The exercises in this course make use of the fundamental elements of the slap bass technique: thumb slaps, popped notes, hammer-ons and pull-offs. In addition to these basic elements, you’ll need to give consideration towards muting the strings that you aren’t playing, in order to prevent them from ringing unnecessarily.
You can learn more about these fundamental techniques in the Slap Bass – Beginner 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:
This exercise has been written in the style of slap bass pioneer Larry Graham, who played a similar line on the Graham Central Station classic ‘Release Yourself’.
This line is built on the E Mixolydian mode.
This up-tempo exercise makes use of the same rhythmic figure on each beat of the first and third bars.
This line is built around major and minor sixth intervals, which are used extensively in the first and third bars.
This line also makes use of tenths.
This exercise is based around the G minor pentatonic scale and features some upper register melodic lines combined with descending octave-based figures.
This is a slow-tempo groove based around a C minor chord.
This is another slow-tempo line, this time played in drop-D tuning.
This line is built on the G# blues scale and is heavily syncopated in places.
This quirky line makes use of the ‘funk double stop’, the seventh and third of the underlying dominant seventh chord played together.
This line is built around an open string hammer-on phrase that consists of fourth sixteenth notes.
This exercise is in the key of F# minor.
This line outlines an A7 chord using the A Mixolydian mode.
This fast-paced line is unusual in that you are required to pop notes on the A-string.
This line is played at a very fast tempo.