[mtmikey]

at the risk of sounding like a so-and-so...

it's relatively easy... doing it the easiest way. (stay with me.) if all you wanna do is hit two and four... you hit two and four. stopping all strings is the easiest thing to do, whether you do it with your right or your left hand. it gets progressively harder the more selective you get in terms of what strings you hit and/or stop and depending on what sort of rhythmic ideas you're playing around the slaps. i think certain lines, played with the right hand, certain rhythmic ideas, are easier than others.

i've really only worked to keep things slapping and going melodically (well... heck... i would say, in my case, more "groove-o-lodically") by playing more of the melody (or "line") on the trebles. so when i slap in that case i am using primarily the fleshy part of my right hand just before that part meets the thumb, and sometimes a little of the back of the index finger to mute/slap. i will stop maybe EAD in standard (which i'm never in), while keeping a little something going on GBE (which i'm occasionally in). this is really the first time i've actually considered what it is i'm doing... i'm slapping my stomach and looking down at my hand at the moment...

i have a new tune called "welcome to funkstown" on the new record (on which al petteway plays two tracks on top of my nonsense and seriously rocks the house) where i'm doing this kinda throughout. you can get a lot of momentum by slapping/stopping the 6-4 strings, doing little mute things and picking those strings on the upbeats (maybe 4-3), etc. if you combine this with, say, some hammer-ons and pull-offs with the left hand (maybe 3-1)... as you have all of this going... you can... get somewhere... or another. easier to show than write, i guess.

i don't mean to oversell myself on this stuff. i just dabble. i think it gets really far more difficult and challenging when you're really playing independent lines and stuff with the "other" fingers combined with doing some judicious pulloffs, etc. and i was really humbled once when i played some stuff for al where i was slapping and stopping on downbeats, and he said, "that's cool, but that's the easiest way to do it. try slapping on the upbeats."

ever go roller- (dating myself) or ice-skating at a rink, and you're turning to the left, and you do "backwards skate," and have to go the other way, to the right?

it was like that.

al's right. you can do lots and lots... one can take this stuff quite far... it's all down to, as usual, slowing it down and being deliberate with it...

again, hope this helps. see ya soon. gonna be fun.