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Conclusion

This post marks the conclusion of my research journal, which accompanies my Practice-as-Research project, Incorporating Slap Bass into the Composition of Heavy Metal. I feel I have successfully incorporated rhythmic strumming, left-hand slapping and triplet bursts into my playing. The key findings I came away with from the research process are as follows:

1) Rhythmic strumming and left-hand slapping work best for lines with a 16th note feel

2) Triplet bursts work for any kind of line, but best in song sections that have rests or sustained notes interspersed within.

3)Slap bass lines can be constructed by placing slapped or popped root notes of the chord outlined by the band during rhythmic accents, with ghost notes placed in between accents. The three above mentioned playing techniques can then be used to play these ghost notes. 

4)It is best to limit 16th note activity in the drums during a slap bass line, so that the bass can cut through better in the mix. Slap bass lines can also be complemented by kick drum hits that sync with rhythmic accents in the line.

5)It is best to limit activity in the rhythm guitars’ lower register during a slap bass section, to avoid frequency clash.

6)16th note ghosted kick hits help create a pulse that can propels slap bass grooves forward.

Overall, I feel like I have learned a lot from this project. The knowledge gained has helped me to construct slap bass lines in rehearsal and compositional settings. I am also taking the first steps in learning to improvise using slap bass. Now, nearing submission day, I plan to continue researching slap bass concepts in my own time after LASALLE and strengthen my fluency with the technique.

Thanks all for reading,

Aditya

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Bridge

28 March Iteration 3: Triplet burst riff with low-activity drums and guitars

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Bridge

28 March Iteration 2: Triplet burst riff with low-activity guitar and high-activity drums(I feel this works best)

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Bridge

28 March Iteration 1: Triplet burst riff with high-activity guitars and drumming

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Incorporation 28 March

Today I intend to experiment with the bridge section of my song, which functions as a breakdown.

I have a bass riff already written for this section, and intend to write guitar and drum parts around it.

Iteration 1

While formulating an idea for the drums, an idea came into my mind to experiment with double kick parts. This is what I came up with.

I spent some time experimenting with guitar riffs to go with this combination of bass and drums, arriving at a combination of power chords, this forms Iteration 1.

The issue with this combination is that, while it sounds good to my ear, it obscures the bass riff entirely, which is not what I want. So I experimented with “pulling back” on the activity in the guitar riff.

Iteration 2

The combination of this guitar riff and double bass drums work better in my mind. The triplets in the bass riff are cutting through better. I think, however, I can experiment with pulling the drums back further to bring out the bass riff more.

Iteration 3

In the process of pulling back activity from the drums, I came up with this 4 bar segment. Ghosted triplets are placed on the kick drum to supplement the triplets in the slapped line. While the bass line is cutting through a lot better now, I feel this iteration lacks the “heaviness” I intend for in a breakdown. Therefore I will opt for the second iteration, which has a mix of two functions: the bass cutting through and heaviness.

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Verse

15 March Iteration 3: Rhythmic strumming/pops off snare hits

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Verse

15 March Iteration 2: Rhythmic strumming/pops on snare hits

(I feel this works best)

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Verse

15 March Iteration 1: Slap pattern with LH slaps after accents

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Verse

15 March Recording 1: Issue with fluency with consecutive slaps

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Incorporation 15 March

Today I intend to refine the bass part for the verse section of my song.

The bassline is a 16th note rhythm with accents, influenced by bands like Korn and Primus. Currently, the problem is that I am not able to slap consecutive notes at 110bpm.

 (see 15 March recording 1)

Also, I feel the bassline can cut through in the mix more.

Iteration 1

One thing I feel I can do to take the strain off my thumb is to throw in left hand slaps after the accents.

That sounds acceptable to my ears. Now, I want to experiment with adding rhythmic strumming or popping to my bassline to add some dynamic variation.

Iteration 2

Firstly, I will try adding rhythmic strumming and pops in time with the snare hits on beat 2 and 4.

Iteration 3

Secondly, I will try adding rhythmic strumming and pops displaced from the snare hits.

I prefer the sound of the second iteration as I feel it is “tighter” rhythmically. The rhythmic strums and pops cut through more in the second iteration but I feel they can be distracting and deter listeners from the rhythm.

Key takeaway:

Pop and snare have a similiar relationship to slap and kick. Remove one to let the other cut through.

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Verse

14 March Iteration 3: Separate rhythmic accent in bass and drums

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Verse

14 March Iteration 2: bass and drums locking in partially

(I feel this works best)

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Verse

14 March Iteration 1: bass and drums locking in fully

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Incorporation 14 March

Verse Drums

Today I intend to add a drum part to the verse section. I intend to experiment with a drumline that 1)locks in completely with the bassline, 2) locks in partially, 3)plays a different rhythm entirely. The purpose of this is to find out which compositional technique works best when writing bass and drum parts involving slap bass.

The bass line for this part is a 16th note phrase with accents on the 1, 2 n-, 3 n-. To start with I am going to try adding kick hits on these accents.

1)Locking in fully 

Then I am going to add a drum part which follows the bass line entirely. This drum part places accented kick hits and open hi-hats on the accents of the bass line.

I dont really like the sound of this because the bass doesn’t seem to cut through well in the mix.

2)Locking in partially

I am going to try removing some of the kick and snare hits to let the bass part breathe.

I vastly prefer the sound of this as now I can hear the bass line cutting through in the mix.

3)Separate rhythm

I tried a 3rd iteration where I displaced the accents of the drum line to 1, 2a- and 3a-. This was to monitor the results of placing accents at different locations in drum and bass lines. I feel this iteration creates a displaced feeling where the rhythmic accents become unclear in the piece. This is not the sound I wish to achieve with this particular composition and so I’ve opted to go with the 2nd iteration for my drum line.

Key takeaways:

It is preferable that bass and drums sync key rhythmic accents in a slap bass piece

Space must be allocated in the drum line for the bass to cut through, since the kick drum occupies a similar frequency.

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Chorus

12 March Iteration 3: chorus with bass following guitar, and slap fills

(I feel this works best)

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Chorus

12 March Iteration 2: chorus with 16th note feel slap bass

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Chorus

12 March Iteration 1: chorus with 8th note feel slap bass