playing as part of a group is much easier. the solo stuff is my challenge also. akin to public speaking. the majority of the audience won't even know you did not intend to play "that" -

Unless you're an idiot like me and decide to play classical music - were everything is written down and the audience knows it by heart! I'm in such deep trouble!!!! Lol


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Funny thing is Rodrigo.....I've played hundreds of gigs as a band member....but when you are alone,... the stakes seem higher.
It's something I need to overcome....

cheers,
k

My first solo flight....eheh
I feared for my life....that was 1989. Talk about sweat....
Flying airplanes has its own set of issues eh? Thx for remembering Flynlion....

Playing solo is even scarier...

chheerrrss,
Soh Loh Pilot

My first solo flight....eheh
I feared for my life....that was 1989. Talk about sweat....
Flying airplanes has its own set of issues eh? Thx for remembering Flynlion....

Playing solo is even scarier...

chheerrrss,
Soh Loh Pilot

And young Kevin got a review in the local birdcage liner:

http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2016/02/10/trysted-sister-rocks-with-powerhouse-show

I've met Kevin a few times, he's a lovely chap, and he has a habit of getting gigs when I've already got unbreakable plans. I also know the writer of the review, and he was suitably fascinated and impressed.

Good job Mr. C!!!!!!

Last month, I spent an hour at the Acoustic Cafe at Brantford Music Centre, 4322 Colborne St., listening to an instrument that I'd never before seen or heard.

It's called a Chapman Stick and, according to its player, Kevin Chaisson, was invented by a fellow named Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. Chapman developed the tapping or fretting method of playing in 1969.

It is a 10- or 12-string instrument with the strings stretched on a piece of rosewood over three feet long.

The upper, or treble, strings are played with the right fingers. while the left hand fingers the bass strings, which are tuned in fifths, while the treble strings are tuned in fourths.

The sound produced is beautiful as it comes through a speaker system, which Chaisson controls with a foot board, with settings such as delay, reverb, chorus and stereo to enhance the full sound of the strings. Although the instrument has guitar-like frets, Chaisson tells me that a huge machine now stamps them out of aluminum, with the frets grooved into the metal.

By tapping rather than plucking the strings, the fingers of both hands are free to strike the strings on the finger board just behind the appropriate frets for the desired notes. Designed as a polyphonic chordal instrument, the Chapman stick can sound many more notes, at the same time, than some other stringed instruments, making it comparable to a keyboard instrument. As a result, many Stick players have mastered simultaneously performing bass lines, melody lines, chords or textures.

Chaisson explained that the Chapman Stick is used on a number of recordings by Peter Gabriel and King Crimson.

During his presentation, Chaisson played covers, including Elton John's Daniel, Tears For Fears' Mad World, Sting's Field Of Gold, Pink Floyd's Brain Damage and Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind.

Chaisson has been playing the Chapman stick for five years. He plays, at times, delicate passages. And, other times, we hear a more forceful percussive sound depending on the dynamics required of a particular tune. Be sure to watch for his return to this location in July. The Stick's captivating sound will get you hooked.