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 Roman Giza 
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Post Re: Roman Giza
franciscu wrote:
Roman Giza playing in "...Major thirds all across the instrument! ..."

I don't have a Stick yet. But seriously considering. I'm 70, with very modest illusions, and before I die I would just like to get to where I can


All I can say is 'go for it'! I have always been surrounded by talented musicians and thought if I started now, I would be X number of years behind. I decided I should play for my own reasons and it has been highly rewarding for a curious mind and an untrained ear. I admire musicians posted on this site, but I concluded that I am not pursuing a growing repetoire. Instead I turn up the amp and noodle a vignette of how I am feeling. Sometimes interesting, sometimes horrible, but typical a hyper focused catharsis free of outside distraction. If you have motivation and something to say...start playing.

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Tue Jul 09, 2013 9:22 pm
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Post Re: Roman Giza
Quote:
So, I'm interested in anything that will simplify things. Came across the idea of 'major 3rds' tuning ...


hi franciscu,

the stick is already the solution for you. Everyone of thinkable tunings make some music easier and other more difficult...
My opinion: choose one of them, but stay there. I experimented with a few tunings furst, but when Steve Adelson once gave me the advice to focus on the once choosen tuning (MR10 in my case), then my playing was better for every day of practising...

just go for it... ;)

cheers


Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:52 am
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Post Re: Roman Giza
Rob and Balt-i-sar,
Thanks so much for the encouragement. Indeed there's a point in life when a certain kind of 'freedom' sets in. At my age I look at an activity like this -- taking up the Stick -- with a combination of both resignation and joy. I'm free of any illusions or pressure about 'accomplishing much'. This will just be a gentle enjoyment, a bit of time every day with fingers and mind, strings and tones. It'll be sittin-on-the-porch-in-the-breeze alistening to whatever modest harmony, melody, and rhythm I manage to weave out of the thing on any particular day.

All that said, I still want to be fair to myself and try to apply myself intelligently, finding and using the best approaches, methods, and materials. I'm figuring that a lead time of several months will pass until I get an actual Stick into my hands. So, I've come up with a plan for not letting that wait time go to waste.

I have a voice training CD in my car and I practice solfege a bit when driving alone. I have EarMaster Pro and I try to do some ear training with that. I'm studying Jamie Andreas' "Principles of Correct Guitar Practice" as my approach for efficiently acquiring muscle memory. For rhythm and timing I may take up Luc Bergeron's suggestion to learn from Ted Reed's "Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer". I'm carefully watching DVD,s (Culbertson and Howard) and various YouTube Stick videos, and will study the books by Chapman, Howard, and Adelson. Also I'm reading and internalizing some practical theory on scales, chord construction, and chord tone soloing. I'm making a list of all (or most) of the various chords and their inversions and how their formulas are built up from intervals.

Finally, I've been using the FretFind2D webpage (http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/) to print out true-to-scale layouts of Stick fretboards. I've then been marking the strings and frets of each layout with the notes as they occur in each various tuning. I now have paper layouts with reciprocal 4ths-5ths, reciprocal major 3rds- minor 6ths, bi-directional tritone, reciprocal minor 3rds - major 6ths, and finally NON-reciprocal major 3rds straight across. Next I'm going to actually glue these paper fretboard layouts onto some 1x4 pine boards and experiment with how ergonomic each tuning is for my hands and fingers in managing all those scales and chord shapes. Soon I hope to have a solid opinion about which tuning I want to commit to. Ergonomics and simplicity are the HUGE factors for me!

Once I have made my tuning choice I'm going to take my pine board and attach wires flat onto the board to represent frets. I'll take some old guitar strings and tighten them across those 'frets' to simulate the strings and so as to give me some rough feel (but without sound) of a Stick fretboard. That done I'll then be able to begin some rudimentary muscle memory training toward carefully programming my fingers for touching the fake strings in various scale and chord combinations.

I think that all is about the best I can do until the postman shows up with the real thing. It should keep me busy at least...

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Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:31 am
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Post Re: Roman Giza
I used Google to look up all the info, videos, and recordings of Roman Giza that I could find online. I'm interested specifically in Giza because, so far as I've found, he's the only Stick player who has his strings tuned at major 3rd intervals. He's from Sczeczin, Poland (Gryfia?) and seems to have moved down to the sunnier climes of Portugal and the Canary Islands. Most of the videos are rough quality and shot by passing tourists while he's playing in street musician mode (i.e. not in serious performance mode). Nevertheless one can see that 'the boy can play'. On some of the videos you can see how he has his 10-string fretboard marked up with 'major 3rds' fret markers. The Argentine Stick site (http://www.stickcenter.com/) also has some links to audio of some more focused playing by him (his Recuerdos de la Alhambra sounds very good to me).

Everything I saw/heard gives me confidence that a major 3rds setup could work well. But, it certainly is a total committment kind of decision. One comment I read was from a Stickist who visited with Giza and asked to try his Stick. He didn't realize that Giza's tuning interval was 3rds and wound up feeling a little embarrassed that he could not play it at all. Of course Giza would have the same thing happen to him if he tried to play a Stick in standard 4th-5ths.

I did notice one thing though about Giza's (street) playing: his bass voice sounded quite 'muddy' to me. I think that comes partly from Giza's own style; but also partly because non-reciprocal 3rds tuning across all 10 strings packs all the bass notes together on the lowest strings. The frequency jumps between the deep bass scale notes are small and give that muddy effect. On the other hand, the reciprocal 5ths tuning of the standard Stick bass strings spreads the bass harmonies out across a couple of octaves and gives a lighter and cleaner effect.

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Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:25 am
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Post Re: Roman Giza
I've gotten some great ideas on tunings, layout of the board, even uses of the digits and thumbs, while having to wait somewhere and tapping on a table, on my thighs, or "air Stick", even on a computer keyboard. These revelations almost never panned out.

There's no substitute for hands on Stick. I say this without salesmanship in mind (do you believe it?). Do I believe it?

Moderate advances or as I call them, "forks in the road", have been my path to progress even back in my guitar days.

It's a "Catch 22":
- Tuning is important, shapes your music, can even dictate your musical purpose.
- What tuning to start with?
- Must have Stick in hand to know.

The way out: Find a Stick player you like, who could be a friend, a mentor, or a teacher, then buy that Stick model and tuning. Some successful Stickists carried it even further, selecting the hardwood and inlaid markers of their musical role model's Stick.


Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:19 am
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Post Re: Roman Giza
Roman was born in Poland. In Nowa Sol. In my knowledge, Roman was the first Polish stick player. In the late nineties he emigrated to Spain. A few years ago he moved to Portugal. Still is a busker and poetry lover. He is a artist who live in non real world. He still don't believe in internet. Roman has recorded many CD's for sale on the street. My beloved is the one with 34 variations of Handel's Sarabande. More than 1 hour very good play and also proof of his composing talent. I'm still waiting for the announced CD with Chopin's works. Guilermo Cides sell some Roman CD's. I think that you can buy them either by writing directly to Roman Giza. His email is: romanstick (at) yahoo (dot) es

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Last edited by mahabresq on Sun Aug 07, 2016 4:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Tue Jul 30, 2013 4:15 pm
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Post Re: Roman Giza
I just returned from Lisbon where I met Roman Giza. Great man and player. I think that tuning his Stick very determines the final shape of what he creates.
Personally, I look forward to his own record with 24 preludes suspended somewhere between Chopin, Sattie and fado music. Before it is recorded you can listen several tracks created by Roman for tourists which you can find eg. on John Stuby youtube chanel

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Poi_wmNMAaY[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/yreHIskPHMg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/koyCmN-Hx4I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/_dFbPYybGmc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/NXur0uXgyPc[/youtube]

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12-String Matched Reciprocal XG Grand Stick #5428 with dual MIDI & PASV-4
10-String Deep (-3 semitones) Standard Tarara Alto Stick #5689 with MIDI & Stickup


Wed Apr 20, 2016 5:17 pm
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