Hi All, I have a few questions so I hope y'all can bear with me.
I guess it's best to purchase a chromatic tuner--I have a cheapie Korg non chromatic.
Where would you put your tape on the bass?
It's really where you feel most comfortable. I've seen it across the fingerboard (haha - not "fretboard"!) like fret lines, and I've seen it as just markers on the upper edge (where the dots would go).
I'd probably do the latter - the idea is to take it off asap. With a little chromie tuner you'll be tapeless in no time!
Lined fretless make sense in some ways but, aren't we supposed to keep our eyes on the music? I get lost when I look away.
The trick is to read ahead and know when/where you'll come back to.
When at the music stores, I heard the terms "Yamaha method" (but that seemed to be for the violin) and "Simandl" while waiting. Simandl sounds like an Austrian name-I went to software school in Vienna. Are these for violin or bass guitar?
Isn't the violin tuned differently from the bass? Wouldn't that make a difference where the tape is and if the Simandl will work? I guess I'll google those terms.
You do understand that the purpose of the tape is to let you know where you should be putting your fingers, right? Like removable frets? Not sure how violin tuning might apply.
I used to be able to find a note on my unlined fretless bass when my wife played one on her Yammy keyboard.
Since I have a fretted Warwick Corvette $$ AND a fretless, does that cause confusion to muscle memory when interchanged at noodleing/practice times?
Well, just remember you have to be awake while you're playing. It's like the difference between eating chicken and steak or driving stick and automatic - you'll know it (or should learn it real fast).
The Hal Leonard fretless book states fingering ON the fretlines, but the fretted books indicate fingering behind the fretlines. Perhaps I should not play one or the other.
Well, yeah - the pressure of the string on the fret sets the endpoint of the vibrating body, which produces the sound (the other end is the bridge). Differences in pitch are created by varying the length of the vibrating portion of the string (essentially lengthening and shortening the string) - longer strings = lower pitch, shorter strings = higher pitch. (Assuming a constant tension, that is.)
So, the frets and your fingertips will be performing the same function: setting the size of the string, thereby the pitch. A technique often used when playing fretted is to fret ON the frets, and then there is less difference in muscle memory. But it's really not necessary - if you can walk up different flights of stairs, you can remember where to put your fingers.
"Knowing the path is a very different thing than walking the path." You should get started playing asap. Playing is like programming - the only way you really learn it is by doing.
Chris
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