Slap Bass Lines [Paperback]

Joe Santerre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2001

Learn the art of creating a solid slap bass groove. Whether you're an aspiring or seasoned bassist, this workshop will teach you many of the slap bass lines and styles found in your favorite rock, funk and jazz tunes, and inspire you to experiment with your own creations. Includes helpful exercises, strategies for locking in with the drummer, tips for reading chord symbols, standard notation & tab, a list of suggested recordings to check out, and an accompanying CD with play-along tracks.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great method for teaching slap playing. I'll use it with all of my students." -- Dave LaRue, Bassist (Steve Morse Band), Columnist, Bass Player Magazine

"From simple one-chord grooves to the odd time workout, the exercises in the book are interesting and musical." -- Jerry Watts, Jr., Bassist (Andy Summers, Simon Phillips, Flora Purim, Dave Stewart)

"This book/CD combo will get you off and slappin' in no time." -- Jim Hyatt, Editor & Publisher, Bass Frontiers Magazine

About the Author

Joe Santerre has performed, taught, and lectured internationally as an expert in slap bass techniques. Among his former students are Bryan Beller (Dweezil Zappa, Mike Keneally), Chris Chaney (Alanis Morissette, Robben Ford), and John DeServio (Vinnie Moore). Joe has performed with such luminaries as Tom Coster (Vital Information, Santana), John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Vinnie Moore, Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs), Blues Saraceno, Andy Timmons, and many others. He currently plays bass for the Jon Finn Group, is the author of Rock Bass Lines, writes for Bass Frontiers magazine, and teaches at Berklee College of Music. His recent solo album, The Scenic Route, features his own compositions and arrangements.

Product Details

• Paperback: 58 pages
• Publisher: Berklee Press Publications (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0634021443
• ISBN-13: 978-0634021442
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not great, May 27, 2002

By 

Oliver Sampson (Immenstaad am Bodensee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slap Bass Lines (Paperback)

The book doesn't really state who the target audience is, but based on the introduction and the material, it seems targeted to the beginning to intermediate player, who has little to no idea of slapping technique, and is looking for a place to start. Unfortunately, the book doesn't talk about how to actually slap and pop with regard to hand position and rotation of the wrist, nor is this knowledge listed as part of the prerequisites in the introduction. Armed with a little previous knowledge or an instructor, the book is useful in providing slap exercises, but don't expect your trombonist to walk away unaided as a Victor Wooten after five minutes.

The book progress over the course of 8 lessons starting with the simplest One-Chord Slap Grooves and Two-Chord SlapG rooves and ending with the more difficult Shuffle or 12/8 Slap Grooves and Odd-Time Slap Grooves with a few other approaches thrown in between. Each lesson has approximately 10 examples and CD tracks devoted to it, with each example being a two or four bar phrase out-lining an idea for demonstration within the context of the chapter. Each chapter ends with a "Song" that incorporates some of the ideas from the chapter's examples. Most of the examples do a good job of covering the main topic, while introducing some more advanced techniques like 16th note pop/slap combinations, double thumbing, which Santerre calls an "Up Stroke," (hopefully as a reference to the P-Funk song) denoted by a "U" along the way.

The quality of the CD is medium, consisting of a bass (of course) and synthesizers mixed at a relatively low volume. Evidentally, the mastering step isn't deemed necesary for an instructional book. The music plays twice for each of the example riffs, followed by two times without the bass to let the reader hear himself in his own nakedness. The CD is helpful in providing a musical context for the riffs, and adds dimension to a what would have been just another octave slap groove, despite the 7sus4 chord notation. The over all musicality of each of the examples is good, but the bass lines aren't quite melodic. I guess Santerre wanted to emphasize the groove aspect of slapping technique more than the "how to write a good slap line" aspect.

Greatly helping the book and saving it from "just another slap book" are the supplemental chapters on basic theory, which are really great for the beginner. Covered are key signatures, basic scale types, basic sight reading, and other topics which greatly add to the usefulness of the book. These chapters could really open the door for getting a newbie introduced to the theory before he's too far down a Tab only road.

There are a few notational errors in the book, but hopefully none that will throw the reader too far. Tab is included, which is nice for the beginner, and useful with respect to fingerings for some of the techniques, but I think the summary songs could have been notated without tab, to help push the student towards sight-readng. The stated examples in the book for further listening are too vague to be useful. For example, really which one of the gazillion John Scoffiield albums should I listen to, in order to get a wider knowledge? References to specific albums and tracks would have been much better. BPM notation for each of the examples would also be useful as the student approaches each exercise with a metronome, and tries to work it up to speed to play with the CD. Curiously, Santerre uses "L" to denote a "lift-off" for a technique which is more commonly referred to as a "pull-off." I presume this is because the letter "P" is already used in the notation for referring to a "pop." A short discussion of that difference in notation would have been helpful; I'd hate to see a young bassist trying to tell the guitarist in his band that what he was doing was really "lifting off." I also found the notation and transcriptions not to be always accurate. In order to get a little more groove on the playing on the CD, Santerre plays the notes more staccato than notated. This difference betwen notation and playing could be very confusing for the beginner, trying to associate the written music with the sounds of music. Also missing is a discussion of the difference between "Slap Bass" and "Funk Bass." We wouldn't want to confuse the two.

Overall, Slap Bass Lines is a good but not great introduction to slapping, but would be a good starting point for a bassist who has some fundamental slapping knowlege. However, I can't recommend this book for the complete beginner despite the theory sections, unless he has an instructor to help guide him through some of the missing points.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DON'T BUY THIS BOOK, September 11, 2003

By 

J. Vavoumis (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slap Bass Lines (Paperback)

This book is really the typical example of newbie picking. It promises everything and gives almost nothing. I regret buying it 100% and the only reason I did is because a friend bought it for me.
The material is too little to work with, there are errors in notation and the texts are too small and with no real educative content. The whole book gives the impression that it is made quickly and maybe it's not more than an afternoon's work.
But what annoyed me the most is that it is obvious that this book is trying to fool all the newcomers in slap and bass generally. The audio quality is terrible and worst there is the statement that this cd is all playing and no talking. But instead of following the standard of split stereo recording everything is played twice (with and without bass). So who is trying to fill a cd because he does not want to get tired? I leave it to you to guess...
Also, does Santerre think that with 8 examples(2 minutes of playing) someone will learn to play in 9/8 5/4 13/8 11/8 and 7/4 time signatures. Or by double thumping three times he will learn to play like Wooten? AND WORST OF ALL THERE IS NO REAL TECHNICAL EXPLANATION OF SLAPPING AND PROPER HAND POSITION AND WHERE THERE IS IT IS REALLY PATHETIC!!!
Also the artist references are too vague ant the examples are often meaningless in a musical approach.
The only thing worth in there is the theory review. And again there are books half the price of this that have a lot more theory and with a much better method.
I've already spent more energy in this review than Santerre did on his book, so my final comment; DON'T BUY THIS BOOK IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME.

1.0 out of 5 stars Buy Hal Leonard Funk bass playalong instead, January 18, 2012

By 

Mr. P - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slap Bass Lines (Paperback)

I bought this book to supplement my other funk/slap bass play-along books. Waste of money. Yes, there are a few decent licks and ideas, but the play-along c.d. is embarrassingly awful. If you ever played Playstation video games 10 years ago, then you will agree the c.d. is reminiscent of the Spyro the Dragon soundtracks. Cheesy drums and keyboard. With technology today, at least get some real drum loops in there and change the tone of the casio keyboard. Also, there are no real songs that anyone would recognize when you get through each section. More fusion based chord progressions that end up sounding the same very quickly. Buy Hal Leonard, which progresses very nicely and you will end up playing songs from Earth Wind and Fire, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Commodores :Brick House! I knew I should have listened to the reviews. Hopefully I can save someone some money with my review!