Intonation

[FretLessSince68]

A fellow fretless bass player asked the question...What is intonation?

This subject gets a lot of coverage here with many posts. For more information please search this forum.

Intonation is perhaps the single most important aspect of fretless bass playing. The subject deserves the highest priority and attention.

Intonation is a word used to describe the players ability and essential skill to execute notes on an infinitely variable pitch instrument such as trombone or fretless electric bass that are on pitch and musical sounding.

Since the instrument has no frets, keys, holes, stops etc. to define pitches (musical notes) we instead rely on positions. On the fretless bass these positions are located in exactly the same locations that frets would occupy if they existed.

To intonate properly you must play on position.

The convention we use to identify positions is as follows: The open strings are called open position. The first position is equivalent to the first fret, on the E string an "F" note. The second position on the E string is F#, and so on all the way up the neck. Positions can be either qualified with a string such as - "E" string 7th position when identifying the location of a specific note, or without the string qualifier when referring to a certain position across all of the strings (analogous to fret). As you can see, these positions use the exact same numerical descriptions as frets so they are directly translatable.

I prefer to not use the word fret in relation to the fretless bass. We don't need to point at our instrument and say "this is the Xth fret". The word position is much better. When translating position for a guitar players I suppose using fret references is OK but your piano or horn players will be at a loss, so I would suggest getting into the habit of using note names when conveying information about what notes you are using.

As a verb, intonate can refer to the act of playing a single note, or the setting/adjusting your bridge so that the relationships between scale length, string characteristics, and neck positions conform. This adjustment is just as important for fretless instruments as it is for the fretted variant. If your instrument has side markers or is lined, the bridge intonation adjustment should be performed when changing strings (optional) or string types (essential). If your instrument is difficult to find notes on, sounds out of pitch in the higher registers, or just sounds sour, a bridge intonation should be performed.

Intonation is also an indirect reference to your left hand technique. Without good technique, intonation will be difficult and may even evade you until better technique achieved.

Intonation is a skill, a skill that requires technique, ear training, muscle memory, vibrato, and a properly set-up bass.

The final test for fretless players is to be able to read music and stay on pitch. Even Jaco had trouble with this one.