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Expanding the Slap Bass Vocabulary by Ray Riendeau
Meet Ray Riendeau –
I have always loved the sound of slap bass. Early on it was cats like Larry Grahm and Louis Johnson that opened my ears and mind to this style of bass playing. For me the marriage of notes & rhythm in this percussive style has always been intriguing.
Over the years players like Victor Wooten and Marcus Miller have expanded this style even more. In fact I believe that we’ve only scratched the surface with what can be created with this style of playing. As with any technique the ultimate goal is to create music.
In this series of articles I would like to cover a lot of the newer techniques and approaches of the slap style of bass playing. I feel there is an abundance of materials that cover “traditional” methods of this style but their lacks information regarding newer techniques such as double thumbing, double & triple popping, slap arpeggios and linear slap to name a few.
All these approaches are designed to give you the freedom to play in the same way we do with finger style playing but using slap techniques. I find that most bass players play differently when they switch to the slap style. It usually entails playing mostly octaves, pentatonic scales and even playing simplified harmonically. Hopefully these series of articles will give you the player some insights and new approaches that will allow you to gain a bigger vocabulary of ideas to use and play in the slap style.
I welcome to you to contact me with any ideas, suggestions or questions. When I was approached about doing these articles I was most excited by the fact that there can be an interaction of myself and with you the readers. Being an online magazine also opens up the doors to all kinds of media that can be used. I plan on giving written examples along with sound and video for the topics discussed, this in itself is quite revolutionary and I look forward to being part of what I consider a much needed and wanted educational side to bass playing and music in general. I’m very honored and pleased to be part of Bass Musician Magazine.
I thought in this first article I’d leave you with a short list of music that showcases some of the slap approaches and techniques I will be discussing in the future. These are just a few songs and players that in my opinion are expanding the role of slap bass.
- Michael Manring – HELIOS
- Marcus Miller – POWER, TEEN TOWN, PANTHER, SCOOP, COME TOGETHER, BRUCE LEE
- Victor Wooten – DONNA LEE, U CAN’T HOLD NO GROOVE, CLASSICAL THUMP, ME & MY BASS GUITAR, CHEROKEE, SINISTER MINISTER
- Ray Riendeau – ORNITHOLOGY, LIQUID, GROOVE THERAPY, LOTUS SUTRA
- Adam Nitti – FLY LIKE AN EAGLE, FRITTER BOY, VIC DOM 1
- Alain Caron – SLAM THE CLOWN, JACK CANNON, D-CODE
I’ve also included the song “Liquid” from my first solo CD “All Funked Up” so you can sample some of my playing. Just scroll to the bottom and click on the link, Download Liquid.mp3
Enjoy!
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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