So how does one go about training the ear for true pitch on a fretless instrument? The answer is on one hand simple, Practice, and on the other hand complex, “How do I practice to play in true pitch?“

In my teaching studio I have all my students warm up with scale exercises. These scale exercises are structured to each students abilities, and, accomplish many goals. A few of which are, it warms the muscles in our hands (note; we start out with some simple finger, hand, and arm stretches first), it trains our fingers to execute the movements necessary to play our instrument, and, I feel it is essential that a musician have an understanding of scales and music theory. Case in point; I have an adult violin student that previously had taken piano lessons for many years but was never taught scales or theory. She is very excited to be receiving that training now but is also very disappointed that her former teacher never taught her scales and theory. Any music teacher reading this post please, please, please, if you do not currently teach your students scales and theory, incorporate it into their lesson plan, no matter what level the student. It doesn’t have to be in large chunks, nor mind bogglingly difficult, just a little here and a little there during each lesson will go a long way in training our future musicians. But I digress (I guess that’s why they call this blog space “Tangents”). For the fretted instrument students, playing the scales in true pitch is easier. As long as the instrument is of decent construction and the strings are tuned correctly, the finger just needs to be placed behind the appropriate fret. For my fretless students I will use my electric piano or my guitar to play the scale with the student. Our concentration now is to not only learn and play the scale, but to also match the pitch produced by a true pitched instrument.

I am currently nearing completion of a simple yet very effective learning/teaching tool that I will make available for students and teachers. The goal of this learning method is to help students of fretless instrument learn to play in pitch. I have been using this simple method for many years with my students and have enjoyed great success. It was actually one of my younger students that got me thinking about producing and offering this method to the general public when she asked me to make a copy of this method for her cousin in Texas. If any music students or teachers reading this post have any questions about this learning method please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Peace and good tunes (played in true pitch) to you, D. Patrick