Originally published June 7, 2013, lightly edited for clarity.
As with all the techniques I use in my bass playing, I work to organize my right hand slap form to operate with as little excess motion as possible. To do this as I change from a standard thumb position to a double thumb position, I basically let the double thumb position be the constant that everything else works around. This is because the double thumb technique needs the right hand thumb to be at certain angle to the string to get an effective upstroke. It’s a little more difficult for developing the standard thumb technique, but the advantages of both working together have made it worth it for me. I lay out how the regular thumb, pops, and hand position all organize around that angle in slap bass technique fundamentals. The following video shows how these positions work together. Slap is one of the styles I teach. For coaching on your slap technique, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
