"Digicide.." man that's a keeper.

Jaye.! You sound like you're dealing with all of the essential Stick chord positions and two handed bass etc, that we all use to get across most songs with some fluency. You're breaking good ground quickly, and with a boisterous Stickist creativity. Onya..!

One thing that I haven't heard anyone talk about, is the independence to be gained from playing songs.

I'm just getting a Sibelius chart together of Blue Monk, it helps me remember stuff writing it down, and all I do is try to bring as much musical maturity that I can, to any song.

It's as important for me to make a distinction between creative Stick music and playing stands or pop songs, as it is practicing note for note independence or on the fly creative gestures like the ones Lee Vatip is so good at.

Each Stickist has there own preferences in terms of where they are on that spectrum and perhaps where they are in their current journey..

A second thought. What is independence.?

For me at this stage, I realise that independence doesn't just involve physical prowess, but it also requires fluency within any given chord changes. There's a lot to be gained from being able to improvise within one phrase over 3 chords. Pick 3 seven chords and a blues phrase and just move it around.

Anyhoo, that's where I am for now.

Lots o Luv to All.

Stickrad, thanks for the kind words, and checking out the video and reading the thread. Great reply, man! Well said!

Without a doubt, songs are the reason for all this independence stuff. Well, for me, anyways...
And a delicious groove is my favourite thing to try to rain some catstrangling over... lol

I like tunes that have cool solos in 'em, and the appeal of the Stick to me, is the potential to self-accompany. I sing too, so playing all that stuff while singing, and maybe managing some footpedals, and talking to people in between while still holding a groove is super important. To me, anyways. Lol No songs equals no gigs... So yeah, definitely the song, and the riff is the vehicle for one's technique.

Greg mentioned earlier in this thread about playing stuff separately, and he mentioned how Steve said it, and has mentioned it in earlier threads, and I know Steve has mentioned it twice via our lessons, and man, is it powerfull! I fully expect to post here no leass than another 5 to 600 times on the same topipc to have the concept driven into my skull.

I am STILL practicing playing simple stuff with the RH, while treating the LH as a metronome. for a minimum of 20 min a day, and it has been so helpful. Once I add all the hands together for "free time" I notice some new "thing"...

I don't have a Stick yet, but something I am working on....

Get some Drum Kit Beats sheet music.
Assign notes to different fingers/notes and try to get where you can sight read it.

If you can play a Hi Hat pattern with your 3rd and 4th finger, Kick with 1st and Snare with 2nd all on one hand.
Then spread it out between 2 hands. Randomly change the order of the fingers etc...

I took Tabla lessons years ago. Is interesting to apply that background to tapping.

John, some good ideas. I am already a drummer, and have scads of reference material. Although, Benny Greb has some excellent ideas. His "language of drumming" concept is actually pretty far reaching. The "New Breed" book set has some pretty interesting ideas, too!

As far as every finger having complete independence, that would be pretty wild. Neat idea.

l'm still on the basics. I suspect I will be for some time...

Having played the zendrum (www.zendrum.com) for about ten years (4 years with an oldies acoustic band), I have a good feel for using the fingers independently. I find that training helps some, but not as much as I thought it would. Course I get frustrated quickly too, when I can't get both hands to work independently right away. I have found, in the short time I have been playing, I have to know each part stone cold, melody, bass, etc, in order to keep my hands working and maintain the tempo without faltering (which hasn't happened yet lol!). I try practicing chords ad nauseum until I can do the song without thinking where my fingers have to go next. Same on the melody side. Both parts are done one handed until I can sit down and play each part without thinking. The next step is where I still fall down lol, trying to do both hands together. I have had some "wins", where I can do it in part. I still cannot get through a whole song yet. I will though. Perseverance!
Rand

Loving this discussion. I refer to the discussion with Greg, Steve, Emmett and company on this topic. If you skip out to 35:00 on the State of the Stick discussion, you can hear some great perspective.

"Sometimes complexity can be the wrong thing" - Emmett

Hey Scott.
I would suggest learning some cover tunes, this will abate your (our) tendancy to play what falls under your fingers easily,......it will force you to use subdivisions of time and phrases you may not normally think about. Do you have any simple covers under your belt(hook) yet?

cheers,
kev

Hey Kev, yeah I have a bunch of songs actually. Mostly just quick arrangements to sing over with my drummer. Simple tunes sound pretty good, even if my arrangements are primitive at this point.

lesse here... Not including my homework tunes from Steve A... lol All my tunes are played as if executed by a member of the living dead... I hope to have some cooler stuff to show you guys this week....

Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
Alive In Chains - Would
Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
AC/DC - Thunderstruck
Tragically Hip - New Orleans Is Sinking
Soundgarden - Fell On Black Days
Beatles - Come Together
Iron Maiden - The Trooper

Y'know, I found that GuitarPro 6's speed trainer mode is VERY helpfull as far as keeping me honest and 'real'. Heck, you can loop it to a measure at a time! Really cool. Great practice tool.

Complexity, I think, is what happens when lots of simple things are played cleverly...

Dude! Please, tell me you are planning to make a video with the bass intro.

Yeah sure. "Would" is a tune I have played for years, working out the solo still; shouldn't be too long. The Bassline alone sounds quite badass on the railboard.Pretty damn primitive, though haha, like all my stuff!

Gonna shoot the next few with my gopro, and try to really increase the audio fidelity.

Gene, I just watched that video. Confirmed an opinion I have in regards to independence, and as well, some stuff SA has been trying to drill in to my thick skull, heh. Very cool video.