Incorporating Pop into your Slap
Well here we are again. I hope you got through the first slap lesson alright. No thumbs with holes in them or anything. Now it's time to get into a little bit of the good stuff.
No slap technique is complete without an equally good pop technique. The two go hand in hand and unless you're Fieldy playing for Korn you need to be able to pop. So here we go....
So what is a pop? Popping (I think that's how you spell it) is essentially taking a finger (forefinger or second generally) and snapping one of the strings (usually D or G) up off the fingerboard so that it smacks back down. It gives a great sound, and when used with slap, it can be used to create some great rhythms. So how do we do this? Well first of all put your hand into it's normal slapping position. Keep your fingers kind of curled at the ends. Now, slide your first finger up underneath the "G" string and yank upward. Be careful here guys, because while bass strings are very sturdy, a hard pop can cause them to break. Also, pops tend to have a very LOUD harsh sound so you may want to turn the volume on your amp down a bit your first few times. Anyway, now that you've completed your first pop how'd it feel? Felt good huh? well it will at first, and later on it will fell even better, but as it was with the slap, take it in moderation. You can just as easily wear a hole in your forefinger as in your thumb, so take it nice and steady and don't overwork yourself. Now try that a bit, just popping the open "G" and "D" strings until it feels comfortable for you. Then move on to fretting some notes. Here try this,
G-----------7----------------10-------------
D--5----------------8-----------------------
A-------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------
Good. Getting used to the feeling now? It's strange at first because it's so aggressive and powerful, but you'll get used to it. Practice the above part for awhile, it shouldn't take you long get the feel of a good pop. You want to make sure, though, that you're getting a nice consistent sound out of it. No weak pops or ones that break your strings, just a nice, consistent feel.
Okay now that you've got a feel for that, let's try putting some slaps with it. The next piece is the signature riff for "love rollercoaster" as done by the chili peppers. I think he plays it fingerstyle but it's perfect for a good slap lesson, considering it's just straight eight note octaves. From here on out we'll be using the letters
"S" and "P" over the tab to indicate slaps and pops.
S P S P S P
G--------7---------5----------4--|
D--------------------------------|
A---5---------3----------2-------|
E--------------------------------|
S P S P S P
G--------4---------5----------7--|
D--------------------------------|
A---2---------3----------5-------|
E--------------------------------|
Now wasn't that cool? It's such a smooth line. Practice that until you've got it down completely. Until you can play it while thinking about something totally different. Okay, if you're done with that let's try a few more exercises. Okay in the next one, it's a pretty simple but it's got a bit of a different feel to it. We've got a slide as an opener (which is no problem for us at all!) then we have two successive pops there at the end. Playing several pops in a row can be difficult for some people which is why the first exercise in this lesson was nothing but pops. If you followed that and practiced it this should be no problem for you.
S P S P P S
G--------12---------9----7-----------|
D------------------------------------|
A--7/9---------7-------------10------|
E------------------------------------|
No problem, eh? You knew you could do it. Okay I'm gonna part with you today after one final exercise. This one is a little difficult (this is a piece from one of my own songs) because it's played fast and has a slapped chord in it (he's using chords on a bass?!?! God forbid!). Still, though, I think if you got the above lessons down you can play it. Here goes....
s s p s p s p s
G---------6-----6-----6--------|
D------------------------------|
A--4---4-----4-----4-------5---|
E------------------------------|
s s p s p s p s
G---------6-----6-----6--------|
D--------------------------9---|
A--4---4-----4-----4-------7---|
E------------------------------|
So that's it. That's from a song I wrote a long time ago, when I first started slapping. It's a decent line but nothing special. Anyway, there you go, now you're on your way to being the next Flea (or Vic, or Bootsy, or whoever you admire), Have fun guys and keep it up. Contact me if you'd like to see a specific lesson on my page.
