Anthony Tidd backstage in Denmark with his custom Martin Petersen-built Sei bass.
When I first began learning the instrument at 14 (I’m still learning), like most young people I was attracted to shiny things. For me, that particular shiny thing was Mark King of Level 42’s otherworldly ability to slap a bass at what seemed like the speed of light. His amazing technique was indeed so shiny that it was able to pull me from the guitar to the bass. I spent what seemed like an eternity (probably a year in adult years) learning how to slap really fast, and for my first two years as a bass player, slap was all I did!
Photo by Dimitri Louis
Many years later, I learned something else that was difficult to grasp, which becomes rarer by the day: “The bass” is not only an instrument, clef, or stave (nearer the bottom of most scores), it’s more importantly a role, or more aptly put, a function essential to almost all modern music. It’s the root of it all. Bass plays a role that forms a unique bridge betwixt rhythm, harmony, melody, and groove. The greatest bassists have all understood this fact in their own ways, and many of these masters never lusted for, and understood that they did not require, Paganini-like gymnastic mastery in the lower hertz. Don’t get me wrong … I personally love and have even pursued technical mastery. Thus, I’m a lover of great bass, sax, and whatever else solos. But those two things—soloing and becoming a technician—are not necessarily immediately related to the “bass function.”
As we go back in time to the root, the number of players who focused on function over flashy technique, and support over soloing seems to increase. I soon learned there was more to bass than slapping. (I also learned that slapping—though not quite at the speed of light—went back decades before Mark King.) I had no idea of the long and storied history of bass, and how this fit into the African American musical canon, which included blues, jazz, gospel, rock ’n’ roll, R&B, funk, soul, disco, hip-hop, house, and a seemingly never-ending procession of subgenres—which is to say most American music.
“The bass” is not only an instrument, clef, or stave (nearer the bottom of most scores), it’s more importantly a role, or more aptly put, a function essential to almost all modern music.
Eventually, with the help of American mentors Rich Nichols and Steve Coleman, my quest to understand bass, and music in general, would lead me to Philadelphia (and, later, to Harlem, NYC). Through Rich, a Philly native who also happened to be manager and patriarch of the Roots, I became an integral part of the exciting mix of music happening in Philadelphia in the late ’90s and 2000s. This formed the foundation of my education as a producer and provided opportunities for me to produce records for many well-known names in hip-hop, soul, funk, pop, etc. Through Steve—a Chicago native who moved to NYC in the ’70s and was responsible for creating the M-Base movement, which many consider to be the font of at least 50 percent of today’s NYC jazz scene—I learned about America’s rich jazz tradition. Between decades of touring, hanging out listening to much older musicians, and the wealth of things that Steve and others taught me directly, this formed the foundation of my music education. It gave me the tools to begin the Creative Music Program, which served as a foundation for many young creative musicians coming out of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is home to some of America’s greatest bass legends, and it was once I moved to the city that I met Jymie Merritt, a relatively unsung hero of the bass, but a legend if there ever was one. Not only was Jymie a master of the upright, but he was also an early pioneer of the electric bass within jazz, and a fantastic composer. I met so many other great American bassists who, like me, continue a tradition and culture which stretches all the way back to the days of tubas, wash tubs, and broomsticks—a time somewhere between the abolition of slavery and Louis Armstrong first meeting the horn. These are players such as Henry Grimes, Stanley Clarke, Charles Fambrough, Victor Bailey, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Reggie Workman, Christian McBride, Gerald Veasley, Reggie Washington, Anthony Jackson, Matt Garrison, Rich Brown, Richard Bona, and many others.
Stay tuned! I’ll surely be focusing on some of these and many farther afield subjects in future Root of It All columns.
As a music director for tours, I spend countless hours scouring YouTube to see what other touring artists are doing. This leads to helpful lessons in the craft of live performance and transforming recorded music into energetic live shows. Sometimes, I can’t help it that the bassist in me naturally takes over and I only zoom in on the bass parts. One of these moments happened just a few weeks ago, when I was watching clips from the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block arena tour they did together in 2013.
A fair amount of pre-recorded tracks were used due to the pop nature of the music, but the four players in the backup band generated a surprisingly large sonic footprint. I was actually blown away by the arrangements that borrowed heavily from classic R&B and featured chord progressions and rhythms that completely revamped the feel and structure of the album versions. What really knocked me over was bassist Ethan Farmer’s playing and the way his parts filled up much more space than a more traditional approach.
YouTube It
Yes, this is New Kids on the Block performing their 1988 top tenner, “The Right Stuff,” but if NKOTB’s not your bag, cover your eyes and listen to the transporting performance of Ethan Farmer, who displays the technique covered in this column to perfection on the choruses.
Farmer has also lent his skills to Lionel Richie, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Babyface, and Patti LaBelle—just to name a few. His signature approach has been apparent on every major tour I’ve heard him on, but in this specific case, it seemed like he wasn’t holding back whatsoever! The notes sounded warm and fat on the bottom, but there were plenty of upper-register, rhythmical pops peppered in with high intensity. At first listen, however, I couldn’t totally decipher what technique he was using.
Upon closer inspection (and after watching some of Farmer’s other videos), I discovered he was using a hybrid technique that can be tremendously useful for a number of applications. The technique is actually very similar to one I was first turned on to while attending music school in Minnesota back in the mid ’90s. Loosely referred to as the “Minneapolis Rumble” by local players—including some in Prince’s camp—there is plenty of low end to go around as the word “rumble” would indicate. But, in the middle of this rumble, there is also a percussive funkiness that somehow comes through the slightly looser, muddy, general approach.
Farmer’s technique can be broken down more easily if you are familiar with a few different skills beforehand, so let’s take a look at the building blocks for his half-slap/half-plucking style.
Photo 1
Soften it up. The warmer low-end of Farmer’s sound is achieved by not slapping the bass in a traditional matter, but, rather, by using your thumb as a kind of soft pick instead. If you are familiar and practiced with using a palm-muting technique (Photo 1)—where your palm is muting the strings by the bridge and the thumb is plucking the strings to get a vintage-electric, or even an upright-like, sound—that’s a good starting point.
While playing a bass line with your thumb, you can then use your index finger to pop the strings or add ghost notes. Since this is done in a softer manner and closer to the bridge, the popping of the 1st or 2nd strings won’t result in the strings hitting the fretboard like a traditional slap-bass-style pop would.
Double thumbin’. The brighter, more-percussive top end is achieved by employing a more traditional slap-bass technique, where the low strings are played with a heavier attack. The up-and-down thumbing technique that was pioneered by Victor Wooten actually comes in handy here, and the internet is filled with videos of players copping the style for you to check out. Tip: Being able to get a similarly strong volume out of the thumb’s upstroke as you are on the downstroke, or slap, is crucial.
Photo 2
Most rules regarding slap bass have us playing with the thumb positioned right at the neck/body joint, and then doing the popping directly in front of the neck pickup, where your index finger is naturally positioned when slapping by the neck. In order for double-thumbing to work most effectively, I prefer to move my thumb back just a little bit (Photo 2), so I can properly get underneath the string without the fretboard getting in my way.
Photo 3
Hybrid time. After achieving a basic grasp of the aforementioned techniques, a hybrid of the two is what gets us very close to the approach Farmer uses. It borrows the palm muting from the first example, but we shift the entire right-hand position forward from the bridge to where your hand is positioned over the bridge pickup and your thumb is plucking the strings over the neck pickup in the middle of the instrument’s body (Photo 3). When your thumb is moving in an up-and-down motion, you’ll get a slap-like sound without actuallyslapping the string into the fretboard. This approach blends the feel of a slap player with the feel of a funky pick player. (We getthat touch of pick flavor thanks to the sound the nail makes while playing the upstrokes.)
Larry Graham—the originator of slap bass as we know it—also slaps a little farther back from the neck. Graham’s influence is certainly obvious in the way Farmer plays, but Farmer has modernized the technique and made it a little looser. After studying more clips of his playing, I’ve also noticed that he occasionally surrenders his thumbing-toward-the-back-of-the-body position in order to squeeze in a quick pop of the 1st string closer to the neck (where other players are normally positioned). To pull this off, lightning fast movement is a requirement.
Watch the lesson: