🤙 this is the style I was taught on a fretted bass and it helped so much in the hop across to fretless.

Thank you for your valuable lesson, I already stretch my fingers when playing my fretted bass and I want to play a fretless next. I feel a bit anxious to play one because many people I know discouraged me to make the next step as I am currently surpassing their level of playing bass, but I am determined to go ahead.

I have found that playing melodies and referencing open strings occasionally helped me with my intonation.

Worthy tip to know. Another tip for a fretless bass is, the vibrato. On a fretless instrument, the vibrato should be side to side, rolling your fingers like a violinist. Not up and down, like you would do on a fretted instrument.

Most fretted bassists without bad habits will already be playing scales using the one finger per fret technique so moving over to fretless isn't really difficult. Obviously not having frets requires accurate finger location. If you have a good ear and practice, your fingers will naturally adapt the even finger spacings as shown in the video.

I will tell you the number one tip for playing fretless bass. Carefully listen what you play and feel it when you play if you can... With this way you don't need to care about anything and you can play the instrument only with your spine. There is no magical way for doing it right. You should have some musical talent and a creative soul to play fretless beautifully.

I have the same bass guitar with he has and I know on the neck side there are position marks and that makes playing this much easier. In addition to it, if you touch on wrong position, say 1mm wrong, listeners don't notice that because the bass guitars necks are long enough compares with violines. Don't stop and keep on playing fretless bass. It's not that difficult to play as you think and that opens new doors for you.

thank you for your recommendation - highly appreciated :-)

two words muscle memory.

This is such valuable teaching. I started learning classical violin and then classical guitar at school many years ago before I started playing bass. And that’s the first thing they teach you is the importance of positioning your right and left hand. I lapsed into bad habits with my right hand playing acoustic guitar but playing bass guitar was my main instrument and from around the age of 20 I exclusively played fretless. So this is so important. Now several years on I’m now in a wheelchair and I was trying to begin to play fretless bass again mine is a 5 string. The problem I’m having is a typical solid bodied bass guitar is impossible for me to play it is far too heavy, so much so I’m in agony even trying to lift it from its stand. I have a lot of shoulder pain and neck pain I have limited use of my arms. Also the stretch is painful now because I have osteoarthritis in both hands and have muscle wasting. Can you please recommend a lightweight solid bodied 5 string fretless bass? I know Ibanez do a range. I like the look and sound of their semi hollow bodied bass but I am on a very tight budget so although it’s a beautiful sound for specific songs I need a fretless bass that’s more versatile I’m not looking for an active bass as such just one that’s affordable but behaves well particularly in recording. I don’t have several grand to buy a new bass. Any advice would be great! I’m hoping to try a solid bodied Ibanez sunburst fretless soon just to see if it will be better . I have heard the Cory fretless bass demos and I love the sound it’s definitely the sound I am after but it’s whether or not I can physically play it. They look and remind me of my old Warwick 5 string fretless and it was sold sounded incredible but it became too heavy for me to use and because of my disability I developed the D shaped neck was so hard to navigate. I do position my left hand correctly but it’s a huge stretch and like you pointed out you have to be absolutely bang on where the fret normally is. I mean if you root those notes wrong and out of tune it just sounds awful! I’m quite adventurous and play chords and octaves I don’t want to give up playing fretless. I’m hooked on the sound. Although I plan hopefully to get a fretted bass for other things. So if you can suggest a few things I would be so grateful. Also I have tiny hands. So it’s another issue not just arthritis. ✨

Spot On..Thanks..

Basically what you describe for left hand posture is Classical Guitar posture, which was borrowed and adapted from Cello and Contra Bass.. Exactly right. So much more you can do using classical left hand. Large huge necks become easy. Electric players complain about big necks only because they have very bad posture limiting their range.

I use a mix of 4FF and Simandl. For me, the stretch is too great in 1st position for 4FF.

Nice!

The same time when you uploaded this video, Dunede, is when I had just begun laying down the bread for a fretless bass belonging to an old friend. I had seen him perform with it once, apparently the only time he did. He had had it custom-made by Carvin (now Kiesel). He had specified that it was not to have the markings on the fingerboard for the sake of authenticity, and that was something I immediately found appealing when he offered to sell it to me. I seem to recall some remark that he made when I first knew him as a teenager about fretless bass being the only real bass. Not too flattering for the precision variety of bass guitars. I might have completely misunderstood him all the same. Back in 2020 when I was researching instruments and trying to pick one, I seem to recall reading or hearing somewhere that it was actually easier to play upright bass that it was to play fretless bass guitar. Whoever wrote that comment said that the heel of the upright neck was good for helping establish tempered pitch in a fashion that wasn’t optional for a fretless bass guitar. Have you ever had that issue?

Excelente explanation!

Thank you for sharing :-)

Funnily enough, many years ago I purchased a fretless bass guitar from a store with the name of "Fretted Instruments".

Nice lesson. I am getting my first fretless bass soon but it has lines so I can learn the notes. Now the question, what archery bow is that behind you and what pound is it? I mean draw weight. Thanks

Good tip and nice looking bass :) I guess you've changed the strings to Rotosound flatwound ones you mentioned in previous video. Are there any tips to make an acoustic fretless bass sound like a double bass?

jakiej marki jest ta gitara ?

Don't play fretless like this. Yes, use the right left-hand technique, but avoid finger per fret.

What kind of bass is that? Looks and sounds very nice.

THIS IS ALL CORRECT

WHAT BASS & MODEL IS THIS?

As you told me , I will go with square not with a bunch of banana. Thank you , Granpa !

6 minute YT shorts

The double bassplayers don't use the technique.

#1 tip: don't play an acoustic bass guitar, fretless or not

Actually you were playing correctly at the beginning of your video. Your hand was relaxed and your Pointer and Ring finger were the guide fingers for the meat and potatoes of phrasing notes. However, the second you started lecturing about the 4 fingers per fret and started to change your hand position to the CLAW technique, u instantly began playing wrong! Go look at any great bassists from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s and NO ONE played with that CLAW technique! Old bassists hands stayed relaxed. The best way to simulate a relaxed hand playing notes around the chord shapes is to play a scale BUT ONLY use your POINTER and RING finger to play the notes of the scale.

You really shouldn't bend your left wrist like that, you may hurt yourself in the long run.

You could have edited out all of your pauses and saved us all 9 hours.