fretless
Lacking metal bars
Fretless describes a stringed instrument without frets—the raised metal strips on a guitar or bass neck that divide it into fixed pitches.
A fretless bass or violin allows the player to slide between notes smoothly and produce subtle pitch variations, but demands more precise finger placement: She switched to a fretless bass for that warm, sliding tone.
String instrument's pitch surface
- glissandoRapid pitch sweep
- intonationPitch variation in speech
- vibratoOscillating pitch effect
- slideSmooth continuous movement
sustain · tone · groove · slap · funk · fusion · legato · harmonics
Rapid pitch sweep
- vibratoOscillating pitch effect
- intonationPitch variation in speech
- portamentoSeamless pitch transition
- slideSmooth continuous movement
microtones · legato · articulation · phrasing · expression · nuance · control · precision
String instrument's pitch surface
- violinBowed string instrument
- celloDeep-voiced bowed instrument
- double bassLargest bowed string instrument
- contrabassLargest bowed string instrument
viola da gamba · oud · sarod · erhu · veena · sitar · slide guitar · unfretted
fingerboard
String instrument's pitch surface
- glissandoRapid pitch sweep
- intonationPitch variation in speech
- vibratoOscillating pitch effect
slide · sustain · tone · groove · slap · funk · fusion · legato · harmonics · melodic
glissando
Rapid pitch sweep
- vibratoOscillating pitch effect
- intonationPitch variation in speech
- portamentoSeamless pitch transition
slide · microtones · legato · articulation · phrasing · expression · nuance · control · precision · accuracy
fingerboard
String instrument's pitch surface
- violinBowed string instrument
- celloDeep-voiced bowed instrument
- double bassLargest bowed string instrument
contrabass · viola da gamba · oud · sarod · erhu · veena · sitar · slide guitar · unfretted · acoustic
sustain
Keep something going continuously
richness · depth · clarity · overtones · harmonics · sonority · expressiveness · mellow · woody · smooth
- Guitarsacoustic guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar, bass guitar, acoustic
- Bass Guitarsfretboard, headstock, jazz bass, precision, four-string
- fretboardfretboard, inlays, markers, dots, radius
- music wordsacoustic, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, bass
- Microtonal Musicmicrotones, quarter tone, equal temperament, shruti, retuning