How to Play Fretless Bass Guitar

A fretless bass guitar

The fretless bass is a beautiful instrument that combines the rumbling of low frequency with the singing of fretless notes. The challenge, however, lies in the taming of the unfamiliar fretboard that is often unmarked, leaving fretted bass players an often difficult task of guessing the proper finger placements. There are techniques and tips for making this process easier for bass players of all levels.

Instructions

1. One of the best things that one can do when handling a fretless bass for the first time is to get a feel for how the fretboard feel and sounds. If you have never experienced a fretless bass before, you will notice some obvious differences from that of a fretted bass. The most obvious difference is the feel of how your fingers move on a fretless neck. Because there are no metal frets separating the notes, your fingers will be free to move at a much faster rate up and down the neck of the bass. This will give you some added speed and freedom, but the absence of frets will raise your responsibility for placing your fingers in the perfect positions to achieve the proper tones. Use the same hand techniques that you would on a fretted bass, but more important, use your ears to make sure you're achieving the right tones.

2. A great way to ensure that you're getting the right tones and notes out of your fretless bass is to simply plug into a bass/guitar tuner to experiment with your finger placement. The tuner should be set to 440 (as standard guitars and basses are tuned to). With the bass plugged into the tuner, play some long notes. Whole notes and half notes will give your tuner the time to read the calibration of the notes you are playing. While doing this, play a long "A" note and make sure that the tuner is reading a solid "A" that is perfectly tuned. Experiment with this until you are familiar with what finger placements give you the right notes. You will notice that fretted basses do a lot of the guessing work for you.

3. While playing the fretless bass plugged into your tuner, you will also notice that the correct finger placements may all fall a little differently than you first imagined. Most notes will achieve their correct tone when they are fingered (fretted) further toward the body of the bass than the headstock. Fretted basses have the power of the metal frets to do the intonation for us, but on a fretless bass you will want to place your fingers a tiny bit to the right of where the fret indicator is (left for left handed players). This may initially come as a surprise, but you will get used to it the more you play your fretless bass.

4. It is also important to be mindful of your right hand (left for left handed players) in the process of playing a fretless bass. If you typically fingerpick or pluck with a pick with a hard velocity, you might notice that the notes on your fretless bass may come out a bit distorted or choppy. A fretless bass does require a little less force and a little more finesse than a fretted bass. Work on achieving consistent tones up and down the fretboard--from low notes to high notes, from fast lines to slow lines, and you will quickly understand the force (or lack thereof) that it takes to pick a fretless bass.

5. Choose a few songs that you are familiar with and play along with them as you would a fretted bass. Notice how your bass sounds different, and notice how you can embellish your lines to incorporate more of a "fretless" feel to them. Like anything in life, mastering the fretless bass is all about repetition. The more you play it, the better you will get. Put in a little time, and before you know it, you might be playing like the great fretless pioneer Jaco Pastorius... or at least like a competent fretless player.

Tips & Warnings

• Play your fretless bass without your amp. The beautiful thing about fretless basses is that they project their notes more than fretted basses. Because of this, you can lug around your fretless bass and practice in your bedroom, on your couch or even on your porch. Listen to fretless players. Go to the music store or iTunes and check out some of the fretless masters. You will quickly notice how they use the fretless bass to their advantage and how they make it growl and sing. Recommended listening: Jaco Pastorius, Brian Bromberg, Jack Bruce, Les Claypool, Pino Palladino and Victor Wooten.

Resources

• Fretless bass.com