curious about fretless playing...

closetguitarist · #1 05-12-2007, 07:07 PM

just wondering - are there players out there who use a fretless bass and compensate for a string that went out of tune mid-song so you don't sound out of tune?

Depth_Charge · #2 05-12-2007, 07:49 PM

Nope. Never been an issue. If I did, I've played fretted's for so long before fretless I'd probably go to another string for the remainder of the song if possible, then re-tune it...

moogboy · #3 05-12-2007, 08:25 PM

i thought that that was the entire fretless sound. you heard the note, and if it was out, you bent the note.

lemur821 · #4 05-12-2007, 08:25 PM

Inevitably yes. I might avoid a string that somehow went way out of tune, but the nature of the fretless is such that I might not notice if a string was just a little out of tune. I'd just play it right without noticing.

ding_man · #5 05-12-2007, 09:34 PM

When people play double bass and fretless bass a lot of it is still muscle memory (you still have to have a good ear though). Normally you would try and keep it in tune for this reason, but its completely possible for someone to work around it I guess. I dont know for sure thats just what my db friends have told me.

Jeff Moote · #6 05-12-2007, 10:36 PM

Why would a string go out of tune in the middle of a song? This sounds more like a repair/setup concern than technique

Depth_Charge · #7 05-12-2007, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

Why would a string go out of tune in the middle of a song? This sounds more like a repair/setup concern than technique

Ever walked your headstock into a cymbal stand or guitarists head??

Cristofre · #8 05-16-2007, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by closetguitarist

just wondering - are there players out there who use a fretless bass and compensate for a string that went out of tune mid-song so you don't sound out of tune?

Well I don't have strings going out in the middle of a song often, but just being out of tune in general, I do compensate by sliding up or down a little where necessary.

I have been in the position where for instance I am playing somewhere with one band and am asked to jam on a song with another band and the song starts and I realize that either they or I are tuned slightly off- In that case I have to compensate all notes on all strings and not use open notes at all...

This is one of the advantages of playing fretless, being able to easily compensate for having strings out of tune.
I have compensated on fretted bass too, but this requires bending each note on the offending string/s.

uethanian · #9 05-20-2007, 01:04 AM

funny thing. i had an experience today.

it was a jazz festival, and i was playing one song in the set on fretless. well so the time came to play and it was going well. until i had to play on my E string. somehow it was almost a whole step off. so i moved up a string and stayed off it.

of course i wouldnt try to 'tune' an out of tune string. if your using proper one-finger-per-fret method, i dont see how any acurate tuning adjustment is possible. so. theres my story.

uethanian · #10 05-20-2007, 01:05 AM

oh yea, and once i smacked a trumpet player with my headstock without even noticing.

Audiophage · #11 05-20-2007, 09:16 AM

Time to cue the extended drum solo.

bluegreenturtle · #12 05-20-2007, 11:28 AM

I used to play in big bands for swing dance contests in college. I played a fretless a lot of time (upright sometimes). Sometimes the band would edge sharp as the evening went on (these were 4 or 5 hour gigs). I did correct without retuning the bass - it was easier. But it wasn't the sort of thing where I was like "oh, they are sharp now, I should play sharp, too" - you just hear what's going on and play in tune. I don't look at my hands (I was sight reading 50 charts a night, how could I!) so it's just an ear correction.

It's just like classical playing on DB - you never look at your left hand - if the ensemble is out of tune you just correct to it because you're not going to convince 20 violins that they need to adjust - most of them can't even hear notes below middle c.

Anyway, it's just good ear training - you should unconciously be correcting intonation constantly, no matter what's going on with the tuning.

Eli_Upright12 · #13 05-20-2007, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluegreenturtle

I used to play in big bands for swing dance contests in college. I played a fretless a lot of time (upright sometimes). Sometimes the band would edge sharp as the evening went on (these were 4 or 5 hour gigs). I did correct without retuning the bass - it was easier. But it wasn't the sort of thing where I was like "oh, they are sharp now, I should play sharp, too" - you just hear what's going on and play in tune. I don't look at my hands (I was sight reading 50 charts a night, how could I!) so it's just an ear correction.

It's just like classical playing on DB - you never look at your left hand - if the ensemble is out of tune you just correct to it because you're not going to convince 20 violins that they need to adjust - most of them can't even hear notes below middle c.

Anyway, it's just good ear training - you should unconciously be correcting intonation constantly, no matter what's going on with the tuning.

SO TRUE!!!! I play upright in jazz and classical ensembles and I do this often, cuz the horns play close to the same every time but not exactly same thing with the violins, so you just have to adjust and hope to get a chance to tune up a little during a long pause.