The root-and-octave slap pattern is one of the most versatile building blocks in slap bass — it sits underneath funk, rock, pop, and fusion lines alike. Running it well trains right-hand thumb-and-pop coordination while it builds left-hand finger independence on the E and D strings. Here's the setup.
Set up the right hand first
Line up the joint of the thumb with the tip of the thumb along the string, so the whole hand moves together as you change strings — not with the thumb angling out separately. That keeps you from hitting strings you don't want to hit.
Then angle up slightly at the wrist so you're striking with the end of the thumb, just below the nail. The strike is a wrist turn — it's almost like you throw the thumb into the string and it bounces off. On this line the thumb only plays the E string, so work your aim and tone there first. A good slap sound is two things at once: a good click, plus a good regular note as if you were picking it normally.
Pop on the side of the first finger
Because the thumb angle rotates the hand a little, the first finger ends up turned — you'll be popping on the side of the finger, not the flat of it like you would fingerstyle.
It's easy to raise a blister there if you overdo it. As soon as the finger feels tender, stop popping for a while and let the tenderness go away, then gradually toughen up the skin. If you wait for an actual blister, you've got to wait for it to heal and start over.
String-to-string, the motion is: thumb strikes down, hand comes back up, and on the way up the first finger grabs the D string and pops it — ready for the next thumb.
Left hand: four pairs across the fingerboard
The left hand plays four octave pairs. In every pair the lower note is on the E string under the first finger; the octave is on the D string under the third finger, two frets higher.
- A / A — E string fret 5 (1st), D string fret 7 (3rd)
- F# / F# — E string fret 2 (1st), D string fret 4 (3rd)
- G / G — E string fret 3 (1st), D string fret 5 (3rd)
- Ab / Ab — E string fret 4 (1st), D string fret 6 (3rd)
After A-flat, you're back at the starting A. Work each pair on its own before moving to the next.
Lift pressure, don't lift the finger
This is the detail that makes or breaks the line. When you thumb the low note and then pop the octave, lift pressure off the first finger and apply pressure with the third — but keep both fingers touching the strings. Don't pick the first finger off; just release pressure so the first note stops ringing, and press the third finger in at the same time. Staying in contact kills the buzzing and overringing that would otherwise bleed between the two notes.
Put it in time
Count "one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and" and play one pair on each downbeat:
- Beat 1 — A / A
- Beat 2 — F# / F#
- Beat 3 — G / G
- Beat 4 — Ab / Ab
Loop it. Once it feels solid, put on a metronome. That's where you find out whether the pressure-lift is really automatic — any hesitation between the thumb and the pop shows up as a rush or a drag.
Key takeaways
- Thumb alignment first: joint-to-tip along the string, wrist angled up, strike just below the nail. Good slap tone is click plus note.
- The pop lands on the side of the first finger. Stop at tender, not at blister.
- Four pairs — A, F#, G, Ab — first finger on the E string, third finger two frets up on the D.
- Lift pressure between notes; keep both fingers on the strings.
Slap is one of the fundamentals I teach. For a companion piece on the thumb position itself, see slap hand position. For feedback on your thumb, pop, and pressure-lift, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
Read the transcript
Hello, Russ Rodgers here. Today I'd like to show you an octave slap pattern that can be used over a variety of playing situations. So let's get your bass out and get started. If you need help, refer to your free video on tuning your bass.
The first thing you want to make sure you do is have the form of the right hand organized and set up on the bass. The way to start would be to line up the joint of the thumb with the tip of the thumb along with the string. As you move up and down the strings with the thumb, the hand will move this way as opposed to the thumb angling this way. This will prevent you from accidentally hitting strings that you don't want to hit.
Once you get the angle set, you angle up at the wrist a little bit so that you're hitting on the end of the thumb just below the nail. When you strike the string, it's a wrist turn — it's almost like you throw the thumb into the string and it bounces off. In this line, we will just be thumbing the E string, so the first thing to do would be to work on striking the E string, getting your aim, and working on the tone. You should have two things in your slap sound: first, a good click, and then a good regular note as if you were picking it normally — adding those two elements of the sound together.
The second part of this will be popping the string. The thumb angle will determine where you're popping this string on your first finger. Normally you'd probably pick the string more like this, but when you're thumbing and keeping the angle of the thumb the way it needs to be, it's going to turn the finger around a little bit this way so that you'll be popping on the side of the finger as opposed to the flat of it like you'd normally do when you pick the bass string. I caution you to be very careful on this part because it's very easy to raise a blister if you do this too much. My recommendation would be, as soon as you feel your finger start to get a little bit tender, stop popping for a while until that tenderness goes away, and gradually toughen up the finger. Because if you wait till you raise a blister, then you've got to wait for the blister to heal and start the process all over again.
So the thumb and the pop — I strike down, and then as the hand comes back up getting ready for the next thumb, you grab it with the first finger. Just on one note on each of the E string and the D string, work on popping the octave. The notes you will use in the left hand will be first finger fifth fret on the E string, which is your A, and third finger seventh fret on the D string, which will be your octave A. So your low A, first finger fifth fret on the E string, which you'll hit with your thumb, and then when you pop you'll pop the seventh fret on the D string with your first finger.
When you do the thumb-pop, you want to make sure you lift pressure off one note before starting the other note. So when I thumb the A on the E string and then I go to pop the A on the D string, I'll lift pressure on the first finger and then apply pressure on the third finger. It's best that you don't actually leave the string and pick your finger off the string — just lift pressure, staying in contact with the strings as you do this.
The second group of notes will be the F# on the second fret of the E string with the first finger, and then the octave played with the third finger on the fourth fret of the D string. The next group of notes will be the G, first finger third fret on the E string and third finger fifth fret on the D string. The last group of notes will be the A-flat played first finger fourth fret on the E string, third finger sixth fret on the D string. And then you're back at your starting point on the A.
To get comfortable with the line, I recommend working each of these groups of notes for a short period of time, then moving to the next. Now we'd like to put the line in context into a slow time where we will count "one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and." You'll play each group of two notes one time with the count: one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and; one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and. Now we're going to play the line one more time in its entirety with the metronome click to work on playing it in perfect time.
Once again, I'm Russ Rodgers, and thanks for watching this video. We'll see you next time.
