Hi,
I was aware of the Stick from Tony Levin, but it recently came up on Musical-U, where I hang out, in a 'lesser known instruments' discussion so I took a closer look. Oooo, that's nice I thought. Love the sound, love the ergonomics, it's (sort of) bass & guitar in one, & is obviously an idea that's been deeply thought through.
I'm one of those people who was labelled very early on in my school days as tone deaf. They seemed to be correct about most things so I believed them. Despite that I have always loved music & though I say it myself have always been pretty good at recognising songs & even identifying artists or composers from pieces I don't know. It was only as I approached 60 that I discovered that if you like music you're probably not really tone deaf. I took a test. I wasn't. I discovered that the reason I had an awful singing voice was that I'd never realised that pitch matching was a thing you can learn to do. I'd assumed it was something that 'just happened' for those who sang, & I wasn't one of those.
Having started learning to use my voice, I decided to give keyboard a go. That went reasonably well, so I plucked up courage to try the instrument that really appealed, the guitar. That was almost exactly 2 years ago. Along the way I've added a bass too.
From the start I've had no real interest in strumming guitar; for me it's a melody instrument. Also before I got my first one I came across P4 (Perfect 4ths/All 4ths) tuning & I liked the idea, so I've used that from day one.
My prime interest (i.e. where I want to go) is in improvisation (ImprovisationForReal is another bunch I hang out with - I love their take on how music 'works'), but I am of course learning tunes too - it's good to have examples of stuff that works!
After a couple of years I'm just starting to feel I'm heading towards the sound I desire (which apparently includes a preference for just finger tips, no nails), but am really very much a beginner, just not quite so much of one as I used to be.
One reservation I have over the Stick is that I think I may be addicted to the 'pluck' sensation.
So, maybe an NS/Stick would be more my line? Either way living where I do (on a well known Island off the West coast of Scotland) & preferring not to travel it's highly unlikely I'd be doing any trying before buying (but that's applied to my other instruments too, & so far so good).
Ah. I seem to have rambled on a bit. That's probably more than enough, so I'll stop.
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