Transitioning to Chapman Stick

[Ludwig77]

I'd like to hear from people who have transitioned from the guitar to
the Chapman Stick.

I've thought about it. I do not yet own one.

What's the learning curve like?

Can a Stick be tuned similarly enough to a guitar that learning the
fretboard becomes easier?

Ideally, I'd like a tuning in fourths with one string in thirds (like a
standard 6 string). The rest of the strings could be in fourths again
up to 10 or 12.

Also, I commonly see bass players playing Sticks but don't they have a
range closer to a piano so as to allow the player to play in the range
of a modern guitar as well?

Also, are there any alternative manufacturers other than Chapman that
might sell quality sticks at a more reasonable price?

[palmtre...@aol.com]

I met the guy in SF years ago and studied his stick... I don't know
about tuning but I think you could tune it any way you want and have it
work. It is really nothing more then a guitar with super hot pickups on
it. You could get the same type of sound with just about any guitar
too.

Hats off to you for wanting to learn a new instrument.

[Karl]

Ludwig77 wrote:
> I'd like to hear from people who have transitioned from the guitar to
> the Chapman Stick.

> I've thought about it. I do not yet own one.

> What's the learning curve like?

This depends on your background. Do you tap now? I don't, so it would
take me longer to learn it than you if you can tap.

> Can a Stick be tuned similarly enough to a guitar that learning the
> fretboard becomes easier?

I read about them when they first came out. The treble strings are
either guitar tuning or all in fourths.

> Ideally, I'd like a tuning in fourths with one string in thirds (like a
> standard 6 string). The rest of the strings could be in fourths again
> up to 10 or 12.

The bass strings are tuned in fifths like a cello. You could tune it
any way you like, however there are training books and videos that'll
expect you to tune it to standard Stick tuning. If Emmett Chapman came
out with other tunings they'd be discussed on his website.
www.stick.com

> Also, I commonly see bass players playing Sticks but don't they have a
> range closer to a piano so as to allow the player to play in the range
> of a modern guitar as well?

Bass players are just wierd. Anything to get attention.;-P

> Also, are there any alternative manufacturers other than Chapman that
> might sell quality sticks at a more reasonable price?

Check out Warr Guitars. www.warrguitars.com/ I don't know anyone else
that makes a tapping instrument other than custom built jobs. This guy
had his tap guitars built to his specs: http://adam.fulara.com/

[mws...@insightbb.com]

>I'd like to hear from people who have transitioned from the guitar to
>the Chapman Stick.
>I've thought about it. I do not yet own one.

I come from a guitar background and have been learning Stick for
the past few years:

http://www.marksmart.net/instruments/stick/stickmain.html

>What's the learning curve like?

Well, it's kind of steep. If you use one of the standard Stick
tunings and play with crossed hands (like most Stick players), then
both hands have some re-learning to do. The weirdest thing if the
bass side, which is usually tuned in inverted fifths. Before I got
a Stick I thought this was really weird and that I would want to
re-tune it like a regular bass. But after I got a Stick and played
with it for a while, I began to see the logic. The fifths make it
easy to play a very full-sounding chord over a large range with
just your left hand...very good for accompanying a melody in the
right. Also, because the tunings of the bass and treble halves
overlap, you can play all these very cool closely voiced jazz
chords that are normally impossible on the guitar.

Because the bass strings are inverted (strung with the lowest
string in the center of the neck and going up in pitch as you
go outwards) an interesting thing happens...the letter-named
notes (A, B, C) are in the same place as they would be on a
4ths-tuned bass, just with octave displacement. This means that
a lot of bass lines you play on a regular bass can be translated
right onto the Stick. They will still sound good, but have octave
jumps in them that weren't there before.

>Can a Stick be tuned similarly enough to a guitar that learning the
>fretboard becomes easier?

If you play with crossed hands, then even if you had the treble half
in guitar tuning, you would still have to re-learn because you're using
your right hand for fretting instead of your left. I figured since
I had to re-learn anyway, I would save a lot of work if I used the
straight-4ths tuning. Straight 4ths is a great thing. All chord shapes
can be moved onto different string sets without changing them. Scales
are easier to learn because the top of one scale for is the same as
on of the other ones. This saves UNBELIEVEABLE amounts of work
compared to learning chords and scales on the guitar. For 4-note
block chords it reduces the number of shapes you have to learn by
a factor of 3.

It was kind of weird...learning scales with the right hand on the Stick
came to me relatively easily despite using the opposite hand. I think
the fact that I knew guitar scales was helping. It must be some kind
of neurological connection, possibly related to the fact that, if
you're drumming your fingers on a table, it's easy to hit the same
finger(s) on both hands simultaneously. The scale forms on the Stick
look like those on the bottom 4 strings of the guitar.

>Ideally, I'd like a tuning in fourths with one string in thirds (like a
>standard 6 string). The rest of the strings could be in fourths again
>up to 10 or 12.

You can tune the Stick like this if you want. I personally think that
would make it harder to learn.

>Also, I commonly see bass players playing Sticks but don't they have a
>range closer to a piano so as to allow the player to play in the range
>of a modern guitar as well?

Yeah, the Stick's range goes below that of a regular 4-string bass and
above that of the guitar. It can sound HUGE.

I'm very excited about the Stick's possibilities, and am slowly working
it into my jazz performances.

Mark Smart
http://www.marksmart.net

[btpa...@yahoo.com]

I recently saw a guitarist play a Stenberger electric like a Chapman
stick. He was playing by hammering his fingers onto the fretboard with
both of his hands. He played the guitar normally and used his left
hand in the normal fashion. He was also very adept at playing
many-many notes very fast which was impressive but after a while was
not terribly musical. So although he was rather impressive the music
was a bit lacking.

[BluesView]

<btpa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1124803190....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Here's a master of the Chapman, as well as the bass:
http://www.papabear.com/dblesp.htm

BV

[mws...@insightbb.com]

Was it a regular Steinberger guitar or an NS/Stick?

<http://www.stick.com/instruments/ns/>

Mark Smart
http://www.marksmart.net