How to Slap a Bass Guitar Using Pentatonic Scale

The slap and pop method is probably the single most common method for playing the bass guitar. It originated from funk rock in the 1960s and is now a popular technique of other genres as well. The following steps will show how to slap a bass guitar using the pentatonic scale.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Strike (slap) an open string with the thumb on your playing hand. The first note on a bass string is almost always started by slapping because the strength of the thumb is needed to play these heavy strings.
2. Fret (pop) the open string that is playing with a finger on your fret hand, typically the index finger. This is also called hammering because the string is fretted hard and fast to allow it to continue playing after it is fretted.
3. Pop a higher note on the same string but with a different fretting finger, usually the ring finger. Note that the string has been playing continuously since it was first slapped in Step 1. The subsequent pops change the pitch but add little to the string's vibration.
4. Repeat Steps 1 through 3 with another string. When playing up a scale, this would be the next higher string from the first. As your fingers come off the first string, they will damp it before playing the next string so that only one string is playing at a time.
5. Use this technique to play up the pentatonic scale. This scale is so named because it has five ("penta" in Latin) notes per octave and is a common scale in popular music. The pentatonic scale in the key of A consists of the notes A, C, D, E and G, which can be played with the open strings, fifth fret and seventh fret on a bass guitar with standard tuning.