I worked on this week's lesson yesterday. The four string makes a really weak sound with a left hand slap, but the 6 string makes a better sounding slap noise. Don't know if that's because of the heavier B string or what. Should have a video posted by Sunday evening.

Hmm I haven't tried that technique on 6 string bass, but gennerally you should be able to execute it on all basses. I have tried doing it on acoustic/electric guitar and it works pretty same. I recommend dialing in more mids in the sound and practicing just the left hand slap motion.

Check out this lesson : https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Start_Slapping_Now/

In video 4 I explain the left hand slap more in depth.

Try hitting the fretboard as hard as you can. It requires pretty nice hit in order to sound good.

Looking forward to the video of your playing!

Let me know if you have any further questions along the way...

Cheers

Can you post the Larry Graham backing track, please?

 120.mp3 ( 1.16MB ) Number of downloads: 235

Measures 20 thru 25 are killing me. That weird syncopated bit is hard to get down.

Slow it down and listen carefully. Try to count it down and see how it works out against a metronome. Listening is the key here. You can also listen to how I play it in the main video and play along. Once you "get" the groove its not that hard, but there are some rhythm changes to grasp at first.

I worked on it again today and I've pretty much got it.

Next week is a big holiday in the US. I'll be going out of town for a couple of days. Not sure how much practicing I'll get in.

Great news! Try to work a little more on the weekly assignments, they will help out on executing that lesson easier later on.

p.s. and I'll need the left hand slap exercises lesson recording on Monday so we can work on the last assignment this month!

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Nov 20 2009, 02:01 PM

I'll have the weekly lesson up by Sunday PM (Monday for you).

Slap Bass 2 assignment. No backing track, just raw bass. \m/ \m/

Good to hear you got some practice down. Its a good start , keep working on it more as you want to get those left hand slaps heard clearly and consistent. You need to find a hitting sweet spot and hit hard in order for them to come out - its pretty much a game of trial and error until you get comfortable with the technique. Adding middle frequencies on bass eq will help too. Good job on keep up with assignments!

Weekly assignment 4:

Thumping practice 2

Lessons to practice:

Thumping practice 2: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/thumping_practice_2/

Goal : To master different thumping patterns with dead notes and be able to play them against a drum backing.

Purpose : Practice your slap bass technique and get comfortable with different thumping patterns that incorporate dead notes in a groove.

Instructions :

I want you to learn all the patterns included in the lesson. Practice them slowly with a metronome/drum backing or Guitar Pro file included. It is important to start slowly and gradually increase the tempo. These slap patterns are all about dead notes and there are some 16th notes in so you will need to play them really slow when practicing. Pay attention to muting technique to get all the dead notes out right.

Requirements :

Post updates on your practice daily if possible, describing what have you done. I want you to post the recording audio or preferably video of your performance of the patterns from the lesson played against a drum backing at the tempo you are comfortable with. For that recording I want you to record on a tempo you are comfortable with , if its 50-60 or 80 bpm doesn't matter. Its better to play clean and right then sloppy on a faster tempo. Just notify me which tempo backing track you need for recording and I'll send it to you. As these patterens are demanding, please submit them in appropriate tempo recording.

Deadline to complete: 30th of November

Good luck and remember to post your questions and progress!

You can upload your monthly REC take to the REC board these days. https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/misc-less...ble-stops-slap/

Keep up the good work!

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Nov 23 2009, 01:05 PM

Worked on this lesson for :30 today. Those 16h note double thumps are the worst.

This whole bass MTP program has been an eye opener for things I need to work on.

Yeah those 16th notes really need lot of work to come out. I advise recording that lesson on a slow tempo of 50-60bpm.

I'm really glad you liked the bass MTP! We have covered a lot of topics in a short amount of time and you did great!

Upload the this last assignment once you practice it enough.

You can also proceed and upload the Double Stops Slap lesson recording to the REC program as you monthly REC take now.

Cheers,
Bogdan

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Nov 23 2009, 07:20 PM

I uploaded the Larry Graham lesson to the REC.

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=32162

Wow great job man! I have made comments there...
It was a very pleasant surprise for me to see it!

How is this week's thumping practice going?

My holiday plans got canceled, so I'll have plenty of practice time. I don't see any problems with getting it posted by Sunday PM.

I think I'll also work on this lesson, too: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/misc-less...ss-arrangement/

I had it worked up a while ago, but never posted a video. I'll have to relearn to post it. It will be the first video where I play to parts.

Good idea to cover that lesson! Let me know if you need some help with it.

How is work on the last December assignment going for you?

It's good. Can I get a slow-i backing track? Maybe a faster one, too.

That should say slow-ish.

Here are my comments for assignment 4 you sent me by email (I can't upload anything to the forum right now, I'll add it here later on when its possible).

EDIT: here is the uploaded take :  thump_2.mp3 ( 1.41MB ) Number of downloads: 224


Playing was good, you got the hang of the techniques. Tempo was right too. My advice would be to stay on that tempo until you can play everything even and in time with the drum backing. You shouldn't go to a faster tempo if you can't play everything in time with the beat. In all of the exercise takes you had timing issues, so try practicing it a little more. Timing will improve once you get more comfortable with the slapping technique used so don't worry much about it. Just try not to skip to faster tempo if you can't play everything comfortably on the slower one (that is something we all tend to do ).

I want to congratulate you on completing bass MTP course! You have showed great devotion to practice and have improved a lot during these 3 months. Course was a little intensive of course because of its nature but we covered lot of grounds from jazz improvisation,styles, groove to slapping and popping. You should keep working on all the assignments we covered in this course and using comments I posted as guide - get comfortable with all the techniques/topics.

Hope you had a great time in this course as I had mentoring you!

Here is your November MTP summary:

Assignment 1 - completed -
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=440366
Assignment 2 - completed -
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=442003
Assignment 3 - completed -
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=443852
Assignment 4 - completed -
Take uploaded in this latest post.

November MTP REC take - completed:
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=32148

Congrats man!

This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Dec 1 2009, 01:36 PM