"Some people are just meant for that and perhaps some aren't."

How true, Tatsu! Sizing up the performer, where is the gift? Where does it show on the anatomy? Is it cultivated, exploited? It takes all kinds, shapes and sizes (colors, persuasions, gender and creed). The sensation is always different for musician and audience alike.

Music in the hands, wrists, digits, the throat, viscera, sometimes throughout the body. Wherever it's obvious in performance, you can be sure that such physical ability and "soul purpose" is correspondingly mapped out on the brain with greater space and resolution - priorities on the inside to match what the eye can readily see.

"Boris' recent post made me reconsider stick with ten fingers. Very cool."

My theory about Boris' unique Stick technique: He strategically places his ten digits down onto the ten strings and - that's the composition. From there, it's just a matter of rhythm games between the fingers and the hands. Each double hand position is unique for the song. Then he edits as he goes with his head and his heart.

Theme for this post: Abilities, gifts and talents have their locations. From being to being, you never know where the muse might alight.

Hear, hear!

First of all I'd like to thank everybody for their thoughts, you've helped me quite a bit.



I completely agree that only practical experience can teach me to play an instrument (or drive a car). My question is, to continue the metaphor, what kind of vehicle is the stick? is it a truck or a motorcycle (or an unwieldy combination of the two). As a musician, the important thing for me is getting my ideas out there, and I'm trying to find out what is the right tool for the job. I agree that there's probably a reason nobody has done what I've suggested on the stick, I was just curious to know what that reason is.

You're also right that starting out with a standard stick and modifying it later would be ideal, and that's probably what I'd end up doing anyway, if I can't find a more straightforward approach to do what I have in my head.



Hi greg, I was hoping you would answer me, being the bio-mechanics and stick-technique master that you are.

I can understand the 3 fingered approach for the melody side, where the strings are tuned in 4ths and the spacing between the frets is relatively small. As long as you have what string players call a "position" on the instrument, that is, you can cover a reasonable amount of notes without having to shift your hand, you can handle any melodic situation, regardless of the number of fingers involved, by mostly sticking to the position and shifting only when it makes sense.

On the bass side 3 fingers get you all basic triads and 7th chords. When playing melodically, however, the 3 or 4 fingered approach leads to lots of hand shifts that seem to me unnecessary. As I understand it, this is not a new problem, and has lead some more melodically oriented stickists (Rob Marino) to tune to inverted 4ths, gaining melodic playability but losing the rich wide spaced bass chords of the instrument and reducing its range.

For me, the option of using all fingers isn't about how many notes-per-minute I can play, it's about the extended reach of my hand, enabling a position on strings tuned in 5ths.



That's interesting, I'll have to check that when I get my hands on a stick. I presume that this unevenness of tone between different fingers on the same note occurs not just with the thumb, but with other fingers as well: my ring finger for example is much weaker than others, and would probably sound different. Supporting it with the arm and back muscles would probably help some, but, again, I have to play with an instrument to hear that myself.

Thanks everyone for their patience with my crazy ideas, and for your insightful comments.

I think a lot of it comes down to ergonomics. The thumb is not like the fingers, it just doesn't line up the same way. Everyone is different, but I think the general shape of the hand is what tends to relegate the thumb to more experimental techniques, rather than using it as a foundation like the other fingers.

First, as always, Emmett comes up with the best answer, always very thoughtful and open-ended.



Even when the fret spacing is closer together, I still drive the notes with slight shifting along the line of the string — the hands and arms are always involved. When the frets are close together the shifting is not a whole fret position, but the thumb is still always moving. When the frets are really close together, up around the 22nd fret, for example, the shifting will often happen in the opposite direction because the fingers would be "too close together" otherwise. I think this constant shifting is what distinguishes my right hand approach from that of my colleagues who come from the guitar and bass. Don't stretch, shift!

It's the energy from this shifting that gives me my sound (whether you like it or not, that's up to you). You can't navigate 5ths easily on a long-scale instrument without some shifting, or a lot of pivoting, even if you get your thumbs into the act. What's going to happen when you have to go from a low D to the A on the adjacent string at the same fret? You will either have to use the thumb twice in a row, or you will have to shift to get the finger in place, there is no way around it.

So... why have different techniques for different intervals? Why not have one overarching technique for everything? Unless you are playing more than one string simultaneously, there is no reason to stretch your hand out at all. Just shift. Al the time, every note, fast slow, makes no difference (super-fast flourishes don't give you time to move the hand within the string but you can still use the hand to drive the "outside fingers". From a "control" perspective, the inconsistencies between your fingers strength and mass will be blurred by the extra reinforcement hand movement gives them.

I don't know if the main reason for Rob's choice of mirrored 4ths had to do with melodic movement as it did with not being able to get the chord voicings he wanted to use in his left hand out of 5ths. He could answer that more specifically. I love Rob's playing and his sound, and they are inextricably tied into his tuning choice.

And as we were discussing this an example of effective use of the thump popped up on YT. Enjoy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-lGTGnF6A4[/youtube]

-Eric

Yeah B-Sharp, and don't forget the environment that functions as the place for one to play which facilitates or hinders.

This is a point in education. It used to be that most people thought students are empty vessels that need to be filled with knowledge or skills. The educated no longer think this way. The genetic predisposition for a certain behavior might never see the light of day in the wrong environment and always remain untapped potential.

Or like a flower which finally gets enough air, water and sunlight in the later moments of it's life, it quickly flourishes then fades.

Might be the will of the divine.

Brilliant Bob!

I don't have much to add, except one little thing: I also believe that it's in the hands of the player, and the way their hands are constructed (and in the way their mind works, of course).
In my case, my pinkies are pretty short compared to the rest of my fingers. I can play major triads fine with my left hand, but I knew immediately when I first played my Stick that I'd never be using my pinky on the melody side. It's so short that I'd have to quickly (and awkwardly) reposition my hand on the fly in order to get that right pinky involved, and given how much can be done with 3 fingers, I haven't bothered with it. It was a totally practical decision for me.

Every song and every arrangement has its own geometric requirements. There is no 100% uniform formula to accommodate all repertoire The same notes can be found in multiple areas. Any finger can eventually hit any string..Hands can be placed anywhere as well. Two melody, two bass, split, crossed, uncrossed etc.
Experience with the music on the instrument and a logical curious mind will put you in the right place.
Many of my Skype students have taken different paths. If it works ergonomically, so be it. We tackle hard fingering together and voila the discoveries are mutual. The Stick technique history develops everyday.
Steve A