A fretless guitar is a
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
with a
fingerboard without
frets, typically a standard instrument that has had the frets removed, though some custom-built and commercial fretless guitars are occasionally made.
The classic fretless guitar was first pioneered in 1976 by Turkish musician
Erkan Oğur
Erkan Oğur (pronounced ) (born April 17, 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.Martinelli, op. cit.Unfretted, op. cit. A composer, he has influenced many musicians wit ...
. Fretless bass guitars are readily available, with most major guitar manufacturers producing fretless models.
On the fretless guitar, the performer's fingers press the string directly against the fingerboard, as with a
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
, resulting in a vibrating string that extends from the
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
(where the strings are attached) to the fingertip instead of to a fret.
Technique
Musicians employ a standard harmony and the
twelve-tone technique
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...
as a base for exploring tones, using a fretless guitar. Fretless guitars offer musicians an ability to use
just intonation in any key and mode and explore new sounds through using
microtonal
Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones— intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of t ...
harmonies and folk melodies in a jazz-groove context.
A detailed article on extended techniques for fretless electric guitar - written by British guitarist Rich Perks - was published by ''Music and Practice'' journal in 2019.
Musicianship with fretless guitars differ from fretted guitars:
* They require greater finger position precision, because the position of the node of the string is continuously variable (being established by the position of the finger) rather than fixed (established by the position of a fret). As a consequence of this, chordal playing in particular is more difficult to achieve accurately.
* The string resonance is reduced, requiring more forceful plucking or modified
amplification (
pickups) to achieve desired volume.
* The smooth surface of the fingerboard allows
legato
In music performance and notation, legato (; Italian for "tied together"; French ''lié''; German ''gebunden'') indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, the player makes a transition from note to note wit ...
playing, with smooth transitional
slurs between notes
Fretless guitars are uncommon in most forms of western music and generally limited to the electrified instruments, due to their decreased acoustic volume and sustain.
The fretless bass guitar has found popularity in many forms of western music, from pop to jazz. The first use of fretless bass guitars dates back to
Bill Wyman in the early 1960s.
Festivals featuring live fretless guitar music have been held for several years both in the US and in Europe. In New York, the first NYC Fretless Guitar Festival was held in 2005. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Fretless Guitar Festival has taken place since 2006.
See also
*
Fretless bass A fretless bass is a bass guitar whose neck does not have any frets. While the instrument is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them befo ...
References
External links
Unfretted.com- fretless guitar resource: history, news, reviews, tips, FAQs, MP3s, lists, dictionary, etc.
NYC Fretless Guitar Festival- The New York Fretless Guitar Festival features the best fretless players from around the world.
Ned EvettThe home of the glass guitarist.
Rich PerksOfficial website for the British fretless guitarist, composer and academic.
"Iki keklik" by Erkan OgurA beautiful Erkan Ogur pieceTurkish fretless guitar virtuoso Erkan Ogur in concert
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Guitars
Continuous pitch instruments