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Sometimes the best musical expression comes from the simplest of techniques. The perfect example of this truism is the muted G-string popping technique. I love this technique because it can be used in any situation. I particularly like applying it to slow ballads because you can use it sparingly, without interfering with the vocals or other instruments. It is also easy to apply when a producer asks you to "slap the bass part without going all whackity poppity." (True story.)
The fundamental technique is extremely easy to learn. Simply mute the G-string with any finger on your fretting hand and pop the G-string with your index finger or middle finger. The resulting sound should be a crisp, percussive click. If you get a harmonic tone, you are not muting the string enough. If you get an actual note or a buzzing, you are muting too hard. Experiment with the pressure until you get a nice, muted click.
To perfect this technique you will need to practice alternating between thumbing a real note and popping a muted G-string. Exercise 1 is a nice way to accomplish this. Basically, you are thumbing the first five notes of an A Major scale, while popping a muted G-string in-between each thumbed note. Remember to (everyone say this with me) start slowly and focus on playing cleanly and consistently.
A nice variation on the technique is to precede the muted G-string with a percussive wrist mute. This is also very easy to execute. (Trust me!) To get a good wrist mute you simply need to hit the strings with your plucking hand, somewhere over your pickups. The term "wrist mute" is actually inaccurate because you are hitting the strings with the meaty part of the base of your thumb.
Now it is time to combine the muted G-string pop with the wrist mute technique. Watch the Excercise 2 movie first before trying this for yourself. Notice how my arm makes one up/down motion while performing the wrist mute and muted G-string. Try your best to make the volume of the muted pop the same as the wrist mute.
Exercise 3 is good for honing your wrist mute technique. After each wrist mute/muted G-string pop combo you will thumb a note. If you play this exercise at tempo it will resemble a classic, root and fifth, Country music groove.
Exercise 4 adds a hammer-on to the wrist mute/muted G-string technique. This gives us a cool 16th-note figure. Practice this slowly and make sure that your 16th-notes are all rhythmically even and dynamically equal.
Lastly, I will leave you with a sample bass line that uses some of the muted G-string popping. This should give you an idea as to how you can apply this simple technique. Play this groove at 90 beats per minute and focus on the pocket. Enjoy!
As always, feel free to email me with your questions! Until next time... Stay Tuned!
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