bassist, author, clinician, educator
Reprinted
from Bass Frontiers Magazine
May/June 1998
5 Minutes to Slap Technique
by Michael Dimin
Remember how awkward it was when you first started playing, trying to coordinate
your right and left hands? Remember struggling to make the left hand
stretch enough just to play a major scale? Remember listening to that
click, click, click of the metronome attempting to play those quarter
notes, eighth notes and finally sixteenth notes to perfection? Remember
plodding through each exercise, slow and sure to get just that right
articulation and intonation? Those days are probably fading fast in your
memory. Now you can probably run off a two octave half-diminished scale
in any key without even thinking about it. Or solo through Giant Steps
like slicing a tomato with a Ginsu knife. What has changed? One major
difference is that now your hands and fingers can do subconsciously what
you had to think about before. Your hands and fingers have become part
of the musical instrument that your mind and heart have always been.
Just as a toddler must think about each step it takes, we must think
about each new technique we learn. Just as an adult can walk without
thinking about it, new techniques become part of our musical repertoire.
This is because our muscles develop a "memory". As we get used
to playing a new technique and our muscle memory develops, that technique
becomes second nature to us. Exercises that help this muscle memory along
facilitate the learning of new techniques. Here is an exercise to help
develop slapping technique. You will need the assistance of a drummer
(or at least an old stick of theirs).
Open up the slapping hand, palm up. Place the drum stick diagonally across
the palm so that one end passes between the thumb and index finger ("Mr.
Pointer") and the other end of the drum stick passes between the pinkie
and ring finger. Now close the ring finger and middle finger tightly around
the drum stick. WITHOUT your bass on, imitate the slapping motion by rotating
the wrist back and forth. Do this for 5 minutes a day for a week. I think you
will be astounded by the difference. Much like the technology of the new tennis
racquets, golf clubs and skis, the drum stick acts to move the "swing
weight" of your hand outward, allowing you to feel the correct motion
and accelerating the rate of muscle memory development. Now strap on your bass
(put away the stick) and play through the following exercises. Each of these
exercises, based on a G7 chord, present a more difficult slapping concept.
Notice that the last exercise has some chords in it. Watch for future issues,
where I'll be delving pretty heavily into chordal stuff.