Howdy fellas. Currently I play Baritone Melody tuning on my Stick. Dave Brosky and Greg Howard convinced me of the benefits of switching to this from the Classic tuning back in 2008 and I have loved it. Currently there was a question in another part of the forum, Introductions, I think where earthgene recommended a Baritone melody tuning with the bass side raised a whole step. That sounded very interesting to me especially considering the musical situation that I find myself trying to swim through. I play the Stick(with roland synth on the melody side) along with a guitarist(mostly funk and lead style) and a bassist (mostly "dragon style"). Not to mention a drummer and a lead singer who once in a blue moon picks up an acoustic guitar.

Often when I mention playing with a guitarist and bassist, other Stickists roll their eyes and with a slightly sympathetic sigh(not to be confused with sympathetic strings, the dampener usually prevents that!) they exclaim..."so what is left for you to do?" I don't mind this question. I think that though there isn't much room to just horse around, there are an incredible amount of sonic possibilities with a little patience and thought. Kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. If you heard our stuff, you may or may not agree that I add to the sound without muddying it up. After our studio project, which we are in the middle of, we will be writing new tunes and then I may even incorperate my Oud. So I will definitely have more strings than anybody else(put together, even).

...man this is getting off track. So back to the topic! I know we have baritone melody tuning, which is like the inner 10 strings of a twelve string classic tuned Stick. Has anyone played around with the outer `10 strings? In other words getting rid of the middle bass strings? Given my situation, I really rarely play the low bass string and wouldn't mind some higher chord choices on the bass side(One reason Gene's suggstion intrigued me). The more expensive solution would be to just Stick-man-up and buy a Grand Stick, but I can honestly say that I could never justify that in my financial situation. Another solution would be to get the heck out of this band and into a more traditional role for a Stick player. Seriously, I want to make it work, though, and wondered if a different tuning might add a new dynamic.

I would be interested in any thoughts or experience with this topic.

Mike

Go for it. Emmett"s all for alternate tunings-it makes you think differently. and you can always go back. tell him what u want and he'll set you up. i on the other hand, am going in the other direction. both my Grand and Ironwood fretless are DBR-a halfstep down. goin for that lunar note and make it float...

People who ask "What is there left for you to do?" are, in my humble opinion, and I say this respectfully, looking at it the wrong way, and missing an opportunity.
Does a cello player look at the bass violin and viola sitting next to him, and think "Well, there's nothing here for me to do. Guess I'll be moseying along!"
What about the mid-1990's incarnation of King Crimson, the double trio? Two guitars, two Sticks - and I don't think those guys spent a moment wondering "what am I going to do here?"
Use your ears. You'll hear what you need to do.
All that said, I wonder if an Alto Stick or Stick Guitar would be really suitable in that kind of situation, but if finances don't permit, then maybe it's worth considering simply going to a higher tuning. If you're in Classic, maybe take it up a whole step, or dive into Raised Matched Reciprocal.

Bob uses a tuning on his AcouStick that's a 5th higher on the bass strings and MR on the melody.

A FIFTH higher?!? Holy smokes...he must be using a very custom string set.
What else is possible with this instrument? Like Will Farrell said, it's mind-bottling!
(Yes, I know it's really mind-boggling.)

The AcouStick is a 10string, so it's like having strings 7-12 on a Classic Grand as your 5 bass strings....

If there's no keyboardist in your group then there's definitely something for you to do. If there's a rhythm guitar part and a high hat part. Think of them together. The resultant rhythm between them is probably too busy but a good place to throw your chords in is where the rhythm guitar isn't playing but the high hat is.

The guitar is probably playing guitaristic voicings so let the stick play keyboard voicings. 1357 in the right hand sometimes in first inversion and 3 and 7 in the left hand if we're talking jazz. If rock/pop then just the root and/or fifth in the left hand and 135 in the right.

Also, cool is alternating between the left and right hand. You can allow the left hand to fall on the down beat with the guitar no problem.

The other thing is to play open voicings during some sections like during the chorus. Drop 2, Drop 4 or Drop 2/4 are most common. Lastly, although you can invert chords so that you don't have to move your hand, which is another needed skill, even better is to play chords with good voice leading in their upper voice. That's a discussion for a later time though.

Actually you don't have to get too sophisticated with this. Just make sure the top note of your chord progressions is always moving and that will ameliorate boring chords.

If you're about to invert the chord so that it's in the same position as the previous chord but that will make the top note the same as the previous chord's top note, then don't do that. If something is uncomfortable because it makes you hop around too much to avoid a boring upper voice in your chords, then it might be time to start throwing in 9s 11s and 13s to smooth things along.

Forgot to mention you shouldn't normallry let your open voiced chords (or your closed voiced chords for that matter) have any notes that fall below middle C. When trying to play drop chords that's what would happen to a C triad, for example, so you have to transpose to the octave above.

Also, if it wasn't clear, when the left hand is playing roots and fifths or thirds and sevenths, keep those out of the bass register since the bass player already has that covered.