Because it's mine, "I Walk the Line", but I also leap across the box. Vertically (across the strings) the melody is tuned in uniform 4ths. Horizontally (along the strings) the markers are arranged in uniform 4ths. It's a neutral graph, but you'll change character playing your lead lines along a single string instead of across the strings.

I must comment, it brings out my friend Greg's Italian side as he savors those colorful scalar passages. (He may be thinking India tho.) Such a one string technique seems to encourage decorative bends and slides.

As a multi-string instrument, The Stick's arrangement of strings encourages vertical play, using all the strings at a single hand position. Greg's focus on "Walking the Line" perfectly compliments the vertical with the horizontal, expanding melodic resources and enriching the expressive vocabulary.

And there's the bonus, a bit of a surprise to me, of LH bass with RH melody unison lines despite the contrary 5ths bass tuning. True unison or separated by one or more octaves, this technique in itself is well worth pursuing. Many thanks Greg, for this mode of instruction.

(Another) Great video Greg.

Greg,

What is the drone chord you are playing on the bass side?

Hi Emmett,

My inspiration for this comes mainly from listening to Nubian oud master Hamza El Din, and also my friend Ayman Fanous, who uses this kind of single string playing on classical guitar and bouzouki. He's also Egyptian. I'm sure it's a very common approach but I haven't seen very many musicians live in these idioms.

I play a lot of true unison and octave unison these days, mostly with string jumps, but often without as in this modality. Glad you like it!



It's just an F-C-F starting on the 3rd bass string, fret #3.

And Randy, Nomad and Gene.... cheers!

I tend to look at playing the Stick in a completely opposite manner. Since we aren't just "stopping" a string, we are also "energizing" it, the flow of energy from the hands, to me, greatly enhances the sound and experience, compared to a "fingers-only" approach.

My ultimate goal in melodic technique is for movement within a position and transitional movement between positions to have the same physical and sonic quality.

To me there is no more efficient instrument that The Stick in terms of getting energy out that you put in. The strings are so easy to fret, that everything you put in comes back as sound.

Free your hands! They are very powerful. Let them be so.

gratuitous thread-page re-embedding

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HncJQ5-D4Sk[/youtube]

While I firmly believe that players should use what they are comfortable with, and there is "no" right/wrong way, I was firmly in the 4 finger school for a long time…. I still use the pinky for some chords… however, when I started studying with Greg, I made a decision to park the "pinky" and dive deep into the 3 finger approach…. So glad that i did…. the progress that I have made in just one short month has been staggering! I really see how this approach can benefit a player in a multitude of ways… Relaxation, energy transmitted onto the board and string, articulation and expression of notes, flow up and down the board…. I am not stuck in one position now….
what I like is all of the hops, crab walk, traverse… how you can "set up" note choice and not have to think about it…..

In our lesson, I remember Greg saying that every guitarist and bassist wants to fight him over the 3-finger technique, but I was eager to give it a try, and slowly I've become more accustomed to it. I still use all four fingers when I'm not doing scalar stuff, but for melodies I have been trying to just stick to the three fingers.

Finally got to see the bulk of this video, albeit in chunks. Inspiration to, finally, start working on some soloing, which I've avoided for a long time, because this offers an inroad that I hadn't considered.
This is some cool subject matter, Greg, and the video is well done. Thanks very much once again!

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