Hig guys,

I got the book via amazon yesterday. It's not very expensive and seems to have a wealth of good exercises, both notated and "conceptual". There's quite a bit of diagram-based work using the upright as the template, which is what I would expect. It'll be interesting to see how that translates to an instrument with no open strings and a different tuning.

Thanks again for the recommendation. I'll be diving right in! (let's see if I can actually learn something...)

As a solo player, the lack of open strings presents a constant sonic challenge on the Stick. Not a bad one - but interesting.

Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy,

It's an interesting point. Obvious solutions are effects, (reverb, delay, etc), but subtler ones have to do with dividing the hand up into zones, and playing separate parts with each (think Emmett's fingersticking or Steve's claw).

I try to take advantage of the ability to keep energizing the strings, through vibrato or even just rubbing them lightly on the frets.

Thinking about the ends of notes as well as the beginnings helps, too.

And there's always the capo...

The open space of course is filled by more ...well tapping. I love the comping rhythmic nature of tapping, the fast, fluid and subtle fills that can all be accomplished from tapping is very satisfying. I've always loved playing percussion - congas, bongos. The open spaces can be viewed as an area where the drummer in you shines. I think this is what has really drawn me to the instrument ...the rhythmic nature of the instrument. Never having played guitar or bass, the lack of open strings is not something I miss of course. Keyboard players use the sustain pedal to create a wall of sound/reverb. The stick offers the means to play legato lines and slides while transitioing to the next phrase/chord. Anyway, why strum when you can tap.

Hi guys,

Greg, I love the zone division concept, and use it a lot with 5ths "power" drone chords (root/octave/fifth above). It's dead easy to tap and hold the root (I use the stronger little finger for this) and create various effects with the higher notes e.g slapping the index finger for a snare effect, or alternating i/m/r(sometimes) fingers for a fingerpicked sound. It's also relatively easy to switch hand positions around and use other fingers for the root in a maj/min/9th set of chords. It's easier IMO to do this effectively on an inverted 5ths tuned instrument.

Inquiet, I think you also make a very strong point about the possibilities of a legato sound when using both hands. Interestingly it's something that a lot of tappers either seem to ignore or struggle with. Once again, inverted 5ths tuning allows for an amazing integration of chords and melody (albeit slightly at the expense of more traditional bass patterns and ease of playing familiar written music. That discussion continues..).

To an extent, you probably have to come from a guitar-family background to appreciate my point. Listen and to someone like Michael Manring, you will hear long open string harmonics being plucked and ringing over silence as bass lines gradually weave their way in. The effect can be approximated on the Stick quite easily, but not by taking both hands off the fretboard. Or take James Jamerson's habit of using open strings as chromatic passing notes. Other examples from the world of acoustic guitar tunings are abundant.

As for "why strum when you can tap", ask the guys from AC/DC...

And Greg, good luck with THE IMPROVISOR'S BASS METHOD. I've owned it and dozens of other books for years, and wish I could tell you that I've used and mastered (or even read) them all!

Cheers,
Andy

I'm working on coming up with something along the lines of a "fingerstyle" for the Stick. It does work, but like Andy a few posts above, not having open strings is a challenge... then again having two hands to "fret" with does help a lot! Keeping the other fingers down when tapping out an arpeggio takes some discipline, particularly when you pick up the tempo. Oh, for a sustain pedal!

I guess the biggest challenge for me right now is not to bend the held strings when tapping one of the chord tones. I've also noticed that when tapping with my fourth (little) finger on my right hand, I tend to pull the string toward me which, naturally, sharpens it. I've been surprised by how much just a little bend can hurt the ringing effect of the chord.

I'm sure this comes from 30+ years of playing keys (where it doesn't matter where on the key you strike it). I don't know of any solution but to keep paying attention to it when practicing so that I form new neural pathways.

I've also noticed that since the ring and little fingers don't have the strength of the others, I subconsciously over-compensate and put too much pressure on them when holding them down which, or course, also sharpens the tones. Once again, all I know to do is to be diligent. I've thought about getting heavier strings, but that feels like cheating.

It's all good fun.

thats interesting I come from a fingerstyle backround and have tried to develop travis picking patterns on the stick. somehow they never sound as fluid as the ones on the guitar.

No, it's not quite the same effect. Even an electric guitar seems to ring more than a Stick. However, I'm not sure that's not down to my lack of technique. I mean, really, what the difference between an electric guitar and a stick?

I will say that when I manage to do it right, it works very well. It's just that at my level of expertise (i.e., none), I just don't have the accuracy needed fret the chords cleanly right now. Practice, practice, practice.

It does seem like something at which the Stick could excel if for no other reason than that it can produce patterns of a greater range than the guitar given the two-handed nature of the beast.

I'll report back in a few months on my progress. Wish me luck.

I think it's more the difference of holding the chord in the left hand while picking with the right. Doing this, as opposed to tapping, there is practically *no* time when a given string is silenced. To tap, you have to pick a finger up to rearticulate the note, so to get a really fluid pattern on the stick I imagine you'd have to be *very* quick in lifting and rearticulating, and even then there's going to be a bit more "space" where the string is silenced than when someone is using a traditional finger-picking technique.

It's sort of like trombone players playing really fast bebop passages. The left arm has to move that slide really fast between the notes--but when a good player does it it sounds so fluid.

OK, so I know I've been away from the community for a bit. Had some life to live, and things have come back around for me, in that I'm going back to being in a band. I'll be the "low-end" guy, for lack of a better term. The guitarist (who has written our current set of material) wrote it with bass guitar in mind, and apparently some sort of finger ninja master to play it... So there are various parts of songs that are flurries of notes, ie the verse riff of one song, that is 220bpm and 16ths. OH and they are all different notes. BAM! that says Stick to me. Then other songs have the guitars chugging along mercilessly beating one note with the occasional lick thrown in to keep things interesting...
After trying to play both parts on the Stick, the guitarist likes the flurry parts since I can keep up with everyone else, but the chugging parts are lacking because my chug is...not.

So my wife says to me, "why not play both? play bass on one song, then stick on the next" Sounds like a suggestion the drummer made too. Enter songs 3, 4, and 5. That's right, chug flurry chug flurry chug... I can't change instruments that fast.

My quandry now, is what is the best way to get the straight 8 chugging down on the stick smoothly? Do I try to keep hitting the note, bouncing back and forth between fingers, tapping each note? Or do I borrow from the bass world and try pizz-type right hand technique?

I'm going to band practice on Saturday, theoretically having learned the songs on both instruments, to present them to the guitarist for evaluation. The forum's constructive comments would be greatly appreciated.