First Day With Fretless Guitar by Aaron Wolf

I got a brand new Godin Multiac Fretless and captured my very first experiments. This is also my first video sharing online and first time really videotaping myself playing at all.

I played for a little less than an hour at the guitar shop right when I picked it up. When I came home I decided to turn on the camera, and what you see are selections from about 15 minutes of total recording. This is just acoustic, unplugged, recorded by the camera's mic, no other planning or set up.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• guitar
• improvisation
• microtonal
• fretless
• blues

[vns8268]

Hi

Great work.

I am a sitar player and would like to play fretless guitar. I am taking lessons on sarod.

Which brand is your guitar and is it bass or acoustic.

Thanks

[nphony]

@vns8268 It's from Godin. It is not a bass, it is a nylon-string 6-string guitar. They also make basses and a guitar-oud hybrid they call a Glissentar. I'm not sure at this time if I want to keep up with the guitar or get into sarod or something... But it's all interesting to explore. Glad you liked my first attempts. I ought to record some newer more worked-out stuff...

[nphony]

Well, maybe by sitar-like you really meant more Indian-like... other Indian instruments, including violin-like bowed instruments, for example, do all the pitch stuff the same way; and yet, I think the buzz is similar to a sitar, though really more like an oud. I have also played fretless bass and that does not buzz like the fretless guitar does. But I get your drift. I think timbre, melody, harmony and more all go into what we associate with instruments and styles... cheers, Aaron

[stick2truth]

Has an interesting Sitaar-y sound. That must come from the "notes between the notes" if you know what I mean. Strange to my western ears but not unpleasant.

[nphony]

@stick2truth Thanks for the comment. The sitar-like sound is not because of notes outside of temperament, it is because of the buzz that comes from the softness of fingers absorbing some of the vibration just like the soft bridge of a sitar. A sitar will still sound like a sitar even in equal temperament, and when I play this guitar with a slide it doesn't have the buzz, it has a cleaner sound.

[nphony]

@stick2truth Although I should add that some of my playing here could be considered to have an Indian flavor, and I'm somewhat acquainted with Indian music among many other influences.

[shautora]

Sounds really good, I like it! :)

[RaguelAngelofBalance]

I hear country or rockabilly for sure.

[stick2truth]

@nphony That's probably it then.  Thanks for responding. Good work and play your Stick more. It's not gonna hurt you!

[stick2truth]

@nphony It's not the buzz. I used to have a fretless bass, I'm not used to hearing strings in that register on a fretless neck. Whenever I hear a sitaar the distinctive sound is from the "rocking" of the tone. You do a few things in this video that reminded me of it.

P.S. I kinda like the dirty buzz/growl sound. It adds character to the instrument. :-)