Why violin has no frets

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We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Necessary Necessary. I think it's obvious that guitarists are ahead on harmony. Yes we play a few chords awkwardly but really, you try playing jazz chords on the violin.

That was my reason for experimenting with frets as I'm a jazz player and want to understand harmony on my instruments layout. I don't really see it as a dumbing down - lets face it only a very few people will actually use them. It's not something I plan to use apart from for my own chord work but I have a couple of mature students with busy lives who would appreciate saving a few years.

Don't feel threatened - people may look at you in awe even more for playing fretless!! I can't speak for every fretted violin but I don't know how many times I have to say that on at least the fingerboard I've tried it doesn't really affect anything.

You do not hear the discreet steps - you can slide and I would defy you to hear a difference. You can even play quarter tones.

I really think this and every other criticism of deviation is based in fear of losing something traditional and precious. I'm not saying it's better or should replace fretless fingerboards, just that everything has its place.

And it's more difficult for a violin to play a bass line along with a treble melody than it is for a guitar. I also wonder if the tuning of guitar strings may make some chords easier. My impression is also that guitarists are more willing to tune to non-standard tunings.

Although fiddle players do that at times, it doesn't seem nearly as common to me. The non-standard tunings on a violin, though, do make it easier to play certain chords and probably harder to play others. But the disadvantage to frets, as I see it, is that fretted instruments always seem to be subtly out of tune. I don't play guitar myself, but my husband does -- and he is a stickler for being in tune. When I'm off on pitch on the violin, it's not the violin's fault. I could, theoretically, get that note in tune by a slight move.

But on the guitar, he's kind of stuck because of the frets. Well, he could bend the note into tune, but that's kind of another step. And I suspect it's not that easy or he'd do it. I also wonder if the short scale length of the violin fingerboard would make it even harder to get the fret in the right place -- and the frets might have to be a lot thinner to get the pitches exactly right.

I know it's accomplished on mandolins, but I wonder if the tolerance for sloppiness of pitch is a lot higher on mandolin because it's a plucked instrument. The note is always going to be out of tune anyway because the string is either bent out of position or trying to find its way back, but the actual length of the note is fairly short so the pitch variance isn't noticeable.

I just find it a lot easier to play the notes on a violin than I do on a mandolin, particularly when I move out of first position. The frets seem bulky. I started on mandolin, btw, so it's not because I was more used to the violin when I tried the mandolin.

I play pretty decent lead guitar for certain genres, and I know all the chords, except them crazy jazz chords. I've been obsessed with the violin since I started. Frets on a violin It is a magical, mystical instrument beyond compare, perfect just the way it is. I've got an old barcus berry, action is a bit lower than average and it plays really fast and easy, even without frets.

If you wait until you hear something is out of tune to adjust, then your audience will hear that you play out of tune. Using your other two available senses to provide some support to ensure that the next note you play is going to be in tune is just an effective use of information, not an extremist approach where one only uses a single sense to solve a problem. I don't think frets for the higher positions is a good enough trade off for frets in the lower positions. The first fret from the nut would be just under 20mm.

By the time one reaches starts the third octave, the fret spacing would be around 5mm and decrease rapidly from there. I think one might have been Moby Dick but I could be wrong as its been a couple of years since I have watched them. They are surprisingly different and wonder if he was the first musician to bow a guitar. How exotic! Really, this isn't like fretless electric bass vs "normal" bass-while both are viable, and still essentially both a bass. Frets are not just there to make playing easier.

It's ok to prefer one over another, etc. But in the violin's case, it's an older instrument with such a rich performing tradition that "wasn't meant" to be used with frets.

Feel free to use such an instrument, but I know it wouldn't work with most classical works I've studied, past and present. IMHO, it's just not a violin with frets. But the violin family is very different than these instruments-even the cello isn't a viola da gamba, and shouldn't be fretted, in my opinion.

I think something like this should be a personal choice. You, like I, will chose to play without frets for me it was something of an experiment for chord playing and a bit of curiosity.

Somebody else may chose to play with frets for whatever reason and your opinion that a violin should not be fretted is beside the point. So it is full speed ahead. The question is whether I do it myself like making a guitar or purchase that stick-on fret kit that you used.

I saw the Mark Wood fretted violin videos. He basically dispelled the same concerns that you did in your video and mentioned the similarities to playing a mandolin. Now if I can only get the violin to stop shivering in fear. It still has nightmares about the time I whacked off its belly and scraped out a bunch of its innards.

A hard termination at a fret will damp the string less than a soft finger. Someone else may have already given the example of the difference between how long a violin string rings, when plucking the open string, versus plucking a fingered note. Gene, seems like you were implying I said the was only one feedback mechanism for playing in tune.

I said hand and ear--you just basically said the same thing and added the weakest one of sight. I'll just reiterate that we learn to reach pitch by feel with the hand, and adjust if needed. Learning to judge visually is not so effective. One of the big problems of frets on a violin is that our sight line is very poor.

Just consider the angle. Fretted instruments are different. They're held, like a guitar or mandolin, so that you can look down on the frets and use them as a guide. A guitar neck is very long and has no reference other than frets. It's often cut away for access to high notes. The only area lacking hand reference on a violin is second position.

All of the other positions can be felt. So, I wanted to know if other string instruments have frets. A fret is a raised strip placed on the neck of string instruments. The frets divide the neck into segments to produce different notes. Frets offer advantages and disadvantages.

Due to the different needs of each instrument and musical style, some string instruments have frets while others do not. String instruments make sounds through vibrations.

When the player plucks, strums, or moves a bow across the string, it vibrates. The vibration is picked up by the bridge. The vibrations are transferred from the bridge to the soundbox, which amplifies the sound. The pitch of the sound is mostly determined by the length, weight, and tightness of the strings. The main advantage of frets is that they provide a fixed pitch. The design of the fret is simple. By pressing a string against a fret, the player reduces the length of the string and changes its tone.

A long string vibrates slowly and makes a low-frequency sound. A short string vibrates faster, producing a high-frequency sound. By placing frets on the neck of the early guitars, guitarists could easily determine where to place their fingers to produce specific notes. This allowed them to play chords more accurately. It was later discovered that playing without frets, on a violin, cello or other string instrument gave the musician a greater ability to play more expressively, without being restricted to a set number of frets.

It was also much easier on the fingers to play without frets! From the 18th century and onwards, it was rare to find a violin with frets.