As an eBay Associate, TalkBass may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Nice player, and he has the exactly the approach I’ve always used and advocate for.
One thing to notice is that he is looking at the fingerboard (or edge of fingerboard in the lower positions) ALL the time. That is correct and my experience as well. But, it is also one reason that reading scores on fretless bass guitar can be a big challenge; because pulling off accurate shifts on fretless BG is right up there with predicting the stock market.
Thanks for the great vid!
A few things...
- Start with a fretless version of your number 1 fretted bass. The muscle memory and scale length transfer will help the initial transition.
- Be persistent. Just keep marching. You can do it. One day you'll catch yourself playing competently and realize you have been for some time.
- Don't be intimidated by no lines.
- Try different strings (flats, rounds), different pickups (J, or P, or MM) and different stuff (fret wrap, foam mute, active, passive, etc). Initially the "mwah" can be the thing. But you are playing BASS, not playing "mwah".
Do the work and experimenting and eventually you will be playing bass AND fretless all in one. - You might learn a bit about your own character. Here's a story to show you an example. Playing unlined, early on, my confidence was very low. Hearing pitch problems, I was about to correct, but looked and noticed my hand was SPOT ON. The pitch problem was a tuning issue of an electric guitar. Wow. Some kinds of self confidence are ok.
- Meditating, I realized that a fretless CAN ALWAYS be in tune - and that's different kind of scary.
Which is derived from classical double bass technique which I referred to in my earlier post.
The deal is to learn to hear what 'in tune' actually is and recognize it quickly. Watch the Jim Stinett video above, lots of great advice. (still, every time I watch one of his videos, I expect him to reach out from the screen and pull a nickel from my ear and then tell me what grandma has fixed for supper).
Here's what to practice:
-Work on unisons. Play an open G string and match it with a G on the D string. (same with D and A)
-Octaves, fifths and fourths (the Perfect intervals) are far easier to hear in or out of tune than the others.
-Get a tuner or something that plays a drone (sine tones are best) and learn to match pitch. Don't use a tuner to tell you when you are in tune, commit to a pitch and then check a tuner.
-Once you can hear if a note is in tune or out, set the drone to a pitch and play a scale on that pitch.
Stop at the fifth and check if that is in tune with the drone.
Play to the upper octave and check that.
After that is solid, play a mixolydian scale (major scale with a flat 7th) and go from the upper octave to the fourth of the scale. Check that that is in tune.
-Do this all around the circle, every key.
Other things to practice:
Easy songs that you know. Nursery songs, church hymns, anything that you already know well. You'll hear a note in a melody out of tune faster than just doing chords and scales.
Remember that it's your ear to hand co-ordination that you're working on, not eye to hand (although looking is fairly important).
It's a great journey (and you'll be on this road your entire life that you play fretless). Enjoy the trip. If you love the sound and love practicing, you'll love fretless.
Here's what to practice:
-Work on unisons. Play an open G string and match it with a G on the D string. (same with D and A)
-Octaves, fifths and fourths (the Perfect intervals) are far easier to hear in or out of tune than the others.
-Get a tuner or something that plays a drone (sine tones are best) and learn to match pitch. Don't use a tuner to tell you when you are in tune, commit to a pitch and then check a tuner.
-Once you can hear if a note is in tune or out, set the drone to a pitch and play a scale on that pitch.
Stop at the fifth and check if that is in tune with the drone.
Play to the upper octave and check that.
After that is solid, play a mixolydian scale (major scale with a flat 7th) and go from the upper octave to the fourth of the scale. Check that that is in tune.
-Do this all around the circle, every key.
Other things to practice:
Easy songs that you know. Nursery songs, church hymns, anything that you already know well. You'll hear a note in a melody out of tune faster than just doing chords and scales.
Remember that it's your ear to hand co-ordination that you're working on, not eye to hand (although looking is fairly important).
It's a great journey (and you'll be on this road your entire life that you play fretless). Enjoy the trip. If you love the sound and love practicing, you'll love fretless.
Lean to play a few Pearl Jam songs such as Black, Even flow, and Alive. I really love playing those on it.
Play busy bass up and down the neck with a tuner and have someone say "stop" at random times. You will be sharp or flat on an electric bass guitar. This unlined bass bravado is silly.
What? singing and playing electric bass guitar without frets are two different things. Singing in tune is very good, but that will not place your fingers where they EXACTLY need to be.
Playing be ear is great to correct AFTER YOU'VE PLAYED THE WRONG NOTE.
There's no bravado. OP asked what works for each of us, I explained what has worked for me. How is that difficult to understand?
I have not seen nor heard an electric bass guitarist that could play busy lines up and down the neck on an unlined fretless in tune.
Obviously I'm not saying it's the only thing. But, thanks to a childhood spent in a clsssical choir with lots of formal training, I knew what 'in-tune' sounded like long before I picked up the fretless bass. Learning to play with good intonation was easy, I mean never gave it a second thought, with such a reliable reference in my head.
How will lines make any difference? I play perfectly in tune on unlined boards all the time because I know what 'in tune' sounds like, not what it looks like. It's not difficult. Tbere is no mystery or mystique.
Speak for yourself. Or at least please stop speaking for others.
Internet bass bravado is so fun.
If you have perfect pitch, that would have little to do with the ability to play in pitch on a trombone or fretless electric bass guitar. Actually, nothing to do with said functions.
And yes, complex music is harder to perform an any instrument rather than easy music.
Sounds like speculation to me. What's your experience? Do you have perfect pitch? If not...
