Earlier this year I answered a question on Talkbass about playing fretless bass. It works pretty well as a stand alone essay so I’m reposting it here. Enjoy!
A few thoughts on fretless, that for the most part apply to all music making.
Firstly, there’s no ‘cheating’ – do what you need to do to make the music be what it should be. In my experience as a teacher and player (across 30-odd years, teaching at everything from beginner to post-graduate level), the fretless players who use the lines to help are more in tune more of the time than the ones who play unlined basses. It’s a scatter-plot, and there are definitely players who have absolutely mastered their intonation on a blank fretless board, but certainly for me, I can get in tune and stay in tune way, way more consistently with fretlines. Such that I’d never even contemplate owning an unlined fretless unless it was a gift with significant sentimental value and I wasn’t planning on using it professionally.
Then, the advice about using some kind of reference is really good – can be a drone, an open string, a held chord on a piano, a massive reverb patch that lets you sustain a chord while playing over it, a freeze pedal, or a loop of you playing a fretted bass (please check the intonation of the fretted bass before looping it! ) – unless you’re playing unaccompanied, pitch is always relative to whatever and whoever you’re playing along with. I once saw a video by a fairly well known bassist talking about the joy of fretless being the option to play it ‘more’ in tune than a fretted bass. The odd thing was that almost all of his work with with guitarists, who obviously played fretted guitars – the idea that you’d be sliding your thirds and sevenths into their true temperament positions against a guitar is just a recipe for not being in tune with what the rest of the band are up to… ‘In tune’ is a constantly moving target, and your ability to listen and respond is vital. This is also a place where lines can be hugely useful in spotting where a particular note is consistently slightly sharp or flat, and you can then play just slightly behind or ahead of the line.
Being able to listen to a note and correct it isn’t the same as being in tune from the get-go. Intonation that’s purely by ear is a recipe for playing the front end of every note slightly out. That can be an interesting effect, but if that’s not what you’re looking for, it’s worth focussing on what physical reference points help you get your finger in the right position before playing the note. Your ear can’t do that. Muscle memory can, and that can be greatly aided by fretlines. Again, not a hard and fast rule, the side dots can sometimes be enough, but I can’t ever imagine being focused enough on the aesthetics of a bass that I would make it harder to play.
The advice about developing technique in response to musical need is a good priority structure. That’s not to say that technique-led practice can’t also yield inspiration, but turning any technical exercise into a music-creation exercise as soon as possible is the best way to move from asking ‘is this right?’ (a question almost no audience member is ever concerned with) to ‘is this good?’ (the aesthetic portion of how we assess what we’re up to). That distinction is also at the root of our ability to take some agency over our creative path, and start making decisions about what we want to hear and like to hear vs what we perceive to be ‘correct’ in the eyes of some orthodoxy or other. Again, that’s not to say that correct technique is unimportant, just that it is a stepping stone towards our actual creative goals, which is making good music, making meaning, expressing ourselves and/or doing justice to the music we’re re-creating. Our technical development is likely to be most satisfying when it is at the service of a mode of music making that brings us joy, satisfaction and meaning.
Finding a teacher – fretless is a different animal, and requires a bunch of observational, process-led and quasi-philosophical perspectives to explore what it offers and how it is learned in a manner distinct from the fretted bass. That doesn’t mean that people who don’t play fretless primarily can’t be good at teaching it, just that their take on it needs to be pretty well considered – my favourite piece of fretless advice ever came from an Anthony Jackson masterclass I was fortunate to attend, when he was asked about tips for playing fretless, and he answered ‘I don’t play fretless, but if you want to play fretless well, you need to be offended by your own bad intonation.’ – in that response was a stark and deep understanding of the relationship between artist perception and audience experience, and the task of giving the listener (or whatever is hiring you!) the best possible performance, and the enhanced role of intonation in those considerations for a fretless bassist over a fretted one.
I do teach online, so if that’s useful, message me. Otherwise, just ask around and see what people come back with. I would hope that any prospective teacher would listen to your intentions before prescribing a method to help you get to where you want to be.