Hello,

My name is Thomas Vaccargiu I’m a student in musicology at the university of Brussel (ULB). This year I do a thesis on the Chapman Stick and the the two-handed tapping technique (that Emmett invented in 1969). I make a survey to get more informations about the people who play with the two handed-tapping technique. This survey is also important to me to make some links between the players, the genre of music they play, the way they play, why the play etc. The questionnary is very simple to fill in. You just have to click on the link bellow and you can begin to answer. The responses are directly saved online. The survey is anonym. I promise on my honor that all the results will only be used for scientific purpose.

Last but not least. You will probably be surprise to see that I replace the word Stick by Touch guitar in my survey. Here is the reason of this. The subject of my thesis is about the chapman stick and the two-handed tapping technique. Since the 90's others brand came on the market of touch-style guitar (using the free hand technique of Emmett). I’ve heard that an intense debate begun at this period between Stick enterprise and the others brand. For me the classification of the stick and also of these newest instrument is a big question. I can’t as a scientist concentrate myself just on the stick players and do not take in consideration the players they moved from the stick to others touch-style instruments during the nineties because It would distorts the sample and therefore the potential results.


Here is the link to make the survey

https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4ME6nxD6CZbZoUY

Thank you very much for your help,

Thomas Vaccargiu

Hi Thomas,

I looked at your survey, and noticed some big problems with the premises of the questions themselves. If you are a scientist, then it makes no sense to me that you would fail to frame the questions in a way that reflects how things actually developed. The terminology you have chosen to use is terminology based on marketing, not on how these instruments and playing methods actually developed. It's also not the terminology that the majority of your potential respondents use to describe themselves or their instruments.

That fact, and the content of some of the questions, made it seem to me like you were engaged in marketing research, or even "push polling", not a thesis. But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Some things to consider:

1. The Touch Guitar is a trademark brand name given by Dave Bunker to his instruments. Bunker's Touch Guitar is not played using the Free Hands method, but using the Touch System, an earlier two-handed tapping method where the right hand's finger line up parallel with the strings, not the frets, as in the Free Hands method.

For more information and a clear demonstration of the distinction in how these two different tapping methods work, please see this page:

http://www.stick.com/method/Free_Hands/

2. The name "touch-style" was not invented until around 1994. For many years, TouchStyle Method was even claimed as a trademark by the inventor of the name, Frank Jolliffe, though he was a student of Emmett's and the method he played was in fact Free Hands. No one ever used that name for Free Hands or the Touch System before that date. Emmett has never used it to describe his instruments or his method.

3. Instruments that are now being marketed as "touch guitars" are all played primarily using the Free Hands method (both hands parallel to the frets). Some of the companies that do this even go as far as to give credit for the origin of the instruments they sell to Bunker and Jimmie Webster. Others just ignore the whole name origin concept, which I suppose is better than making up false historical connections. They use whatever names they think will help them sell instruments.

The whole "touchstyle" history and the way that it is used to divert credit from Chapman as the originator of the playing method we all use is basically one big marketing-based myth.

So your survey, and the way it is written actually perpetuates this marketing-based misinformation. Your decision to replace Stick with touch guitar is not scientific at all. It promotes misinformation. If you want to be truly neutral, then you should replace the term with a true generic term, (not a brand name claimed by two companies). There's a lengthy discussion about that on this forum already:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3996

The one term I've never seen objections from players about is "tapping instrument". If you want to be a scientist, you would chose such a term. If you want to help the long-term marketing strategies of the Stick's competitors, then you should continue to use the terms you have chosen.

Please note, I"m not suggesting that you limit your survey only to Stick players, just that you consider that the majority of people you are surveying don't use the terms you have chosen to describe themselves.

If you have any questions about any of this, please ask them. Don't just accept (or reject) what I or other people have written on the subject if you have any doubts about the specifics.

Welcome to stickist.com

Hi,

I was shure I had token the precautions with those kind denomination's problem. So Is tap guitar neutral? I will change it in the survey as well as the touch-style term. After your confirmation.

Even if your message was let say not so optimistic about my survey and my student abilities to ask question (it's the first time I do that), thank you not to delete the topic.

I also precise that my thesis will not be edited or shared. It will just be readable in the library of my university whithout permission of copying it. It's a very local work.

Hi Thomas,

do you happen to know a native English speaker who could look over the questions? I partly found them hard to understand, so it would be good to have someone check the language.

All the best,
Johannes

Hi Thomas,

I've never seen anyone object to "tap guitar" on political grounds, so I'd say you're safe there.

Thanks for your consideration about other terms. Much of what you see online is false, based on marketing, and this is true with everything, so it should come as no surprise that it happens among tapping instruments as well.

The method is called Free Hands (capital "H" as in all names), same for Stick ("S"). Thanks for being sure to make note of that in your survey.

I thought you might want to add StaffTab fretboard notation to your list of common notation systems as well:

http://www.greghoward.com/concepts/

There have been several books and online resources that have used this notation (not just me:)

I think my survey is now in order with the denomination's problem. I choose the name Tap guitar as a generic term for all instruments using the two handed tapping technique based on the Free Hands method.
I will improve the language of the questionnary as soon as possible (probably tomorrow)

tanks for your interest

Hi Thomas,

I just answered your survey. The Stick is NOT a guitar. It may be described as a "tapping instrument" (as Greg aptly suggested) but in no way is it a "guitar". This is a mistake that too many people make.

Good luck with your work.

O.

Answered!

Also answered.

I took it too ... why not?