If you've worked successfully through all of the other courses in the Advanced Slap Bass section of this website, you'll now have at your disposal a versatile slap technique indeed. But of course, there are always further ways to enhance the technique, and that's what we'll be looking at in this course.
As you'll discover, the slap technique can be easily combined with other techniques such as tapping, strumming and harmonics to play some particularly outlandish material. Many of the slap and pop masters such as Stuart Hamm, Marcus Miller, Les Claypool and Victor Wooten are equally adept at using these other styles and their bass parts are often based around different combinations of techniques.
The exercises in course will combine all of the elements of slap bass you have learnt in the Advanced section with other techniques. There is little explanation needed for these lines since all of the slap techniques used here will have been covered throughout the individual courses.
Remember that these lines are merely illustrations of what can be achieved by combining techniques. While these bass parts may have a home on a flashy solo bass record, they shouldn’t be overused!
This exercise has a fairly conventional slap and pop groove in the first three bars, followed by a fill in the fourth bar that combines slapping with the tapping technique.
This is a very complex line that combines slap bass and the tapping technique. In this exercise we'll be switching quite rapidly back and forth between the two techniques.
This exercise features a LOT of notes! We're again combining slap bass with he tapping technique, this time working at a slow tempo. As well as tapping, this line also requires some double popping. Hang on to your hats...
In this exercise we're combining the slap bass technique with harmonics. This might seem an unusual pairing, but bassists such as Victor Wooten and Michael Manning have proved how well the two can work together. In this exercise we'll be strumming chordal parts using harmonics.
This exercise also combines slap bass and harmonics. In this line, we have some complex fills in the second and fourth bars that are made up of harmonics. These fills are played with the double thumbing technique.
This exercise also combines slap bass and harmonics and is played at a fast tempo. This one also makes use of fretting hand slaps.