It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:47 am




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
 Zen Moments (instead of "who's better") 
Author Message
Elite Contributor
Elite Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:45 pm
Posts: 1730
Location: Leelanau County, MI
Post Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
Forget the poll.

Certainly every Stick player has one or more tunes or events that were like Zen moments. Tunes that you consider unforgettable and exceptionally important in your upbringing on this instrument. Not a favorite tunes list ... but game changers for you personally. I can definitely list a few ... and as much as I was a Crimson fan, none of their tunes made the cut.

Greg - Charmed Life
Heard a snippet of this on the old StickWire supporting website. It was a big deal for me because it was my first glimpse beyond Tony's basswork. Not to mention it's just a really fun tune.

Steve - Bock to Bock
When I saw Steve play this on the Stick Night 99 VHS, I bummed that it was too short.

Larry Tuttle - entire Stick Night 99 performance
Even the other players in the video will tell you that Larry was on that night. I must have watched his performance about 1000 times.

Gordian Knot
This was one of my two most important recordings. From start to finish, only one other record pumped me up more than this one.

Cides - Primitivo
I don't think anyone else has routinely pushed my buttons more than Cides. I heard the title track on Tom G's old radio show and blew him an email before it was even finished asking what it was. The sublime title track is followed immediately by the Bach Passacaglia which is like the masterpiece of looped tunes.

_________________
Glenn
http://www.121normal.com


Wed May 07, 2014 5:48 am
Profile My Photo Gallery
Multiple Donor
Multiple Donor

Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:53 am
Posts: 1518
Location: Seattle, WAq
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
zen moments for me were:
1.Tony Levin's work on the Steps Ahead record "NYC", this is a must listen

2. Trey Gunn, Robert Fripp, Bill Rieflin "Repercussions of Angelic Behavior"

3.Trey Gunn, Robert Fripp, David Sylvian "Damage"

4.Steve Adelson - "Ah Ha!" moments during lessons, sparking new understanding and learning

5. Greg Howard - the amazing record "Lift" and as of late, discovering "Shapes"

6. FHA 2013 and my lesson w/ Greg Howard.

Stick community at large…. BIG Zen Moments all the time!


Wed May 07, 2014 7:28 am
Profile
Multiple Donor
Multiple Donor
User avatar

Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:48 pm
Posts: 98
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
I think Glen is Missing an angle on this Topic
One that he as made on me as well as others

For me the biggest impact on my "stick" life
is attending my first Stick Seminar ( at Interlochen ) was the first for that venue
It was a game changer and eye opener
From Glens Looping class to Emmett's Beginners Class

I had only had my stick for a few months totally Paranoid of changing my setup/truss etc... I left with a greater understanding of the instrument and amazement of people who can really play it

To this Day Still my Favorite Stick Zen Moment
Greg Howard: Tomorrow Never Knows ( turn off your mind, relax and flow down stream )

I missed Interlochen last time due to another round of hand surgery Hopefully I'll get back to playing in the next few months

Thanks Glen for the Topic
and for making Interlochen Happen
Interlochen + Sticks = Zen

Tom ( in Austin )


Wed May 07, 2014 8:07 am
Profile My Photo Gallery
Multiple Donor
Multiple Donor
User avatar

Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:02 pm
Posts: 1851
Location: Monona, WI, USA
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
tnaughton wrote:
I missed Interlochen last time due to another round of hand surgery Hopefully I'll get back to playing in the next few months

Thanks Glen for the Topic
and for making Interlochen Happen
Interlochen + Sticks = Zen

Tom ( in Austin )

It was great meeting you there and I'm very sorry to hear about your hand. The Interlochen workshops have been huge for me too. I hope to see you back there next year.

Another pivotal moment when I was considering playing Stick was discovering the community. Yup, I mean you guys. Trying to learn this alone would have been very difficult for me, if not impossible.

And I've made friends. Just today I realized that I was going to be near a fellow Interlochen attendee later this summer. A few quick messages and we're going to meet and play. That's awesome, especially since there are so few Stick players near me.

I'm recent enough that YouTube Stick videos had a big influence. If you could wear out Rob Martino's One Cloud video I would have done so by myself long ago.

-Eric

_________________
Rosewood SG12 #5966, Mirrored 4ths
Twitter: @ejknapp
http://ericjknapp.com


Wed May 07, 2014 9:30 am
Profile My Photo Gallery
Elite Contributor
Elite Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:45 pm
Posts: 1730
Location: Leelanau County, MI
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
Thanks for the nod guys. I really do appreciate it.

Certainly I didn't mean to underplay the impact of a seminar/workshop. It just occurred to me with the "Who's Better" poll that for me, it was never really about a particular person as it was tunes/performances and the timing in which they occurred. So I kind of had that on the brain.

The impact of a good seminar or workshop really almost goes without saying as far as I'm concerned. The cool thing to me has always been the life and energy that the people who sign up bring. I would never try and downplay the impact of the wonderful teachers who've lent their expertise to educating the rest of us. But I'd venture to say that just as much of that shot in the arm comes from just hanging with a bunch of players for a few days.

Do I have a zen moment workshop? Yeah probably ... and it isn't one of mine ;) . Certainly returning to Interlochen after spending so many summers there as a kid has been fantastic. But as a Stick player, I'm still partial to the workshop organized by Jim Meyer that took place on Salt Spring Island back in 2003.

_________________
Glenn
http://www.121normal.com


Wed May 07, 2014 10:29 am
Profile My Photo Gallery
Multiple Donor
Multiple Donor
User avatar

Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:59 am
Posts: 2593
Location: Maine
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
1) Hearing Tony Levin playing Stick with Crimson and Peter Gabriel back in the mid-80's. (Edit: This next memory just popped into my head) Finding a Stick in a guitar shop in Portland, ME, and figuring out how to tap Tony's bass line from Peter Gabriel's "I Don't Remember". Telling a guitarist friend that I'd like to play Stick as a 2nd instrument, and being told "You picked one hell of a difficult second instrument!"
2) In late 2011 telling my wife that I wanted to fulfill an old desire to play Stick - and her giving me an unreserved YES (I had stopped being an active drummer in October of 2010)
3) Seeing Greg's "Inverted 5ths Chord & Bass Accompaniment" video on SE's web site; this gave me the idea that I COULD possibly do it!
4) Getting my first Stick, a 1983 Ironwood that had been reworked, refinished, and re-fitted with a truss and a new Stickup by Emmett, in late March of 2012 (Brad Smith is now the proud papa of that instrument)
5) First real exposures to Stick as a complete solo instrument, via YouTube videos from Greg, Bob, Steve A, Glenn, & more, and getting a copy of "Stick Figures" (a lot of the video exposure happened prior to getting the ol' Ironwood)
6) Seeing Greg live at Berklee College of music in Boston mid-November 2012
7) Starting to take lessons from Greg in late Nov 2012
8) Getting my Railboard early April of this year; discovering its incredible tone, and just how really well it fits me physically
9) The Northeast Stick Seminar, April 11-13. Unbelievable how much inspiration I got that weekend; what a charge of energy and encouragement. Plus, Greg made some adjustments to my truss, and I found it even EASIER to play. All of which led to...
10) Finishing and recording my first complete tune ("Here, There, & Everywhere") which I'd been working on (on and off) since getting my first Stick
At this point, I have more irons on the fire - and I am absolutely LOVING the process!!
(PS: How could I forget to include finding this community!?!)

_________________
Luc Bergeron
#R6453 Railboard
http://www.LucBergeronMusic.com
http://www.facebook.com/LucBergeronMusic


Last edited by Luc on Wed May 07, 2014 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wed May 07, 2014 11:21 am
Profile My Photo Gallery
Member
Member
User avatar

Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:58 pm
Posts: 82
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
Zen moments...

1. Seeing Armando Gallo's picture of Tony Levin in a book on Peter Gabriel (the same picture's on page 23 of Free Hands, I have since discovered) and wanting, really really badly, to know what that was

2. Reading an article in Guitarist magazine about the Stick and then really really wanting one of those. (It only took 27 years!)

3. Seeing my first Stick in the flesh in a now long-closed music shop in Edinburgh -- an exotic rarity like that, I thought! I asked to see it so the assistant took it down, plugged in a *mono* lead, strummed it, got only half a sound out of it, told me it was broken and put it behind the counter. I never got to try it. It was £600 -- about six times what I could have raised at the time.

4. Discovering Stickist and realising there was a whole gang of players and they were real people -- funny, wise, technical, obsessed, generous, helpful and above all welcoming

5. Being offered a Grand Stick and SP-13 on my birthday out of the blue in a Stickist PM that arrived while I was showing a work colleague this very board. Not for nothing is 1496 now nicknamed "Karma" (to go back to an earlier thread)

6. Bob Culbertson's 3-chord lesson on his first video (which came with 1496) -- G, C and D. It may not be much but it made a musical sound and now I'm hooked. I've only been "playing" four weeks...

There was a long gap between 3 and 4 there -- about 20 years -- during which I had the Stick always vaguely in my head. Had it not been for the discovery of Stickist that's where it might have stayed so I can echo the previous comments -- this is a great place to be. I hope to be around a while.

Sorry, that was rather more of an essay than I intended -- I was just going to go with 1 and 6 originally.

_________________
AxS
Rosewood Grand #1496, Matched Reciprocal

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes"


Wed May 07, 2014 1:30 pm
Profile My Photo Gallery
Multiple Donor
Multiple Donor
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:07 pm
Posts: 7088
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
thanks so much, Glenn, Luc, Tom and Randy...

For me there are really four moments, but the first one took 4 years to happen.

I listened to Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perrfect Pair, Shock the Monkey, I don't Remember,
for several years before I ever saw Tony playing The Stick. All those incredibly musical basslines percolated in my auditory coffeepot "unvisualized" until 1984 when I saw him in concert from the front this time (I had seen him "from behind" at a theater in the round on the Discipline tour, and thus had no clue what The Stick was.

That was the first.

The second was the first time I got to try an instrument out amid the chaos of one of the biggest music stores in America, Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center, in February of 1985, where I discovered what all the rest of the strings were for....

The Third was hearing Emmett interpret "Wichita Lineman" at the Hermosa Beach Stick Night. Like Sonny Rollins, who pulls unusual choices out of the panoply of standards and pop tunes, Emmett goes for the tunes that resonate with him, but unlike Sonny his harmonic re-imagining of this tune really had me floored. I'll never forget it.

And the fourth was the first time I heard Virna and Roberto perform together at the 1999 European Stick Seminar in Leeuwarden, Holland in the cafe at the Parnas Cultural Center.

Image

What an amazing sound, these two Sticks, artfully woven together playing original tunes...

Cheers!

_________________
Happy tapping, greg
Schedule an online Stick lesson


Wed May 07, 2014 2:09 pm
Profile My Photo Gallery
Multiple Donor
Multiple Donor
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:39 am
Posts: 1339
Location: Northern Lower Peninsula, Michigan
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
Goes back to 2006, then 2010 as "Top Zen Moments" for me. The day before I took an NS lesson from Gary Jibilian, I was quite happy just having an NS. The next day at the 2006 Stick Festival in Ann Arbor, the performances by Steve Adleson, Bob Culbertson and drummer Maruga Booker blew me away as to what one could do with a Grand Stick. I placed an order the next day for my Graphite Grand. That was probably the most rocking performance I've ever seen done with Chapman Sticks.

Here's a pic from that day. Also, Maruga who is playing drums, performed at Woodstock back in the sixties:Image

Then, in 2010 I took my first seminar with Bob C. in Melbourne, Australia. Again, another great performance with Bob and a fantastic drummer, one of Australia's best, David Jones:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEGlH6HurPg[/youtube]

It's always fascinated me how experienced musicians can get together even from opposite sides of the world and with little time come up with a great performance. There's many others involving other Stickists and musicians accompanying them, but these two equally rank as "Top Zen" for me.

_________________
Photography website:http://www.sb.smugmug.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MichiganNS
Vimeo:Steven Balogh
Graphite Grand Stick MR
NS Stick Wenge body Wenge neck
Bamboo Grand Stickup


Wed May 07, 2014 5:57 pm
Profile
Master Contributor
Master Contributor
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:35 am
Posts: 1210
Location: Indonesia
Post Re: Zen Moments (instead of "who's better")
Great harmony and progressions in that last vid. Thanks for posting.

_________________
www.soundclick.com/gongchime


Wed May 07, 2014 9:05 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron

board3 Portal - based on phpBB3 Portal Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Designed by Vjacheslav Trushkin for Free Forums/DivisionCore.
Heavily modified by Stickist.com. Stickist.com is an authorized Chapman Stick® site. The Chapman Stick® and NS/Stick™ and their marks are federally registered trademarks exclusively licensed to Stick Enterprises, Inc., and are used on Stickist.com and NSstickist.com with SEI's permission.
Click here for more information.