Okay, here was the challenge. Take a day, and GO for it. I WAS thinking Bach's minuet in G, but everyone else is doing it and I wanted something that I could start, and finish today. I decided on a supposedly "easy win" type situation in the way of the theme from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Ode to Joy... Play it from beginning to end, start it today, finish it today. That was the goal. You know me, impatient as heck... Always looking for a way to maximize my practice time and get the most from the efforts put in. Y'know? I don't want to play 6-8 months from now, I wanna play TODAY!!!

Let me start off by saying that this piece of music is way beyond me, WAY THE HECK BEYOND ME!!! lol And yes, the finished result is extremely primitive. Really rough, so rough in fact that I was a bit reluctant to post it. But... there might be some clever insights and valuable suggestions coming from the post. Maybe someone else will get an idea from it, whatever.

So yeah, it's not performance ready, that is true. At about 11:30 this morning, I decided to do this crazy experiment involving a whole pile of reading. I started by taking a classical guitar arrangement of the piece, and after playing it down on guitar, I thought it would be SOOO easy to do... then I made my own "Stick" arrangement, in Mirrored 4ths and got to work on it.

I worked on the whole thing in it's entirety, read it down about 100 times. Honestly, I am sure 25-30 would have sufficed... I took a LOT of breaks, had a nap, and did quite a bit of exercising while I worked on this; it was quite fatiguing to study this... I completed videotaping it at about 5:00. Actually, I think I made more errors, and was way more tense while I videotaped it than any other time today. I broke it up bar by bar, 2 bars at a time, and 4 bars at a time, and also played treble and bass clef separately, and even spent a good 30 minutes just listening to it. When I rehearsed for my "performance" I practiced it a good 20 or so times with my eyes closed. Dammit, that is hard. But I got it. Instinct prevails just like Emmett says it will in "Free Hands"...

Was it worth it? I mean, it's a lot of work. But the work was done in a short period of time, really. And I own this piece now. It was beyond me when I started, but I think that it made me a bit better at the Stick by the end of it, regardless of it's imperfections. So yeah, I feel I benefitted from putting in the time to learn this little piece of music, absolutely.

So, let me know what you think, guys. I'm gonna go get something to eat, now...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nKLvtpuBmw[/youtube]

Rock me Amadeus!......(er,,,ah,,,,sorry B8tvn)

Good job dooder!

Cheers,
Salieri

Okay Scott, I'm watching this thinking "What was the big whoop? You've pretty much got this!"

Then I said--okay, what would the virtuoso version of this piece be? Give Scott a couple more weeks and then maybe you can show us! (And I'd love for any Stickist of Might and Magic to show us this little ditty at warp factor 7 or so!)

From the uphigh vantage, we can only see what your left hand is doing, which is not necessarily the most interesting of the two lines for this piece (this is Beethoven, not Bach, as you mentioned somewhere else).

So we were also talking about voicing, and although the Stick can do 6 lines at once or really as many fingers and thumbs as you can get on it (and your brain around it), you can also arrange it just for the bass largely on the one, and the melody plunking out nice chunks at a time. I'm sure you got this way faster than I could, but watching you, this seemed like something I could get my head around pretty quickly (other than the 4ths tuning bass side). I'm firmly on the 5ths side--at least for the near future.

So, not to distract from your own awesome quick take, and not to provide my own version (that would be the awesome thing if someone wants to just knock out their own version of Ode to Joy, I'm pretty sure that's what you'd like to see as well!) but here was a neat illustration of the "voicing" of this song. Watch a one-man-band multi instrumentalist (which describes about 85% of us Stickists around here ) slowly build this song up with layers and then rock the melody out at the end.

As Kevin said "Good job, dooder!"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT85vA5lcEM[/youtube]

Thanks for checking it out, guys! Yes! VERY quickly put together. I've had a bit of time to relax, so I'm going to practice again, this time just treating it as a normal practice, and then hammering out my tunes at the end of it, this one included, and see what's what. Although you certainly can't hear or see improvement in the video clip, I can most definitely feel it. This tune, although very challenging for me, I'm sure that the Tapping virtuosos who post regularly can do this in their sleep. However, I'm in the category of "still learning" and "just doing my best" hahaha So have mercy!

So yeah, not the camera best angle, that's for sure! hahaha Good thing this is just for reference, eh? The LH is playing mostly whole and half notes while the RH is doing 8ths and quarters. Hmmn, maybe that's something to keep in mind for rhythmic subdivision expectations whilst improvising and arranging... food for thought perhaps? Also, there is a lot of different stuff going on in the bass, not just a mindless motor (Which believe me, I do struggle with also! hahaha) so this was a challenge that way also. Very positive learning day, guys. It really was.

Both hands are pretty much playing within 1 octave's range of notes, so that means a 1 octave scale fingering is fine for this. And probably most things! In a few weeks I will most definitely be a lot better at this, and in that time I will have massacred at least as many songs as weeks pass, and I'll post 'em in all their glory right here. heh I will maybe revisit all of the same tunes I did, and repost them in a year or two to see if I'm any better. I'm sure there will be positives and negatives... the learning just never stops!

Do I want to be a sloppy, uncertain sounding player? No, absolutely not. What this does is set the foundation for being able to assimilate music quickly. Quicker. It is really, really not in a musician's best interests to 1) not have any songs to play and 2) take forever to learn the songs and STILL play them horribly. I like the idea of a "working" version, a sort of "rough draft" that you can play while you smooth things out... Rough and crappy now, yes, but what about 5-6 years from now...? Good fun, I'm learning tons.

Now, I'm nowhere near the level of most Stickists on this forum, or the planet (Well, I AM the best in Grande Prairie AB most of the time! hahaha) And honestly, I don't care about my technical ability one bit. It does bother me a bit though when people buy a Stick, and then are immediately able to execute a fairly long piece of technically demanding music. Music learned quickly, played cleanly, and then on to the next thing. Well jeepers, I want to be like that... And I suppose I will, it's just going to take a couple of years is all.

I think that taking a day to "hammer" something out, and do the best you can at finishing it in the same day is a really positive idea. Thanks, Gene! It's a good idea you had there...

Okay, back to practice!

Hey Scott, thanks. I like seeing "process" vids like the ones you periodically post. I find it useful to see how accomplished folks go about figuring things out.

You going to be in Vancouver later this month?

Hey! Thanks for checking it out, I like to post these vids because they make for a really good reference point. For me especially! Where I'm at in relation to where I want to be, that sort of thing...
Some videos are better than others, this one in particular is pretty weak as a display of technical ability (5 year old pianists could do this easily hahah) but a good indication of improvement in an area that I feel needs some work; the time it takes to learn a tune.

Good lord, I hope that you aren't referring to me as "accomplished" ' cause I'm really a beginner at this... And I really wanted to hit the Vancouver seminar, but something inside tells me I'm just not ready for that sort of thing just yet. Things to be learned and studied yet...

Hi Scott. Great job on learning that in a day, or in one sitting or what ever time frame it was. I agree with you on the "working" pieces, especially when it comes to songs most people are familiar with. I think all but the most fussy of listeners will let their own memories kinda fill in what you aren't necessarily ready to provide just yet.

On the subject of not being "ready" for seminars yet, I would direct your attention to the many posts of those who felt the same, but attended anyway. So far at each seminar I have been to, I believe there has been at least one student who hasn't even held a Chapman Stick before attending. He or she just used an extra brought by one of the instructors. Really, I think the biggest obstacle for most people is the price. To be able to pay the many instructors that come is very important. I just think that many times there are too many instructors in attendance, driving the cost up to a rate that drives some students away.

The best part about these seminars, in my opinion, is getting to hang out and interact with other Stickists. Students as much as instructors, or maybe even more so.

I guess what I am saying is the only time you need to be "ready" for a seminar is if you are invited to teach at one.

Mike

Yeah, I'm with you there as far as the Stick goes. But I've heard your guitar work and I've read your description of your musical pursuits...

I won't lean on you to attend Vancouver, other than to say it would be cool to meet you. At 4 years in both on Stick and with music in general, I consider myself a beginner.

Yeah, I definitely see the value of interaction, and I'd love to meet and hang with some other Stickists; I just hate that I'm not yet at a level where I can be musically very spontaneous, even at a very basic level. You know, play a basic chord progression, jam, be able to assimilate and maybe even contribute. Next year for sure if there are any of these types of events going on I will make it a point to do the pilgrimage and check it out!

Upon reviewing my video (JEEZ!! It's painful to watch!! hahaha Ahh well, that's why I put it up!) I really noticed a couple of things.

1) Even though I know the notes not too badly, I'm a bit shaky with the RH/LH relationship... I'm still mentally having to find the notes, and there are a lot of thought processes going on there.

2) Hung up on my errors. I remember it from when I played it. Again, that inner dialogue...

3) Music appropriate for my level. I am all over the place as far as music I'm working on goes. A more "graduated" approach might be in order... lol Some dead easy stuff haha

Thanks again, guys for checking it out

Hi Scott.

Process vids are very cool and inspire me to wanna practice.

Thanks for sharing.