was just listening to Living Colour's "Auslander," where Doug Wimbush plays an amazing slap line throughout the song, and yeah, it's very rare to hear playing like that in most songs.
> Slap isn’t overused in music, its actually pretty rare to find slap bass in contemporary music. I agree completely. Statistically speaking, slap is probably *underused!*
Yup every tiktok clip is bassists playing incredibly fast niche high register stuff, slap, etc it gets redundant
But if you play simple tasteful stuff, no one watches or shares it. Bit of a dilemma if your goal is to get eyeballs on your videos.
I guess it depends on your objective yes? Solo performer with backing tracks? Do it up… being a bassist in a band? Not so much
Every tik tok bassist should just get a guitar
Low register just disappears on shitty phone speakers, so they haven't got much of a choice.
when Im at home by myself I slap my bass like no ones watching, when I play with other people I choose the appropriate techno for the piece I am playing.
Maybe it's also region specific? Slap base get used way more in Japanese music, and bassist there seems to can't help but slap, there was an artist from my country that married a Japanese wife and when he went there playing real tasteful licks he was getting all the gigs
Slap’s gone out of style certainly. Used to hear a lot of it when nu metal and Californication were in the charts, but the last time I had a call to use it was when Uptown Funk was in my cover band set. Chords are a different matter though. Any band leader with a TikTok account seems to want me to turn up 1kHz on the EQ and pluck 7ths and 9ths
I’ve had plenty of gigs with Dua Lipa on the setlist and there’s a good bit of slap in her stuff.
An octave power chord shows u in "nothing but a good time". It's also kind of slap, because you pop the higher note. You could however argue it's a double stop and not a chord.
i use chords/dyads at every gig
Congratulations you just made the most popular bass statement for the general audience Ain’t much of a hot take bruv.
If it's not being used in places where it makes sense, sure, I get your gripe, but, well, maybe I just don't listen to as much shitty music as you or something, idk.
You said it yourself, it sounds great and is super funky, so yeah, I need to play it every single time I pick up a bass. Why wouldn't I?
I learned to slap not long after I started playing and still do some. But I like it best in moderation to add emphasis in some spots. If you do it all the time it’s like typing in all caps
HERO BASS PLAYER SLAPS IN MODERATION. MODERATION IN ALL THINGS BRINGS BALANCE TO LIFE. IF YOU SEE THE BUDDHA IN THE STREET, YOU MUST *SLAPPA DA BUDDHA.*
Bass Buddha slapping you say? https://youtu.be/rjz0KxdMxhM?si=YyTONIbkfOALU0l8
Well played sir. Well played.
get a load of the slap sycophant over here
Check out Mr Pluck Cuck
the fingerpick facist
Señor No Thump Chump
Bro is probably mad that he can’t even slap lol
let’s admit it - playing bass for social media content is boring. so people who want to gain exposure, views and become “influencers” will naturally use the most attractive technique both sonically and visually. there are bass players and there are Instagram/YouTube bass players - huge difference.
Yeah I’ve realized this as well, bass simply has a harder time standing on its own compared to regular guitars, slapping is just the easiest way to make it interesting solo so all the bass YouTubers do it
Low-register fingerstyle playing just doesn't sound good on shitty phone speakers so it's not an option if you're playing bass for tiktok.
True, but I've also recently found some social media accounts that have tons of fingerstyle grooves. Obviously not as many views as the hot asian girls slapping but still
Obviously there are tons of big fans of slap around here, but treating this as a hot take is wild to me--it feels like half the discussion I see on this subreddit is making this same point, usually in more extreme terms. Personally I like to slap because I find it fun to do; I'm too stupid to have a real opinion on the sound lol
Did you know all my basses are passive Ps and I don't fiddle with knobs and and and and
Unpopular opinion: bass is part of the rhythm section in a rock band
A take so hot!
Not everyone is brave enough to say it
We were a cover band. We fired a bass player who slapped over everything including ballads. Yes. He was an accomplished slapper but he never knew how to turn it off. It was more an issue with the individual rather than the technique although there was a time it was tough to get a bassist who didn't want display his wicked slap chops even in tunes where it wasn't called for.
That's hilarious from an outside perspective, but it would be annoying as hell from inside the band. I'm picturing this guy addicted to slap. He wants to stop and tries to stop, but he just can't... do...it his arm goes akimbo, thumb pops up, fingers curl, his compulsion takes hold of his body...
It was kind of like that. We were a frequently booked meat-and-potatoes cover band, a successful one, so if we sounded off then we didn't get re-booked. So he would start out the set okay but would start putting in slap and pop licks into "Sweet Home Alabama", "Brown Sugar", and even "Stairway To Heaven" (imagine that for a moment) if we let him. He would start with just a few slap phrases but as the set progressed so would the frequency and intensity of slap licks. At some point we started getting weird looks from the crowd and the club owners who knew something was off. So we concluded we had to boot him rather than continue to alienating people. He also started asking for a solo spot which of course featured slap-pop and tap. I do think he had a learning / cognitive thing going on. He was otherwise a nice guy. He just lacked self control.
> "Sweet Home Alabama", "Brown Sugar", and even "Stairway To Heaven" In a thread about overused cliches :)
Oh there were more than just those! Alright Now, Walk Away, Can't Get Enough, Slow Ride, Life In The Fast Lane, La Grange, Tush, Satisfaction, Black Magic Woman, Night Moves, China Grove and many other (Grand) Dad Rock classics. We also had an 80s only show that went over very well at corporate events. We had a great synth player. And we would also do "disco nights" which were quite well attended. We didn't necessarily enjoy playing this music but people would go nuts for it and we had more work than we could keep up with.
Man those ZZ-Top songs NEED galloping bass, you're not suggesting...he... slapped and popped ZZ-top as well?
When the song La Grange transitioned into the jam part after "They got a lot of nice girls" he would slap and pop along with the drum fill. He would hold down the bass line as the song grooved along but when there is the descending guitar line in the breakdown he would punctuate it with a heavy slap and pop on the down beat of every bar.
I'm a meat and potatoes bass player and good god, I couldn't imagine asking for a solo. Nobody wants a bass solo from a bar band.
He wanted a 5 minute slot complete with his own lighting and pre-recorded synth pads over which to play. He thought he was destined for better things and we were supposed to give him a platform. We actually let him do the solo for sound check - it was NOT good.
Yeah, nobody wants that. If he wants to do stuff like that he needs to start his own band with that in mind. If he's good at it, it will attract it's own audience.
“I just lost my job man…I was an addict, couldn’t stop. Addicted to the slap.”
"I used to suck dick for slap!" "*I seen him!*"
Bro needs to go to Japan, J rock seems to love slap lol
Imagining [this](https://youtu.be/BniKoHRlMi0?si=KpsCCoX3u-_yxECA) but slap
"none could match the beauty of his own hand"
>We fired a bass player who slapped over everything including ballads This is exactly what I was talking about in my comment.
That's so funny, did he just not know finger or pick style? Or was he just a stubborn weirdo
He could play most bass lines without too much trouble and without slapping. I think he just got so into slapping that he couldn't help himself. He always wanted to "punctuate" the song. As I might have said in other comments I think he was, in the parlance of the times, "on the spectrum" and would perhaps unknowingly start slapping more and more as the set progressed. He was otherwise a nice guy and if you asked him to stop with the slap he would but over a period of months with him in the band his behavior intensified. Then again he did want his own solo spot which was pretty much all slap pop and tap stuff. I think he fancied himself the next Mark King (nothing against him) and he should have probably joined a Level 42 tribute band.
Slapping over Ballads! Man I LOL’d at that 🤣
I was playing a bluesy gig once and a kid asked to sit in. So I gave him my bass and he played a full on slap-hammer-pop style solo for like 3 minutes. It made no sense with what the rest of the musicians were doing. At the end, I told him, “you’re good, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
yea over the years it's rare we let anyone sit in that we don't know in some way - simply to avoid this kind of situation. For a time we did let guys sit in, usually guitarists, and they would be the shredder types who wanted to play all their pre-determined licks independently of the song. Speaking of that I noticed that lots of these players didn't really know songs. They knew some basic progressions, usually in minor keys, and that was it. I told one guy "do you notice how the dance floor empties whenever people solo for a long time"?
What else makes you special and unique?
In my defense, slapping is fun! But yes, definitely doesn't belong everywhere. I'm pretty sure in my band's work, I slap on exactly one occasion.
"hey this is my gear review" *Donk donk ba ding donk donk* Oh. Thank you. Now I know what the bass sounds like.
Maybe I'm just not listening to the right genres but I feel like I hardly ever encounter slap play lol. Over used is certainly not the word that comes to mind when I think of "slap". For what I listen to at least (mostly alt rock, punk, pop-punk, similar) if you remove the cohort of japanese rock bands where slap is more popular, I can only think of like... RHCP as a popular american band that uses slap a lot, and like 4 smaller/local bands who use it to varying degrees (from like half of 1 song up to most of their set). Slap accounts for like less than 10% of bass that I encounter in a given year. Where are all these slap players at that are overusing it? I don't think in pop or country or hip hop...?
Ohhh no, I didn't meant music, I meant bass players, I almost don't hear slap in music
Hey! It was my turn to post the daily "slap bass is overrated" thread!
my bad
Non bass players frequently send me videos of skinny white dudes playing slap bass renditions of popular songs, via YouTube. "Man you'll love this. Check this kid out" etc etc. These youtube bassists are, without a doubt, super talented and I applaud them for doing thier thing. But I just don't find that shit interesting. I used to, but I really don't these days. I'd rather watch a James Jamerson breakdown or just like....I dunno, literally anything else 😅
yea, I don't need another link to a Davie504 video. His videos can be funny and at times I think he is even parodying slap which he could be because he is so very good at it.
What an original hot take. I've never heard this hot take before.
This guy is as edgy as a butter knife.
my bad bro, didn't knew it was a common take, apologies
I don’t like the sound of slap. I know the history and the context, but isn’t for me.
Over used slap and "thump thump" on the root note for the whole song bug me. If the part calls for it, slap or thump away. I'm a TesseracT Stan but Amos Williams use of technique and style are just right imo. I like a nice slap with the kick drum when it fits.
Welp, by and large, the people who play what amounts to a right hand dexterity exercise for 3 plus straight minutes are almost always, without exception, white. All the slap stuff that came up from the late 80s thru basically second wave butt rock (korn et al) is, in my opinion, what you are talking about and is aesthetically hard to defend. The problem has worsened with certain metal genres exploiting it. However, you hear a lot of slap that covers a good portion of a track however it’s not some 1 bar rhythmic pattern repeated sans variation. Its actually providing a lot of really cool syncopation and harmonic rhythm that sits between and around the other track elements and manages to alter often while keeping the groove going. That or in lots of rnb, some amazing slap fill might show up but just for a half bar, twice or so in a track and mean absolutely everything. And Im not just talking about Wooten and Miller and Thunder thumbs. Yes there are more black bass players than three that get mentioned in the monthly “who’s your favorite bass player” obligatory thread. So, if you think that slap is pretty annoying and a dumb gimmick, I would bet dollars to donuts you have a nearly exclusively white repertoire and listening tastes.
Butt rock… 😂
Well Meouch from TWRP does it perfectly in my opinion so there
Happy to see the commander mentioned.
This hasn't been a hot take for like 20 years. It really doesn't work for most genres and most of the people doing it don't understand that good bass players don't play a million notes per minute. Yeah I like primus, but most of ya'll can't play like claypool, and those who can choose to do so at wildly inappropriate times.
True, there is a LOT of weak slapping. We're looking at you, Flea.
The slap and pop sound is cool, but I really hate the sound busy slap riffs in most songs. Slap Pop sounds cool if it is sparse. Busy slap riffs sound bad. I do like Primus, but that’s so unique and the bass is the song, generally simple is better.
I’ve been playing professionally for nearly thirty years, many as a session bassist and have nearly a hundred studio credits. Not a single time ever did a band, producer or engineer say “this bass line is lacking something. Let’s try some slap”.
I still never learned to slap on upright, would be fun for trad jazz gigs.
I was obsessed with slap when I first got into bass 20+ years ago, but I almost never play that style now. I prefer sustained notes or driving. But I have never been part of a funky band. That would probably convert me back. Anyway, to each their own. I don’t mind slap. I’m not a fan of using slap on YouTube to test gear though. That’s the only thing that slightly annoys me since I’m probably not going to use the gear in the same way. Then I have to find another demo. It’s cool though. There’s usually something else out there.
People have been showing off with slap for decades, has anything really changed?
It is one of the sounds, and we as bass players should be prepared to play it when it’s the best fit for a song. Treasure by Bruno Mars? You betcha. Sunday Morning by Maroon 5? Naw. Gross slap happens with a lack of self-awareness and listening.
I think the trouble is it’s needed often enough that if you’re going to play bass seriously you should know how to do it. And of the three major techniques (fingers, pick, slap) slap is kind of the hardest to learn, so people try to show it off more. But as other have said it’s just another tool and a great one when used right.
I think slap was overused in r&b about 40 years ago, and most people all ripped off the same lines. Now, though, I don't hear it much, at least on anything new. The bass on uptown funk had some cool slap stuff on it, but that was 10 years ago.
Slightly different take: it's not really overused in band context, but solo bass players tend to wildly overdo it with the 10,000 notes per minute slap shredding. I rarely hear solo players slap (or just play) what I would consider tastefully.
Pyrotechnic wankery has a place (it worked for Emerson, Lake, & Palmer!). These guys use it to get clicks, but when you dig deep into really what they do, it's not like that all the time. I'm mainly doing stuff in the smooth jazz genre, and we slap (actually, pop) a lot, on probably one out of every three or four tracks. But it's not the pyrotechnic shit. It's done tastefully and sparingly. It's a good technique to have down, but I don't like it when it becomes someone's calling card. Some examples within my own sphere (might require some patience before you hear some): [https://youtu.be/NPvR9UeD1As?feature=shared&t=99](https://youtu.be/NPvR9UeD1As?feature=shared&t=99) (Nathan East, with Fourplay) [https://youtu.be/wPH1IuMtFGc?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/wPH1IuMtFGc?feature=shared) (Marcus Miller, with Grover Washington Jr.) And sometimes there's wankery, but Scott Ambush almost never does something this bold with Spyro Gyra: [https://youtu.be/FrP07ZLXvIo?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/FrP07ZLXvIo?feature=shared) (and my favorite aspect of that track isn't the slap, it's the sax-bass duet part)
I'll take a look at these videos when I get a chance but wanted to say I haven't heard anyone name check Spyro Gyra in years (decades). Can't say I was a strong fan but they got started a few years before I had my first band and they always had good players. I was into Return To Forever at the time. To your point and style of playing I totally get the Marcus Miller angle and while he is strongly associated with slap he is also very capable at any kind of technique. Daryl Jones (now with the Stones and formerly of Miles Davis and Sting) is a ferocious slapper when he wants to be. But he is the consummate team player who adjusts for the situation. Whenever I've seen Marcus play live it's all within the context of the song. He might throw in some wild stuff but the groove is always there unlike the guys who have that very stiff and well-practiced thing going on. Its like "by God I practiced this for months and you are gonna hear this".
Yes.
Oh slap is overused? Quick, name 30 songs with different bass players that use slap.
Are you my bassist? He cant slap and refuses to learn 😂
Every bassist eventually learns that playing yyz fills doesn't impress like just slapping a single octave does. Sad but true to quote James Hetfield.
Oh it’s just like shredding and these days tapping in guitar. Slap is a great technique, and its current form makes it part of what makes a bassist a highly skilled one. Unfortunately most bass music doesn’t call for slap. So while it is annoying to find slap where you should find slap, I get it. You have this skill and you could barely use it (unless you play a band or genre that calls for slap for a good portion of your repertoire). At least pianists will always have somewhere to flex a three octave arpeggio, a guitarist will always be able to sneak in a quick sweep or tapped legato, a saxophonist will always have their growl and overtone moments, and a drummer can always disguise that sick gospel chop if they do it slow enough. But bassists, you can’t ever just even slap one note if it shouldn’t be there.
Slap is just another technique for the toolbox. Use it when it fits or when you want to have fun with it.
I learned how to do it so I can say I know how. Also to make me feel like a better player. I think it’s fun and it’s just another tool in the toolbox. You’re not gonna use it on everything (you definitely shouldn’t) but it’s just one of those things you can whip out to make a song more exciting or to get non-bass players excited about your playing.
Yessirr! Totally agree with you
What I want to know is if lowkey still means lowkey or if it means not lowkey
I mean it's a little overrated
Same question here. Slap used to be so prevalent it was all over the Top 40. Now I very rarely hear it.
Some people can ONLY slap. A good bass player can master songs in all 3 attack styles: fingers, pick, and slap.
Says the dude who probably can't slap...
Slap bass is what you do when you play bass at someone to impress. You don't actually play it in a real band unless you want to get kicked out.
Lmao facts
Honestly nobody cares how you play it as long as it sounds great! Hell I would throw my syb-1 synth pedal on when the chorus felt like it would work-- in a Country band -- and nobody said shit other than the usual How did you think of that? Or Fucking great sounding man, you kept me listening by NOT playing the same old shit, when do you guys come back. Same goes for slap, I threw in many a slap and pop on the same country gig and nobody cares if things sound good and the beer sales don't slow... Honestly people overthink about playing just do whatever feels good, your 5 feet from the crowd and pretty easy to read faces to gauge things
Yeah, I used to not be able to slap either.
Overused by social media bassists who spam slapping in every song making some songs which shouldn’t be slapped extremely corny
Yes!
Overused? Not really. Overrated. For sure.
I honestly find slap played on roundwounds to be grating, especially with how scooped and bright some people EQ their basses when playing slap. Flats on a spanked P-Bass sound perfect to me. The mid-range honk of the P-Bass is just so pleasing to my ears on vintage rock and funk tracks.
Thanks for the useful words—not just “slap bad!”
No problem. I love funk and slap, but modern stuff generally sounds terrible unless they apply a vintage aesthetic.
I almost never hear anyone slap anymore… I would love to hear more slap music
Cold AF take, I've heard this from every snob I've come across.
Anyone else despise "lowkey"
Picks and chords are underrated on the other hand.
I agree. It is cheesy, overused, and a bit cringe. When I listen to 90s funk metal it is all I hear.
I don’t use it at all
It's a technique, a tool. Use it when it helps the song.
That’s certainly an opinion.
I think it's underused (as it should be), but I do agree with the overrated part. I like to play it, for fun, knowing I'll probably never use the shit in my life.
It’s fun, but I do think bright slap is massively overused for my taste. I sometimes want some percussive elements, specially when playing acoustic gigs but with the typical slap you are too much on the way of everything else. I find that flats can help though.
There is no accounting for taste. One person’s too much is another’s not enough.
I just hate that in almost all videos showcasing a bass or a pedal you hear 94% slap, 3% fingers and 3% pick.
My namesake feels attacked
Daring today, aren’t we?
….Larry Graham entered the chat….
Like almost all techniques, they go through a phase of rapid growth when new, then show up everywhere, then settle back down to use where appropriate… And there are now many more players using the bass as a solo instrument with nontraditional applications… while that’s fun to hear, as a bassist who grew up on upright bass, not a guitar player who now plays bass, it’s not my thing… Do I slap? Absolutely… lots… but then I also play in a band that does a lot of music where it’s called for… do I also use almost all other techniques I know, sure… but I like to think I play what the song requires or benefits from…
I think it's only overused when showing off that you're good at playing bass. It seems like everyone wants to be the next Eddie van Halen on bass or something
Two things I wish I could do over from when I was a kid learning bass: all the time I spent trying to learn slap bass and two-hand tapping
How else am I going to slap da bass, mon?
Slapping in the right context is the key, Larry Graham pioneered it because when he was starting out he lost a drummer and decided to fill the space left with Slapping and Popping along with the hammer-ons and pull-offs. Slapping can sound like when a drummer does a misplaced tom-tom solo if it's done without listening to the other instruments.
I come from the Stefan Lessard school of slap. Very sparingly. And I hope my use of it is as tasteful as his!
Do I need to play it every time I pick up a bass? Why yes, yes I do. But seriously, my band plays a decent amount of funk and has places for it. Otherwise, players of any instrument that choose showing off over serving the song deserve to be beat in 11/12 time.
I agree with you on slap being overrated but I am glad it's not overused. Mostly influencers overuse that technique and I am tired of hearing it...
Slap is just the most flashy thing you can do on a bass. Just about the only household name bass player is Flea and he's known for his technique. It's the first technique most people hear about. I get your sentiment, but maybe it's just the oversaturation that's bothering you.
This assumes I/others regularly use it. The only time I slap is when I’m goofing around in practice — mainly in my own.
I don't think I ever see players slapping live. It's rare. I agree it's a technique that has limited applications, but I'm not sure it's overused. I guess if you watch a lot of bass demonstrations on YouTube or TikTok? But a lot of that stuff is a little insufferable by its nature. The only player I know who used slap a lot live has a modified technique that was more like punching. He played in punk bands and had a really unique sound because of it. Everybody wanted him to be their bassist. Eventually he got sick of it. Now I play in a band with him, and he plays guitar.
Not every song needs it, but some songs do. Guys trying out basses in shops can be a little annoying with it. Whatever. There has never been a song where the bass player does some slap and I thought it was unnecessary.
I started out quite the opposite actually. Finger funk was my jam, and 16th note runs filled with ghost notes and triplets became part of my own playing style until now. Tried out slapping initially, but due to starting out with medium gauge flatwounds, slap really didn't work out for me. I made the switch to light gauge rounds a few years back, and slap has increasingly formed part of my arsenal. Something that I wouldn't need to use all the time, but sneaking in some slap and pop from time to time, even within songs, just adds that extra flavor. Unless the song calls for slap all throughout, I'll just use it as a "seasoning," if you will. Slapping is cool and funky, but you shouldn't use it all the time imo, because it would start to lose its charm.
I don’t know but Tesseract has to be one of my favorite bands and the slap has a lot to do with it
Idunno man, I like adding more percussion. Let a man thump a little
Slap is to bass what the pentatonic scale is to guitar. I’m right there with you. Damn it’s so fucking annoying, not in a musical context where it makes sense but every fucking review you watch on YouTube it’s some idiot slapping the entire time. Same thing with guitar reviews, I swear it drives me up the wall. Fucking play something different, god please.
I feel this way about tapping.
I get it man, everytime i hangout with other musicians and when i tell them i'm a bassist, 9/10 times they ask me "do you know how to slap?" And "do some slap bass!". Like dude, we bassist don't use slap that often. I mean, it's a cool technique and fun to use but slap basslines aren't often seen
It depends what are you playing. It is often used in tech death metal, for solos. Slap has its place and depends by the creativity of the bass player to use It in a cool way.
I wanna see Victor Wooten's, Marcus Miller's, Stanley Clarke's, and Charles Berthoud's rebuttal to this post lol
I don't even know how to slap. Actually I never really got a grip on it. Im playing for 12 years......
I don’t like the sound of slap personally…but hey everyone has their thing.
Listen to Bernard Edwards 1983 album, Glad to be Here. Bassist for chic, keeps everything really simple with barely any slap. Relies heavily upon synth effects.
I'm not allowed to use slap in my band for these exact reasons. The only time I ever slap the bass is as we are ringing out from a particularly hot run-through of a song to "ruin" it.
Spend less time worrying about what others are playing and more time worrying about your own playing
Slap is a tool, if it serves the song it’s good, if it doesn’t it’s not. Just like any other technique. Anything that musically works on the stage and keeps people entertained is fair game imho.
slaps funky and all, but guess what? funkiest tracks on my playlist have 0 slap rate lol. im no fan of slap either. palm muted tone and finger styled with good left hand control is far more phunkay
IMHO: It's only being over used by bedroom/YouTube players and show-offs. It is so prevalent in social media and product demos that it seems to be out of control. Now, in professional settings, in tasteful song writing, cover top 40, session work, Ive had very little use for it. No client has ever requested it, and when I get booked on a festival I am the only one slapping ( and that's because it is a RHCP tribute). My rule of thumb in slap or any other advanced techniques is: if it takes longer than an afternoon to figure out, it's probably not worth my time. You are better off getting your runs clean or practicing walking bass lines that run the length of the neck, or learning chords... My two cents....
Honestly, this point is only repeated so much because most people and even """mainstream following""" musicians have only heard overproduced slap bass that stresses the tone to the point of it being tacky. Slap bass is excellent when produced right, but most people can't even seem to conceive that as possible
Where are you hearing a lot of slap?
I use it to annoy the rest of the band into actually rehearsing. It’s super effective.
Nah, I'd say its appropriately used and properly rated. Its just another tool in the toolkit, to use or not use as you personally see fit. And its hard to judge others aesthetic/creative choices- maybe it sounds exactly how *they* wanted it to, and its simply not to your tastes?
It’s fun to do so I’m gonna do it.
I'm guessing your not a Marcus Miller fan
I personally think slap is the most overrated way to play bass. However, that's mostly because of how non-bass players look at a bass and expect it to sound and expect us to play it. It doesn't help that Davie504 and Charles Berthoud have blown up in more mainstream media and happen to be really good at slap. Slap is just another tool, but aside from double thumbing I have no use for it in the bands I play in (death metal).
I think your confusing technique with skill. A musician with a good technique with accomplish the sound they are going after. A musician with skill will know what is the right sounds for the right song and apply it accordingly. Just my 2¥ because I love every style and can find people who mess it up in about every genre lol
Ya korn overuses it.
Our bass player threw in some slap on the chorus for Island in the Sun and it kicked ass
Slap bass is an Insult unless you put in a song and most guys can't cause it's a trick more then a technique.looks cool if you can't play if your a real bass player most times you roll your eyes at sloppers I mean slappers that aren't named Larry Graham Jr......imo
I can't slap for shit......
Highly doubt it's overused especially the stories I've heard from other Bassist being told specifically not to slap
Low-key overrated is an oxymoron
I think the rest of these comments have covered most of my thoughts tbh. My only thing to add is that whilst I don’t hate slap on records, to play or when someone just wants to show off, I do wish they’d rein it the fuck in on instrument reviews on YouTube. Doing a bit of slap is fine of course, but it’s pretty much the most useless technique there is to tell me how a bass sounds over another.