Tips for starting out on fretless?

[vulturedog]

The fretless bass I seem to fall in and out of love with it! Right now I'm in love with it.....learning to hit the right notes (on the line). {yes it's has lines} Can be a chore! I loved the singers question the other night though how the f... Do you play that thing!

 

[Callused Finger]

Fretless will make you a better player in the long run. It's something that made me go back and relearn my left hand technique, including use of my pinky, which I never did for almost 30 years.

 

[tfer]

My fretless has no lines, so using the side markers, I determine where the 12th 'fret' would be, and set my intonation to that.

 

[Doublesixes]

Stretch your left hand as much as you can (assuming you have a 34 inch scale bass) otherwise you'll have a tendency to play mostly on the flat side. Proper left hand position is critical with a fretless.

 

[Mushroo]

Stretch your left hand as much as you can (assuming you have a 34 inch scale bass) otherwise you'll have a tendency to play mostly on the flat side. Proper left hand position is critical with a fretless.

I agree that proper left hand position is important, but disagree that stretching as much as I can is the "proper" position. Stretching = fatigue, which makes it easy to drift out of tune after a set or two. With a relaxed, non-stretched left-hand position, I find I can stay in tune better over the course of an evening. My preferred technique involves less stretching and more shifting.

 

[Doublesixes]

I agree that proper left hand position is important, but disagree that stretching as much as I can is the "proper" position. Stretching = fatigue, which makes it easy to drift out of tune after a set or two. With a relaxed, non-stretched left-hand position, I find I can stay in tune better over the course of an evening. My preferred technique involves less stretching and more shifting.

True, extreme stretching of the left hand can lead to fatigue but for players like me with not so large hands, a flat, fully extended configuration helps with reaching the lines with more accuracy. Of course all this applies to the notes around the fifth fret mark and below.

 

[CPAC]

I know this post is a few years old but I just read through it myself because I just bought my first fretless too. Great tips. I’m mostly using mine as a travel/practice bass. Although I tend to play with a more fat bass muted sound, turning the treble up helps me hear the intonation a lot better. Fretless has also helped to remind me to play softer (aka only the necessary amount of pressure to fret a note) in order to not press down so hard that notes go sharp. I played guitar for 25+ years before switching to bass as a main instrument. But as a guitarist I remember first noticing bass, especially a fretless, in high school while playing and listening to mostly 80’s rock and metal. The bassist I heard and loved was Tony Franklin. He played with a lot of folks but the album I heard was the first (self-titled) album from the band Blue Murder. Check out “Billy” and “Valley of the Kings”. Still great performances and great tone. I hope the fretless experience/journey has been an enjoyable one.

P.s. I found a very decent affordable bass at Glarrymusic.com for around a $100.

 

[WillyW]

Play what you already know.

Except now it will be on a fretless instrument.

hopefully by now the OP is a virtuoso

 

[P. Aaron]

I know this post is a few years old but I just read through it myself because I just bought my first fretless too. Great tips. I’m mostly using mine as a travel/practice bass. Although I tend to play with a more fat bass muted sound, turning the treble up helps me hear the intonation a lot better. Fretless has also helped to remind me to play softer (aka only the necessary amount of pressure to fret a note) in order to not press down so hard that notes go sharp. I played guitar for 25+ years before switching to bass as a main instrument. But as a guitarist I remember first noticing bass, especially a fretless, in high school while playing and listening to mostly 80’s rock and metal. The bassist I heard and loved was Tony Franklin. He played with a lot of folks but the album I heard was the first (self-titled) album from the band Blue Murder. Check out “Billy” and “Valley of the Kings”. Still great performances and great tone. I hope the fretless experience/journey has been an enjoyable one.

P.s. I found a very decent affordable bass at Glarrymusic.com for around a $100.

I occasionally play fretless in the Irish Punk-pop band I’m in. Lotsa 1-5, 1-4-5 mostly in D, G, and occasionally some other key. With a lined fretless, I got the hang pretty quickly but I also tried to play m a n y different songs on the fretless. That helped trouble shoot intonation issues.

I’m not out front so I get away w/some looky-loo but rthym-wise, I’m pretty solid. Start with simple tunes, you’ll be surprised how well you develop IF you stay with it for a few weeks.

 

[beatmachine pro]

put a chromatic tuner in your chain
play in the 5th position] just find Am and play grooves in that
*u can check your intonation against the open strings and harmonics
then start adding notes

thats how i would do it anyway, i would master the easiest fingering
g/l i wish i could do that

 

[Real Soon]

I just picked up, recently, not only a fretless, but a 6-string fretless bass. To think I had the hubris to think I wanted an unlined fingerboard... the lines are the only way I stand a chance on this thing! Well, for now. I've had it for a week and change and am already a better bassist than when it first arrived.

Also, it's almost like playing a whole different, decidedly more delicate (roundwound strings on bare wood), and incontrovertibly more expressive instrument.

I'm pressing as lightly as I can with my left hand and using the most educationally correct fingers-up, one-finger-per-fret positioning possible. I'm good with thumb pivoting, but it's making me really focus on getting the most range out of a pivot now that I have to nail the line even down in first-line position. Only motion on the string is pressing and releasing, no lateral motion (string bending). Not including, of course, slides and vibrato. Veeerrryy fun

From here, I'm going over every bass line I know, going over calisthenics exercises, scales, arpeggios (!), simple intervals and chords, doing simple stuff while not looking down, playing along with songs and trying not to look down, and generally just living with the instrument.