How to Do an Intermediate Slap on Bass Guitar

Learning to play the bass guitar can be easy and fun with a few simple techniques and lots of practice. The intermediate slap on the bass guitar is one of the more advanced techniques used to play the bass guitar, but once mastered is extremely versatile.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Learn the basic finger picking techniques on the bass guitar. The finger positioning is important to learning the bass guitar and it is just as important to become comfortable with the finger picking technique. For example, for the first note use your index finger, for the second note your middle finger, and so on.

2. Understand basic chord techniques. This should include using open strings to play different chords. You will want to use alternate fingers to play the open strings and corresponding frets. For example, use the open D string and the eleventh fret of G, to play the D major chord.

3. The double slap gives you the same effect as using alternate fingering, except you are using the thumb the whole time and when you slap you want your thumb to go all the way through instead of bounce off.

4. Practice the double slap technique, as well as other techniques you have learned on the bass guitar. It is important to work with the various techniques often so you will keep up the level of skill you desire. This will allow you to expand your playing ventures when looking for bands that need a bass player.