Funk Bass Technique: Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs
When it’s time to add a little spice to your bass playing, there’s nothing better than exploring the world of funk. This is music that grooves… songs that will get the party going on the dance floor and tunes that will inspire you to get down and boogie oogie oogie!
Funk bass playing is essential for anyone who wants to work and play gigs, especially if you ever want to play bass in a wedding band or corporate group.
Slap and Pop
Plenty of bass players immediately think of funk music and associate it with the slap and pop technique. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but if you’re usually a finger-style bass player and mostly used to plucking or picking, it can require a lot of practice time to become competent with a new right-hand technique on the bass.
That said, a lot of what makes slapping and popping cool is the fact that it’s combined with the fretboard-focused techniques of hammer-ons and pull-offs. We can consider these sibling techniques since they’re essentially the inverse of one another and are often used together to create interesting rhythms.
So, before you start slappin’ da bass, you’ll need to get comfortable with the funk coming from your fretting hand.
What Is A Hammer-On?
The hammer-on bass technique means that we play two notes on the same string but only pluck, pick, or pop the first note. The sound of the second note will come from the force of our fretting hand “hammering-on” the bass fretboard.
This technique is often played pretty quickly (think eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenths). The notes will be played ascending, such as A on the 5th fret to B on the 7th fret. You can hammer-on a half-step (A to Bb), a whole step (A to B) or a minor third (A to C).
As we dig into this bass technique, it’s important to know these three things:
Hammer-ons are not just for funk bass playing! They can be applied to basically any genre and can be thought of as a general technique for bass
Hammer-ons are a two-hand technique, meaning that both your fretting hand and plucking hand will work together
Don’t slow down to practice the hammer-on. Because the technique is based upon the force from our hand, most hammer-ons are played fairly quickly. While you can slow down certain exercises and bass lines to get comfortable with them, it could actually make this technique feel awkward and more difficult.
Essential Funk Bass Techniques: Hammer-On in E (Part 1)
Essential Funk Bass Techniques: Hammer-On in E (Part 2)
What Is A Pull-Off?
Let’s think of the pull-off as the opposite of a hammer-on. I like to think of the two as sibling techniques because they are often used in the same musical context.
With the pull-off, we’ll play descending notes on the same string (think B to A) but only attack the first note. The force of “pulling-off” will generate the pitch of the second note. Again, this is a quick technique, so you don’t want to slow your practice down very much.
Essential Funk Bass Techniques: Pull-Offs in E (Part 1)
Essential Funk Bass Techniques: Pull-Offs in E (Part 2)
Minor Pentatonic Funk Bass Lines
The hammer-on and pull-off techniques are ubiquitous in the world of funk music, mainly because of the use of the minor pentatonic scale. Plenty of bass lines are composed using this, from “Brick House” by The Commodores to “Pick Up The Pieces” by Average White Band.
Why is this? Well, the minor pentatonic scale takes advantage of whole-step motion between notes and whole-steps are perfect for hammer-ons. Let’s break down the A minor pentatonic scale to spot our whole-step motion.
Notes of the scale:
1 - b3 - 4 - 5 - b7 - 8
A - C - D - E - G - A
We’ve got whole steps between:
C to D (b3 to 4)
D to E (4 to 5)
G to A (b7 to 1 or Octave)
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are perfect for connecting these notes and adding personality and articulation to your bass line. Plus, by sticking to the pentatonic scale, your bass line will be guaranteed to sound good.
Start Honing Your Funk with Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs
There are infinite ways to combine these funk bass techniques, so get creative and see what works! If you’re interested in leveling up your bass skills, reach out to start personalized online bass lessons, or check out my bass educational resources.