Chapman Stick
 

Have you seen one of these before?

Yep. Tried to play one, too. They're a whole different paradigm - it's not fingerstyle in the sense of string plucking, it's fingerstyle accuracy crossed with piano technique, and your right hand gets to bend notes too. It's very weird but a lot of fun, and probably a bit of a challenge to truly master.

Three was a really accomplished guy playing one in a local mall a number of years ago. I found it very easy to listen to and fun to watch. The guy was incredible. I have never tried one myself, and figure I have my hands full with guitar and piano.

Tony

They have been around for well over 40 years.

Check out the work by Tony Levin , Trey Gunn on the 'stick/Warr guitar.
A tremendous instrument in the right hands.
(ain't they all !)
Don

Tis is Bob Culbertson. I saw him playing live in Fountain Hills yesterday at the fair. I have also seen a guy playing on Maui. Extremely difficult instrument to play and you hammer the strings to play it. I would love to try to learn it!

My old friend Andy Ellis was an early dealer and player of the Chapman Stick. It’s two handed tapping to the max, but with far more musicality with little or no percussion.

HE

Did Andy have any insights on learning it? Just a fabulous instrument.

Stick
 

I’m also a Stick player, and a friend of Bob Culbertson. In SE Michigan where I live there’s quite a few of us, and every couple of years we have a seminar at Interlochen. Next year Emmett is coming up for a 50 year celebration of this instrument. Each year Bob comes up to Ann Arbor for the art fair to perform and sell CD’s.

I’ve got two of them, one is a 12 String Grand, the other is an 8-String headless model that Emmett Chapman collaborated with Ned Steinberger on. Pretty much looks like a headless NS bass guitar with 8 strings.

I have some pics and videos on my website if you want to see more:
https://sb.smugmug.com/Music

For those wanting to learn via Skye, try the following:

Greg Howard
Steve Adelson
I believe Bob Culbertson is also doing Skype as well.

My high school classmate Paul Edwards was a long-time Chapman Stick player. Had a group (Kittyhawk) for a while; maybe it's still going (?). Paul is with Warr these days.

I think it would be a bit like playing high-level pedal steel (generally defined as "a math problem on four legs").

http://warrguitars.com/warrshow/?category=Paul+Edwards

I heard a guy in Lahaina last year, making fine music under the banyan tree.

Stick
 

The melody side is tuned in straight fourths. The bass side is tuned in fifths in the opposite direction. However, the notes do not change, just the octaves they are in. Think of the fourth-fifth relationship. The basic triad chord shapes remain the same as the melody side.

The Stick
 

This is a pretty cool chart:

http://www.thecrains.net/stick/polychords-sample.pdf

Bob is super cool in person, and had a steel drum he also used. It's a joy listening to him!

I've had a lot of other musicians recommend that I learn to play the Stick, inspired I guess by my advanced technique on mountain dulcimer. But while I've sat down with those instruments on a couple of occasions and given it the old college try, it's not something that came easily to me.

The other thing that discouraged me at the time (late 1970's, early 80's) was the price. They're not cheap, and back then I didn't have the kind of money it would take to buy one.

Another aspect that kept me from being completely enthused was that they basically sound like a combination of electric and bass guitars, not like something completely different that would set them apart as the unique instrument that they are.

Those of you subscribed to GuitarPlayer Magazine and other guitar publications during the 70's and 80's probably remember the incessant drumbeat of "guitar synthesizers are the next big thing" and "soon, we'll ALL be playing guitar synthesizers" party lines that were being endlessly repeated in those magazines.

Yet, when I finally got my hands on a guitar synthesizer, it just sounded like kind of a crappy keyboard synthesizer. Yes, I could trigger all sorts of sounds on it, but it still mostly sounded like an inexpensive Casio keyboard. So there was no advantage gained in me buying one, since - if I wanted those synthesizer sounds - it was far more cost-effective to get a good quality Roland keyboard or something, and not have to deal with all the tracking problems that came with guitar synths.

I don't want to imply that the excitement around the Stick back in the 70's and 80's compares with the incessant hype and failed promises of guitar synthesizers. In direct contrast, the Stick is a valid instrument with immense musical potential. But it requires a certain amount of skill, discipline and musical knowledge that I seem to lack.

On a side note, even though I really enjoyed the playing on that video, I wanted to tell the guy: "Dude! Get in there and clean the grunge off that fingerboard!! That's RASTY-looking!!!"

I just wonder how many years of accumulated grunge and gunk that represents...


Wade Hampton Miller

PS: I have encountered some Stick players "in the wild," you might say. I played at the Frostbite Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory a number of years ago, and there were a couple of Stick players there. They were very impressive musicians.

Dirt
 

Wade, we’ve noticed that grunge also. I thought Bob got a new Stick this year, turned out to be the old one he normally uses - cleaned :)


https://photos.smugmug.com/Music/Mus...IMG_1035-L.jpg