Hi everyone,

I just wanted to be sure that, if you have The Stick Book, Volume 1, you know about the double-disc companion CD. It's got all of the notated charts (except for "Autumn Leaves", royalties you know....) and exercises set up with a metronome count-in, and it works with all three version of the book (Baritone Melody, Matched Reciprocal and Classic) though some of the melody parts are down an octave from the Classic and Mr versions.

Anyway, Here are three sample track from the discs to help you get a better sense of it:

an independence exercise Page 5-3 "Spontaneity":

I cannot recommend this book and CD combination highly enough. If you want to get started right, with a good, ergonomic physical approach, this is the ticket. Together, the book and CD are "more than the sum of their parts".

Thanks, Walter,

What a nice comment. For those of you who are not really solid readers, the discs can really help. Just following the music on the page and listening is a great exercise.

Having the two parts on separate channels (bass/left melody/right) makes this really easy to do.

I totally agree dubyasee's comment above: this book has been a big benefit to me in so many ways (I've had it for a few years now and keep plugging away at it in my own sluggish way.....). And better yet, my lovely wife just got the companion CDs for me for my birthday (whatta gal!)

Why do I recommend this book: One quibble I have with many music instruction books is that they are long on "information" and short on "musical content". So many books show you forms and patterns for scales or, say, C MAJ 7 chords, but no real info on how to apply them. And besides, who wants to listen to scale after scale all day? Who creates a song out of one MAJ 7 scale after another?

I've always thought music books, even if they have only exercises, should try to make the exercises have some applicable musical content. This makes them more useful for what we want to do (play music and songs, not just scales) and also keeps them from being boring. I've always wondered why more books do not focus on chord progressions, which, in my view, are the backbone of most modern non-classical music.

Well, Greg's excellent book accomplishes all I could want in this regard. The exercises, in addition to building technique, all have useful musical content and the fact that he throws in song arrangements ("Greensleeves", "Scarborough Fair" etc. not to mention some GH originals......) is a super-added bonus. This book, and the original Free Hands, are, IMHO, the two books every Stick player should have.....(no offense to Steve A's and Chris Crain's excellent works.....).

Looking forward to the next edition!

Oh, and my wife also just got me the new GH Songbook too (though I'm not quite ready to tackle that one yet....).

Thanks for the kind comments Marc.

I'm fairly slow when it comes to getting these things out there. Glad to see it's working for you.

If you're fairly comfortable reading music, don't be shy about tackling some of the things in the songbook, too. "Requiem for Persephone" is pretty easy, especially if you do the couple of exercises before the arrangement.

Hi Greg and fellow stickists!

I don't know if you still remember me, but we have exchanged e-mails about a year ago about having Skype lessons with you. I still hope that those lessons could materialize soon. Luckily, I got my own Stick book about 8 months after I got my Stick and so far, it has helped me a lot in getting a very good direction on how I should learn the instrument. I keep going back to the Basics and early chapters of the book especially the Left-hand warm-ups. Having a 12-string and quite a small hand, the exercises really helped me to stretch on those hard-to-reach intervals especially when dealing with left-hand chords.

Anyway, the staff-tab that you and Emmett formulated really is a good practice tool for me to read in a completely new notation system. Though I can't help but sometimes try to memorize the notes (companion CD comes in) instead of really reading them, because I want to focus more on the tone that I produce or how I position my hand on the fretboard. Do you think that kind of learning curve is ok?

Happy to be here,
Abby C.

Hi Abby,

Glad to know you're still working at it. As far as the chords go, make sure you raise and lower your elbow to make it easier for your hand to form the shape of the chords.

This is one big advantage to having a more vertical position: you can sustain notes in the chords more easily than if the neck is at a lower angle.

The photos of the hand playing the chords in the book will give you an idea of the angle of the arm. I try to keep the arm perpendicular to the line formed by the first fingertip and the 3rd or 4th fingertip, that makes it easy to keep the wrist straight, which is very important for playing comfortably:

1st

hand and arm --------elbow

3rd or 4th

As far as learning from listening, of course it's fine. I had two reasons for wanting to make the CD. One was to help people who weren't good readers know what the rhythm they were seeing was supposed to sound like, and the other was to give an idea about what I considered to be good tone. Also, since you can pan the audio all the way to the left or right, you can practice one part and just hear the other part on the CD, or pan it the other way to just heare the part you are playing.

Memorizing pieces is really helpful. I recommend that you memorize each hand's part individually, as well as both hands together. This will help you when, if you have a "train wreck" in one hand you won't end up losing the other as easily, and can continue on with the piece without breaking stride.

The last thing I would say is as you read, try to imagine the shape of the interval you are playing on the board, while looking at the page. Guiding your hand's movements in this way will make you a faster and more accurate reader, and will help you understand how the intervals on the board look on the page. You can also watch your hand play and imagine how the music would look.

Looking forward to a lesson sometime.

I agree with you on the vertical position. I've tried experimenting it in a lower angle (just because I thought it would look more "angst-ified" in live performance) but it was really awkward for the left-hand especially if I wanted to play a 3-finger chord. My wrist would just hurt.

The only thing that I realized is that while the Stick Book offers a lesson in general for both hands to work (like a piano), I have applied a rather different style of playing my Stick with my band "fuseboxx" since I play it as a bass instrument (I have a Matched Reciprocal tuning, by the way). I usually end up playing mostly with 2 fingers on the left hand and supporting the other bass notes with the right hand. That's why I go back to the lessons because it takes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to really work on both hands doing ultimately separate tasks.

Thanks for the advices! I can imagine how a Skype lesson with you could really help me a lot in dealing with techniques and style. I just need to find a way to get a smooth internet connection running here in my place. I posted a video of myself in the "Introductions" thread recording a part of our song. I'll try to post some youtube videos of our live performances (not so very good audio though) so at least you can maybe take a look if I'm doing the right posture and arm/elbow positioning.

abby