I read this book a while ago called "The Talent Code" it was pretty interesting, kind of to do with this sort of thing (learning)...

Nice! I should create an Amazon list....


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There's always...aerobic exercise

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/reg ... 1404097110


you might want to consider anti-inflammatory regimes too. The wife's dissertation was on how pro inflammatory cytokines negatively impact learning and memory (IL-1b was her focus)

Oh yeah, regular exercise is a big part of my life, the sleep/exercise/practice/perform cycle are factors that deeply influence each other, from my perspective anyways.

I really struggled with the Stick for the first bit, lots of reasons for that. And then I improved quite a bit, again lots of reasons for that. If I had to start from scratch, and do it all over again, I would do things differently.

What would you do differently? This complete newbie would like to know!

If Greg Howard gives you advice scream "You don't own me. I don't have to do what you say!! I'm not afraid of you anymore"
then go smoke cigarettes next to the dumpster behind a convenience store

Well, keep in mind that I am literally nobody - all I ever wanted to do was do what I already do on guitar and bass, only at the same time. Why? It can be challenging to find a bassist at times, and if I could pull it off, well more money for me hahaha Anyways, you asked, so here it is (And remember, this is just me...)
In no particular order;

1) I would have stuck with one tuning. Slogged it out, got really familiar with the note layout of said tuning and did my thing.

2) I would have focused on much, much simpler things. I just wasn't ready for the stuff I was tackling (I'm still not).

3) A support system for the instrument - from the beginning. I never really felt comfortable holding the instrument. Here's hoping a Tagg interface solves that, but I feel like I would have saved a truly gross amount of time had I procured one from day one... Time will tell!

4) Using notes from a score and reading versus geometry and "hunt and peck". I have a good ear, so I can "find" pretty much anything, but continuously doing that on the fly is really inefficient. I already read well, so why the hell I didn't just do that from the beginning is totally beyond me...

5) I don't regret the lessons I took for the instrument, but in retrospect I think I benefitted a lot more, and a lot faster from trusting my gut, experience as a musician, and my education. No disrespect intended.

6) I should have celebrated what I was good at, and ran with it. Leverage what you know, and use that as a springboard I say... The Stick will accommodate whatever you want to play, and however you want to play it. The good news is that one can change direction whenever desired and "begin anew".

my .002

Lots of personal insight there, Mr. Jayess. Way back in 1969, I was in your shoes, sort of. I was a jazz guitarist playing sophisticated lead melody lines, which were held back and interrupted by my need to comp complicated chords.

You're a rock guitarist executing lead lines at a level of speed and fluency I could never achieve on my guitar (hence The Stick).

Now you want to achieve on Stick what you do best on guitar - hallelujah! On my journey, that was to play fluent RH lead lines accompanied by LH bass and with chords from both hands, both string groups. I called it "freedom guitar".

What I don't understand is why you can't make the connection from LH fingering to RH tapping for that same blazing rock lead voice. For me, it was a catapult and Hendrix was the inspiration. For you, there's some kind of a roadblock and you try everything else instead.

For the life of me, I don't get it! Could it be that your RH was such a dominant force in executing those glorious 32nd notes (then gliding on long sustains) and that your LH operated on some sort of subconscious level?

That's just a wild guess but if your left finger stopping hand was indeed conscious and well thought out, all that ability should transfer with one "global command" to the RH, the fingering being identical with hands crossing the strings from opposite sides.

Well, at the time, I liked very thin (lightest gauge) strings and a tiny cellophane pick, and of course with very low action all along the fretboard. Maybe your journey is a bit different.

...imagine, what I'm happy not to be the courageous author of this breakdown...

...but it's not smoothly possible to transfer the skills of one instrument to another...
...and for sure, the stick is a new universe...

...well, Rock guitarists use their right hand to play with a pick even the hybrid pickers aren't mostly not aware to control their fingers like they control them in their left hand...

...maybe this idea helps...a guitar is played with two hands, a plucking hand and a fretting one, a harpist use his two hands similar by plucking the strings, a pianist use his two hands similar by fretting the notes...so a guitarist could be seen as a mixture of harp and piano... and a stickist is somebody with two left hands...
...anyway, very interesting contemplation here...

I don't think the stick is two left hands. I haven't even started on the right hand yet. Little by little they are playing together. I heard somebody say your foot can play the bass drum, it knows what to do. I think the left hand on the Chapman Stick sets up everything, for the right hand. In my mind the right hand knows what to do. The left hand is the hard one to get down. Trying to grab big chords and bars, which help the right hand have freedom, eventually both hands are to be free.