Has anyone ever watched the movie August Rush? If you have, you probably remember this scene:
The boy in the video is guitar slapping, which is technique used by many musicians. You’ve all probably heard about slap bass before because it has been around for much longer, since at least the 1920s (it became popular later on in the 1940s). It often combines plucking, muting and slapping of the bass strings and body. Slap bass is used because it provides a “strong downbeat when the string is plucked and a strong back beat when it slaps back onto the fingerboard of the bass.” The noise that is created is very percussive and is great for a lot of dance music and forms of funk/disco. If you recall the show we went to at the 92st Y, the bassist, Victor Wooten, sometimes used the technique.
Now it is spreading over to guitar players. Guitar slapping has become much more popular and you can see it being used by a lot of different artists, such as Kaki King:
In this video, you can see how she combines a variety of slap bass techniques in order to create a beat groove. It often sounds as if two or three instruments are simultaneously playing.
Many people play the acoustic guitar the same way – positioning one hand on the fret board and strumming with the other. Yet, with innovation, it’s incredible how many different sounds can come from a single instrument! A slight change in hand position or strumming technique could produce a new color, timbre, or mood. Modern music is all about innovation – no wonder this method of guitar-playing is so popular.
There is violin slapping too. Remember when we saw that last song in the Year of China Concert? The violinist Blanca Gonzalez slapped her violin! I didn’t even know that was possible.