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Stu Hamm U: Slap Bass

Learn how to play slap bass guitar from the master, Stu Hamm

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Stu Hamm U: Slap Bass
Stu Hamm

Stu Hamm

Educator

funk rock, funk

Genres

About this course

Whatever style you play, a little slap and pop goes a long way to color up your bass lines and solos. In this Slap Bass course, Stu unravels the ins and outs of this technique focusing on essential thumb skills and the underlying rhythmic and percussive qualities that are so important when employing tap moves.

"In this Slap Bass course, I will be teaching you the techniques and stylistic approaches that you'll need to have a solid grip on to build and ultimately master your slap and pop musical vocabulary. There are as many ways to "slap that bass" as there are bass players, but in this module, I have assembled all of the techniques that I have found to be the most useful and effective. Have fun with this!"

What you'll learn

  • Apply pentatonic hammer-ons in a funk context
  • Use double-time hammer-ons to create faster rhythmic feel at slower tempos
  • Move between different positions on the neck while maintaining groove
  • Understand how to adapt and personalize pentatonic licks
  • Develop funk rhythm and phrasing skills
Release date: 03/06/2012 • 3h 15m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateadvancedbasstechniquebass groovesbass lines
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Sample lessons
Thumb Slap Exercises
Thumb Slap Exercises
The Thumb
Left-Hand Muting
Left-Hand Muting
The Thumb
Using Polyrhythms
Using Polyrhythms
The Thumb
Fingering Techniques
Fingering Techniques
Octaves

What's included

63 lessons • 53 charts • 17 Jam Tracks

Stu Hamm U: Slap Bass
Welcome to Stu U. Class is in session!

It is my pleasure to present to you the next semester of "Stu U", and this semester I will be teaching you the techniques and styles that you will need to have a functioning, usable slap and pop musical vocabulary with which to converse with your fellow band mates!

There are as many ways to "Slap That Bass" as there are bass players, but here in this one course I have assembled all of the methods that I use to teach this useful and fun technique for the modern electric bassist.
Stretching Techniques
Stretching and loosening up should become a regular part of your warm-up routine, and as you do it more and more, your body and mind will learn to do this automatically, without even thinking about it!

Staying loose and stretching and getting an understanding of the ergonomic and physical aspects of playing will give you a longer, pain free playing career!
The Thumb
The first thing that you need to learn is to get a good, clean sound with your thumb.

In this segment I'll show you the correct area on the body of your bass the use, and at which angle you should strike the string with your thumb.

Take the time to really get a handle on the basics and learn how to produce a good tone, because this is MUSIC and at some point all that matters is how good it sounds!
Thumb Slap Exercises
Now that you can get a nice clear tone on the bass with your thumb, let's do a series of exercises to get you comfortable on all four strings.

Stopping the other strings from ringing will require some practice, so now is a good time to start figuring out how to mute the strings that you are not playing with your left hand.
Eighth Notes
Time to get you up to speed so to speak, with this exercise designed to get you comforatble playing eighth notes.

It is very important to keep your wrist loose as you start playing faster passages, because if you are tense and try to force the notes to come out you risk injury and it won't sound as good!
Playing Triplets
As you progress to playing triplets, it becomes even more important to keep your wrist and your whole arm loose.

The bouncing technique that you should be familiar with from the previous exercise will serve you well as you move up to triplet patterns. There are a lot of cool patterns and grooves that you can come up with triplets, so a familiarity with them will come in handy!
Left-Hand Muting
Early in the text I brought up that you are going to have to devise a way to keep the strings that you are not playing from ringing.

This exercise is going to give you a few tips on how you might achieve that goal. There are different techniques that you need to learn to use when you are playing open strings (keeping the other strings form ringing with your left hand) and when you are fretting notes.

Good luck!

+ 56 more lessons

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Reviews

6 results

Michael R.

03/21/25

Excellent course to learn proper technique

I have played for a long time and could slap with reasonable proficiency. However, I was self-taught and used poor technique which limited my ability to slap well. The first few lessons where Stu showed how to properly strike the bass to get a good slap sound, was worth the price of the course for me. Another valuable thing I learned was that I was always trying to do too much and was "popping" entirely too much. This course taught me that it is more about maintaining a solid groove and that there is much more slapping than popping. Overall, this class has been a really good tool for me to improve my technique and skill. I bought his slap grooves class next and it helped to show me some classic grooves as well as gave me ideas for creating my own.

aikstudiobass40

Verified buyer

11/12/24

The auto scroll feature is hit or miss

PaulJT

Verified buyer

10/05/20

Stu Hamm keep continuity w/ great bass courses, and bass slap is no exception.

As always a great video and goes very much in-depth in the slap word and starts out with the very basics w/ plenty of exercises.

Semjon

05/13/20

Best Slap Bass Teacher on Planet Earth!

After trying to learn Slap Bass with incomplete Youtube Videos I am so happy to found this gem. The Stretching exercise right at the beginning are very good. The way Stu is talking alone makes me relaxed and my tone is getting better at the first strike. Highly recommended for everyone! Great Teacher!

gregdeB

11/24/19

Stu Hamm U: Slap Bass

This is just a straight up perfect course on learning Slap Bass! A lot of times A teacher might be very talented but not so great at imparting his knowledge....this is NOT the case with Stu Hamm! He is a great teacher and shows you just where and how to Slap or Pop or Double thumb or Hammer on the Bass to get the right sound, Then takes you through the material slowly enough that you can develop your technique and your timing. Simple enough! He also has a great teaching demeanor and lets you know that all the material is accessible to anyone. Work the program on Stu Hamm U: Slap Bass and you will be slapping with the best in no time!

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