Don't mean to hijack, but props to Kieran. That boy slays me every single day. Plays the piano like beast, just like my dad and Grandmother. No idea how he worked that out, but over the past 2 years, he's worked out the guitar as well. Trying not to consider it a failure that he isn't a prog rock guy, but his tastes are pretty eclectic, nonetheless.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ewsZH8lkA[/youtube]

Kev

I would agree with Mr. Mike that you are ahead of the average Stick player in his first year and a half of learning.

Don't put too much weight on conventions or the advice and/or admonitions of the elite. Play the shit out of that thing, play daily out of the Free Hands book but most importantly you should EXPERIMENT, and with an emphasis on PERCUSSION.

Play it like it's a drum and stay on the beat.

K

this is definitely a concept that applies to ALL instruments. what's also an important factor in this practice method is controlling dynamics. it's not enough to just play in tempo. when you slow things down or speed things up, it's important to keep control of how you touch each note. one of the greatest advantages that the Stick holds over Keys and Synths is the dynamic range a Stick can achieve is much wider, which can allow for more expression in what you are playing. playing the right notes and in the right tempo is only part of learning how to speak through the instrument. a drummer plays the same drum or cymbal repeatedly, and the very best drummers can easily be identified by all the different sounds that come out of each time the same sound (or note) is played. that's what defines their voice on the instrument, the Stick is exactly the same.

what Kev said is great advice, just don't forget that when you slow something down to work out a part, make sure that the sound that comes from each note is played sounding clean. playing exactly on time but sounding like you aren't playing "cleanly" means you might not be ready to speed it up yet. practicing sloppy playing, no matter how accurate the tempo, will only get sloppier as you speed it up.

you have all the production tools and knowledge on how to use them. record EVERY TIME you pick up the instrument to practice or play. listen back when the instrument isn't in your hands. when you play, your mind is somewhat occupied with what you are doing at that moment. when you slow something down, and then record it and then listen back, it'll be as plain as day to you what you need to work on. listening is one of the best practice methods because 100% of your focus can be on figuring out what you need to improve upon. but also, if you are ALWAYS recording, then every note counts. you can't get nervous when recording, because you are always recording. and when you are always recording, that feeling of recording becomes the norm. it'll be when you don't record that you'll feel like something ain't right. i know when i play, if i'm not recording, i feel like: "man these notes just don't count". i know they count, but every opportunity you get to play may just be that special moment when something happens that's greater than you plan for or imagine. when that moment happens, you shouldn't have to think about being prepared for it. you already will be.

every one of my songs that i posted came from those moments when i let music happen and i was recording. after i listened back, when i found anything i liked, i just start building around it. its very organic in a sense. (almost Fractal-ish...)

Wow, page 2 bump!
Day 260: All About That Bass (Chapman Stick Railboard)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1H6UqOUoEE[/youtube]
Kevin! I was hoping that some Elite Master Stickists would take a moment and chime in, and you've delivered and then some! (Hey, you count as Elite Master Stickist, too, Mr. Stick and Warr Master and 4th-most prolific Stickist poster!)

First thanks just for the listen and feedback. That is priceless and I value it highly! This thread had several hundred views (@350 as of writing this) but only a couple of comments, and that always freaks me out that people hate it and are just too polite to say so. But then again, people here have been pretty good at telling me when I suck , so I never know how to take the no commenting. But that's here in Stickland amongst you fine master musicians--out in the real YouTube land, comments are almost universally bad and horrible (reading other people's comments on their stuff. The only people who comment on my videos are my friends and other Stickists). The more popular the YouTube video, the more the comments are: "You should just put glass in your eyes and die!" kind of weird stuff!

I'll start with the timing first, since I see that started some awesome discussion! Yay! Briefly, all of your comments about treating the Stick percussively, and working on timing, are just excellent, excellent, advice. One of my weakest skills as a musician in general is keeping to a strict metronome beat--especially without a metronome beat. I've been playing with myself (pun intended) for about 20 years now or so, and haven't really played with others much in that time. Lots of band experience and I used to be little Stevie on the beat, then after 20 years of wanking solo and playing New Age Progressive piano where the beat is wherever you want it and rubato is your best friend, my timing has really gotten weak!

Also, I want to play on Stick like I can on piano, and it's hard to slow things down. But I think that's excellent advice and well worth spending more practice time on.

Emmett constantly talks about how percussive the Sticks are, and you've got Stickists like Beat Master Randy who plays awesome drums and Zenndrum and who gravitates to the Stick as a natural progression towards expressive percussion. I had a professor who loved to say that the piano is really in the percussion family, along with xylophone and the like, and Stick is even more so.

I also am discovering over the years that I'm more of a "rhythm" player than a soloist, and I love the syncopated funky groove more than doing the shredding solo--but man, I love those too! Just not as much from me--I'm rocking the (hopefully) tight chord change jam under which the shredding lives.
Railboard for the beefiness! There is the potential there for some really PHAT ASS bass sounds, and I'm not sure what percentage of it is finger placement and technique, and how much effects can do, but the raw Railboard has a bass sound I call "butter." (Not necessarily mine, though, yet). I'm playing with a raw DI tone from the phantom pickups, and then using various plugins to bring out more of the "growl" sound that I love the shit out of. I firmly hear Geddy Lee's Rickenbacker growl in some parts and that makes me a very happy wanna-be prog rocker.

Let me just give massive props to Emmett on the Railboard design in general. I'll admit that for like 3 days, I hated my Railboard after playing the Rosewood for 4 months or so. The Railboard sounded too "clanky" when played acoustically. PLUG IT IN! was the short answer to that problem. I play my Sticks acoustically about 70% of the time! Now that I'm more familiar with the Railboard, I still play it a lot acoustically, because I'm used to the "clank." I'm still working on that bass tone and whatever my "sound" is, but I'm pretty happy with what I've dialed in so far. Definitely up to taste though. Some people hate the "growl" (and Rush for that matter! Peasants!)

Now to your video: God damn ***%%^^!!!!&! (it's not the Lounge, so insert your own favorite expletives.) That was awesome on so many levels. Your son's voice, the guitar playing, and you rocking the drums. Kevin and Kieran (nice alliteration!) bring the Giants! (Big fan of TMNT--wait that's the mutant turtles, I mean TMBG!)

Your advice, comments, and sharing of videos and encouragement were a home-run knock out of the park, Kevin. I just point that out because some of the Other Master Elite Stickists like to give you crap about being feisty and wonder why you're here. I appreciate your time and attention, even though I'll never be your student or buy your videos! (I buy everyone's crap by the way. I've got a pile of videos and Stick recordings and Bandcamp albums from a lotta cats around here. I believe in putting your money where your mouth is, although I have more mouth than money, but I only buy the stuff that rocks. Most of the stuff here really rocks! Even the jazz that I used to think i didn't like has really grown on me lately! )

Thanks again for coming around and helping me out! You rock!

Adds: I watched the 2nd Kieran/Kevin video. Man, your son has got some mad skills! You should live vicariously through him and his awesomeness! Truly thanks for sharing that video--no hijack at all!

Thanks, Steve. You should see him play piano. Unbefreakinglievable. A few weeks ago he showed me a youtube video called "Nyan Cat." For those whose brains haven't yet been infected by this foul gem, here it is on a 10-hour loop:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZ7oFKsKzY[/youtube]

Kieran dissected it and now plays it on the piano, note for note. A mad genius in the making. Totally blows my mind every time I think about it.

So, yes, I live vicariously through all my children. I can't not.

Thanks again for the kind words. I was hoping you would take my post in the way I intended, and you didn't let me down. I don't listen to a whole lot of tapping, whether it's Stick or Warr or anything else, and I certainly don't consider myself an Elite Stick Master, heh. I'll leave that stuff to the purists. I am a percussionist who plays notes on strings, and don't think of my instrument as a brand or an exciting, new, innovative innovation. I look at it as a great, big drum that happens to make notes in a linear way. Constantly thinking of it as a Stick or a Warr or whatever locks you into a narrow and destructive mindset. At least, as far as I am concerned, and I know because I once fell into that trap.

My brain is hard-wired to feel percussion first, to first concern myself with drum parts in a band context and in the context of writing. I'll give you an example of this pretty soon when I make a little more progress with my sequencing project. I'm getting pretty close, and it's really insane stuff.

What plugins are you using, Steve? Free? Links?

Kev

Also, did you say you have a problem playing while standing?

K

K-Rex; a series of thoughtful replies and criticisms. Well said, put in a way that isn't too scathing, and yet doesn't beat around the bush. I know the single most frustrating part about playing the Stick, and trying to improve for me is "lack of groove". Especially since I DO play drums, guitar, bass and pretty much whatever else I want, it's frustrating.

Free Hands book, yes. Regardless of the tuning one employs (I'm a mirrored 4ths guy) the reference material in that book is second to none. I'm not even certain it's meant to be gone through sequentially...

Rhythm is the one element of music that can stand on it's own. It's why we can listen to the dryer for a half hour and think to one's self "Dammit, what a cool groove!". The rhythmic element is a critical one to be sure

You support your kid, playing music that isn't your first love. Well, done. That's what dads do! My daughter plays a mean guitar, but mostly likes Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, stuff like that. She Does like EVH and Malmsteen too, though! Anyways, like any dad I have her back at any given moment. Even if it's not Rush she wants to play...

Anyways, KRex you should do a couple of things... (You're here anyways)

1) Post some new music. Yeah, yeah I know you're busy, aren't we all? I for one really liked the band stuff you posted a while back...

2) You should become the self-appointed "Simon Calwell" of Stickist.com and go in to people's music threads, shotguns blazing... It would be not only highly entertaining, but people would maybe get some very, very direct advice in regards to the shortcomings of their playing...

-R-

Just for the bass sound, I'm using two Waves plugins that I really like: Chris Lord-Alge--in fact, the entire series is awesome and I use it now on almost everything.

http://www.waves.com/bundles/chris-lord ... ure-series

The bass plugin is on sale for $49.


And using "Waves Bass Rider" to get a consistent level (that's probably a newbie cheater there.) And then Waves SSLG Channel, with a setting from Joe West called "Joe West Bass Growler Aggro [Aggressive]" and I tweak the frequencies that are giving me the growl I want. That last plugin is doing most of the work, but I like the CLA Bass plugins because it offers frequencies (bass and treble) to tweak, and compression, and chorusing, but with very simple controls and intuitive settings. I use none of the presets as is, but they are good starts to dig in. They really change a bassline into entirely different timbres and sound like different instruments and players and styles. Lots to learn still with the CLA plugins but I've been using them for 3-4 years (!) on piano and guitar and keyboards and vocals as a starting point and then add a bit here and there.

I've got a whole longer response to give to The Hitman as well, who I've already learned a bunch from on the subject of plugins. (And who I have tracks from that he and Scott/Jaysskerr put together that I kNOW you're gonna like Kevin, because you have good taste and those gentlemen have rocked some serious shit out. I gotta dig deep and find my inner Rick Wakeman (not that deep, fortunately) and rock some keyboard God action.)

Ya'll chat amongst yourselves for a bit! (Coffee talk!)

Oh, Kev about standing: I ordered a cymbal stand for my TAGG interface and it comes tomorrow. I just got out of the habit of standing and playing. I plan to get back into it. You can't rock it out live sitting down--well you can, but not and do all the multi-instrumental shit I want to do.

There used to be a guy around here who did the Simon Cowell thing. His name was Tritone, and he was a total jerk. Nothing but insults about people's skills or lack thereof, nothing helpful to say at all, and of course, ran like hell whenever you asked him to put up some of his own music.

The "Elite Masters" can say what they like about yours truly, but that is something I have never done, and indeed I have been rather generous over the years in my praise for them and their accomplishments.

I do not rely on gigs for my income, and I have been playing a long time so I don't do progress videos. This is to say I feel okay taking as much time as necessary to write, record and play an occasional gig because the music is very complicated. Most players become more pared-down and simple as they age, I am the opposite. What I am doing now is the most complicated stuff I have ever written, compounded by the fact I am drawing all the rhythmic figures into a MIDI editor and figuring out the nuances of a new program in the process.

But I don't do musical criticism unless it's ultimately good. It's one thing to call someone a commie liberal m@$#*&$?%$@er (cheers, Steve!), but quite another to hurt someone's feelings because you don't like their music. That's low, real low.

Steve's playing is good, pretty raw but will develop quickly and it has already. All good things.

Thanks for the kind words, it's nice to meet you on more neutral ground.

Kev

Steve's playing IS really good isn't it? I love seeing people get better at stuff, and you know there are sometimes valuable insights gained watching someone work on stuff that isn't perfected, polished or edited to hell... Steve has a creative energy that comes to life on a keyboard, I can't wait until he "sees" the Stick as a giant keyboard. I really liked what you said about being hard wired for rhythm, a percussionist still playing a percussion instrument, only this one happens to have notes on it. Cool. I can't wait to hear what you do, and I'd love to see a YouTube Channel of you just "messing around" on the instrument. Lol "reality tapping TV"


I believe there's an ocean of music in all of us, sometimes waiting for the right catalyst to release it... Maybe people get too attached to the "brand" like you say.... I mean tapping is a method, people don't generally care how you did something, as long as it was cool... Do music, whether it's simple, complicated, whatever, right?

Simon Cowell could be a jerk, and I am pretty sure that's what brought the ratings for the show, but he was honest. Brutally honest, but at that level I suppose you gotta be ready to hear it. There's haters everywhere. Lol This tritone person must have been an alias made up by someone, that kind of troll can't be for real haha funny stuff, though. I did a quick read through some posts, all I can say is "wow". I may completely disagree with everything a person stands for, but if they are into music of any kind, we have common ground.

I use my recording gear more as a practice tool than anything else. I have a huge catalogue of material that goes back 20-30 years. I actually have some stuff I recorded on my old cassette tape recorder when I first started playing guitar (That thing really WAS a stick haha). Like K-Rex I find myself getting more technical with age. I think, though that my musical ideas are better and more refined. Even the simple statements...

Steve, The Hitman and I recently shared a track for the purposes of collaboration. It started with me doing a bunch of guitars, a simple Stick section, and a reference drum track. Let's be honest, I probably overplayed, but all good. I submitted it with the intent of the dudes changing stuff around. The Hitman has added and mutated things in a direction that I never would have considered doing left to my own devices. Steve is gonna do something unexpected also. I can't wait.
K-Rex, I'd love to see/hear you in a collab... (There's a long list of players I want to do this with...)

Thanks for the thread guys, I learned tons.