[DAVID SCHWARTZ PERFORMING WITH THE GODIN MULTIAC NYLON FRETLESS SA AND THE BOSS ME-50]

DAVID SCHWARTZ: So, let's say I tried to play a regular E minor chord, you know, which would normally be like this...,

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

...it doesn't sound quite right, and the reason being is that I'm playing -- sure I'm playing E and I'm playing D but this next note down here, which is usually the octave of E, isn't that note anymore because there's no fret to lock that in place. Instead, I'm playing more of, I guess you'd say almost F-flat or E-sharp, which is something that you commonly don't find in western music. So, really, what you have to do is you have to alter your hand positions to accommodate the fact that you can play intervals the same way that you can't on a regular guitar. So, for instance, to play E minor, you have to use -- you have to bar one finger to do it.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

Sometimes I can get it, sometimes I can't.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

But there are definitely other types of chords that you can usually play like barre chords are generally fine.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

You know, your regular major seventh type chords...,

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

...minor seven...,

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

...minor nine.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

So, any chord that uses a barre or like you play a minor nine like this.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

Oops.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

Or you can play major sevenths like this.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ PLAYS A CHORD]

So, you have to really alter in and shift your positions around to get your fingers to find chords that can theoretically work without, you know, going out of tune. And, you know, of course intonation is always an issue with fretless guitars, or actually with any fretless instrument for that matter. I've definitely become a lot more respectful of violinists and cellists and upright acoustic bassists just because you really have to train your ear to get those notes to sound correct, and that's where fretless guitars also are a valuable tool because it really forces you to hear what you're playing and you can't just rely on finger patterns or, you know, just stock pentatonics or major-minor patterns and things like that just because, you know, those positions are still there in a way, but they're not any more because they're not in the same place as where you usually think that they should be. But I mean that's kind of something that you have to adjust to.

The other thing is that you can -- I mean the advantage though of not being able to play all these stock patterns that you usually would play is that it forces you to really focus on your finger positionings and getting the notes to sound accurate, you know, in the context of the harmony that you're playing over, so if I just like an E [PLAYS NOTE], you know, if I try to play an E right here [PLAYS NOTE], it’s not right so I have to adjust it [PLAYS AND ADJUSTS NOTE], so it's in tune with the instrument. And in this case, what I found is that it has fret markers on these but I usually try to play over where the fret line would be because on a normal guitar the best sort of intonation that you can get is by keeping your fingers as close to the fret wire as possible in order to get the correct tone, get the correct pitch.

So, but, you know, intonation is always a problem but also not having the frets there gives you really a lot of advantages too that, you know, may seem intimidating at first, but once you start playing around with it, you realize how great a musical tool it could be. For instance, you can really play some extremely out there chromatic runs and you can actually just pick a pattern, let's just say I'll do this.

[DAVID SCHWARTZ STARTS PLAYING SOME CHROMATIC LICKS]