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 Band or Solo? 
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Post Band or Solo?
OK, so a couple of years back, I’m sitting at SE playing with Buckley and chatting with Yuta when Emmett asks me, “So, are you interested in soloing? :shock: ” Now, the reason I’m there is to pick up several sets of strings and some goodies on my way over to Don’s place for our (almost) monthly NS/Stick lesson. Surprisingly, this question caught me off guard. I hadn’t thought about doing anything solo. I was used to the band setting. My reply, “Ahh, no, I’m just interested in how to enhance the sound of the band.” Emmett says, “Why not?” Now, I’m standing in front of a man who’s produced the perfect instrument for playing solo and I don’t have a good answer for him :oops: . OK, so, you guys out there already know whether you’re going to do the solo thing or the band thing or maybe both. Me, I became interested in the NS/Stick and SE because the instrument allowed me to play different parts and hear them at the same time. Ahhh, what flexibility and perfect for soloing, right?. When I got to Don’s, I asked him about the band play vs solo playing. Don says, “Grab a donut, have a seat and let’s talk about it.” Basically, what it came down to was: What drives you? What motivates you to be better? What’s your preference? You don’t have to exclude one for the other but when you’re the only one out there and the novelty of the instrument wears off, I think that the way I approach practicing takes on a whole new level. Now that I have a bunch of open mics under my belt, I’ve come to realize that I have a preference for doing the solo thing. I still play with a band but not as often. Anyway, What drives you? Have you thought about it?


Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:50 pm
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Bheardjr wrote:
OK, so a couple of years back, I’m sitting at SE playing with Buckley and chatting with Yuta when Emmett asks me, “So, are you interested in soloing? :shock: ” Now, the reason I’m there is to pick up several sets of strings and some goodies on my way over to Don’s place for our (almost) monthly NS/Stick lesson. Surprisingly, this question caught me off guard. I hadn’t thought about doing anything solo. I was used to the band setting. My reply, “Ahh, no, I’m just interested in how to enhance the sound of the band.” Emmett says, “Why not?” Now, I’m standing in front of a man who’s produced the perfect instrument for playing solo and I don’t have a good answer for him :oops: . OK, so, you guys out there already know whether you’re going to do the solo thing or the band thing or maybe both. Me, I became interested in the NS/Stick and SE because the instrument allowed me to play different parts and hear them at the same time. Ahhh, what flexibility and perfect for soloing, right?. When I got to Don’s, I asked him about the band play vs solo playing. Don says, “Grab a donut, have a seat and let’s talk about it.” Basically, what it came down to was: What drives you? What motivates you to be better? What’s your preference? You don’t have to exclude one for the other but when you’re the only one out there and the novelty of the instrument wears off, I think that the way I approach practicing takes on a whole new level. Now that I have a bunch of open mics under my belt, I’ve come to realize that I have a preference for doing the solo thing. I still play with a band but not as often. Anyway, What drives you? Have you thought about it?


Very interesting post and question!! I have a question for you before I answer ... have you been playing solo open mic nights on the NS Stick?

To answer the question ... my motivation started with the thought of using the Stick as a band instrument. NOW my approach is two part ... I love the traditional Stick as a solo instrument and the NS Stick as a band a multi-track recording instrument. What motivates me? At this point in time I'm interested in something new. I've been a professional (Mostly) cover musician all my life and it's time to express myself! The instruments are interesting and are bringing out something new in the way I approach playing and writing. I've used both types of Sticks in my band ... haven't played them solo for a crowd yet. ........ I will eventually!

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Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:51 pm
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Great question Bheardjr, the motivational force behind playing Stick solo IMHO has it
roots in "an" archetype of self expression that has never existed before because the vehicle
for that expression is new. It's not for everyone but when the muse of this thing takes
hold of you you know you can't keep it to yourself. I say "an" archetype simply because
there are lots of them. The archetype of power or the archetype of the goddess but wether
you are a business tycoon or a pop diva there is a driving force, an inner motivation
that comes from a fundamental desire that very much shapes things. With the Stick I
think it is almost like a "calling" like becoming a priest or a monk and playing solo
is just or i guess can be a deeper part of that calling. Some people are out on stage
or up on youTube after a month and that's fine and healthy and they are getting needs
fulfilled that way. For me though I will know when I am ready. It's not about being in a hurry.

But more weird :? about the Stick and the reason why I think that it is more than just a new instrument is that it seems to have been touched with faerie dust or transmitted from a higher intelligence through Emmett :o It's like there is a mystical side to this idea of the "priesthood of the Stick" that I am making up and that has to do with trance and dare I say higher states of consciousness. You would know if you were being touched by this
if you find yourself playing the Stick for hrs and hrs over and over when ever you get
a chance; never getting bored. And when you are in this place this playing frenzy
it's like you are getting fed from some fountain that never stops giving. There is
insight and revelation and after a particularlly good session; declarations, promisess
to yourself that "if I can do this I will give up all my bad habits" and then the archetype
says to you "Play Solo" and you say "yes master,yes master" really! :| :roll: Ok! Ok! :twisted:
I love it...
:geek:
JRJ

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Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:40 pm
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Interesting question for sure! And I'm not sure I have an answer.

Personally my motivation is a moving target. Originally I considered myself a multi-instrumentalist and was really only interested in creating music in the studio. I was playing in a band also but that was more of a side project. So at that time, the Stick was something I'd been curious about for a long time and my aim was to develop enough skill to simply have it be "another instrument" in my pile.

The motivation changed, however, once I started playing and even moreso when I began dabbling with industrial strength looping devices and realized I could do some of the music I created in the studio as a live solo performer. Solo Stick seemed like an "in thing" to do. Plus I wanted to be able to do the "Stick Night" gigs at our seminars.

Now I think I've come full circle again and, although I'm still doing the live gigs, my motivation has come back to studio recordings with multi-instruments. Lately I've been as jazzed by some of my software synth purchases as I have been with my Stick.

Glenn

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Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:31 am
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
JRJ wrote:
Great question Bheardjr, the motivational force behind playing Stick solo IMHO has it
roots in "an" archetype of self expression that has never existed before because the vehicle
for that expression is new. It's not for everyone but when the muse of this thing takes
hold of you you know you can't keep it to yourself. I say "an" archetype simply because
there are lots of them. The archetype of power or the archetype of the goddess but wether
you are a business tycoon or a pop diva there is a driving force, an inner motivation
that comes from a fundamental desire that very much shapes things. With the Stick I
think it is almost like a "calling" like becoming a priest or a monk and playing solo
is just or i guess can be a deeper part of that calling. Some people are out on stage
or up on youTube after a month and that's fine and healthy and they are getting needs
fulfilled that way. For me though I will know when I am ready. It's not about being in a hurry.

But more weird :? about the Stick and the reason why I think that it is more than just a new instrument is that it seems to have been touched with faerie dust or transmitted from a higher intelligence through Emmett :o It's like there is a mystical side to this idea of the "priesthood of the Stick" that I am making up and that has to do with trance and dare I say higher states of consciousness. You would know if you were being touched by this
if you find yourself playing the Stick for hrs and hrs over and over when ever you get
a chance; never getting bored. And when you are in this place this playing frenzy
it's like you are getting fed from some fountain that never stops giving. There is
insight and revelation and after a particularlly good session; declarations, promisess
to yourself that "if I can do this I will give up all my bad habits" and then the archetype
says to you "Play Solo" and you say "yes master,yes master" really! :| :roll: Ok! Ok! :twisted:
I love it...
:geek:
JRJ

Hi JRJ,

A beautiful post.

Playing in a band is very fun, but playing solo can be as well, especially if you're playing in front of a large crowd that's really responding to what you're doing.

I started out playing in a band because I loved bands, but I had always listened to solo musicians (especially Oscar Peterson) and liked the freedom I heard. Though I spent many hours improvising on keyboards, I had never performed as a soloist until I became a Stick player, though, so it was the vehicle I'd been waiting for, I think.

Playing as a soloist is about "being complete" and playing in a band is about "being part." Both are great things to pursue, and The Stick is indeed one of the few instruments out there that allows you to do this in a wide variety of ways - as the bassist, bass and chords, bass and lead, chords and lead, or just the lead voice.

This versatility makes The Stick one of the best instruments for duos, with drums or a multi-instrumentalist, IMO.

I think the elements of the experience as a soloist that JRJ refers to are indeed unique. Having counterpoint capability with a deep well of expression to draw from...there's no other way of making music like this.

If you haven't read them, here are some articles articles about the origin of the method are wonderfully revelatory on this subject:

http://www.stick.com/articles/evolution/
http://www.emmettchapman.net/music/freehandsmethod.html
http://www.stick.com/articles/birth/

My most recent band gig was with a drummer, and African percussionist and a bass player. I was all chords, rhythm and leads, and the crowd was really moving!

I like the trance, but I love to see them dance...

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Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:07 am
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Well, first I would like to comment on a few little points. You go to SE and talk to Emmett to buy strings! And then you study with Don! Sheesh, I'm gonna have to move to southern CA one of these days.

For me, I think my band days are all done. I just want to play what I want to play. That probably means I'm going to be playing solo. :) However, I keep trying to learn songs that really need a drummer too. I think I'm starting to come up with tunes to learn that I can play fully solo including some classical pieces. I'm not used to being the musical center of attention so I will have a challenge when I start doing open mikes. It's a challenge that I'm looking forward to when the time comes.

JRJ, I love your post, you are always fluid and poetic even when it's not a poem. But, I think a poem is in order here!

I agree with all of you, I'm very new on Stick and I haven't performed yet. But, it feels like I will be able to express myself in ways no other instruments has allowed me to in the past. Guitar was close and if the Stick hadn't come along I would be playing something like Charlie Hunter uses. But, the Stick is better and I'm hooked.

Great topic!

-Eric

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Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:22 am
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Great posts all the way around and agree with everything I've read.

One thing I would add though. I love to play solo and these days that is my preferred way to go. But ... I do occasionally miss that moment after a particularly great gig when the audience is still making a lot of noise and you make eye contact with your bandmates and that unspoken look of "we did it and it was great" gets transmitted from member to member.

I also like the fact that when you're playing with other musicians who are really good, you get to play performer and audience member at the same time sometimes marveling at the work of your band mates.

Glenn

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Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:34 am
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Great question!

Here are my thoughts (deep breath)...

My motivation on Stick comes from a very interesting place. Music has been a part of my life since before I could remember. My parents exposed me and my other 4 siblings to music right away from classical to rock and everything in between. I have vivid memories of falling to sleep to Eleanor Rigby and I am a Rock. I played Tuba since 5th grade, and in high school, I picked up the electric bass after really listing to Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds, and really falling in love with the Beatles. I guess I did this because I wanted more than Tuba had to offer, plus I was really awkward and insecure and playing bass was an in with people (and women). I allowed me to artificially get self-validation. Fast-forward 5 years to collage. I've fallen in love with Jaco and jazz. I have transcribe many of his and others music and was playing the upright bass and in 5 ensembles at once. While all of this is going on my ears are opening up. I'm listening to everything I can get my hands on. I'm learning heads of tunes and improving, taking classes on Jazz and commercial arranging and playing in a jazz-fusion trio, with both upright and electric. I was clicking along almost done with this degree, when the summer of my 3rd year as a Performance major I had a near death experience so to speak. As I lay there freaking out, thinking about how I'm going to die, I asked myself what have I accomplished din my life and what is important. I remember very vividly that a friend put on some Nick Drake to calm me down with help was on its way. This was the first time I have ever heard him. Anyway I
Realized that if I was going to die the most important things where family friends and music. I also realized that their was a lot of music inside of me and that just being a bassist was not allowing me access this gift. I also realized that I could use my gift to touch others. I pulled threw this scary ordeal, but my musical world had fallen apart. I started to see the world very differently, listing very differently. I tried to expand this idea of just playing complete and solo music on bass, but found the instrument limited, and the open -minded ness of my fellow musicians and professors equally limited. I realized how much I hated playing Upright bass as well. I drifted threw this next year in a daze. I quickly realized that my role was a limited on, what was once freedom was now a trap. The message transmitted to me by my peers and teachers was, "your a jazz bassist, play electric on Rock and fusion tunes, upright on everything else, stand in the corner, don't stop playing and shut your mouth!" I remember one teacher telling me that only real jazz bassist play upright, and my bass teacher told me to stop dancing and moving around on stage and to stop asking him questions. I realized that their was a world in jazz, like many music’s I'm sure where players don't seems to progress any further than playing Hard bop. For them jazz and music is a museum piece. Kept under glass to preserve the art, never looking forward or trying new things. I despised these people. At this time two people really came into my life that gave me direction, one was a virtuoso guitarist name Dan Phillips

http://www.danphillipsmusic.com

and Henry Gwiazda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Gwiazda

Both of these men (my teachers) inspired me. They where both composers and left of mainstream. I told them of my crisis in which both told me that it was good thing and that most people never get to this point and that what ever happens when I reach the end I will find what I'm looking for. Late that year I had a falling out with my bass professor. I realized that he was an old school jazzer, and an insecure egotistical jerk. I was confused as to my direction, but I knew that his path was not mine. I had to say stop when he lined up a graduate assistantship at the same university he went to. I told him, that I'm not sure where I'm going but I don't think I want to play upright or jazz, I just want to graduate and leave collage and find myself. He told me I was throwing it all away. I was talented but, I would never find work and that I was going to be a fry cook, with a performance degree. Then he told me that after I leave his studio, never tell anybody I was his student and that I was dead to him. Whither I knew then or not he did me a favor. I remember crying my eyes out by this; I also realized that I have been looking for validation as a bassist and as a person. With that behind me I realized that I really hated myself and that I needed validation from myself and the only way this was going to happen was to fix me myself. I was liberated. I left my ensembles and tried playing bass as a soloist. It didn’t work! So here I am July 2007, at the end of my rope. I knew music is my life, its at the center of my being, its like air, its the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing before I got to bed, its my reason for being, but bass was no longer a vehicle. So I'm strung out and tired 4am July 10th 2007, and I’m surfing the net because I can't sleep when out of nowhere, I stumble upon the stick web page. I watch Greg play Charmed Life on the demo movies and like divine intervention, I found my answer! An instrument that is music! Both treble and bass, harmony and lead, guitar and bass, yin and yang. My search was over! I surfed Stickist.com and found RJ Goos, the only Stickist in town (Fargo/Moorhead). I e-mailed him asking when he was playing again, and Rj quickly responded and said that he would be glad to let me try it! (Thanks again RJ you did me a solid!) Anyway, I played stick that following week, and it all made sense! I had found my way of playing that music inside. That day I put my order in with SE. That following 14 months I stocked up and prepared for my Stick. Last September my school replaced my form bass teacher with a new one, Alexander Pershounin. While he was a monster and a great human being and teacher, that where he could take he was a path I did not want to walk. I left his studio, realizing that I was now on the path I was supposed to be on, stick, and their was now no doubt in my mind. Except for gigs, I play stick now almost exclusively. I agree with past postings, the stick is enchanting, I used to find it hard it hard to practice 1 hour on bass, but with stick I find it hard not to. I easily practice 4 hours a day, sometimes more and still find that it’s not enough time to go over everything I need to. I also use stick in my trio first as a bass, then I do extra on top. I also love and I mean LOVE the soloist approach. I had this discussion over the phone with Emmett, about how when I was a bassist, all I knew was the bottom of music. Now that I play stick I play music. I can pull back and see all of the music and think in those terms. I don't just think bass part, but everything all at once. It’s so liberating! I now am free and on the path to being who I am, validating myself, and just making music! I'm sorry if this was maybe too much information.

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Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:05 am
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
I'm sorry the date should be July 2006.

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Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:39 am
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Post Re: Band or Solo?
Hey guys,

Great replies. Ray, in answer to your question, yes, I now play solo NS/Stick. In the past year, I and my family have moved to the Denver, Colorado area but before then, I lived in Anaheim, Ca and the Long Beach, Ca. area. I hit the open mic circuit out there as often as I could, often playing with my brother who’s a drummer.
My 1st open mic as a solo performer was at the 2005 SoCal Stick Seminar. Before that night, if you’d asked me if I was going to be a solo performer, I’d have probably said, “no.” After that night and subsequent weekend, if asked the same question, I’d have to give a definitive, “yes.” As JRJ pointed out, something inside me, after being around and talking to such a great group of performers as Greg, Don, Tom and Emmett, just screamed, “Do your own thing, the way you want to.”
Granted, the way I do things is with looping equipment, which before that point, the only person I’d worked with who’d used that equipment was Don, I realized that I had an instrument that could do anything I wanted to do, if I put in the time and effort. Playing became a matter of who I was not just what I did. Soloing sort of called to me. But, as a “newbie” with the NS, I was still at a loss as to what needed to be done. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a desire and not knowing how to fulfill it :x . You guys out there waiting for your Sticks to be made know the feeling. A great start was just getting lessons from Don. The next was getting to a seminar. From there, for me anyway, was some advice Greg gave me. He said, “put away the looper and become the looper yourself.” Now, at the time, I thought, hey! No way :o . My NS doesn’t have the range that the standard stick has, so sustaining cords and bass lines while playing a lead is more difficult. Remember, “newbie!” I had to be reminded that, where there’s a will there’s a way if you look for it, just ask Don. I didn’t think that as a soloist, I could get the fullness of a whole band without the looping equipment. And to some extent, IMO, that’s true. But, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, you want the experience and sound of just one player, one instrument.
So, the only other influence I could draw upon at the time was Stanley Jordan. Great soloist, he tunes his guitars in all 4ths, like I tune my NS. He taps and he’s his own looper. Hey, Greg’s idea is not so far fetched after all :oops: . Now, I just have to incorporate the things I do, slapping, plucking, picking, strumming, tapping and again, thanks to Don, a little bit of slide, into a full solo sound. But hey, I’m not giving up on looping. Thanks Glenn. I just have to modify the approach so’s it doesn’t seem like I’m looping.
Lastly, I’m with Glenn on the part about being in a band and playing performer and audience member at the same time. I have a brother that’s a drummer, another brother that plays the bass and a sister who played keyboard while I played guitar. Whenever, we got together and played out, it was great to see there expressions of a job well done.


Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:01 am
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