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good fretless tunes to learn?


marcus bell
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"i realize some of these are hard but i thought i better push myself instead of sticking to the easy stuff plus i have a lined fretless so its easy really...

Any more suggestions?"

> Looks like you're doing pretty well with the stuff you're learning - particularly if you can play Havona!

> A final suggestion is to play along to the Cannonball Adderley version of Autumn Leaves on Somethin' Else - I learned it on the fretless (not particularly note for note - just improvising around the chord changes) - although I liked the bassline so much flogged my fretless and switched to upright!

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[quote name='barneyg42' post='632728' date='Oct 21 2009, 07:47 PM']


Gets pretty sweet at 4.38![/quote]

Probably my most watched vid on youtube. The fill at 5:00-5:02 is just awesome. Probably my favourite fill, in any song, ever :) Nothing very hard or technical about it...Just a fantastic piece of tasteful playing.

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My sei was out of action last week, did a rehersal with just fretless, went fine, had a fretted P-bass for a few tracks we are doing thoug, just in case. Didn't need it, suprising how quick you get it naoled with stuff you know well, I often play along to our demos on fretless.

...and it is a lush pedulla :)

T

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My fretless Stingray has become my No 1 bass. I struggled to play it at first, but 2 things made it almost instantly easier: I replaced the roundwound strings with Status halfwounds. Virtually no string-hiss when sliding fingers - marvellous. Then, I put a thumbrest (disguised as a control knob!) on the bass so I didn't have to concentrate on accurate left-hand positioning at the same time as learning floating thumb on my plucking hand.

As a newcomer to bass-playing, I'm often asked why I play fretless: "Isn't that a bit ambitious Steve? Isn't it hard?". Physically, I don't find it any harder to press the strings compared to a fretted bass, once I'd lowered the action a bit on the fretless. In fact, I now find it more tiring to play a fretted. My fretless is unlined with position dots at 3, 5, 7 etc. Now, when I pick up the fretted bass, I find it visually confusing with all those frets and I sometimes mis-fret as a result. The fretless fingerboard appears uncluttered and more err, [i][/i]accessible[i][/i].

My band prefers the smooth tone of the fretless to the noisiness of the fretted - but that may be more a reflection of the difference between a Stingray and a G&L (plus the fact that I'm not a good bass player on either). So far, as a beginner, I haven't played the fretless and fretted basses differently, but I'm starting to - sometimes I "walk" between semitones.

My favourite song right now is Upside down, but I'm sure that works just as well on a fretted.

Steve

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[quote name='Higgie' post='633099' date='Oct 22 2009, 03:37 AM']Probably my most watched vid on youtube. The fill at 5:00-5:02 is just awesome. Probably my favourite fill, in any song, ever :) Nothing very hard or technical about it...Just a fantastic piece of tasteful playing.[/quote]


Just listened to that. Lordy - that's so sweet and cool. [i][/i]That's[i][/i] how I want my bass playing to turn out. Dream on.

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[quote name='Beedster' post='631614' date='Oct 20 2009, 06:20 PM']I tried to play 'fretless lines' for months with no luck. Then I took my fretless to a rehearsal and simply played my usual fretted lines albeit without frets. That's how I learned fretless technique and intonation. Haven't looked back (or used frets) since.
Good luck
Chris[/quote]

This is what i did but i still play fretted. They are very different to play but for me i always think jumping in at the deep end is a good way to learn. I can play our whole set fretless or fretted without having to think about it.

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[quote name='bassmanbish' post='634558' date='Oct 23 2009, 04:01 PM']Speaking of Pino, I would recommend that you dig out the first 2 Go West Albums ('Go West' and 'Dancing On The Couch'). Perhaps not the most obvious 'fretless' tunes but man, can that guy play a tasty, tight bassline. Essential listening for all fretless players in my opinion!

Cheers
Matt[/quote]

As I said in my previous post...Jaco who? :)

Pino is the king of fretless IMO

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I posted this in the "Recordings" forum, but thought I'd post it here as well as it seemed appropriate for the thread :)

Here's my take on the track mentioned above:


Admittedly the intonation isn't perfect - I haven't had the fretless long and I'm still getting to grips with it. Also I don't know why the video and audio aren't in Sync. Not quite sure what to do to fix it so will have to leave it as is for now!!

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