Become a Slap Bass Beast
Introducing the 16 week Slap Bass Accelerator with Scott Devine and Ian Martin Allison
Michael
SBL Accelerator Student
Can you learn the slap bass techniques of Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, and Flea in a matter of 16 weeks?
You could try to learn through random videos on YouTube or Instagram…
But they have absolutely no structure. So you never really build up a solid foundation. You just get a bunch of random, isolated lessons that wind up sending you around in circles.
Plus it’s really easy to get distracted on those platforms, too.
Most online courses aren’t much better.
Sure, they may give you a little more structure than random social media videos. But I’ve seen too many courses that barely scratch the surface of the topic they’re supposed to cover.
Or they go too far in the other direction, and overwhelm you with a ton of boring busywork to the point where your eyes glaze over. So you wind up quitting in frustration after a few weeks.
Which means if you really want to get good at playing slap bass…
You’re stuck paying through the nose for private lessons.
So that’s why I set out to see if we could find a better way.
And spoiler alert! I also got a little help from some of my friends.
After months in the shed, I’m happy to say we finally cracked the code.
We discovered the “Secret Formula” to becoming a great slap-bass player in record time.
It turns out that you can break down amazing slap bass technique into just 10 components. And even better, they all build on top of each other.
Which means if you work on them in the right order, you can shave years off of your learning curve. And that’s exactly what we show you how to do inside the brand-new SBL Slap Accelerator course.
Introducing
16 WEEK COURSE + LIVE CLASSES
The only course that walks you step-by-step from the fundamentals of slap bass to advanced double-thumbing and ghost notes in a matter of weeks.
This course will give you an unshakeable Slap-Bass foundation.
In order to get you playing some awesome slap bass lines, we’ll first show you how to get your gear dialled-in, with things like string height and tone settings.
This ensures you're set up for success and won’t struggle because of a simple gear issue, which could have been fixed in a few minutes had you known about it.
Develop solid technique through a steady, step-by-step progression.
We’ll walk you step-by-step through the fundamentals of great slap technique.
Then we’ll get into all the cool advanced stuff that you probably want to play. Like fret-hand slapping, ghost notes, and crazy double-thumbing in the style of Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten.
Easy-to-follow lessons for all levels.
We worked hard to make sure that each and every lesson is short, simple, and easy to digest.
Plus we break down the exercises for each lesson in a way that accounts for all levels of ability. So whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced slap player, we’ve got you covered.
Engaging song projects to fast-track your progress.
Working on a bunch of out-of-context exercises can quickly get boring so we've given you some super-fun song projects to keep you excited, engaged, and help you make progress at warp-speed.
That way, you will be able to see and feel your progress through the course — because you’re actually playing music.
Play-along technique breakdowns for 4 of the greatest Slap Bass icons
We’ve dedicated four weeks in the course to studying the techniques of some of the world’s greatest slap-bass players — like Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Larry Graham, and Flea. And we’ll highlight the closely guarded secrets to their amazing slap tone.
Enlightening artist interviews
We’ve also included supplemental artist interviews with some prominent slap players, including Doug Wimbish, Mohini Dey, Cory Wong, and Jacob Umansky.
For each artist, we’ll walk through their early years and influences, their specific approach to slapping, the technical setup for their gear and instruments, and examples of their most eye-opening riffs.
4 x LIVE Q&A sessions
This round of The Slap Accelerator includes four interactive livestream Q&A sessions with Scott and Ian, so you can get their guidance on your most important questions as you work your way through the course.
And should you miss any of them, they are recorded so you can always re-watch them in your own time.
12 printable lesson workbooks
Get access to printable PDF workbooks — in both tab and standard notation — for every single exercise and musical example in the entire course.
That way, you can continue to work on The Slap Accelerator material even if you’re away from your computer.
Lifetime Access
We know how busy life can be, so as with all our Accelerator courses, you get lifetime access to all of the course lessons as they’re released, allowing you to sign up and take your time before diving in, or go at your own pace.
Watch this video to learn about The Slap Accelerator in 3 mins
The Course Curriculum
Discover all of the material and mind-blowing lessons you'll get to experience over the course of the 16-week Slap Accelerator
Instrument & Equipment Fundamentals
When you join Slap Accelerator, you will get instant access to our instrument and equipment fundamentals video.
These lessons will walk you through everything you need to know to make sure your bass and gear are set up for you to have success in the rest of the course. (Including a lot of things that even more experienced players may miss — like the height of your strings!)
Core Skill #1 — Thumbing
In week one, we’ll cover the most foundational technique for playing slap bass: your thumb. This is where it all starts!
We’ll walk you through exercises to improve your aim, timing, and how to progress from playing on two strings to using them all — and even skipping strings.
Core Skill #2 — Pops
Week two will cover the second core skill for playing slap bass — pops. We’ll show you which intervals are your best friends when playing pops. Plus we’ll also show you how to mix slaps and pops to start building out your slap style.
Play-Along Technique Breakdown — Larry Graham
Week three will introduce our first play-along technique breakdown for a slap bass icon. This one focuses on the legendary Larry Graham — who is credited with being the person who invented the slap bass technique.
Livestream & Supplemental Artist Interview
Week four will be our first video livestream where you can connect with your fellow Slap Accelerator students and ask the coaches your biggest questions. And you’ll also get a supplemental interview with a slap musician to give you added motivation and inspiration.
Core Skill #3 — Thumb Ghost Notes
Week five will bring us back to the 10 core slap-bass skills that are the backbone of this course. This time, we’ll cover thumb ghost notes — including both isolating this technique and then adding intervals across a variety of common chord progressions.
Core Skill #4 — Hammers & Pulls
Week six will focus on the core slap-bass skill of using hammer-ons and pull-offs to add articulations to your playing. We’ll give you specific exercises for each one on its own, and then show you how to combine them to create even cooler slap grooves.
Play-Along Technique Breakdown — Flea
Week seven is our second play-along technique breakdown for a slap bass icon. This time, we’ll show you the slap-bass secrets that Flea uses to create some of the most catchy and popular slap-bass lines of all time.
Total Guitar magazine called their cover of Higher Ground “the second greatest cover of all time” — thanks in large part to Flea’s iconic slap-bass parts. And Scott is going to walk you through three bass riffs in the Chili Pepper’s style during this week’s play-along technique breakdown.
Livestream & Supplemental Artist Interview
Week eight will be our next video livestream where you can connect with your fellow Slap Accelerator students and ask the coaches your biggest questions. And you’ll also get a supplemental interview with a slap musician to give you added motivation and inspiration.
Core Skills #5 to #7— Slides, Stings & Fret Slaps
Week nine will cover three more of the core slap-bass skills. We’ll dive into three advanced articulation techniques: slides, stings, and fret-hand slaps. And we’ll show you exercises to dial-in each one — plus how to stack them together to expand your slap-bass vocabulary even more.
Core Skill #8 — Open Hammer Pluck
Week 10 will focus on the open hammer pluck. This technique is super percussive — allowing you to create thundering slap-bass grooves that can lock in with the drums…or even replace them!
Play-Along Technique Breakdown — Marcus Miller
Week 11 is our third play-along technique breakdown for a slap bass icon. This time, we’ll show you the slap-bass secrets of the great Marcus Miller. (Or as some of you know him: “The Thumbslinger”.)
Marcus Miller remains one of the most recognised bassists on the planet, thanks in large part to his jaw-dropping technical ability. And he’s performed with a “who’s-who” list of musical icons — including Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, David Sanborn, Wayne Shorter and Chaka Khan.
Livestream & Supplemental Artist Interview
Week 12 will be our next video livestream where you can connect with your fellow Slap Accelerator students and ask the coaches your biggest questions. And you’ll also get a supplemental interview with a slap musician to give you added motivation and inspiration.
Core Skill #9 — Double Pops
Week 13 will cover the second-to-last core skill you need to become a killer slap-bass player. We’ll work through double pops starting using ghost notes. Then we will progress to double pops and double pop stops.
Core Skill #10 — Double Thumbing
Week 14 will cover the last core skill you need to master playing slap bass. We’ll walk you through what many people consider the most challenging slap technique of all — double thumbing. And we’ll give you step-by-step exercises you can use to nail this tricky technique in no time.
Play-Along Technique Breakdown — Victor Wooten
Week 15 is our final play-along technique breakdown for a slap bass icon. This time, we’ll show you the slap-bass secrets of the man who many consider to be the greatest slap-bass player — and innovator — of all time: Victor Wooten.
His polyrhythmic tapping and slapping parts have been making heads spin for more than three decades. And we’ll reveal how you can begin to replicate Vic’s slap style and technique in this play-along technique breakdown.
Livestream & Supplemental Artist Interview
Week 16 will be our final video livestream where you can connect with your fellow Slap Accelerator students and ask the coaches your biggest questions. And you’ll also get the last supplemental interview with a slap musician to give you added motivation and inspiration.
Maxime
SBL Accelerator Student
Sign up before enrollment closes
The Slap Accelerator is brought to you by an incredible team of world-class educators you won't find anywhere else...
And is the first ever course to be co-hosted by Scott Devine and Ian Martin Allison.
Scott Devine
Scott has been a professional bassist and bass educator for over 20 years, and has spent the last decade teaching bass online. In that time, he’s helped an audience of more than one million bass players from around the world. So there’s no one better at teaching the bass online than he is.
He’s worked with artists such as George Fame, Dennis Rollins, Martin Simpson, Adrian Ingram, Gary Boyle and The Drifters.
Ian Martin Allison
Ian is a world-class session musician with a huge heart for education.
A former music college professor and an outstanding instructor in his own right, he's worked with artists such as Eric Hutchinson, Cory Wong, Scary Pockets, LANY, Ondara, Gavin Degraw, John Legend, Eric Paslay, Jeremy Messersmith and Soul Asylum.
The Slap Accelerator curriculum was designed alongside our Head of Educational Content, Eric Wills.
Eric has over a decade of experience creating music training programs, and has worked with everyone from Pearl Jam, to Billy Sheehan, to The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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16 Week Course
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50+ Lessons
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24+ Hours of Instruction
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4 LIVE Q&As
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4 Artist Interviews
When Scott taught privately, his rate was $200 per lesson. And Ian’s rates aren’t much different.
That means it would cost around $5,000 to work through the amount of material we’ve included in The Slap Accelerator with a private bass tutor.
And it’s why — at only $197 — we think this course is an absolute steal!
Try for 30 Days Risk-Free
The Slap Accelerator is backed by our world-renowned SBL 30-day, total-satisfaction guarantee.
So if you don’t love everything about The Slap Accelerator program, just let our friendly student success team know within 30 days of the start of the course, for a full refund, no questions asked.
Don't miss out! This course won’t open again until 2023.
Time is running out! Don’t miss your chance to get lifetime access to The Slap Accelerator. Sign up now before enrollment closes.
Student Feedback
See what our students have to say about our other courses and scottsbasslessons.com
Get it all for only $197
Become a slap bass beast in just 16 short weeks with simple, easy-to-follow, and fun weekly lessons, artist breakdowns, interactive livestreams and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
When you join Slap Accelerator, you get instant access to the instrument and equipment fundamentals lessons. That way, you can make sure your gear is dialled in before the course begins.
The first official week of the course is 21 November, 2022. After that, you will receive a new set of lessons every week — except the week of Christmas, which will be a rest week. And that means the final week of the course will be 14 March, 2023.
You get lifetime access to the video lessons in Slap Accelerator, as well as the recordings from the video livestreams. But if you want to participate in the interactive livestreams, you need to attend those live. (We will release the exact dates and times for each livestream as they get closer.)
The core lessons for Slap Accelerator are delivered as weekly video lessons. So they are not live, and you can work through the material whenever it is convenient for you.
However, there are also four livestream Q&A sessions included in this round of the course. So if you want to participate in those sessions, you do need to attend them live. We will release the exact dates and times for each livestream as they get closer.
Every week, you get access to a new series of lessons and exercises. Most of them will walk you through one (or more) of the 10 core skills you need to become a great slap-bass player. But we’ve also included four play-along technique breakdowns of slap bass icons and four livestream video sessions where you can get answers to your biggest slap-bass questions.
We’ve designed each lesson to be short and easy-to-digest. So you should be able to make massive progress while spending just 15-30 minutes per day, five days per week on the programme. That is at most two and a half hours per week — and as little as an hour and 15 minutes.
Enrollment to the founding class of Slap Accelerator closes on Friday, 18 November, 2022.
Slap Accelerator is backed by the 30-day, total-satisfaction guarantee from SBL. That means if you don’t love everything about the programme, just reach out to our friendly and responsive student success team. They will give you a prompt and courteous refund of the full purchase price — no questions asked.
