Double thumb slap bass technique lesson

[marcisable2197]

bathroom?

[miggymizer8]

Great lesson your better than those guys at expert villiage. :)

[Nuevametal]

thanks you my friends! 

[giugnhgbvinierngvb89]

great lesson, dude. U sound like beckham

[FlySpleen]

This was great, thanks :D

[72KLEW]

That's wrong form...

[Alwayshappy74]

if you mix rhcp and system of a down you get your band ;) and thats a good thing! keep on rocking

[Alwayshappy74]

if you mix rhcp and system of a down you get your band ;)

[wrona003]

Jeff Loomis bass?

[RLSell1992]

This was very helpful! Thanks! :D

[SimulacronX]

Damn I wasted 18 years not playing double, but it's slowly coming along. Every child should learn double-thumping, and I mean every little child, lol. Great lessons... thank you.

[1ShockStar]

Thanks man. That helps a lot.

[xXchelsTasticx3]

i dig the band

[MrSlapThatBass]

brilliant lesson except when you say the bass is ONLY a groove instrument you are slightly wrong ;) look at people like cliff for example ;)

[MiketotheIke]

lol at the the pause to breathe at around 0:45

[znick1993]

Thanks I like how this is an actual lesson not some guy going "hey look at how much better I am then you" thank this has helped alot in my versatility alot

[PowCerka]

It made my thumb bleed

[reet12337]

Excellent lesson. thanks

[DJsqueely]

learn the technique before you try and teach it.

[NukeGenious]

Great lesson mate!

Your band is also bad ass!

It's good to know that there are some quality guys playing music out there!

You play exactly my style.

Cheers from Greece!

ps.hey, i have a cousin in manchester in about your age.If you know anyone with a greek last name its him! :D

[MWRiff]

Great lesson, nearly ripped my thumbnail off like, but im not primarily a bassist so its reet.

Checked out your band you are quality, its so good to hear fellow north west musicians who arent just indie pop dicks in it for the pretty boy style.

ALTHOUGH, you shouid steal more thunder in your songs with skills like that :P

Do you like funk rock atall???

[discipljc]

I like they way he explains his technique. To many people are just trying to show off. This actually is helping me to learn slap. Thanks.....

[bipolardox]

Awesome lesson, was havin trouble with the concept of letting the thumb drop past the string on the down to pop it on the way back up. Thanks for the vid, helpped out a bunch!

[deathbytoasters]

Excellent lesson, thanks for the help!!

[poupa89]

thx man one of the best lessons......very helpful.......i was trying to find a proper slap lesson for a while thx!

[mrbassman25]

hey man... this is the one technique that i need drastic improvement..... thanks for this vid.... im sure it will help me :) ... i hope so anyway !! hehe

[kenchuang09]

too hard for me to do the s~l~a~p~

[MadHaze1]

How long did you to master this technique? How many houes did you out in every day? ..Very good m8 ;)

[BasserMax]

thank you!

[lostkarkeys]

great playing, love your band, all the best to you!

[benlorenc]

your band is sick!

[deppwaswho]

great video! im trying out this technique at the moment...but whenever i slap down the left side of my thumb nail gets ruined...even though i think im striking down with a fleshy part of my thumb...do you have any advice to help me?

[TheGIN1986]

damn that looks tiring

gotta have thumb like steel to play that

[Ghefly]

great lesson, not too keen on your bass, but each to their own. your band sound great too, good luck with them!

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks man; you're right and tastes change too... I swapped this bass for an awesome musicman sistingray! :D

[kevin11111112]

this guy's band is pretty sick. thanks for the lesson by the way

[f8tlbyte]

Thanks for the lesson.

[movehomiemove]

this guitars sound is looks like a tin...

[TheHoodieTeam]

Thank you alot man! You helped me out alot your a very good teacher :)

[Sinpup79]

big credit.... thanks for breaking it down. Explained very well!

[lucas1wj]

hey i just want you to know this guide is great, i looked through like 10 videos and not once did they mention to pull with your thumb nail which is crazy important because you strike down with the joint

[manipulators2007]

Need amp??

[TheGIN1986]

@manipulators2007 lmao

[willbassist15]

sorry i didnt get that, the dooble thoome?

[TheOzzyCometh]

@willbassist15 lolz lolz omg not everyone talks like we do out of america omg too funny

[LetterJuice]

hi

nice video but you dont explain, where to strike the string (middle of thumb, like a normal bouncing-off slap technique ?)

[tonymcg4]

very helpful lesson! been trying for many months to get this technique - thats for fully explaining it :)

[9804216]

Great video! A lot of videos out there simply have people showing off their skills but you actually give clear and simple instructions!

Thanks a lot, will practice like mad now!

[ShallowFry]

great lesson! the best i've seen yet in terms of teaching technique. by the sounds of things you live pretty near to me, are you a nottingham lad by any chance?

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks man

nah I'm in Manc I'm afraid

[mudoctave223]

Thanks for posting a video in which you talk about this technique its nice to hear someone actually talking about it rather than just playing it

[crazyedd123]

cool video, i read about double thumbing techniques and how to do it but it was never quite clear

[Sanson101]

Great viseo an d playing...what strings to do you use that fit best your double thumb technique???

Thanks and keep inspiring!

[AlanSanderson1]

for slap, elixir nanoweb coated!

For everything else, ernie ball slinky...

Thanks for the comment dude

[Sanson101]

I assume you use the nano because of their extended life...is that true that good...like 3-4months of daily playing?? I have read mixed reviews....nothing to thank about...your are da´ man slapping!

[AlanSanderson1]

yeah man, they are that good... if you like the slippery feel of them they are well worth the money!

[Pamaliciousband]

Great job. I like the way you teach. You keep it slow and simple... and break things down. Keep it up!

[mrbassman25]

hi man.. just chilling... been messing around with double thumb technique myself.. though ive not long been at the stage i wanted with my standard slap... but im geting there... after watching this i think its a great exercise to improve .... one i will try out in the morning.. nicely done dude... guessing from ur accent u must be northern england.... yorkshire or there abouts :)

[FreshBeefDips]

When i try it, i dnt get the wicked slap sound i get when i play slap bass normally :S

Any suggestions?

[AlanSanderson1]

you gotta make sure the string is hitting the fret, so make sure your thumb is striking and pulling off perpendicular to the body of the bass, and not parallel to it in an up and down strumming motion... hope thats easy enough to understand without drawing you a little diagram!!!

[FreshBeefDips]

aight thanks for the help man.

Ima be puttin on some bass vids up asap when i get a new bass :)

[Westerdd]

Thanks man, what a great teacher.

[DESMYTTER]

Bonjour ! This tecnic is , for me , very difficult ! Oh ! It's very well explained ! Alain

[brittsmalltheman]

im a bass player and this vid inspires me to smash my bass and jump off a bridge. fuck u faggot

[AlanSanderson1]

Clearly you are a very constructive bloke, and highly mature. I am not worthy of your presence here on my channel, although if you are inspired to jump off a bridge I will consider myself to have performed a great service to the continual development of our species' gene pool.

Thanks for popping by and leaving your thoughts, they were well worth reading.

[Phantom71]

Excellent response to a silly post! Thanks for the instruction. This is a technique I have been desperately trying to master.

[mattmethod]

btw, I'm a bass player as well, and i really want to improve my slap pop technique but I don't listen to much funk. What are some good bands/lessons/influences in order to learn some new stuff?

[hippieworld]

Red Hot Chili Peppers is a funk/rock band.

Flea is a slap bass player and Victor Wooten is a double slap.

[mattmethod]

great lesson! keep em coming

[malcthebasser]

Cheers mate I've been trying to get this down for ages but my thumb hurt too much!! Didnt realise you use the nail. Thanks!

[canvoodoo]

Nice 1 mate i am finding this hard so thanks for the help

[AlanSanderson1]

Thanks for the comment mate, I really appreciate it, especially from such a quality player as yourself!

[canvoodoo]

My pleasure

[LookinGoodPainting]

Great job of going slow for people just learning!

[OMIfoot]

Hey, thanks for this vid! this It's the first vid on this subject I've found (out of about 10 I've recently checked out) that is clear and concise with instructions. Thanks again and please keep making vids like this! It's helping me tremendously.

[AlanSanderson1]

cool man, thanks!

Glad it helped you out, that's what its here for

o be honest it was just a sample lesson vid, so I'm not sure if there will be any more coming.

Have fun though, happy jamming!

[Lyberith]

damn medicure would go waste if u do tat...

maybe its worth it! ^^

nice vid!

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks :)

[gojira121689]

This is very helpful. I never thought you can use the nail

[RenatoSuperstar]

great

[bassman312]

did you say double thumb or dwarf thumb ? haha, sorry your accent is inspirational

[manu2868]

Bad sound, but very helpful lesson, thanks :)

[pimper92]

hey great vid, learned a lot

[samthebassman412]

haha what a great bass face, lovin' it m8 lol

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers man, I just can't help it!

[samthebassman412]

haha its cool man, keep up the good work ; )

[BoxChin]

Thank you for going to the trouble of making up the video so that others may benefit from it. I have played bass for over 35 years (yes, I suppose I am old !). I'm an accomplished player, I can do some good slap, I've made a good living at it BUT I am a complete beginner at this double thumb technique. I've only really started with it. I've watched Wootens videos, but you've shone a new light on it for me. Well done. I must try using the nail of the thumb too !. Angus, Edinburgh.

[AlanSanderson1]

Thank you very much for your comment Angus!

It's always great when you can bounce ideas off each other and help each other to see things from a different perspective, so I'm really glad that my video helped you!

For me, this is what music is all about.

Thanks again

Alan

[4days2heresy]

Holy shit you look and sound like 'Devvo' (youtube him)

[AlanSanderson1]

I know who Devvo is.

If you genuinely think that then you need your eyes and ears tested, urgently.

[rojas2284]

Dude I'm using headphones threw my laptop and it really sound bad, probably your technique is good but the audio sucks, complete flat there's no shine or boost in this video it looks like you play this rhythm with the bass unplugged.

[AlanSanderson1]

yeah man cheers for that, the guy below you said exactly the same thing, it's been noted.

[scumgod13]

Yea, yea, yea, you're great No question there and thanks for putting this up. However how do you have your amp set, it's awful to listen to when you're playing. Just a note, other than that a great informative vid.

[AlanSanderson1]

Thanks for your encouragement and complements dude.

I can't remember either what my amp settings or my bass EQ settings were like, or if my strings were new or not. I'd just got the amp and hadn't really put much thought into how it sounds... the fact I'm recording with my phone microphone may not help either, but anyways point taken and I'll be sure to get better quality audio for future posts.

Just out of interest, what speakers are you listening on?

Cheers

[scumgod13]

Hey, I'm running through some great UBLs that were used for monitor speakers at my friends recording studio.But that's not the point, they're are people on here that have less technique and precision than you who are coming through clearer. if you're gonna spend all the time to get as good as you have, you want people to be able to here exactly what you're doing. I was never putting your playing down at all just your amp sounded sort of muddled. You're a great bassist.

[AlanSanderson1]

don't worry mate i didn't take your original comment the wrong way. I'll look into some better ways of recording audio when I'm updating my page.

Cheers again

[Solosingle]

Thankyou, never knew about this technique, good lesson, hope to see more of you.

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks a lot, it's appreciated!

I hope you'll see more of me too.

[segundoplano2]

man...thanks for this lesson... i will watch it every day, so when i learn the duble thumb, i'll upload a video in youtube too... ^^ thanks man, really thanks! \o

[AlanSanderson1]

Thanks man, I'm glad that it is helping you out

thanks again for your feedback

[weldon29]

Great lesson. Helped me a lot.

[AlanSanderson1]

cool man, happy to have helped

[FakingAmnesia]

Thanks for this! It's really helpful.

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers dude, no worries

[pyey]

Hey man i like it, ive been rooting round the internet for this technique and i almost have now but if i start changing from string to string then it starts to sound more like a strum, do you know what would help?

Cheers

[AlanSanderson1]

just practice on each string individually slowly and then practice changing strings slowly so you get it clean, then build up speed. it shouldnt really sound like a strum. Do scales and exercises in this technique too.

[AlanSanderson1]

PS cheers for the sub dude

[AlanSanderson1]

thats cool man! if you wanna learn wooten's technique you should use this as a starting point and then add single and double pops after the double thumb, then play around with variations

I'm not nervous in the film, but I'm aware that I'm being filmed and I'm blagging it a little bit; although i had notes!

[eric11127]

how long should this take me to really get used to? ive noticed progress in the past few days but i'm not sure if im doing it right because i still cannot do it fast

[AlanSanderson1]

Well it took me from December until when I filmed and uploaded my double thumb videos here to get it this good, and it took me until now to get it really seamlessly smooth. It doesnt happen overnight man, so just keep practicing it til it comes!

[eric11127]

alright thanks for the advice

[AlanSanderson1]

no worries man hope it helps!

[GuitarAndDiablo]

no thats differant from guitar (e,a,d,g,b,e)

where as your top string is B thats how i got cofused

[AlanSanderson1]

There you go then, problem solved. It's standard 5 string tuning to have the extra B below the EADG though.

[GuitarAndDiablo]

is your bass tuned weird coz the notes you said look wrong

i want to learn to play bass i play guitar and the nots where differant from yours

[AlanSanderson1]

no, my guitar is in standard 5 string tuning BEADG and the notes in the video info should be correct.

[glupazan]

Good

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers man

[Misdemonar]

I got blisters on me fingers!

[AlanSanderson1]

ha ha ha ha! Good stuff!

dont let that stop you!

[andreasswarfeld]

nice one mate, good accent . good playing .

[AlanSanderson1]

ha ha ha ha cheers man, you make me laugh!

[jimmypo]

whats with the sink??

[AlanSanderson1]

do you need to wash? Yeah, me too.

[jimmypo]

mate, i fuckin stink!

[AlanSanderson1]

ah. ok. Well, I guess that explains your previous comment then, and in response to that the sink is there because I like to wash in it!

[lolz9464]

im having a bit of trouble with the upstroke sound, i cant seem to get a slap sound,it sounds like im just doing a regular finger luc, any advice for me?

[lolz9464]

PS. good to see anther northener on here! :D

[AlanSanderson1]

Up the North!

erm... it would be easier if i could actually see what you were doing. this is essentially a picking technique so try starting with both sounds just being plucks, get them nice and even and then start playing harder.

Once you are aiming to slap then make sure you are hooking the thumb under the string on the way out, kinda like a finger pop.

hope that helps!

[hailmetal16]

Nice work, mate.

I still need to work on my Double thump, I'm a claypool Player and he doesn't use doublethumps. But I found your video really well made, and I'm sure people will find it really useful.

\m/ \m/

P.s. What part of England are you from? I recognize your accent.

[AlanSanderson1]

Thanks man

You shouldnt class yourself as a certain type of player, you should learn from others and try to develop your own style.

I'm glad you think my video is well made, as it literally took ten minutes!

I'm from the North of England, I live in Manchester but I'm from the lakes.

[ZachB6666]

Thanks man, this was really great.

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers dude, happy to have helped!

[jeppup]

One word: Thank you! :)

[AlanSanderson1]

no worries man, glad you found it useful!

[Laihohatecrew13]

LOL you do mean two right? :D

[FeeshNL]

Really good lesson chief. Nice and clear explanation.

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks man, glad you found it useful!

[brownbear1989]

by the way what tone settings do you use

i got a new amp and im strugling to get a good sound

i basically have a decent one but it lacks edge

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers dude

It depends on everything really, like your bass, the style you play, the strings and how worn out they are.

Generally with EQ less is more, be really gentle with your curve.

It depends how many band EQ you have as well.

If you have a more specific question or sound that you are trying to get personal message me and I'll give what advice I can!

[brownbear1989]

good lesson mate i liked how u stopped to point out the things that most people wouldnt know about like the mute

[explosiongalactica]

so I have to develope a callus on my thumb so that I could do this technique?

[AlanSanderson1]

I would say its more a case of;

If you use this technique regularly you WILL develop a callous on your thumb

It may be a little sore to begin with! ;)

[vibhaspatil002]

dude what tips would u give for developing more accuracy while slapping.....can u post some vids or links on how u go about creating a groove to a random drum track

[AlanSanderson1]

ok dude you got it. One video coming up.

[explosiongalactica]

this is a very good lesson thanks man, I've been trying to learn how to do this double thumb technique, but every time I do it my thumb starts to hurt is this good or bad?

[AlanSanderson1]

It depends where your thumb is hurting and what sort of pain.

I repeatedly ripped the cuticle away from the skin and thumbnail on the left hand side of my right thumb and developped a blister (now a callous) just above the thumbnail. That was mostly caused by a lack of accuracy, but if its just the skin thats hurting keep at it and try to keep practicing every day!

[orgasmics]

good lesson! thanks!

but the sound is awful imo :S

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks man, glad it helped!

Unfortunately I am still using my phone to record these vids! Sorry about that.

[redhatterx]

Very good lesson. I like how you pointed out that the hand needs to be free and not stiff.

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers man, hope you found it useful!

[sangsaratrip]

good lesson

[AlanSanderson1]

thanks man

[pandabear1004]

man i love your british accent!! ^^

btw thx for the lesson ;)

[AlanSanderson1]

ha ha awesome! where are you from?

No worries mate, glad it helped you!

[MikeMarino]

This was a great lesson. Clear and concise.

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers mate, thanks for watching!

[xythan357]

thats not sloppy! lol guess you had to complain about something.

[darksideofthemoon7]

Thank you so much!!!!

[domogunner]

Kinda sloppy sound. But a great lesson!

[AlanSanderson1]

cheers dude

its hard to mask the sounds of the unplugged bass when sitting so close to the camera without turning my amp up mega loud... i have neighbours!

[OliRancidTen]

lol yeah i like to annoy my neibours....

[davdunc]

Great Explanation. Very much appreciated.

[AlanSanderson1]

no worries dude, cheers for your feedback!

[C33Four]

I've heard various answers. When pulling back up with the thumb after the down stroke, your "popping" the string, correct? I've seen people just use the thumb-nail "pick" sound.

Also, what bass are you playing. Looks damn fancy.

[dannybb92]

u have no idea how helpfull that was :D

[AlanSanderson1]

No worries dude.

got any requests for other lessons?

[dannybb92]

not at the mo dude i was just stuck on the double thumbing bit lol btw ur a hell of a player =] ill keep in touch and if i find any thing i need advice on in the future ill make a request dude =D

[AlanSanderson1]

nice one, tops.

Keep on practicing hard and make sure you use a metronome!