Hello fellow Stickists:

I am currently working with a piano arrangement on the Stick, it is fairly contrapuntal. My question is, should I try to work on the Bass and Treble parts separately or is it better to work them in sections together?

Thanks!!!

The answer is YES! as Yogi Berra would say "if you see a fork in the road, take it!"

Actually, the key to the question is contrapuntal in which the melody and the bass sometimes go in different directions and sometimes are together rhythmically. Give this a try, make a COPY of your music, and then with a pencil VERTICALY mark out the beats and a sub beats of
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
if the syncopation is greater than eights you might have to mark it further delineated.

This will then show you what hand is doing what on any particular beat- so for example it starts with the bass while there is a rest in the melody side, next they play together for two beats, then it is just the melody. This will help sort out all the confusion and give you a clear picture of when both hands are playing together or separately. It will also identify which hand is doing more syncopation than the other, my hunch is it is the melody hand since usually the bass will establish "one" and then other instruments play off it. all IMHO!

Also remember to set the tempo of the piece for the HARDEST PART you can't play YET.
Play that one part until you get it better, then bring the whole piece up to that tempo. otherwise you will always have a "pothole" in the road and will fumble or skip over what might be a signature part or important in the big scheme of things part of the piece.

hope it helps,
Dave Brosky a/k/a DBro
Lessons by SKYPE and GOOGLE + to help get you out of that rut! no kidding!

Great tips!!! Thank you very much!!!