Percussive Fingerstyle on Acoustic Bass

Muted string hits are the most widely used percussive technique. There
are 2 main concepts: either we play strings strokes in between the
notes, or we hit them together with a note.

This is a bass part based on 5th intervals. We're adding a string stroke
after each note. Stroke the muted strings to make a percussion sound.
In the notation, you'll see an "x" letter above the string which has to
be stroked.

Now we're going to play the note and muted stroke at the same time.

The bass part is played only on the 3rd and 5th frets. We need to add string hits on every second 8th note. We can start by taking one note, and play one clean note and every second note together with a stroke. It's important to keep the balance between note and stroke and avoid delays, they should sound together at the same time.

Now we'll mix both stroke approaches together in one riff.

At first, try to play the part without strokes. Then, we're adding hits
in between the notes. There are only 2 of them. After that, try to add 2
more hits together with notes. Don't rush, avoid delays, and keep right
balance.

By hitting the body of an acoustic bass, we can imitate a drum kit. We
only need a kick, snare, and hi hat. These three elements can provide
most of the grooves of a drum kit, or at least the basics of any rhythm.

As extra hits, we sometimes use toms. There are a lot of different ways to
achieve these sounds, and we don't have any strict rules. Also, each
bass guitar is a bit different, so try to find your own places of
hitting the body and imitating percussion sounds. Don't be afraid to
experiment!

Kick – use the heel of your hand and hit with moderate force on the body
of guitar. There are 2 main areas, first one just above the strings,
and second below the strings. By hitting, you're imitating the sound of
the kick drum. Try to get the lowest sound possible.

Snare – there are a lot of options and places where you can play it. Usually you
hit the body with your middle or index finger. The first option is just
by hitting the strings, second is by hitting below the strings, and the
third combines these two techniques - string hit and under the string
hits. The fourth option is done by hitting under the body of your bass.

Hi hat - the first option is to use your thumb and slap it on the muted G
string. Second option is to strum with your middle finger playing
upstrokes and down strokes on muted strings. Third option is to use your
left hand (it's the same left hand.

Tom Tom – any extra hits we do with fingers, right hand thumb, or left hand hits.

We use separate lines for percussion notation, taken from drum notation.

On the bottom line is the kick, just above the middle snare. Hi hats
are above the top line marked with an "x", and toms or any other extra
hits are displayed below the top line.

We'll start with a simple drum beat. Only kick and under the body snare.

We're using the lower kick here. Keep your hand relaxed, don't strain
it. You should have a feeling of a free falling hand. Don't add
pressure, or put any force, let your arm fall. We're using the under the
body snare. You can hit it with the middle finger, index, or both
fingers.

Now we're starting slowly to play the rhythm. kick –
snare, and in the end we have 2 kicks and snares. Avoid any unwanted
movement, the less you move, the faster and easier you'll be able to
play. It's important to practice all rhythms with a metronome! Start
with a slow tempo, and when you feel comfortable raise the tempo.

Now we'll play the same beat, but with one more element – hi hats. We'll

play up & down strokes in between the kick and snare. Also, we'll
use different kick and snare this time.

In this example, we're using all three main elements of a drum kit. We
start with a kick, this time using the upper kick. The movement of our
arm is a bit different. Imagine that you're accelerating on a motorbike!
We don't have large movement amplitude, that's why we have to put a bit
force into it.

After the kick, we perform the down stroke hi
hat, strumming all the strings with a nails of your fingers. Avoid
unwanted movements. After the hi hat, we're playing snare. Middle
finger, or index, if you want.
After the hi hat, our fingers are raised up, and all we have to now is
put them down to get the snare sound.

On our way back, we're
playing one more hi hat, this time it's an up stroke. After the snare,
don't raise your fingers, your fingers are already in place, just slide
them up.

Here's one more exercise to show you how to use tom-toms and how they sound. Also, we'll use another snare.

Here we're using a rimshot snare! With a tip of your middle or index
finger, hit the body of the guitar, right below the strings, and with
your lower finger phalanges, you're touching muted strings. Practice
this snare hit until you will get it right. It might take some time.

Tom Tom – in this example, we're using our thumb, a standard slap movement.
Also, we tap with our middle finger. Starting with the upper kick, then
middle finger tap, then thumb tom, kick again and then rimshot snare!

Slap bass is a very popular style of playing bass, and there are a lot
of great schools and lessons available where you can learn and master
the technique. In short, thumb hits are called "slaps", index or middle
finger plucks are called "pops". There are 2 main techniques - upper or
lower slap, and it's usually dependent on how low your bass is
positioned. I'll show you only how to use slap & pop in relation to
percussive style bass. I highly suggest that you learn this technique
additionally.

A very common approach to playing is to perform kick and slap at the
same time. When you're doing upper kick, try to slap a note with your
thumb. It's similar to standard slap technique, except that usually to
get a sound, we rotating our wrist. However, here we're moving our whole
hand to add a kick sound. Avoid delays between slap and note and also
keep good balance of these two elements.

Now we'll play small riff using a kick & slap approach.

Here we're practicing kick & slap technique at the same time. Maybe
at first it will be complicated to slap the A string. In order to
perform clean slap on A, we have to mute the E string either with the
tip of our middle or index finger, or by standard muting. At first learn
to play clean slap without a kick. You can practice that with any one
note. Then, add kick and after that try to play this riff.

You can play a standard "pop" in many situations. It's just plucking a
string with your index finger. In percussive style bass, I came up with
an idea to perform pop and snare at the same time. That's what usually
happens when you play with a drummer: we tend to play slap together with
kick and pop together with a snare.

Basically, it's just like a
string strum, we're just strumming the note on a single string with our
finger nails. We have to mute all the rest strings. As with the standard
slap, we will use the pop mainly on higher strings, G & D. Practice
performing it by putting your thumb on the A string, at the same time
touching E string, so it's muted as well. Now just try to play any note.
If we want to add a snare sound to it, we have to hit muted strings
with our hand heel at the same time. Try them separately at first. Then
together. And also on the D string.

Now we'll play an exercise utilizing pop & snare.

We'll start from our left hand. Memorize the part so you don't have to
think about it, and you can concentrate on your right hand movements.

At first, try to play it with the percussive pop without the snare. When
we move on to the G string, we have to mute D string with our left hand
fingers. Now we add in the snare. Start slowly. Remember the movement.
It may feel strange, but keep going, you'll get it. Keep in mind to
balance the volume of the snare and pop.

In this next example, we'll play using percussive slap & pop in one riff. We'll see how it works together.

Let's start from the bass part. There is one hammer-on at the end. A
hammer-on is a technique widely used on string instruments, basically
you're taking a note normally and the second note you're hammering only
with the left hand fingers. As a result, you get quite a smooth sound.
This also allows you to play quite fast passages. The pull-off technique
is totally opposite.

In the drum part, we have just the kick
& snare. Let's try to play the bass part and percussion together.
Pay attention to the two A notes (5th fret on E string) - the first one
you play slap together with a kick, and second without a kick

Slap hi hats is one of the variations on how to imitate a hi hat sound.
It's a standard slapping technique. All we have to do is mute all
strings with our left hand, and start slapping the G string. This way
we're getting a more narrow sound, like the drummer who would play on a
fully closed Hi hat.

In the next exercise, we'll play the same simple beat we already know, but this time we will use the slap hi hat sound.

We've played this beat already, so you should know it. This time it's
just different hi hats. It's very important not to move your hand
around, but keep it in position, and think about coordination.

After the kick, our thumb is already in place, we just have to rotate it, and
after that we have to raise our finger to get enough amplitude to play a
snare, and on our way back we are playing hi hat.

In the beginning your hand will be flying all over the place, a very common
mistake. If you play like this, you won't be able to play fast and
precise, you'll be wasting too much energy. Think about your right hand,
start with a slow tempo, and gradually speed up!

This is the same muting we used in a standard slap technique, now you're
just hitting all string with your left hand fingers. For those of you
who are already familiar with slap, you should know that the left hand
hits is an essential technique. If we hit the strings with all our
fingers, it will sounds quite loud, and sometimes we need it. But more
often, we need a bit softer & cleaner sound. That's why we'll play
it only with three fingers. Keep your index finger on fret board muting
all the strings, and with the other three fingers try to hit hard. Avoid
any notes or harmonics, you should be able to get bright muted metallic
sound. Start slowly, and practice this movement.

Now we'll practice left hand hi hats playing a short beat.

We start with a lower kick, then left hand hi hat. Keep in mind everything should be muted, without any sounds or noises.
One kick - one hi hat
Two kicks - Two hi hats

Although chords and intervals are mainly associated with guitar, it's
one of the techniques you need to understand and master if you want to
succeed in percussive fingerstyle. By playing or holding a chord we can
get a much more fuller sound.

Let's say we're playing one note,
or we're playing at least three! The sound is much fuller and for solo
playing it's really essential. It's a lengthy topic, but I will briefly
describe it to you and give you a small introduction. Make sure to
explore and master chords & intervals additionally.

An interval is the distance from one note until the other. If I take a
one note and then a second, there will be the distance between them, the
higher or the lower the second note, the bigger distance is between
them.

We can count distance by using major and minor scales. Just
by going from start till the required fret. By playing intervals
together, we can get much fuller sound, and create more interesting
compositions.

Chords are made up of least 3 notes sounded together. The chords on bass
are usually played without the 5th interval. When we play full chord in
a low register, it sounds a bit dirty. If we take off the 5th interval,
it sounds much better. Often chords are played with the right hand, and
intervals only with the left hand as there are only 2 notes.

In the next exercise, we'll practice intervals together with a kick.
This a verse from song called "Friend Offline" by my acoustic duo
Karmafree

Let's look at the intervals. The first one is a fifth, but in a
different shape. In this case, it sounds brighter and cleaner. The
second interval is major 7th. Then major 3rd. But the 3rd interval is on
an octave higher. Then major 7th, 5th interval, and major 6th.

Next, we're going to play kick at the same time. To perform a kick at the same time,

pluck with your thumb and middle or index finger interval. The hardest part is

making the interval soft and the kick punchy.
Practice that. Learn to play soft notes.

Now I'll show you how to use chords in a compositions. It's the piece from my solo album called Minimalism.

Let's look at the chords. 1st one is Dmaj7. Then we move to F#min7, then
we move on to B7, and A7. For the right hand, we're using standard
guitar picking technique. Lower notes, usually on E and A strings we
play with a thumb, and notes on a higher strings with middle and index
fingers.

If chords are something new for you, practice them for a
while without the kick just to get used to them. Also, practice the
plucking technique in your right hand. After you have that down, you can
start to play kick. The same with intervals. Chords softly, kick
punchy. But not too loud, don't over force it.

I would say that tapping is the most important topic on to your way to
playing percussive acoustic bass. We're not talking about super fast
solo tapping licks, it's mainly left hand tapping. Speaking about the
right hand, it's a bit harder to tap notes on acoustic bass than on
electric because of the higher action and string tension. But with time,
you will get used to it. Right now you have to learn to play everything
you did with both hands, only with one left hand.

The best way to start is to play scales, or any riffs you already know with just your
left hand. Pay attention to the muting. It's very important - because
of the hits, bass is constantly shaking therefore making the open
strings vibrate. Remember, the left hand is playing the bass part (or
melody), and the right hand is playing rhythm. You have to think about
them as a two different instruments.

We'll start left hand taping with scales. I'll show you how to play the Cmaj and Dmin using only your left hand.

First of all, if you're not familiar with the scales, you have to learn
them. Next, we have to play them only with a left hand. Move your focus
from notes on to the muting. The major scale starts with second finger,
at the same time first finger muting the string.
It's kind of hard to control at first, but try to learn to switch your
focus from the notes to muting, and remember the fingering. The same
with D minor.

In the next example, I'll show you how to play the riff from my song

"Brainwashing". We'll be using left hand tapping and right hand
percussion.

As usual, we're starting from the bass part. This time try to play it

with only your left hand. Learn to play it without any background
noises, thinking about muting. There are a few hammer-ons and one
pull-off. Learn to play the riff in moderate tempo.

Next, we're adding kick and snare. Each notes is doubled with percussion, on beat
notes are played with a kick, and off beat with snare. Start slowly,
thinking about every movement.

In the next exercise, we'll be tapping with both hands. It's a classical

way of tapping. We'll take a riff from Karmafree called "Soul Ache".

The left hand taps chords and we play a single voicing with our right
hand. We'll be playing just a few extra notes with the right hand. Here
it's important to understand that in percussive technique, we can't play
long riffs with our right hand, as usually it has to hold the rhythm.
We should concentrate more on adding just a few notes now and then with
our right hand, just to add en extra voice. Let's have a look at the
riff.

Now we're going to play the tune you already know, "Minimalism", but

this time we'll add a few extra tapping notes, both with right and left
hands.

Let's take the first chord and tap the 19th fret on the D string with

your small finger. We follow that sequence for the next few chords.
Then, we go back on to the first chord, where things becomes a bit more
complicated. We strum the cord with our fingernails 2 times, up &
down, and right after we're doing a slide with the right hand from the
19th to 21st fret on the G string.

For the second chord, we're
doing three muted hi hats, down up down. Then with middle finger, we
play the 14th fret on A, and then a small slide from the 16th to the
17th fret on G string. Move finger back, then pull off to the 14th fret.
Then play the 13th fret on D and hammer-on to the 16th fret, then take
the same 2 notes with standard technique, and take the last chord 12 on E
and 13 on G.

Harmonics are amplified overtone notes, they have very high pitch, and

that's why they sounds amazing together with low bass register notes.
Lightly touch the strings (don't press down) directly over the fret wire
and pull the string. Keep in mind that you have to be very precise on
fretboard and apply the correct amount of pressure with your right hand.
You can also play two or more harmonics together creating intervals in
chords. Experiment and try to find your own combinations.

It's interesting to play harmonics together with a bass part, creating

the illusion of two instruments. Also, because of the large difference
in octaves, they sound quite good together. Let's start!

Here it's important not to rush and play the piece softly. Hold the low
note, and while it's sounding, play a harmonic so that both note and
harmonic sound together. That will create the illusion of two
instruments. Don't rush, and pay attention to your low notes, make sure
they sounds all the time.

Use your index or middle finger on your right hand to hit above the 12th
fret. It's the same tapping technique, but now we're trying to get a
harmonic sound instead of the note.

There are also artificial tap
harmonics. You have to take a note with your left hand and tap 12 frets
further, this way you can play the harmonic octave of the same note. It
works for every note, and we can play some melodies with them.

Now let's come back to a song we already know, "Soul Ache", and add a few extra artificial harmonics.

We already know how to play this one, so now let's look how to play

harmonics there. After the tap slide, our interval sounds, and we have
tap harmonics on the 19th fret on the G string and the 17th fret on the
D. Then, we do exactly the same over the next chord. Here we're playing
harmonic not at the 12th fret, but at the 5th fret. It's the artificial
harmonic, but not the octave. You can also play artificial harmonics
after 5th, 7th, 9th, or 12h fret.

The next piece is from my composition called "Flat Earth". There are harmonics together with the bass part.

The bass part is quite easy. Let's see what happens with harmonics - we
have to hold our fingers over 7th fret on G and D strings (don't push
them, just lightly touch the strings), and tap artificial harmonics
after the 12th frets, that's mean we hit the 19th fret. And the
harmonics stay the same, we change only bass notes.

Congratulations, you've made it to the last section of my course! Now

we'll use all of the knowledge you have gained to build full sounding
riffs. I will show you a few riffs and explain how to play them.

Now we're going to play like a whole band. We'll take a riff with
harmonics that we've learned and add percussion to it. We'll have a bass
part, harmonics part, and rhythm.

We know bass and harmonics part, now let's learn percussion. Pay

attention to the first kick drum, it has be powerful, but at the same
time you have to take the bass note and harmonics quite gently. It may
be complicated at first, but just keep going until you get the right
balance. You're actually making three different sounds with one
movement.

Now we are going back to the song "Friend Offline", but this time with a full drum kit.

Here we combine intervals with the drum beat. You already know the intervals, now let's see the percussion. We'll be using kick, snare, and a few extra hits, let's say tom-toms. I'm starting with an upper kick because I have to play an interval. Then, I move to a lower kick and snare. After the snare, I play 2 toms, first with a thumb and middle finger. Try to play toms a little bit softer and quieter, they should sound more like an echo effect.

Moving to the 2nd interval, the rhythm stays the same, 3rd too. And on the 4th interval, there is a small drum fill: snare tom snare snare tom. I'm doing an accent on the last note, a percussive pop to make a more aggressive sound. Think about dynamics when performing drums. The more dynamics you have, the better it will sound.

The next is my composition "Flat Earth" – now we're going to add rhythm in to it. There will be a harmonic part, bass part, and percussion.

Here we combine tapping, tap harmonics, beats, and a bass part. We
already worked with the main part, now we're adding a straight forward
drum beat.

Let's play the drum part separately. We're using an
upper kick and a rimshot snare. After the kick, play harmonics. Quite
natural movement. We can start without harmonics, just the drums and
bass part. The last bar is a bit different, pay attention.

The last song we're going to play is "Minimalism" – its the most
advanced composition in this course. Don't worry If you can't play it
yet, just keep practicing. Here we'll be using chords, percussion, and
tapping.

By now you should be able to play the chords with tapping, so let's
learn the beat. There are two kicks, and after them we're tapping a note
with the left hand and then a snare. On our way back, we're playing two
tom-toms with the thumb and middle finger. The rhythm in the next two
chords is the same. There are slight variation on the last chord, doing
one extra tom.

In the second part, we have the same intro, but
instead of 2 tom-toms, we're doing a tapping slide. The second chord has
the same rhythm. Next, we have a tapping part. And at the very end,
we're adding three kicks and a snare. It's the most complicated piece so
far, and it asks a lot of your coordination and precise performance.
Just keep playing it in a slow tempo until you get it right!

I hope you've enjoyed our journey and have found many new ways how to approach your instrument. I also hope that this course has inspired you and given you new tools to find your own unique voice. When I was starting out with percussive acoustic bass, there was no other bass players I could learn from, I was looking for inspiration from guitarists and drummers. I was taking their ideas and searching for the ways to adapt them on the bass. It's much easier to make fully sounding composition on guitar than on bass, so I had to come up with many new and unique ideas.

Many examples were taken from my original compositions from my solo album minimalist as well as from my bass and vocal duo project Karmafree.

If you want to learn this technique further, feel free to contact me, I'm also offering lessons that you can learn about on my web page, DmitryLisenko.com.

There you can find all information about me, as well as tabs and for percussive fingerstyle, and many other videos, tunes, and tutorials.

Good luck!