With the fundamentals of the slap and pop technique now in place, this course will begin adding in phrasing techniques such as hammer-ons, pull-offs and trills. Each of these elements will add extra flavour to your slapped basslines.
If you require additional help with any of the techniques used here, the following courses (all included in the monthly subscription cost) should prove useful:
Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above to get the PDF worksheet and audio files for this piece (available to subscribers only). The worksheet is available with TAB and without, for those who wish to give their reading skills a workout.
This course is 37 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:
This lesson will introduce you to three phrasing techniques: the hammer-on, the pull-off and the trill. These elements will add interest to your slap lines.
This exercise demonstrates some of the most commonly used hammer-on figures in slap bass. You will no doubt recognise them from many well-known slap lines.
The fill in the second and fourth bars of this exercise is a descending series of hammer-ons that hits all of the chord tones from the implied F major chord.
This exercise is a similar idea to Exercise #1, except that pull-offs are used in place of hammer-ons. You can allow the open A-string to ring in the fourth bar.
This is another slap and pop line that uses pull-offs. You’ll see some of the figures from the previous exercise appearing in this one as well.
This exercise features trills, with a few hammer-ons thrown in for good measure. All of the trills are different, but each one highlights an important chord tone.
The line is sparse and really allows the trill to shine as a decoration. There are some challenging fingerings to navigate here.
The first two bars of this exercise feature a hammer-on and a pull-off one after the other. When playing this figure, you only need the slap the string once.
This exercise is a simple slap and pop line that makes use of hammer-ons. Watch out for the staccato octaves in the second and fourth bars.
This exercise features a series of descending hammer-ons at the beginning of the first and third bars. Bars 2 and 4 contain very simple slap figures.
This exercise features some tricky syncopation. The first note of each hammer-on is a grace note and so needs to be played very quickly.