Re: Bowing Stick - practice session clip shared

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Ricky Graham <rickygrahammusic@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> I must look into the chapman stick, more so. Seems like a suitable
> transition from the guitar.


Actually drummers, harpists and piano players may be better off than
guitarists when starting out fresh on the Stick. That is because the
difficult part to learn in Stick playing is not to move the fingers to
tap strings but to re-learn your  brain to multitask as the director
of two hands with two independent musical interpretations. If you look
at guitar playing technique, it really is not a multitasking musical
craft as much as it focuses on learning both hands to become synced
parts of one major musical gesture. Of course one can also play that
way on drum kit, stick, piano and harp - but those instruments also
offer a way to play with a "two hands - two musicians" attitude.

When I picked up the Stick I first thought my guitar playing skills
(developed through decades) would be a bonus, but after only one week
I was surprised to find that I was able to play smoother melody runs
when tapping with my right hand than with my left hand. Guess that's
because I was born right handed. I was amazed by the difference it
makes to play difficult parts with your "better" hand. In guitar
playing you never get to make that experience (unless doing the
experiment to switch between left- and right handed guitar every
second day during the first learning phase - but who does bother with
that? And no matter which hand you push down strings at frets with,
you will always have to learn to synchronize picking with the other
hand)

Cool thing with the Stick is also IMHO that the two fretboard halfes
go out through two independent audio outputs, meaning you can play
through two complementary rigs/effect boards. Personally I rather go
deeper into audio processing than put MIDI pickups on my stick. That's
more like "the real thing" to me (unless we are talking Akai EWI
4000s, the ultimate MIDI controller instrument ;-)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com
www.looproom.com internet music hub