Talk:Slapping (music)

Inventor of Slapping: Not Stanley Clarke
This article states that it is generally accepted that Stanley Clarke is the inventor of slap bass, but this statement conflicts with another page on Youtube. On the Larry Graham article, it states,

"He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as "Thumpin' and Pluckin'.""

I think this should be resolved somehow. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.245.168.138 (talk) 00:22, 16 October 2008 (UTC) Larry Graham invented the slap bassing technique one night by accident after accidently taking to many viagra pills, he was in his room practicing the bass and used his penis to play.

Inventor of Slapping: Not Louis Johnson
Louis Johnson is/was a great Slap Bass player, but he is not the inventor of slap bass technique on electric bass. The article has a [4] after his name, but that links to an article from Bass Player magazine which contains info about Larry Graham (who is recognized as the inventor of slap bass technique on electric bass). Louis Johnson is not mentioned in the article. I didn't remove Louis from the article because I'm a WIki novice. Hopefully one of the more experienced editors will look into this. Bbm (talk) 01:35, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Other tunes with slap bass
There are better examples by the chilis! ... Storm in a teacup, and, Tell me baby ... These two songs have VERY prominent slap bass technique! 86.3.232.18 18:54, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Examples
I took the liberty to delete the entry about Mudvayne, not because i think Mudvayne is not a good example of slapping but because i don't think the article will benefit from the whole internet submitting their favorite slapping bassplayer to this article. In the end the same thing will happen as happened with the 'influential bassists' list of the 'bass guitar' article, it will get too long and it will have to be removed from the article. (people think: 'hey, if mudvayne is mentioned here, then at least Robert Trujillo should be mentioned here as well' etc?)I think it makes sense to have some examples in this article, but having too many of them would go beyond its purpose. --Vunzmstr 10:38, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

I removed Is it Luck by Primus as an example of a song with slapping in it. I love this tune, and i was never able to figure out how it was played until i found out that Les Claypool plays it slapping with a tremolo bar in his right hand. Since there are only very few basses with tremolo bars i would say it is not a very good example. If there should be an example of a Primus tune with slapping in it better ones would be 'spegetti western' or 'shake hands with beef'. But although i am a big Primus fan, i think you get the idea about what slapping is if you listen to one of the examples that are already there. --Vunzmstr 09:47, 28 October 2005 (UTC) And of course there is the question of how many examples you need in a piece? (if you need any at all) I'd say there are enough already. Other songs added as examples actually seem to be people paying tributes to their favorite bands. (And for some reason these are always white funkrock bands) I have been wondering why people do this. Maybe people think that if the bassplayer of their favourite band is not listed here he is not counted as good enough or something. And this troubles people because then it may seem like their favorite band is not so cool as they think it is(?). Come on people, music is not a competition. --Vunzmstr 09:47, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Agreed -- the examples section remains way too long. I would say we should cut down to maybe 3-4 exemplars total, with not more than one per genre (and I'd do the cut, but who knows whose toes I'd be stepping on...) JSoules (talk) 05:38, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Follow-up -- I actually did do a cut here, commenting out the second paragraph of examples (and cutting P-Nut from the remaining first paragraph, because who?) as part of the general clarity rewrite I just did. JSoules (talk) 06:27, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Bernard Edwards uses popping for some of the Fill-ins in the bassline to "We Are Family"

--- I just deleted what appeared to be a plug for a product called the slapring. Please help keep vanity crap out of wikipedia.

---

Honestly, the best treatment for the "Examples" section would be for someone to record a quick sample of the slap technique, Creative Commons it, and upload it to the MediaWiki as an audio file. Then all the "famous example" lists can be redirected to a list of examples. Maybe I'll do that if I'm bored tomorrow. JSoules (talk) 06:25, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

History
User 64.6.41.190 added on 24 July the story about Larry Graham inventing the slap and pop technique because he could not afford a drum kit. I have heard of this story but i heard many other stories as well. Does anybody know a reliable source for this story? --Vunzmstr 10:02, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Larry Graham gave an extensive interview in a recent issue of Bass Player Magazine. It's the May 2007 issue. The story you mention above is not supported by the interview. I'm new to Wikipedia, so I'm not sure if I should quote the article text or not. I do have a copy, so let me know the best way to share the info.

Basically, the story is that yes he invented the technique out of necessity, but not because he couldn't afford a drum set, but rather to make up for the absence of a drummer in the group he was playing in at the time with his Mom. It's a great interview, and anyone interested in Larry Graham should read it. Bbm 04:04, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

How can someone "invent" a technique that had been in use since the 1920s? Yes, earlier bass players played stand up bass, but the technique is almost identical. Note too that Bill Black was playing "slap bass" in the early 1950s. I note that Larry was born in 1946. Bill Black started playing an electric bass sometime after Elvis was drafted in 1958, when Larry was 10.
 * Short quotes from other scoures are allowed, I would say especially if they themselves are quoting someone. Longer passages are frowned upon, although you could put them in your own words. Steve Pastor (talk) 19:23, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Jason Salem?
I deleted the reference to one Jason Salem and his slap and pop balloons. It is unclear who this guy is and why he should be mentioned in this article. It's also unclear what slap and pop balloons are. --Vunzmstr 10:59, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I have re-removed this reference, as it appears to be nonsense. Google shows nothing for "Slap and pop balloon".  Also, one of the users who has been adding the reference, User:169.157.198.146, vandalised Vunzmstr's notice above, which suggest to me that they are not a legit editor. -- AJR | Talk 14:00, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I have never heard of this Jason Salem fellow, but slap and pop balloons sounded familiar so I asked a few friends about them. One of them, who is very into nu metal/funk, told me a bit about them.  He said they’re a fairly new innovation, and he’s only heard them once.  I used some of his information to create a stub on them.  Hopefully someone else who knows more will add to it soon.  I’ve therefore added the reference to the stub, but I have left out the reference to Jason Salem for now, as my friend had never heard of him either. -- Justin- 5:50, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

something fishy's going on
it seems that another user created an article on the same subject @ Slap bass (originally titled "Slap back"). are these distinct subjects, or two articles on the same thing? i'm leaning toward the latter and a redirect is in order, but i want to confirm this with you guys. Joeyramoney 06:10, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
 * From the Recording Techniques Section of the Rockabilly article.

"Slapback, slapback echo, flutter echo, tape delay echo, echo, and reverb are some of the terms used to describe one particular aspect of rockabilly recordings." More obviously, that means reverb of some kind. Steve Pastor (talk) 22:18, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

They are completely distinct. Do not merge. 216.198.118.7 (talk) 03:57, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Murderface?
That's a fictional character. What's he doing in the list of "prominent bassists using slapping"? &mdash; Gwalla | Talk 04:08, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Extended technique?
I know it seems kind of insignificant, but I thought I'd run this by some fellow editors before I added it: I was wondering if slapping is considered an extended technique for bass seeing as how it is an unexpected or unorthodox method of playing. I was going to change the opening sentence to mention this as well as linking it to the related article. --Thaddius (talk) 14:59, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * It may have been unexpected or unorthodox at one point in time, but it's long since become a standard technique (one that most bassists learn). So I'd say no. Klausness (talk) 16:17, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Split and merge
I'd like to mention that this page appear to be unclear on a number of topics. Now that I think I've got a grip on the topics, I'd like to recommend that this page be split and merged and stuff.

To start with, I'll describe the things that I think this page is talking about:
 * Plucking a string in such a way that it strikes the fingerboard (called "Slapping" by double bassist, and "Popping" by bass guitarists)
 * Striking a string or strings (also possibly called "Slapping" by double bassists, and called "Slapping" by guitarists)
 * A general style of play that combines both of these

The technique that involves striking the strings is very similar to what is described in Tambour (guitar technique), and I recommend that the relevant parts of the article be merged into that.

I recommend that Pop (guitar technique) be made into a separate article of its own, although possibly a name with a longer history could be found for the technique.

I recommend that this article be moved and converted into an article about the Slap and Pop style.

I recommend that the article entitled Slapping be a disambig page linking to both Tambour and to Slap and Pop.

-- TimNelson (talk) 05:00, 20 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Sounds like the above comments all belong to the same user (no)? In any event, I would not recommend merging this article with the Tambour article.  Slap bass is much more recognized than a particular Flamenco technique; there's really not even a need for a disambig page (although cross-referencing the tambour article would be appropriate).  From the tambour article, the technique doesn't sound that close to my experience playing slap bass; moreover, we'd be merging a completed article into a stub.  And finally, Tambour is called Tambour, it isn't called slap (while slap bass is); so a disambig would not be appropriate.  So I would say cross-reference tambour in the bass article, at the most. JSoules (talk) 05:36, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Seinfeld
Seinfeld has no slap bass. It's a keyboard sample.
 * You're right. It said "slap bass sample" but I updated it to say "slap bass keyboard sample" to make it more clear.  In the future please don't remove things completely just because they could be a little clearer. If you don't like the way it's written, feel free to edit it.  If you want it removed completely, we can discuss it.  I understand it's cheesy, but I think it's relevant.  Maybe we can rewrite it to underscore how cheesy it is and we can all be satisfied. KenFehling (talk) 06:38, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Removing Mark Manley (The Thunder Group) and Justice (French band)
I suggest to delete the example of Mark Manley (The Thunder Group) as recognized bass player. I have never heard of Mark Manley neither have I ever know the Thunder Group. The same goes for Justice (French band). The article is about a dance duo! They don't even use a bass guitar! Do they? --88.74.93.172 (talk) 09:07, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

"Typical position of the right hand"
Nope.

Slapping above or right next to the fretboard is much more common, especially on the lighter strings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.133.133.221 (talk) 12:18, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Photo of Larry Graham need at top
Red hot who? Not Marcus Miller? Not Larry Graham but Red hot who? Not one photo of a Black person. Typical.

Everyday People
In the article Everyday People it is stated that this song is the first instance of slap technique (although it has no reference) can this be verified and if so, be put into the article? dh74g3y (talk) 11:49, 24 October 2020 (UTC)