http://stick.com/method/articles/parallel/


This is the thorough knowledge of theory you need, or so choose to explore, or not. Do what you want. It is your instrument of expression.

Parallel Galaxy Indeed. I bought this album (yes, vinyl) right after I got my Ironwood in '85. Time to look into it again...I just read the article...again. Love it. Lots of info in a wheel (of fortune?) Thanks ReyStick for bringing to attention in "Theory Knowldge". I mean, Emmett came up with it (lightning bolt?) specifically for the Stick's tuning. So, logically...// Right up there (out there?) with "The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization" by George Russell (and a lot less wordy).

Thanks Android, I will have to look into this George Russell guy, never heard of him.

Hey Onceagain.

How are you going now, after all the input from the stickist collective?

Didja get a Stick? Did we scare you away? What's the deal we only want to help the more Stickists the better

Nope, not scared away. Stick still pending, I'm afraid: I was really hoping for a railboard in a plasma finish, but unfortunately at this time it appears that plasma finishes may be unavailable indefinitely.


This thread has covered a lot of ground - from what I can tell, folks often have different definitions of "theory", "thorough", "requirement", and maybe even "knowledge". The answers seemed to depend a lot on each responder's musical genre, previous training and experience, as well as how the Stick fit in to what they were trying to achieve. There's a lot to absorb here, and I'm sure that once I get further along and have Stick in (free) hand(s <rimshot>), I'll reference this thread again to pick up more suggestions that currently go over my head.

One really positive thing that I've noticed: in the past, I've been associated with player communities for several different instruments, and the one surrounding the Stick is easily the most open and supportive. For starters, one doesn't see nearly the amount of genre bias and equipment snobbery that one sees elsewhere. (No wading through tons of "real <instrument> players always / never <blah>".) The support for players across all technical levels is pretty unique as well. I know that Emmett's primary creation was the Stick, but he's also got to be pretty happy with the community that grew up around it.

The wait for the Stick, as well as just life in general, has made me consider what my goals really are. Near-term, I'll likely start by bringing myself up to speed on "composition-related theory tools": solidify some basic theory (intervals, chord types, progressions, circle-of-5ths, etc.) ... old school, "pencil-and-paper" stuff. (I have all sorts of respect for folks who can improvise, but at this point that's not my forte and not where I'm headed.) Ear training is also on the radar, starting with note and interval identification - that's been an uphill process for me in the past.

When the Stick shows up, my goal is to gain enough technical proficiency to be able to accurately render sounds as they are in my head - pitch, inflection, attack, timbre, duration, volume - without my technique "getting in my way". This part will take some time. i'd love to get a jump on learning note placement on the fretboard, although I'm not sure how easy this would be without a Stick. My brief stint on bass guitar initially had me fighting the fretboard until I found an app that would visually and mercilessly drill the note mapping into my brain. I haven't seen anything like that for the Stick, but if anyone knows about one, I'd love to hear about it.

Hey Onceagain.

There was an interactive touchboard site floating around here. I looked for it but couldn't find it.

If folk know what I'm on about, it was that nice website where you could change the tuning, colour of the instrument in a one page image of the stick (touchboard).

I think that you mean this one: http://loophole.co/STICK/

It's pretty cool, from an aesthetics standpoint (catch it while Flash remains viable), and is a pretty good reference tool. There's also the somewhat-similar iOS app "FretBoard" - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fretboard-scales-chords/id313231073 - which handles multiple Stick tunings and sizes, as well as a ton of other instruments.

Although I will likely use those two for visual reinforcement, I was kind of hoping for something like https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fret-tester-learn-notes/id442144977. Provides timed note drills, and can be taken with you wherever. Works great for bass, not so much for Stick.

Until I started trying to memorize which notes fell where on a fretboard, I never realized how easy piano players have it in this regard.

I found this book to be an amazing inspiration and an extremely logical observation of music. After all, music is about emotion, experience, inspiration, transcendence, and the emotive language that is understood by everyone. Theory is certainly not a hinderance within any art form. But the art came first and ergo begat the theory.
It's like a clock or watch..we are simply trying to make sense of the mystery.

46 thousand views for this post..... I can only speak for myself...poor theory knowledge AND poor stick playing. Not sayin' one caused the other, but maybe it did. Practicing is the key, and is related to poor playing. If I practiced more, the playing should improve