Bass Tapping. (SR4)

[Lynottfan]

Hey all, any advice, guidance on tapping for the bass, I wouldn't really work in my music, but as a player I always want to get better, never really dabbled with it on the bass, having just watched the vid of Jen with the Larson band, it opened up the ears to a couple of things, whats the approach, is it different to the Vanhalen style guitar tapping gig, bass/amp setup tips. Any and all help, words greatly appreciated.


Best regards.

[Grand Wazoo]

Look for a Hotlicks dvd by Stu' Hamm

[oli@bass]

Look for anything by Billy Sheehan. Vids, books, CDs.

[Hellboy]

Dampen open strings at the first fret with a scarf, a wristband that tennis players use or something similar around the neck. This makes it easier to play. Adjust the bass so that the strings are as close as possible to the fretboard. Tap right behind the frets.

These are the basic things to get a good tone and to make it abit easier.

Sincerely//Jan

[Kirby]

I would also recommend starting slowly with a metronome. The hardest part for me was making sure each note was in time, especially when tapping with both hands.

Try following simple chord progressions at first. If you notice in the you tube example. Jennifer was using a tapping structure of 1 and 5 in her left hand and 9ths and 10ths in her right hand. This type of structure really sounds nice when moving through chord progressions and it is a great way to get both hands used to simultaneous tapping. Again start out slow and build up speed. The slower speeds help you to get note consistency.

Good luck & have fun with it!

[oli@bass]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Dampen open strings at the first fret with a scarf

Frankly, I wouldn't start with that. IMO it's better to first learn how to mute the strings by yourself, and then when doing the crazy stuff start with a damper. But then again, I never got to the point to do the crazy stuff...

Originally Posted by Kirby

I would also recommend starting slowly with a metronome.

Ah c'mon... he needs to get down the basics first
I needed several weeks to get my hands actually do something meaningful. The left hand needed a lot of exercice to get strong enough to get a note ringing by tapping it, and the right hand fingers needed lots of landing exercice. Did I have sore fingertips or what?! Naturally, back then there was no one who'd teach it... the only thing I had were a couple of recordings by Billy Sheehan on CD so I had to figure out myself how to do it.


But today, there's loads of learning material....also check out YouTube - Alvabass's Channel, who does some very nice tapping for example here:

YouTube- Linus & Lucy

YouTube- Linus & Lucy

[Kirby]

Ha Oli! I forgot to mention the sore finger tips. Doing double stop taps with the right hand killed my first tow fingers for weeks. I had forgotten about that until I read your post! Thanks for the clip too! Good stuff!

[Hellboy]

Originally Posted by oli@bass

Frankly, I wouldn't start with that. IMO it's better to first learn how to mute the strings by yourself, and then when doing the crazy stuff start with a damper. But then again, I never got to the point to do the crazy stuff...

There is a reason that open strings are damped on a Chapman Stick.



//J

[oli@bass]

There's a reason why I sold the Chapman Stick

[Powman]

Originally Posted by oli@bass

There's a reason why I sold the Chapman Stick

Touche!

[oli@bass]

Also, check out this video from the BPL event:

YouTube- The Travis Larson Band performs at the Music Man booth at Bass Player Live

YouTube- The Travis Larson Band performs at the Music Man booth at Bass Player Live

I think it shows pretty much what was said earlier

[Hellboy]

Originally Posted by oli@bass

There's a reason why I sold the Chapman Stick

I have four Chapman Stick´s.... And they are not for sale, my friend....

//J