Hi Everyone,

I just picked up the first batch of the Matched Reciprocal version of the Greg Howard Songbook. The first shipment is on its way to Stick Enterprises, and should be there early next week.

If you want to order it from me (PayPal, check or money order, international and domestic shipping) please see the following page:

http://www.greghoward.com/free_hands/books/

For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, you can read about it here:

http://www.stick.com/features/book/

It's basically a method and repertoire book, with 14 song arrangements and supporting exercises. over 100 pages of Free Hands fun.

My thanks again to Glenn for all the work he did on the original version of the book. The conversion to MR resulted in almost all of the tunes re-fingered a bit, but I played them all through and they work really well. "Sangre de Cristo" sounds really nice up an octave in fact!

If you'd like to read more about the impressions of forum members about the book, please see: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2216

Which version should you get?
The original version works for 10-string Baritone Melody, 12-string Classic and 10-string Extended Alto. You can also use it with some slight modification to learn the melodies on 8-string 4ths tunings as on the NS/Stick or SB8.

The new version is for 10 and 12 string Matched Reciprocal, and will also work for learning the melodies on 12-string mirrored 4ths, like Rob uses.

If you have any questions about ordering, please email me at stickist@aol.com, rather than using the forum's PM function.

I forgot to include pricing info in my previous post and wanted to add a graphic exmple of one of the exercises.

The cost including shipping is:

$41 in the US
$43 to Canada
$50 to all other countries

PayPal and payment by check info is on this page:
http://www.greghoward.com/free_hands/books/

Here's an example of one of the exercises. It works on two separate concepts. The first is using different kinds of hand movement in the left hand to support alternate fingerings of the same part.

The second element is how to play two different minor keys in the same position of the board in the right hand, natural minor and harmonic minor. Three finger melody allows you to use the same fingering sequence (1-2-3 along the string) no matter what the key is.



Don't forget to user hand motion.

I have one of the first pressings of these and I have to say I really like this book. There's a ton of material in it and the skill level required is all over the map. Plenty of stuff for the novice an plenty for everyone else as well.

Glenn, After all the work you did on the first one, I decided to spare anyone else the agony of going over the charts for the Matched Reciprocal book. Next step in this project is the audio companion CD. I hope to have that out within the net few months, but I also have a lot of videos to make in the near future as well.

If you want audio references for the tunes, most of them are on CDs that are currently available on CD and by download, and the ones that aren't are out there on video or mp3:

Del Mar: not currently available
Requiem for Persephone: as a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0tUSqPR32k
Adrift: Stick Figures
Morning Song: Stick Figures
Softly She Walks: Stick Figures
Blue Ridge: Stick Figures
Where Are You Tonight?
mp3 on my myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/gregplaysthestick
Quince Street: Not currently available
Sangre de Cristo: Sol, and on my MySpace page
El Chicle: Sol, and on my MySpace page
Goya's Dream: Sol, and on my MySpace page
Cross Country: Lift
Blues for Ayman: Sol, and Lift
Blues for the Status Quo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6rxbCGL-tE

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6rxbCGL-tE[/youtube]

Glad you're enjoying the book, Ben. StaffTab can take a little while to get used to, but I can't think of another way to convey all of the information (except video, but that just seems like it would have to be a simplified approach).

It was really a fun process to deconstruct the playing technique for all of those songs. Free Hands is so much more than where the fingers go.

The first batch of MR Songbooks should be at SE today.

Just to confirm that the first batch of MR Songbooks have arrived at SE, so they have both versions in stock.

Thanks to those of you who have ordered so far, nice to know those PayPal buttons work so easily.