I know there are a number of us waiting patiently for our first Sticks to arrive, and wanted to share an exercise I've been doing that I'm hoping will help with that hand-independence that I hear is such a stumbling block.

I'm not sure if this is "Greg Howard Approved", or if it seems to be working only for me because I've been studying drums for a couple of years but give it a try and see what you think.

Let me start by saying that for this to work you MUST count out the rhythms:
Eighth notes:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
Sixteenth notes:
1 e & u 2 e & u 3 e & u 4 e & u
Triplets (usually how drummers & guitarists count 12/8):
1 & u 2 & u 3 & u 4 & u

I don't think I could have gotten this going without actually counting out loud. So far, I've been keeping myself challenged with straight 4/4 rhythms, but depending on how long we have until we get our Sticks, there's no reason not to try this with 6/8, 3/4, 12/8 even "odd" time signatures like 5/4 or 7/8.

While sitting at a desk or other flat surface, start by tapping out a quarter-note groove with your left hand. At first, I found myself doing a regular pattern - 1st, 2nd, ring finger, or the reverse, ring, 2nd, 1st finger - but eventually was able to do this while varying the pattern 1-3-2-3-1-2-1-3-3-2-1-3 etc.

Next, keep that quarter-note rhythm going with the left hand, and start tapping out a rhythm with the right hand. Initially, of course you'll mirror the quarter-note pattern that you're motoring with your left hand, but eventually you can start to syncopate the right hand; hitting some eighth notes in addition to, or (more difficult), instead of the quarter-notes.

Once you can do this, devise a simple "cadence" for the right hand, something like:

(1) u (2) 3 & 4 &

In the above example, you're counting and playing the 4 quarter notes with your left hand, but your right hand is only playing the sixteenth-note "u" of 1, the 3, the eighth-note "&" of 3, the quarter-note 4, and the eighth-note "&" of 4. You don't play the "1" or the "2" with the right hand (hence them being in parentheses in the example).

If this is too difficult, drop the 16th note on the "u" of 1, get the 3-&-4-& down, then sneak that 16th-note in. You may also need to change the cadence to include a right-hand tap on the "1". It's really hard to restrain yourself from hitting that initial down-beat. But do endeavor to get that because that really gets your hands operating independently.

The "trick" here is to make up the cadence, and make your fingers play it. Like Greg says, don't play what's easy, play what's hard. Once you have one "cadence" mastered, make up another one. If you run out of ideas for a one-measure cadence, try a two-measure cadence.

Here's another

1 2 & u 3 4 e &

While this is in some ways easier than the first example (you're tapping with your right hand on every quarter-note) it introduces eighth-note triplets between beats 2 & 3 and sticks both a 16th-note and 8th-note after the "4" beat.

Watch that you don't start "mirroring" your right hand with your left. Keep that left hand doing a strict 1-2-3-4.

The next step is to pick a song you know well, and either simultaneously tap multiple fingers on the left hand to simulate the "block" chords for the song, or the rhythm of either an arpeggio or bass line. Then tap out the rhythm of the melody with the right hand. I found this is pretty easy with block chords. Not so much with "arpeggios" or bass line rhythms. I have to start out really slow until the "muscle memory" starts to kick in.

I'm hoping that by doing this, I'll be able to more quickly gain some hand independence when I actually have a Stick to work with.

Tap with your left foot. I swear it's the most important thing I have learned about the Chapman Stick, courtesy of Greg Howard.
Now that Greg has released his tutorial to The World Of You Tube I can tell you I am retired and disabled and Greg sent me his DVD gratis.
A noble gentleman in the footsteps of our mentor/inventor.

Excellent advice, SteveS! I did that kind of exercise while waiting for my first Stick. I used an electric guitar for two-handed tapping and in order to tap the guitar "Free Hands-wise" I lied down on my back with the guitar on my belly/chest, parallel to my body, each hand coming in at a 90-degree angle to the neck. "Poor man's Stick simulator"

I also imagined the Stick fretboard and all notes' fretboard positions while imagining melodies and chords improvisations, so that I would not be completely lost when finally receiving my Stick.

When my Stick arrived, I found that the timbre varies at different parts of the neck, just like with a guitar. That's a variable you cannot foresee without Stick experience.

Today I finally ordered a Railboard, a long-standing wish I have been saving up for. The waiting time is ten to twelve months.

what I did before I even thought of getting a Stick was modify instruments to a Stick like tuning, where there's a bass side in 5ths and a melody side in 4ths.

part of the reason for doing so was a] because I figured if I can't do it on 6 strings, I certainly won't be able to do it on 10, and b] for some reason, I could never get into the low B on an electric bass in it's standard location.

the instrument to the left, while in standard B E A D G tuning in the picture, was eventually converted also to 3 strings Bass C G D and the remaining 2 strings Melody [no idea - probably D G] and while some have asked me if I regret setting up these instruments this way, I'm like no way, they are way way exciting to play, especially since there is no mute by the nut.

that's my advice for those looking to practice or think about buying a Stick, find a good instrument that is modifiable and set it up as close to the tuning you would like to use on a Stick as possible.

a good friend who recently passed away had a wicked baratone guitar, now that would have been a fun instrument to experiement with !!

I concentrate on guitar, but also tinker with learning keyboard so I've thought of trying to make a more concerted effort to build some independence through that. At present the closest I am to independence is things like a 1-3-5-3 pattern in the LH while playing 'one per bar' triads & inversions with the RH through a 12 bar blues (in C, F, G or D).

Yesterday I tried doing a little more with my right hand while 'rolling' a steady 1-3-5-3 in C with my left. It was definately easier at the end of the session than at the start!

Plus there are quite a few keyboard based independence tutorials. In this one he starts out 'just hands on a surface' (i.e. no keyboard, so akin to your ideas).

That's interesting to hear Per. I'm two months into my wait for a Railboard. At that time the suggested time was six to eight months, but for obvious reasons there will have been a hiatus in production.

In view of events I thought I might enquire how things were going after New Year? I figure that by then they may be starting to get an idea of how things are shaping up?

BGW I'd wondered about that, especially after reading in Stickman that Emmett did something of sort the even before he starting using Free Hands.

He'd arrived at all fourths tuning (al fourths EADGCF is already standard on guitar for me), then re-ordered the bass side. IIRC he was already on a 7 string by then, but maybe worth an experiment?

I was just thinking that I can't think of any reason not to re-tune my Bass VI to all 4ths and ditch that pesky 3rd interval, which is AFAIK only to allow easier chord fingering. Ain't doin' no chords on that bass, even though that's supposed to be one of the advantages of a Bass VI. However, I could then use it to play around with tapping right-hand Stick chord shapes.

BTW - I should mention that as of this weekend sometime, I'll actually have a Stick. Anticipating that it may be a few more months until the ol' Railboard arrives, I reached out to a couple of local stick players about renting any older unused Sticks they had. One thing and another, one of them decided it was time to part with their older unused instrument, and I'm buying it.

I found the bit I recalled. He was still using just 6 strings, and what he did was to reverse the pitch order of the three lowest strings. So he still has E A D G C F, but he lowered the D an octave and raised the E an octave. Then he approached his guitar as two separate instruments on a common neck. Bass and chord strings in ascending perfect fifths from the centre. Melody ascending in perfect fourths from the centre.

I wonder if that would work using a standard set of strings, moving the low E string to the D position (4th string) tuning it a whole tone lower than usual, and moving the D string to the E position (6th string) tuning it a whole tone higher than usual?

Has anyone tried that ? Or maybe a luthier might comment?