5/5 It has the funk that we all need
  by Kevin Brown
This DVD is awesome. I'm not very experienced with Bass guitar so at first I thought this DVD would be complicated and very boring. I discovered differently. I found this DVD to be filled funky beats. I wanna be a a nasty bass player so bad. It's not overly complicated and I love myself for buying it. My funk level is increasing and so will yours.

4/5 Very Informative
  by C. Kruschke (Tucson, AZ United States)
Although the video seems to be straight out of the '80's, its still relevant for Bass Guitar players who are looking to push their playing style into different and/or more challenging areas than just playing whole or quarter notes with a garage band. As a bass player who fingers/plucks the strings, the method of slapping the guitar with the side of your thumb was completely foreign (although I've since learned that many bass players use this method - notably Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers), as I grew up modeling my playing style (if not skill level) after Geddy Lee of Rush. Even for one such as myself who had NEVER played this style before, the video takes you slowly enough through the elemental steps of how to slap, how to create a slap rhythm, and how to build on these rhythms to add to the other instruments in the band so that you don't get lost. I'm sure that even with a small amount of practice, this method could be easily learned through the video. Unfortunately, as a 39-yr old adult with a full-time job, I don't have time for practice and one 2-hr stint with the video made my thumb hurt for over a month. However, this is my issue and not the fault of the video. Seems to me that a teenager/young adult with time on his/her hands could very quickly master the exercises and excel in this method.

Bottom line is this is an exceptional video. Only drawback is the $40 sticker price - however it appears that this price range is not abnormal for music instruction videos, so...

5/5 The best slap bass DVD currently out there...
  by Paul Wolfe (London, UK)
I originally bought this Tuitional Lesson back in the day, and still have the original VHS stored somewhere in my loft. As soon as it came out on DVD I bought a copy. Sadly, unlike FINGERSTYLE FUNK by Rocco, this Video Progressions title is not available for download so that you can put it on your iPod and watch whilst your out and about!

Anyway, this is the best video lesson on how to slap there is. The tuitional material is well filmed and well presented. Some of the examples are played in a 'band' setting, so you can hear the grooves in the concept of a tune.

The material covered in the lesson starts off with the basic - the slap and the pop. But quickly moves on and incorporates hammer-ons, pull-offs, how to 'choke' notes, and then on to some advanced stuff too (double stops, machine gun triplets, flamenco style strumming, John Entwistle style right hand 'tapping' of the strings) etc.

To get the best out of this tape you need to devise a practice schedule that takes you through the techniques one by one and incorporates them fully into your technique. Or use this lesson as a video adjunct to Stuart Clayton's excellent Slap Bass book (tip: get it from Amazon.co.uk - much cheaper for you guys stateside!)

The only fault I can pick out with this lesson is that it hasn't been updated to reflect some of the innovations bought in by guys like Victor Wooten - eg double thumbing/thumping. Even allowing for that, if you want to learn to slap this should be one of the essential items in yor shopping basket!