Have you guys tried arranging your song(s) (covers or original) for the Stick? I was trying to learn some pieces by ear and I know that there are many ways and finger combinations of how to do it. My question is, is there like specific guidelines or rules when you arrange the melodies on the fretboard? Coming from a piano background, I'm not actually sure when to change position to a certain melodic phrase, or if it's best to leap on a different string to hit a C for example, or continue the melody with the same string. I'm thinking of arranging music for the Stick soon, and it's really a puzzle for me now and your insights and experiences will be most helpful!

Thanks and Mabuhay!

Abby C. / fuseboxx


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More than guidelines, I'd say that it is a matter of expression: the same notes have a different "color" and feel depending on where you choose to play them.
I love the piano sound wise, but I think that this possibility, together with the fifths tuning of the bass side, gives the stick an extra edge as the ultimate solo instrument.
For instance, playing a scale on a single string sounds and feels different than playing it on separate strings. When arranging a new piece, I try to find which position is most comfortable and gives me the sound I'm looking for.

Notation is an interesting challenge: I choose to transcribe the stick as a transposing instrument, that is an octave higher than played. Same thing that is normally done on bass and guitar, to avoid all the additional lines.
I write the bass side on a treble and bass clef (same as piano) because of the wide register, and the melody on a single treble clef (same as guitar).

I'm fairly new to Stick playing and hope I still have a fresh memory of those the early starter quirks that you tend to forget about later when the instrument feel as a natural expression to you. I started out trying to play Stick versions of songs I had written for a guitar duo, thinking I could cover two guitars with the Stick. But pretty soon I found out about all those cool expression options that are unique for the Stick and the temptation to explore that became much stronger - so I just gave up, excited about writing new music for the Stick instead. Agreeing to everything Francesco said I'd like to suggest a thorough exploration of where all notes are located on the both fretboards and how the same note differ in timbre when played at different places (on different strings). When knowing that it is more easy to make fast decisions on where to play a specific note, because there is also another important aspect to weight in: how to make the music optimally playable. Playing high up on the neck may be easier if you have small hands (as I have) but then you will have to play on thicker strings and with a shorter vibrating part of the strings, both factors giving a quite different sound to the same musical part. Example: on my Grand Stick I can get a lovely fret buzz if playing the thinner strings at the very first frets of the bass side while the same part sounds "clean" seven frets up and shifted one string or it could sound "fat" shifted fourteen frets and two strings.

Timbre and playability, that's the dimensions you need to explore.

Hi Abby,

Per and Francesco have both given you really helpful advice. Taking advantage of the different timbral qualities of notes in different locations is one of the big pluses of The Stick as an orchestrating device. How something sounds, rather than how immediately comfortable it is, is the most important thing to consider when you arrange a piece.

Here are a couple of other things to think about:

1. Just because a note is played in one hand on a keyboard piece doesn't mean it has to be played on that hand on The Stick. Sometimes the only solution to being true to the piano arrangement is to give the note to the other hand. Also, don't worry too much about being true to a keyboard arrangement. There are things that are physically easier to do on a keyboard (and vice versa).

Also, a nice way to put some variety in a piece is to place a melody in different locations on the board for different verses.

2. Sometimes you have to work through a passage in reverse in order to figure out the best fingering for it.

3. It really helps to have strategies for changing positions built into your muscle memory. I try not to think about positions if I can help it, letting my hand flow freely over the board, and making it possible for any finger to play any note at any time, with dynamic consistency and control. There are six specific moves I've trained my hand to use to accomplish this, and there is a detailed lesson on this in my DVD on the subject:

http://www.greghoward.com/free_hands/dvd/

Trying to play a tune like "Morning Song" in one position would be very difficult. That one actually gives you a good idea of how moving the hand around can work to your advantage.

Position-play is a very comfortable trap, in my opinion. It makes certain kinds of licks very easy, but others much harder. Get out of the box!

Good advice all the way around. I will certainly choose note placement based more on the sound quality than anything else (within bounds of reason of course).

Another thing I've though a lot about lately is accompaniment. I don't know how extensive your piano background is but once you get beyond the beginner stages of piano you have to start learning to recognize the melody in pieces where the melody isn't necessarily the highest notes you're playing and isn't even necessarily in the right hand. As Stick players we sometimes get caught in the rut of playing melodies and filling in accompaniment below those notes. Lately I've started to work on solo pieces where I'm filling in accompaniment both above and below the melody and working to separate the melody simply by "bringing it out" a bit just as you would on piano.

In the video below, Alberto Lodeletti plays Liszt's "Liebestraum" on the piano. This is a great example of bringing out a melody over accompaniment that is all over the place.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNvkX80EFOk[/youtube]

Thanks Glenn, for inserting the "Liebestraum" example into this thread. Like Debussy, Liszt reinterprets his chord progressions each time around the major theme. I heard hints of harmonic substitutions that I had thought were created in the '40s by NYC and Chicago jazz artists - a revelation!

And to Abby, I have my own guitarist's slant on RH string choices for lead melody lines. I see it as a question of "chops" versus a professional musical career. Quoting Danny Kay's memorable line from some movie, "Will it be arrrrrrrt (holding up a noble finger), or pyenyemonye (with a sneer)?" I of course favor arrrt, in this case, chops, and my career has suffered the consequences.

Still, I present the concept to you FWIW - position playing as if you were singing your lead line. Then, many positions all over the board for timber and orchestration, each one connected to your inner vocal resources.

RH chops - it's an ethic, at least for a branch of guitar players. There are of course those pros who just get to the "money notes" however they can, sometimes traversing many frets on a single string. But a fretboard has two dimensions, as opposed to a single row of keys, and so you can play across the board with a two-octave reach over five strings from a single RH position, and do it anywhere on the board for timber and register.

This is the lead guitarist's advantage, that is, if you're Satriani, Beck or Holdsworth, or if you're among the hundreds of thousands who aspire to play like them.

So I'd say, regard timber of notes only in the most general sense, that is, at which region of the board you'd like to "sing" your lead line. Then follow the modal or special scale pattern across the strings, come what may.

Compression and distortion will make everything sound the same, a legato "ride", but this concept works just as well with no effects at all.

All the Best, Emmett, the "chops" man.

Hi Emmett.

I've had revelations like that before exploring the contemporary piano literature. The video below consists of two pieces by Maurice Ravel. The first 1:25 of the video is simply titled "Prelude". It was written for a sight reading competition back in 1913 and when I first heard it I would have guessed it as much more recent jazz piece. From there to about 3:25 is another very modern sounding "Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn".

I think it was the very contemporary sounding harmonies that always made me a fan of composers like Ravel.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrtsDeU0I_I[/youtube]

Thanks again Glenn, for sanctuary from a mid week work schedule. Debussy is the one who lead me into the modern harmonies, and from there it was onward to Ravel and Gershwin, then jazz. As a teen, I'd sleep every night on a chaise lounge by the pool and listen to contemporary classical composers on the radio. (It was early suburban California in Woodland Hills and I did my own thing.)

These masterful, wandering chord progressions could be considered as early R&D later to be exploited by jazz musicians. (I thought I even heard the pianist Chen take some "Giant Steps" somewhere in the middle passage.) This piece also reminds me of Gary Husband's improvs. Gary is an exceptional drummer but IMO an even finer pianist in the articulate, percussive style. I've been listening a lot to him lately and admire his crystal clear, almost classical technique and conception. I love similarities and comparisons, so Kieth Jarrett also comes to mind.

To freely play those classical keyboard oriented composers who forged our modern harmonies, one must IMO play the piano in spite of the piano. What I mean is, a Stick player can get lost modulating to various key centers in a wandering, improvising fashion. Neither Stick or piano are key centered instruments, of course, but piano always reminds you where you are harmonically - toward the sharps, toward the flats.

On Stick, I have to hear all that in my head (unless I look at the inlaid markers), and it doesn't matter where I start - from the sharp or the flat region of the 12-tone spectrum. For me, it's all "frame of reference", so I can improvise the same kind of music in C as I can in C#, D, etc. (Some may argue here about conditioning, but I swear, I try for none.)

All the Best, Emmett.

Thank you guys for your wonderful insights. This is primarily the reason why I asked the question. I know that there are a lot of possibilities waiting to be "tapped" on the Stick. And as I say every time in our gigs when I introduce and describe it, it's a very flexible instrument and you only have to free yourself (your mind) from your comfort zones to get the most out of it.

P.S. I love Debussy too!