Funk 101

When it comes to slappin' or thumpin' the bass, the first thing that you should do is evaluate if your technique is complementing the groove or lick that you're trying to do. If your technique isn't right, then you can actually be limiting your potential to do certain things. Ask yourself and be honest. Is your thumb bouncing off the string instead of passing through to the next string while thumbing, when it could be used to double strike the string to create two notes with the same movement instead of one? One note with a down stroke and another note with an upstroke of the thumb which is called double thumbin'. Do your fingers on your left-hand stick up above or duck under the fret board, unless they are being used to fret a note? I call these run away fingers. Do you keep your plucking finger on your right hand nice and low to the strings to minimize movement of your entire right hand to pull off those 16ths note triplets that you'd love to do at any given moment to show you got skills? And most important, can you groove? Can you sit down with just your bass, jam with yourself and make people feel it? If you answered yes to these questions, then you're on your way.

If you think that you can use some help getting there, then I've put some video examples in the "bassic training" section of my web-site at www.mocamusic.com for those who would like to check out what I'm talking about. Till then, mad love to all my bottom dwellers.