Machine Gun Triplets

Machine gun triplets are rapid-fire triplets performed using a combination of picking hand and fretting hand techniques. Whilst by no means an essential element of the slap bass technique, their careful use can certainly add some significant rhythmic excitement to a line.

Machine gun triplets are usually performed using a combination of slapped notes, popped notes and ghost notes performed with the fretting hand. Because the individual notes are being split between the two hands in various ways, it’s possible to play them very quickly. Bassists such as Stuart Hamm, Mark King, Marcus Miller and Les Claypool have all notably used machine gun triplets in their playing.

You can learn more about machine gun triplets in the Slap Bass – Intermediate Level video course, which you can find HERE. Don't forget to hit the Download Resources button above to receive the PDF worksheet and audio files that accompany these lessons.

This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above: