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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
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. . .
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.
@@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.
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
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.
“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!
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.
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.
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!
@@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).
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)
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. . .
@@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??
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 🙂
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!
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
When playing with frets you use the fret as a fixed contact point, which is quite hard and small and thus results in little dampening. When playing fretless instruments this is done by your finger, which is softer and bigger, and thus results in more dampening. The key to getting sustain is playing with the right part of the finger, which is the tip of the finger, which is small and hard, not the pad underneath which is soft and big. So basically you want the tip of your finger pretty much orthogonal to the fingerboard plane. Also as with all instruments without fixed pitches the ability to play with portamento also requires more technique to play without portamento. In this case I think the problem is that on a fretted instrument your finger will leave the string automatically when shifting from going over the bump of the fret, unless you actively push the string down. On a fretless instrument this is not the case, and you need to actively lift your finger just a bit at the start of the shift to stop the string from vibrating.
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!
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!
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 guitar is invented by great Turkish musician Erkan Ogur in 70s. You may find his performances and records on RU-vid! By the way, your technic and style is my favorite!
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!
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!
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
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!
No joke! The first piece I thought of was Romanza because the melody can sing with vibrato and glissando on top of the arpeggios, and here you are playing it! Serendipity :)
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.
One takeaway for people is to play in tune you have to finger where the frets would be instead of behind them like you'd do on a fretted guitar. Makes one wonder if they did the fretboard with some metallic material instead of wood. That's what Vigier does on their Surfretter guitars.
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:)
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
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.
If you like the sound of the fret less classical guitar then give Buzz Gravelle a listen. All his music is with fret less classical guitar and it sounds great!
Sveiks, dear Brandon! I've not that long ago changed one of my 3 Ramirez Guitars to a fretless one for some recording reasons and because I've seen some interesting videos of fretless guitar players, where the unique sound touched me quite deeply. But as You say: It's not that easy to get the same clear sound as if there were frets and in the beginning everything sounds a little bit strange and not that correct (what makes my respect grow even bigger for all those violinists, violon cello- and double bass players), but on the other hand it's a sound, worth to know and to have and for new recording chills and if the slide effects and the special possibilities are used in the right way, it leaves the audience astonished. So in my oppinion, if somebody start to think, he's a perfect guitar player and there's nothing more left, give him such an instrument and in the same moment it's clear, there's much more to learn and understand and humility is back quickly.- Thank You for Your interesting video broadcastings! With best wishes from Austria and Latvija, Steve
I have a fretless classical (aka "turkish fretless") guitar, I really think you've hit all the key points here. Its very much conceptually like an oud, only in a more ergonomic/friendly package. Playing in one position isn't bad; playing single notes isn't bad, but chords become MUCH harder. Most classical repertoire doesn't work so well, but some pieces do. Its "cheating", but looking at the fret lines/markers can help.
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
Iam so in love with fretless guitars ,and now learning with fretted guitar although still a total beginner but my goal is that after few years i will be able to switch to a fretless one ❤️ but ofc hoping that life doesnt have other plans for me and my dream😂🥲
Glad your mind eventually went to music for Oud and fretless instruments - what an opportunity to play what we westerners call “microtonal” music! Years ago I discovered Tolgahan Cogulu, a wonderful Turkish guitarist who develops and plays microtonal guitars. You probably know all about him but in case you haven’t heard of him please check out his brilliant guitar scholarship ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iRsSjh5TTqI.html
Muscle memory is amazing! The fret less instrument speaks more softly but lacks sustain. It’s an interesting sound with possibilities, slurring is unusual but not bad.👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
It's not even muscle memory since the position of your fingers between a fretless and fret-guitar is not the same: with a fret guitar, you but your fingers between two frets. With a fretless guitar, you need to put your finder at the place of the bottom fret.
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'm loving it. From amazing to so gross back to amazing. I played the viola in primary school; I also have perfect pitch. It was agony at times. Kinda reminded me of the contrast between the concert cellist who taught us and the rest of the class. 😅🤣
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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.
