Can I play a FRETLESS guitar?
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- In my last videos, we tied on historical gut frets to a guitar and experimented with different microtonal tuning systems. In today's video, I attempt to play virtuosic guitar music but without ANY frets on the instrument. Let me know what you think of the sound in the comments!
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:46 Romanza
1:12 Bourée in E minor
1:24 My first reaction
1:46 Asturias Leyenda
2:20 Mozart Variations
2:41 Capricho Árabe
3:46 Improvisation
4:26 Intonation is so difficult!
4:49 Short Ad
5:20 Chopin Nocturne
5:45 Smoke on the water
5:53 My conclusion
6:12 Gnossienne No. 1
6:25 Oud music
7:07 Outro
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Watching Brandon struggle is both enjoyable and reassuring. Of course, even Brandon struggling still sounds amazing...
Jesus Christ the true sovereign king who miraculously healed me, loves you :" )
also perfection for us simple humans is not possible for us while we are still as sinners,only God can be perfect in all His ways, but when it comes to music
its okay to not be the very best :" ) just enjoy the music you play, grow and see the beautiful sounds that come out (even if you dont think they are at the moment since we sometimes judge ourselves too much)
You got this :" ) enjoy the good playing, and remember, its okay to aspire and enjoy others music, but dont let it become something that makes you feel like you will never succeed, as that is simply a lie from the devil :" )
You matter to God, I hope you do well and have a nice life, and even through the hard times, I hope your relationship with the Holy triune God will be beautiful, full of hope trust and peace in Him
He struggling it makes better because he's literally giving his best pushing into his limits
@@joshua2400 Jesus bot went haywire
@@joshua2400 I feel like this comment is more about you than anyone else
Some people cringe over the intonation not being absolutely perfect, but I love the fact that for once the intonation isn't perfect. Because there's no frets, every single note sounds slightly different, which adds way more character to the pieces imo
Brandon’s intonation on the fretless guitar after 5 minutes is better than mine is on the violin after a decade of practice.
Apart from 15 years of muscle memory as a pro classical guitarist, Brandon has fret markers to show where to put fingers, you don't.
More importantly, intonation on violin is a *LOT* harder, because distance between notes is so much less. If you're off by 1-2 mm on fretless guitar, you're still OK, especially in low positions. 2mm on a violin? Awful. . .
How people can learn to even play violin is beyond my imagination, to me it is incredible.
Also intonation is a bigger problem on bowed instrument, as plucked instruments do have time dependent pitch, which makes slight intonation problems less noticeable. This is the reason why it is harder to tune a violin just by plucking instead of bowing.
lol felt
@@jgrossma Not just fret markers, but the fingerboard has the fret slots scribed into the neck, so there are still visual cues. I was surprised at how the lack of frets affected the sustain and timbre. Very interesting.
You got a respect the professionalism of the guy who can do something for our enjoyment that he knows might not make him look very good. It actually demonstrates just how talented he is. Thank you.
He plays impeccable, as always, just a wee bit off pitch. Gotta love the humility though, that is shown in opening the video with 'Romanza'!
Just bolted at the sight of this notification. Absolutely adore fretless music. It‘s just a whole other dimension of music.
Yeap👍👍👍
that’s actually pretty cool to hear such classical pieces executed without frets, it’s a very unique sound! good job Brandon!
yep....Brandon can sure play.
As a violinist this video was very entertaining for me. Thank you! Frets sure make things easier. You are a fantastic guitarist and even without frets you sounded pretty darn good!
Just consider that you commonly play more than one string at a time on a guitar. Not exactly the definition of “easier”.
@@Thyme2sea
I'm not at all implying that playing the guitar is easy. Especially the level at which Mr. Acker plays. But frets do help make good intonation easier. Violinists also play more than one string at a time and I know how hard it is to make all the notes in tune. He does a fantastic job of it.
@@tessabates1078 Please, accept my apologies! I was not intending on offending anyone! It was more of a personal realization that guitars have frets and most other strings instruments in an orchestra don’t (and they are playing one string at a time, most of the time).
@@Thyme2sea Not offended. 😊
The frets on a guitar allows things that are impossible to do on a violin, just like... being bowed, or not, and the 1000 reasons a violin is diferent from a guitar. Frets sure may make intonation easier, but they give the musician new possibilities, things that arent practical with fretless instruments, each instrument is different, makes a different sound... (this comment was not well written you all will have to forgive me)
“Classical guitarist learns the pain all other classical string musicians have to go through.”
In all due seriousness, your fingers never forget how to play, so it’s cool that you tried this out!
"All other classical string musicians have to go through"
*laughs in viol*
Fretted instruments>>>>>>>fretless instruments
Laughs in classical mandolin
@@no-rq7fp fretless will always be better than fretted. Just sounds better and wayyy more fun to play.
Presumably frets were put on the guitar to make making chords easier to play. Cello, violin etc all tend to play one string at a time, occasionally 2. They are more generally single note instruments, although you can sound more than one string at a time.
Thank you for adding 7 minutes and 48 seconds of joy to my morning.
It's not as precise nor easy to play yet its sound is so welcoming and friendly, all of the small "imperfections" in playing only seem to make it sound more warm.
It's almost like hearing the voice of someone you love for the first time again.
Maybe some of these intervals approximate the just intervals better. Can you give an example of such warm sounds with timestamps?
BTW, people who do play fretless guitar "seriously" usually don't attempt standard repertoire on it; getting good intonation is really not practical or even possible with many common guitar chords. Fretless players will usually play material optimized for fretless guitar. That's typically more single note type melody lines, often with open/drone strings going as audible pitch references to help with intonation. Again, very much like an oud. A lot of it is just having a good "ear" to hear pitches.
Open tunings can help for more complicated compositions. While a few common chord shapes "work" chords are usually limited to 2-3 notes, and one of them might be an open string. Standard 1st position open C major is OK and a few others work. You can get a decent minor chord barring across three high strings. Four string fretted "jazz" chord? Forget it. . .
but why? cello, violin etc. don't have frets and we can play chords fine
I've seen people play jazz chords and such on cello
@@polanski2399 those chords are usually on a differently shaped fingerboard and if you're referring to double stops, those only have two notes at a time so a third can allow for rolling the bow to get to the next while you correct intonation with the finger on that string, you can't really strum it. and if you do play guitar, you quickly realize how crucial frets are because while the proper technique is to get close to the fret, with most chords you physically can't get your fingers in the right shape to have perfect intonation.
@@bobbirdsong6825 Well in difficult pieces like paganini or whatever, there are very fast quaver chords with 4 notes, that yes, you roll your bow usually two strings at a time, but the roll on so fast, you have to place all 3 or 4 fingers down at the same time. I see Hilary Hahn or any professional player playing these pieces, but guitarists can't??
@@bobbirdsong6825 look at paganini God save the Queen, there are almost inhumane double stops and chords on that, and yet, we don't use frets.
I can't hear fretless classical guitar without thinking about Buzz Gravelle! He's an incredible musician!
So cool too see the pure joy on your face as you play. It really shows your passion. Great stuff as always
Thanks Brandon. As always, your joy with guitar music is fun to hear.
As a fretless bass player who likes playing chords you have my utmost respect, intonation is a nightmare.
WHAT THE FUCK???
Even as a beginner I started practicing on a fretless guitar due to inspiration from Cenk Erdoğan, a Turkish guitarist who is a master of this kind of guitar. For melodic patterns with glissandos it is wonderful to play. Accords are of course a new dimension on a fretless guitar 😁 You can hear instantly a close relationship to the sound of an oud and get easy access to the Turkish Makam-music. It’s fun to play with and a good education for your ears… 👍🏻
How many else copied Cenk Erdoğan into the search? I did and have only listened to two tunes so far but he is insanely good. Thank you so much for posting this!
@@joachimlagerstrom8958 Just three weeks after having transfered a simple guitar to a fretless one, Cenk was in Vienna with three other fantastic musicians playing in front of maybe 50 people - amazing concert. We talked a bit afterwards and he showed me his guitar, even gave it to me to try some tunes on it! I was really surprised… Very gentle person… He even shares some fretless lessons for free on his homepage 🙂
Erkan Oğur
you mean chords?
@@zitronekoma30 Yes. I accidentally invented a synthesis of the german word “Akkord” for english “chord”. Sorry 🤭
The Satie piece sounded good on the fretless. With some longer practice on a fretless guitar you could create a really haunting version.
This was so enjoyable to watch. I loved the slides! I had a smile on my face the whole time.
I really enjoyed watching you play around with different pieces. It's awesome to see your reaction to hearing your own mistakes, it brings me back to in-person classes. It was also interesting to see which pieces seemed to "do alright" on fretless, and which ones didn't. Thank you for the great video!
Sounds magnificent in such talented hands.... I adore watching your expressions as you play because I can see the utter joy and surprise in your face! thank you for sharing
As someone who is just learning the classical guitar (and doing so through your course) - Actually mindblown that you can play this well on a fretless guitar!
Wackyjacky?? lol how is it going
As a Turkish person I loved that uskudara gider iken part
An acoustic guitar of that size to have such wonderful Timber is adding to the enjoyment of every note. I really enjoyed your playing here Brandon.
well i can barely play the one with frets so it's a no go for me. but you as always did an amazing job
lol
Brandon playing for the first time on a fretless guitar(with less sustain) plays better than me after 4 years of classical guitar studying in a fretted guitar...
I actually expected pitch changes, impossible chords and even weird slides, but Ive never expected so less sustain
Love your content! Have watched so much, and always excited for a new video!
👍👍👍👍
Bot
As a violinist I really enjoyed this. Thank you for delighting us with such a new experience!
I think it was really good since you are not used to playing without frets!
Loved this! The classical pieces were interesting played fretless, but the technique really shined when Brandon improvised. Playing into the strengths of an instrument’s construction/configuration is always the best course of action for me. I loved the slides: that is such an intriguing sound and should be explored/utilized more.
Slides are the main technic in the indian classical music (raga) and are played on fretless instruments like sarod. It can be played also on fretless guitar and sounds very good.
Wonderful video. One can feel the fun you're having and the love you have for this unnormal guitar.
This is a great site. Thank you for being there :)
I have always been curious if someone would be able to play chords on a fretless guitar and you gave that answer. Great video, Brandon!
I appreciate that every time you said "Wow that sounded pretty awful, I don't think this works" you would go and play another song :) The love of music is crystal clear!
Watching and listening to you play is a joy
perfect bonus to the last video!
Finallyyyyyy
I've been asking about fretless guitar for a long long time! And finally you made video on it! Thank youuuu!😂❤️
Really interesting video. 0-3-5 Smoke on the Water was a riot. I'm glad you injected some levity into this experiment and had fun with it. However a thought came to mind while watching you struggle, what an interesting learning tool this would make for students in developing ear training and muscle memory. All of what you played relied completely on these two elements.
Awesome Bro!Congratulations!!💐❤️👍🏿👌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿❤️💐👍🏿👌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿❤️💐👍🏿👌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿❤️💐👍🏿👌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿❤️💐👍🏿👌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿❤️💐👍🏿👌🏿👏🏿🙏🏿
Loving the sound of classical guitar? My in-depth online guitar course will get you playing classical guitar from the comfort of your home! Check it out at ClassicalGuitar-Pro.com
where can I get this leg rest attachment??? Please help! 🙏
@@PARAMONARIOS Go to the video description. Under "my gear" you will find the link.
@@brandonacker thank you!
the "fretless" guitar aka the middle eastern oud.
You should make a video about "True Temperament" fretboards sometime.
The idea behind the true temperament fretboard was to correct the intonation errors in equal temperament on a standard fretboard.
I'd love to see what you could do with a fretless guitar after some time to acclimate to this extreme change to the instrument you know so well. Even so, you do an amazing job making it sound good especially on discrete notes like much of what classical guitar music is. Chords are a challenge. I still maintain you have forgotten more than most of us have ever learned or ever will learn. Thank you for sharing your gift Brandon
Great video, dude!
You still sound awesome! :) And I just love how you explain everything. Makes me want to play the guitar!
This is easily my favorite video on your channel, so entertaining and so glad you played üsküdara giderken, I was hoping you played it because of the context of the video and I wasn't disappointed 😁
Also: 5:46
What a talent! Thanks for sharing
Those slides during your improv were hitting me right in the guts, both beautiful and very middle eastern sounding.
This channel is so relaxing and fun, could watch this guy talk about anything for hours
Very Nice! I have been experimenting with fretless guitars, and I can offer the following (as a decent luthier, and poor musician):
The neck relief must be increased to get more sustain, the overall action should be a little higher than normal, the "fall off" of the fingerboard extension should be increased slightly. And, on the ones I have built, I used fretted fingerboards, and inlayed contrasting wood strips to locate the former fretting positions (and to control the neck relief). I have only done this work on inexpensive used instruments, so I cannot comment on the effects on a really fine instrument.
BTW, thank You for to exposing me to gut frets. I am really enjoying playing around with those. The extra neck relief helps here also.
very amusing. looks like a good time!
One thing that is nice about fretless is that you can tune the intervals a little differently than being restricted with frets.
indeed, though you still need good intonation then.
Great sound!
Oh man this is amazing!
Brandon, It is both loopy and wonderful! Kudos for trying to play outside your comfort zone.
It is crazy for me to see someone this skilled at one of the things I love most. I too have the metal background and my taste has matured or progressed in a similar direction. Being open to many styles has enriched my interaction with music in many profound ways. Finding you my guy, has been an eye opener. I get joy from watching you go through all the wonder and awe, yet you have found a bit of mastery to say the least. Inspiring!
Very kind of you, Justin! I wish you luck on your musical journey. Happy to hear we are like-minded :)
@@brandonacker Kind of you to reply, I'm a fan. Keep up the hard, yet rewarding work. Thank you so much
Brandon...
Your improvisation was beautiful and is getting close to a style I've had in mind for a long time for the Cello.
Just last night I was thinking “hm, I want to watch more fretless guitar stuff” and boom, this pops up in my notifications. Perfect timing!
Dude, can you please release an entire solo fretless guitar album?
I think it sounds really interesting.
It has this really organic quality of imperfection. Sort of raw and unpolished, and there were several instances in this video where the unintentional microtonality really added another layer of intrigue.
Awesome video. I thought it was actually a really successful experiment.
There are phenomenal turkish guitarists playin without frets. Just type in 'Cenk Erdogan'. He released some albums, they will blow your mind ;)
It sounds lovely , I’m enjoying it so much.
sounds so natural WOOO
Great Playing! Sounded great!
Loved that smoke on the water and Mid East moment! Even though it might’ve been tough, I think you did marvelously and it is something you might want to do as a hobby for some time until you become as great and cool as you are with fretted guitar. In your case shouldn’t take long.
really nice demonstration!
You sound better without frets than I do with frets! Your intonation is amazing! I love the oud/improve stuff. The classical pieces that everyone knows was a brave choice and you did very well.
10 out of ten for effort and bravery.
What an interesting sound and shows just how much precision of notes is to 'western' music. The ood tune was brilliant and, obviously, better suited to the fretless instrument.
I've often wondered about using a fretless guitar myself. Now I know the proper response. DON'T bother.
Thanks again. Very interesting.
This is absolutely glorious.
Great video idea! I've always wanted to try and play a fretless guitar
OMGoodness!
ALL of these are FAVORITES of mine since I heard Segovia at Town Hall NYC in the early 1960's
It sounds great!
I love how the fretless sounds, think it brings a lot of life into a classical style because it's just imprecise enough to give a little varience. I play rock with some classical influence but hate when the timing and pitch get too perfect (considered good in classical but in rock its about letting loose and showing raw emotion so its not always what you want) and I purposely go off the grid a bit. Tried playing fretless once and it was very hard. seeing a pro player struggle but also pull it off is really inspiring to put the effort to learn fretless one day:)
Gnossiene improv and oud sounded awesome! Kind of like playing a gourd banjo, beatiful! More please !
You sound great!!
Incredible, has a real medieval sound. Great work 👍
What a fascinating video, thank you Brandon and Marshall. I am floored to know how important is the role of frets for the sound of the guitar. At times it really sounded like you were fingerpicking a violin, or a cello really
Always entertaining and informative. I'd love to be your student. I'd learn so much...
Excellent effort.......the open tuning sounded pretty good actually and especially the "oud" music....guess it basically becomes an oud guitar. Chords seem to be nigh impossible, but without the frets it's a totally different instrument. Great video, very fun and informative....you "rock" dude! I picked up an 11 string fretless Godin Glissentar a while back from a pawn shop....it was brand new and a fraction of the actual list price ......will have to give it a real go at some point.
The Mozart variations sounded like bluegrass, it made me smile a bit.
Really interesting!! Good!
It sounds soooo good!
We have such similar taste in playing music!! All but one of the songs you played in this video I have played multiple times before! Of course your playing sounds much better than mine seeing as I’ve only been doing guitar for a year, but it’s so cool to see another musician who plays the same songs that I enjoy playing!!
What a fun vid!
slide whistle meets guitar. great fun!
6:25 - it's a thing!!!
I love the Oriental music,and fretless spanish sounding much like oud,I really liked this,thank you very much)
I would very much like to hear such things on such a this guitar, only tuned to the tuning of the oud
Great guitaroud!!! 😃
You are a wonderful player. Now you know how violinists and violists feel, and we can't even look at the fingerboard when we are playing! 🙂
4:10 you can hear in this section how it works much better as an Arabic-style improvisation. The slides work now.
I was wondering if these were very popular anymore about 2 hours ago in the shower. Nice timing. Great video!
Interesting experiment.
Professional level musician displaying why the guitar is a completely different animal as the violin.
Mr. Aker here, seems to agree, this was an assault on the ears.
I just like that he put himself out like this.
Nothing pretentious, knowing this would probably not sound good, but educating us without ego, about something very few of us would ever consider. Enjoyable video!
Love it! We gotta do something again soon!
I enjoyed the "Üsküdar'a gider iken" part with the oud music haha :)) Keep it up
The bass strings sound real nice. Enjoyed the improv piece in open D tuning. Have you considered doing a partial re-fret on the unwound strings only; because the 1st and 2nd strings definitely need sustain, but the fretless wound strings sound really good. Could be a really cool specialised instrument for Arabian type themed pieces and/or develop a whole new genre of fusion music.
I love this. It's quite amazing how you play chords at all and some do come out "good enough for jazz". For decades I jab away at an acoustic bass and even playing one perfectly pitched note at a time is still a challenge. In jazz there must be songs to try fretless, the bass is delightful in jazzy tones.
Maybe played WITHOUT fingernails the tone of your guitar could have more sustain. I have heard guitars sounding great that way. On the bass I discovered it was hard to pick with fingertips, fingernails are a nuisance on acoustic bass and then I put the bass upright like a double bass so I could jab at the strings with the sides of 2 fingers, index is easy, so you hit it with the bone and that gives a lovely buzzing sustain. I tilt the bass back in guitarmode but now I got a sound. May you find an unorthofox technique to make it sing even more. Because I DO LOVE THE SOUND. Thanks for trying this and sharing with us! Love from Holland. Improvisation is BEAUTIFUL.
thats a really cool sound
I was waiting for that Oud style!
Watching you have so much fun/struggling? was contageous. I don't know if it's schadenferude, or vicarious laughter but but thanks for sharing this.
So many players look soooooooooooooooooooooooooo serious all the time.......looks like you were having fun, even if it was "torture" for you?! Thanks for posting this....we need more like it!
Just say you are doing everything in a microtonal style and then this is all perfect!
I play classical guitar and fretless (and fretted) bass and I always thought I would like to have a fretless guitar. It can be difficult to have good intonation, but it's worth the effort. The sound is amazing
I think there’s simply a limit for most humans, no matter how talented, as to how many notes one can simultaneously ‘intonate’ I think the 2 executed by violinists may b the general limit. (And bass players have a lot more leeway.)
Cool video!
I'm very new to music and didn't fully understand why he was laughing with delight and called things hilarious until the big shift at the start of Capricho Arabe... at which he also laughed XD Totally a fun video, thank you for posting!
This makes me want to see you and Les Claypool riffing on a variety of fretless string instruments. 👀 This was delightful, thank you!
It's great to see the fun he's having too, haha.