Chords for 5 Exercises to JUMP START your Slap Bass technique (for beginners)

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_ _ [Eb] Hey, what's going on everybody?
Check it out.
We're back at it [C] again with a frequently asked question that I get from you guys a lot, and
that is about slapping or the slap technique.
Now we've talked about this a lot in the [Gm] past and there's even an entire [C] course dedicated
on how to slap the physical [Gm] aspect of slapping, the downstroke, the pluck, [D] everything you
need to know is [C] in that course.
So if you haven't seen that course, please go back and [G] watch that.
And we're going to be talking about some [Gm] exercises and switching it up here _ today [C] and just making
it not as [Gm] boring as it could be because if you're slapping and just doing [Dm] that technique
and just doing [D] one note, it becomes a little [Eb] boring and repetitive over time.
So [G] we're going to be switching it up, [C] making it a little interesting today, so [F] let's go.
But hey guys, real quick before we get into it, if you haven't visited the Bass Nation
[G] Academy by now, I strongly [C] suggest you go do so.
There's much more available at DerekBennett.com.
All right guys, so I'm going to make this short and sweet.
We're going to be going in and out of exercises like that.
Okay, so the first [D] exercise is obviously that _ _ not so interesting one.
We're going to be playing D _ and the octave.
So we're going to be going down, up, down, up, or thumb, pluck, thumb, [E] pluck.
Okay, let's do that with a [G] metronome.
Always important to do that with a metronome or some type of timekeeper.
[D] One, two, three, four.
[N] We're going to be going with the quarter notes that the metronome is making right now.
I'm at 94 beats per minute right [D] now.
One, two, three, four. _ _
That's an exercise within itself.
_ [G] If you got that, you're comfortable with it.
Now, keep in mind, the whole purpose of this exercise _ is to be able to get comfortable with slapping.
It can be _ a pretty weird movement [N] to do if you're not used to doing it.
So you really have to get your body and your hands used to being able to going up
and down the string like that.
Getting comfortable with getting under the string, getting that pluck, getting your dynamics
right the right way.
So this is what this exercise is beneficial for.
So two, three, [G] four.
We're going down, [D]
down, thumb, thumb. _ _ _ _
_ _ Pretty [A] simple.
_ So we got thumb, pluck, [C] thumb, pluck.
We're just alternating.
It doesn't matter what note you're starting on.
We just happen to be starting on D.
So we got down, pluck, thumb, pluck, _ pluck.
Easy enough.
[Bm] Once you get comfortable with that, we're going to be doing [N] eighth notes.
So we're going to double that.
Boom, bop, boom, bop, boom, bop, boom, bop.
Down, up, down, up, thumb, pluck, thumb, [D] pluck.
_ _ _ Simple, right? _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] Just make sure your [D] hands are steady.
_ I'm [E] playing with the one and the four right now because I'm in this register
of the bass.
Sometimes I [N] use my fourth finger to play this.
I know we talk about that four-finger rule where your four fingers have to be
across four [D] frets.
But when I do slapping or when I do the slap [N] technique, _ sometimes I use that fourth finger.
It just feels more comfortable down in this register of the bass.
So anyway, _ double [D] palm. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] Simple, right?
Once you get comfortable with that, we're going to move this around.
So now we're going to do C, D, _ G, [N] A.
We're going to do the octave of each of those.
So we go one, two, one, two, three, four.
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _
_ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [G] Now we're getting somewhere.
[A] _ _ _ [D]
Moving this [G] around now.
[C] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [A] _ And remember [Gm] to keep your hand, because you're doing sets of octaves,
[N] keep your hand nice and steady.
_ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ Clean, [A] clear, [D] and precise, [G] like I [Am] say all the time, guys.
_ _ [D] _
[G] _ _ _ [Abm] _ OK, getting a little bit more interesting.
Once you're comfortable with that, I'm still at 94 beats per minute.
Once you're comfortable with that, we're going to be [Gb] switching it up again.
Let's double that first note.
Let's do a 16th note with the first note we play in the first bass note.
So the C double, _ [D] the [G] D double, the G double, [N] A double.
OK?
So we're going to do a 16th note.
It's going to sound like this.
Two, _ _ _ two, three, four.
Boop-a-bop, boop-a-bop, boop-a-bop, boop-a-bop, boop-a-bop, boop-a-bop,
boop-a-bop, boop [C]-a-bop.
_ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _
[G] Now, if you're not comfortable with moving that around,
you can go right back to the first one that we [D] did, _ _
_ _ just staying right there on that single note,
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] just so you can get used to the rhythm of it.
[C] But if you're past that, _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ _ [A] _ _ [N] OK?
So _ _ _ _ _ _ that's the first kind of section or part of this exercise,
is just doing different rhythms, being comfortable with doing
the slap, the pluck, different rhythms of the thumb and the pluck.
I keep saying slap and pluck, but they're _ called different names.
It was actually thump before it was slap.
But anyway, you get the idea.
So moving [G] that around, just very simple bass line.
I'm not doing anything crazy or too intricate.
I'm just moving it around in [N] octaves.
OK?
So once you get comfortable with that, you
can start playing around with the different rhythms that you do.
So you can do double for your thumb and then double for the pluck.
OK?
So you can actually slow that down so you can get it nice and clean.
So let's do 85.
_ I'm going down to 85.
2, 3.
Let's go down to 80. _ _
2, 3, 4.
Do-do-ba-do-do-da-do-do-da.
Now, so if I'm doing _ _ _ 16th notes for each of the pairs of notes,
so we have _ _ boo-boo-da-da-do-do-da-da-do-do-da-da-do-do-da-da.
So I'm going to be doing double for the first [C] note
_ _ [N] _ and double for the next note.
So what I'm doing for that pluck, I'm doing pluck index, pluck middle.
OK?
So boo-doo-ga-da-do-do-da.
Let me subdivide this in 16th notes so you can actually
hear exactly what this sounds like.
_ _ So let's do 16th notes.
You'll hear, instead of the metronome doing quarter notes,
do-bop-bop.
Let's hear eighth notes.
Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Now let's hear 16th notes. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Ab] Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
And that's the [C] rhythm that you're doing.
_ _ _ [G] _
_ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ [A] _ _ Now if you guys are wondering [N] _
_ _ _ what I'm using, I'm just using a,
I think it's called metronome.
Let me see. _
It is called, _ I don't know what it's called.
_ _ _ _ _ It is called _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ SoundBrenner.
_ SoundBrenner, I'll put it up here on the screen.
SoundBrenner metronome.
I'm pretty sure it was a free metronome on the App Store.
And this is iOS.
This is Apple.
If you guys have Apple, I'm sure Android has that as well.
Galaxy, phones, whatever you have, it doesn't matter.
A free metronome in the App Store.
So just grab a metronome and it allows me to subdivide these notes _
_ into eighth notes or 16th notes.
And you can really hear exactly what rhythm you're supposed to be doing
on top of what's playing at the time.
So if you always have the quarter notes playing,
_ _ _ _ _ you have to make sure your subdivision is correct too.
So if you want to make sure it's correct,
just change that da-da-da-da-da-da-da eighth notes.
_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [N]
I'm off. _ _ _ _ _ _
Two, three, four. _ _ _
Two, three, here we go.
_ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ [Ab] _ Now, like I said before, guys,
this is going to be getting tougher and tougher as you go along.
So you have, what, four or five different exercises already
to help you in your beginning stages of your slap [N] routine.
And there's so many ways you can play around with these rhythms
to get yourself comfortable.
In this specific app, I have different ways to subdivide them.
I can do triplets as well.
Before, we weren't doing triplets.
It was a little bit different.
So I'm going to show you the difference of what we were doing before
versus the triplets version of this rhythm exercise.
So the triplets are going to be triplet, triplet, triplet, triplet, [C] triplet.
_ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [A] _ Before, [C] we were doing_ _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ See how it feels different?
[Eb] It sounds different.
So don't get that confused too.
But you can still [N] practice them all different ways.
I would actually suggest that you do.
So we have triplets, we have eighth notes, we have sixteenth notes.
It's a ton of different ways I can subdivide this in. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ So many ways I can subdivide this.
_ _ It's just up to you and to your imagination.
But those are several ways that you can start off
_ practicing these basic exercises, getting you used to slapping,
and then we can get into the crazy stuff later on.
But I want you to get comfortable with it, moving it around,
and _ just being able to enhance that technique that you've already learned from before.
All right, make sure your notes are coming out clean, clear, and precise.
Like I say all the time, guys, take it slow.
If you have any questions,