How to Pop

Finger Position

Pull the fingerpad up and through the string

Put your index finger's fingertip against the string, and curl it under the string slightly. Aim to have the string lie across approximately the middle of your fingertip.

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Movement

Now rotate your wrist back and up towards your face, turning your palm away from you and allowing your fingertip to pull up and through the string. Pull the string up for a little ways before releasing it. Wait until you feel a noticeable amount of resistance before releasing the string. This is what makes it forcefully slap back down against the frets. Notice that if you pull the string up as little as you can, it won't make the pop sound. Now try exaggerating the motion and pulling it up extremely far. There's a point at which you start to get a good pop sound. Keep experimenting and pay attention to how far you have to pull the string up and how much resistance you feel when you get a pop sound. This will differ slightly based on your bass's action, scale length and string gauges.

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One caveat: it's much easier to do this consistently and develop the right feel if you practice popping fretted notes only at first (especially if the action on your bass is very high--it should be low for slap/pop!). Popping the open strings feels different due to the string having much less resistance (on most basses, but this depends on setup), and it takes some finesse. Once you have the basic technique down on fretted notes, practice popping the open strings. Then practice popping up and down the fretboard and mixing in open string pops.

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That's It!

When you feel comfortable getting consistent slaps and pops in isolation, move on to the next part of this book. And congratulations! You've put the time and work in to develop the two most fundamental techniques of slap bass.