The Only Fretless Bass Lesson You'll EVER Need!
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This fretless bass lesson shows you the only exercise you will ever need to improve intonation.
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I've just ordered my Pino Palladino Signature Rosewood Spatula.
@@OnlineBassGuitar1 haha! i'd forgotten about this post.
This is a great video. It made me dig out my fretless bass, and in just one afternoon i went from fucking dreadful to fairly dreadful. Feel free to use this as a testimonial in any promotional material. x
I played violin for basically my whole life and decided to take up bass, so naturally I was curious about fretless and wanted to know what left-hand things I could bring into it. Intonation (i.e., pitch) is usually the first thing to go when you stop practicing for any length of time, so I wanted to come up with a good warmup to be the first thing I practice every day. What I found works good for me is chromatic runs on one string, first up up then down starting with the open string then two notes per finger, all fingers, then back down to start, so that's a chromatic up in 4/4 time to the top note in eighth notes, hit the top on 1 then come back down, hitting the bottom note on 1, repeating the run up and down 4 times, then break it down finger by finger starting with the open string, first finger a semitone higher, slide up to the second note another semitone higher, then back down to the first note and repeat two more times so you count to 4 (counting in quarters, playing in eighths) repeat that 4 times, then do the same starting with the first finger a whole tone above the open string then doing that repeating semitone slide up and down with the second finger, again 4 times, then do that over again starting on the second then the third fingers, then finish off with a series of 4-note - 2-finger type patterns going up 2 notes, down one, repeat starting on successive fingers,then back down again, etc., then doing the same thing on all strings. It builds strength in your fingers and intonation on a pretty low-level so you can really focus on getting the notes in tune and developing that hand position and getting to where that intonation and "sure-footedness" becomes more and more natural. For an extra-thorough workout you can repeat the whole thing in rhythms - my favorite basic starting rhythm patterns are the two-note ones: a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth, all the way through the exercise, then reverse that to a sixteenth followed by a dotted eighth. You can use double-dotted eighths and thirty-seconds if you want more of a challenge to develop your speed and precision. The whole gamut of 4-note rhythm patterns can be developed for that as well.
Another aspect of fretless with the left-hand I am pretty particular about is vibrato. Most fretless vibrato you hear sounds too much like a sick calf for my liking, so I started googling TH-cam for cello teachers and see how they teach it (since the string lengths are quite similar and I really love a good cello vibrato sound.) Getting a good tight - and beautiful - vibrato on the fretless will set you apart from pretty much everyone, so as long as your general musicianship is up there (intonation, keeping good time, getting around the instrument, etc.), you will be able to play in a way that few other do, with a much more beautiful and dynamic sound. For more exercises, the next thing will be scales - a whole other subject in itself. Thanks for reading this!
I know it's quite an old comment, but regarding vibrato I had the same experience. Electric bass player tend to wobble back and forth, where string quartet players are taught to only go down in pitch. So the vibrato never goes above the note, only above. (I also got this info from cello which I learned for a few weeks).
Been playing fretless for many years, I think this is a good advice for beginners. Because everyone will eventually find out that in order to play fretless you can't just rely on markers or lines, you really have to use your ears. There's no other way around it.
My point exactly! Thanks for the comment!
Fantastic advice. I used to have a lined fretless but ended up constantly staring at the fretboard watching the position of my fingers rather than listening. I now have a Fender Tony Franklin Fretless with an unlined board and I find it so much easier to play. I found the lines limiting. With no lines, I rely on both my ears and eyes and find greater freedom in my playing. And I discovered my ear is a lot better than I give it credit for. Thanks for sharing!
So glad you enjoyed the video! Cheers for commening!
I play fretless for more than 40 years... The way I see it: you should look at your bass like a slide guitar. Learn how to pitch (and "vibrato") in real time. Don't try to place your finger somewhere and play the note. Rather get close to the tuned spot and correct in real time. It might take some time, but like playing bottle neck on a guitar, you can do it right.
This is what I do, get close and micro-adjust. More often than not I’m landing on the line and adjusting it to be slightly sharp or flat so that I’m in tune with the band lol, you also have a bit of leeway if you’re not spot on at first because most peoples’ ears won’t notice a few-cent difference and they’ll hear the pitch as matching the band
Your advice to get the ear trained to adjust what your fingers are up to is spot on. I play sax, an instrument that is never in tune unless you adjust your lip & breath pressure, the embouchure. Recently I started messing with a friend’s fretless and I’ve taken to it quite well. Notes are generally in tune, just not always the right order at this early stage! The years of embedding the feedback loop from hearing to almost instantaneously adjusting the touch points on the instrument were paying off. Thanks for giving great advice and the spatula balancing is a terrific way of conveying the point.
I'm trying this. I need it.
When I get my fretless done,( I have an American Deluxe 5 String Jazz bass that I will soon be turning into a fretless and I can't wait.) I will most definitely try this exercise!
Thank you for sharing this. I played fretless for years but since becoming seriously ill and disabled I have only just begun playing fretless bass again. I’m finding it challenging to say the least. The issue is my tuning at times. My old bass which was a Warwick didn’t have any line markers just some dots. The new bass is an Ibanez SRF 705 which has lines on the side of the neck as well as dots, however the dots are in a different place which is throwing me into confusion up the neck. I really need to sit down with the new bass and get used to playing it again. Thank you for your video. I will definitely be giving this a go ❤
A year late to the party, but you could put fret tape on if that's be a sensible intermediate step?
@@PEACEinYESHUA-oj7vc1pk7w had that 705 for few years, those short lines are useless, and need some deep mod to achieve nice meaw buzz, you also need chorus reverb and delay... Round wound strings
Good point I just bought a fretless I had one40 years ago and never got good at it. My teacher told me to get one with frets…. Good video and I like the Aebersold we used to play that and use that those books and those recordings in college when I study music in Boston great studies
That’s a great lesson mate 😎👌 I’ve always played by ear so I’m always listening to what to play and where to play it and all that. I prefer fretless without the lines for that reason. Fir example if I’m slightly out of tune I can just adjust the position a little to be in tune and so on :) there are sooooo many fretless bass players that I had no idea played fretless! Like Jeff Ament in Pearl Jam and ya can hear it especially is songs like Even Flow with that beautiful harmonic slide that can only be done on a fretless! 😎👌
Appreciate it. Thank you!
This is it! In a couple of minutes everything explained. Thanks very much!
Of course I will try it.And thanks for the fretless exercise.There aren't many different ones on line.
thank you brother. Im getting my first bass tomorrow a lovely fretless.
"Listening and adjusting my tuning as I play" ... oh and looking closely at my fingers relative to the fret lines to assist 😂
I'm will try this with my B1X looper, record a c major with a fretted bass then switch (AB pedal) to fretless and match the loop on every string and position.
Never been a fan of fretless basses with neck markers. I have owned my German made Corvette for 9 years ( Jack Bruce style) and love it to death. Been playing bass 50 years and have a J and a P fretted but only bought the Warwick 9 years ago and NOW I feel very comfortable on it even though it has the best neck of all my basses, its the fretless part that took me some time to get comfortable with. I agree that you should learn by ear. If it doesn't sound right...it isn't.
I will check out your advised exercise !
I’ve found practicing in a dark room to tune my ears to proper intonation, seems to work for me.
Can totally see that! As long as you’re training the ears rather than just the fingers then that’s the most important thing. Nice one 🙌
Great video; thanks for talking about the EARS being an essential tool for playing any fretless stringed instrument! I saw a comment down-thread that suggested, if I understood correctly, to essentially " go for the note by ear and correct pitch in real time"...? In my experience and observation, there are actual specific, physical locations on my fretless bass neck that are "in tune", relative to a tuner and my open(tuned) strings, that I then apply vibrato to and/or microscopic position shifts to match my intonation to other instruments or a recorded track. Recording one's self playing every day, regardless of the instrument one plays, is another way to note what needs correction and adjustment and staves off the dreaded self-delusion/self-bullshitting syndrome. As far as LOOKING AT THE NECK is concerned: Hell yeah, use ALL of the tools at your disposal, ESPECIALLY if you have never played a fretless instrument! One can use eyes, ears, and muscle memory to develop good intonation...Oh yeah, another thing: your set-up will affect how you approach dialing in your intonation and your overall playing technique,too.
I don't play with super-low action( personal preference ), so there's a slightly different kind of physical interaction of both hands with the instrument...Just throwin' my 2 cents' worth into the comments here✌🏾🤗
Anyway, thanks for your clear, concise presentation! It focuses on a key issue related to playing fretless bass.
Cheers😎
@@OnlineBassGuitar1 Glad that you are adding quality content to TH-cam! 👍🏽😉
Pretty darn brilliant! 👍👍⭐️⭐️
Great video...thanks.
Definitely gonna do this thanks for the tips mate!
Nice one OBG!!
I was looking for this video! At last! Thank you!
I've been trying to play Popper cello etudes on my fretless bass but I noticed that some notes seem to be played slightly out of tune deliberate, on watching a cello lesson on youtube it seems to be to emphasize or de-emphasize certain intervals or phrases. Also fretted instruments and pianos/ orchestra instruments use a slightly different tuning and I think it's best to not be too anal about being in tune all the time perfectly, the beats generated due to very slightly out of tune instruments sound great.
Orchestral instruments play pythagorean intonation for lead lines and just intonation for double stops.. They strive to be perfectly in tune with that system, which isn't the same as the equal temperament system that frets give. Play it so it sounds right, whether that's where the fret markers are or not.
I tried balancing a spatula on my finger while playing but couldn't get a handle on it 😉. Good tip - thx!
Don't fret about it just play!!!!! Lol
I play classical guitar, and never look at my hands. If I play fretless 'by myself', that is to say...without any external reference, such a backing track or another person to keep me centered, or connected to the tonality, it is common (now that my perfect pitch has, as is common for musicians, grown variably reliable in age) for my pitch to migrate fractions of a tone. This can of course be corrected by glancing at my hand, but I don't. Eventually my ear tells me to 'reset' when I am come aware that the notes I'm playing 'aren't' in fact notes.
If you can't stay on key, as a result of not having developed 'relative' (memorized) pitch, or never having developed tonal familiarity, which is naturally come of long association with it, you will always be required to use your eyes, in which case fretless is no different to fretted, EXCEPT...that 'approximately' the right finger placement doesn't to it on fretless, as it does on fretted. If you can't play without looking at your hands, you probably haven't developed either of those two skills sufficiently to easily play fretless.
The solution is to discipline yourself to play 'fretted' without looking at your hands, and then fretless will be easy, BUT...I caution never perfect absent a diligent ear.
My approach : it's like playing guitar with a bottle neck. Get your pitch/ear right by practicing and do make your instrument sing. The way to get there is up to you really. For me, playing all the melodies of what I listen to (or play with bands) works great.
You don't have frets in your thraught to sing in pitch...
(I play fretless and upright for 40+ years)
I have a problem... sometimes, depending on the monitoring, I cannot make out the correct pitch while listening (like my ears give me errors)... I record on some headphones, seems OK, then I listen on another system and man... it sounds so out of tune. Is it my ear or the monitor sound might not be right? What am I missing? I play piano for over 30 years and I also tune it myself by ear... so I'm pretty used to pitch, but on bass guitar, sometimes, I cannot distinguish the pitch. Have you ever had or heard of this problem? What shall I do?
After playing bass for 3 years, it's time for a better bass and more practice time. More structure.
The way I get my ear in shape to play fretless is playing my Hammond organ for about 15-30 minutes. It is exactly in tune always and puts the notes firmly in your ear. No enharmonic confusion - Ab and G# being different notes based on context. Playing piano is also helpful but nothing establishes 440Hz Equal Temperament like playing a real tonewheel organ.
A trained ear is the only way to get this right as all Orchestra string players use. You don't see fret lines on a Violin or Cello, can you imagine the note spacing on a violin? One of the real nice things about fretless is you can play slightly sharp or flat and this does come in handy when guitar players are binding notes and singers that are not quite on pitch. Granted 5ths and 7ths are a little more difficult in the beginning so start your training by not looking at the fret board as much (no need to stare). One benefit with fretless is that you no longer need to set intonation, I check a new instrument once and never bother again... Fretless has so much more personality and emotion...IMO
nice spatula yet i missed the connection
So in the same way that I’d have to constantly monitor the spatula in order to balance it, bass players have to constantly monitor and adjust the tuning of each note on the fretless with their ears.
Basically, just putting your fingers on the lines/in the right place isn’t enough.
@OnlineBassGuitar1 thanks buddy
@@Sonme-n7s my pleasure!
As a ex pro cellist I can't stand frets. They get in the way of playing the note I want. Listening carefully all the time to where your fingers tuning the note is basic. Every note you play is like tuning your bass. Not listening to your tuning will sound hideous. Practice slowly listening to each note, tuning it as if your twisting the bass tuners to the correct pitch.
It's a huge shift in mentality isn't it? I find the same thing now when I play bowed upright. Particularly on more melodic or expressive patches, the flexibility in tuning is so important.
Totally agree with you!
What bothers me is that the people who are teaching fretless bass playing on instruments that have the fret marks say that you should play right on the fret marks and that you should NOT play on the dots that appear in the middle of the bar. Number one: I play a fretless bass but there are NO fret marks, and I prefer this. I play on the dots, and it plays in perfect tune. I tune the instrument to a very fine tuner and NOT to a dot mark... so the dots on my instrument are exactly where get the exact note I want. So, my question is... why did some idiot place dots in the middle of the bar... why not remove those dots and place them on the side of the neck where they are visible while playing and place them exactly where the marked fret lines go... Am I missing something?
Compare tones to empty strings, get a good pair of ears, and get your fingering in order, No extras needed.
But how are you meant to “get a good pair of ears” if you don’t do any exercises or work like this to develop them?
As a violin player I could never understand the shit sound of metal frets and unnatural nut on the neck that sounds nothing like finger. The nut is still a problem in all frettless designs I see - tallking open strings
I hear you! It's totally different when working with frets!
I avoid open strings as much as possible and practicable. mostly shift more or play higher up on a five or six string. It's all just finger patterns.
What kind of bass is that?
Is this Hugh Richardson the ICMP alumni? If so, didn't recognise you with short hair...
Or you could have a 7 string fretless like me with no lines,dots,or markers of any sort.....😬.....then you really jump from the frying pan into the fire.....🤯
Leave the internet!!!
Sorry bro, that doesn't help at all, I thought you will explain any technic like the figers positions over the board like acoustic bass, to read music you "can't" see your board cuz you will get lose.😒
Just play in total dark 😂
😂😂