Slapping and popping

Slapping and popping are ways to produce percussive sounds on a double bass or bass guitar by bouncing strings against the fretboard.

On bass guitar, slap and pop involves striking the strings with the bony part of the thumb or popping notes by pulling a string until it snaps against the fingerboard. It is often used in disco, funk, and other genres.

On the double bass, slapping refers to pulling strings until they snap against the fingerboard in rockabilly and psychobilly.

On double bass it refers to the technique that is a more vigorous version of pizzicato, where the string is plucked so hard that when released it bounces off the finger board, making a distinctive sound. A percussive sound can also made by smacking the strings with some or all of the fingers on the right hand in between the notes of a bassline, usually in time with the snare drum.

The earliest players of this technique in American music include Steve Brown,Bill Johnson, Pops Foster,Wellman Braud, and Chester Zardis.

Slapping the bass is a technique used by many bands since at least the 1920s; it came into popular use in the 1940s. Slap bass provides a strong downbeat when the string is plucked and a strong back beat when it slaps back onto the fingerboard of the bass. It creates a very percussive sound and adds a lot of drive that is particularly good for dance music.

Yet another explanation is that snapping the strings against the wood of the instrument supplies a crisp, intense sound which can supply the foundation of a dance band. Slap bass was used by Western Swing and Hillbilly Boogie musicians. It became an important component of an early form of rock and roll that combined blues and what was then called hillbilly music—a musical style now referred to as rockabilly. Bill Black, who played with Elvis Presley and Scotty Moore was a well-known slap bass player The technique inspired the George and Ira Gershwin song "Slap That Bass".

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