Greetings Stickists.

I'm fairly new to the Stick and wanted to say Hi. I've had my Stick for two weeks now, and it is wonderful!

I was lucky enough to call in to SE, looking for a used Stick, to be told that they had a NEW one ready to go that was a cancelled order. It's made out of Osage Orange wood, though I believe I was told it was called "Osage L'orange". 10 string with PASV-4 pickup, and matched reciprocal tuning. I uploaded two pics to the gallery.

A little about my musical background. I've been playing guitar for about 15 years (I'm 28), and have a BA in Music Performance (concentration on classical guitar, though not as much as when I was still in school ). I play a little bass for fun, and had to learn piano to graduate from college (but I can't really 'play' piano ). I also play the renaissance lute (though not so much since college). I do, however, make a living teaching guitar and also play lead guitar in a local band.

I got Greg Howard's Stick Book with my Stick, and am delighted with the progress I've made - thanks to the book! I've found it well written, VERY informative, and easy to follow. In my two weeks I've made it up to the Renaissance Lute Melody, and can *almost* play it without messing up too badly at a decent tempo... and even though it's still a bit choppy, the two handed 12 bar blues earlier in the book is a blast to 'play' (I can do each part separately, but together, my RH is still a bit lost). It is humbling to start from the beginning... BUT IT IS FUN!

The main goal I have with the Stick is to first learn how to play it, then get into playing and arranging classical music. I also would like to be able to improvise well enough that I'd be able to jam with others (once my right hand gets used to doing what my left hand normally does ).

As for classical pieces, can anyone point me in the direction of a good place to start? Eventually I'd like to work up to playing Bach (Well Tempered Clavier, Inventions, etc). What are some good beginning pieces? The composer or period doesn't matter, for now. Just looking for a starting point.

Any Stickists in or around the Frederick, MD, area?

~T.

That's a fine-looking instrument.

There are probably hundreds of classical pieces available to you using the matched reciprocal tuning.

Since you mentioned Bach, you might start with First Lessons in Bach; Alfred Publishing Co. The same publisher puts out W. A. Mozart--An Introduction to His Keyboard Works and Easy Keyboard Music--Ancient to Modern.
That's enough to keep you busy for awhile.

You might also be interested in my posts at Tappistry.org>Forums>Playing>Report: The Pseudo-Keyboard Approach; there's also some stuff on this forum about keyboard music.

Hope that helps. Have fun!


Mad Monk.
harpsitar@gmail.com

Welcome to the forum, T! You have a great background for the Stick. That hand independence thing just seems to take time and can always be improved anyway. It will come with the right practice, too. I think Greg Howard's Tap Twisters are great for this too. Here's one of them but I can't find the links to the others.

http://www.stick.com/sticknews/archives/taptwister4.pdf


I have transcribed the Prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 and I just love playing it. I think Back works great on Stick. I'm also playing some Satie and it almost seems like he was writing just for the Stick! I use Matched Reciprocal and it seems better for classical pieces. The Back Prelude transcription became much more straight-forward once I switched.


I can't find this article, their search does not turn it up with anything I have tried.

-Eric

T!

Hey, you might be interested in my posts in the "What are you working on?" thread. I started (playing stick) in Nov. of 07 and have a very similar musical background.

http://www.myspace.com/jeffcomas

T!

Hey, you might be interested in my posts in the "What are you working on?" thread. I started (playing stick) in Nov. of 07 and have a very similar musical background.

http://www.myspace.com/jeffcomas

Eric,

Here is that thread:
http://www.tappistry.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1929

Mad Monk.

Dude the same thing happened to me
The EXACT SAME THING! awesome

Hi T,

Thanks for the kind comments about the book, and glad to know it's working for you.

You can try two different approaches to Classical music with The Stick. One is literal and the other is interpretive. Good sources of inspiration for both are Bob Culbertson's and Guillermo Cides's work. Bob's Un Viaje Clasico DVD: http://www.stick.com/videoscds/videos/unviajeclasico.html and his Romantica CDs:
http://www.stick.com/videoscds/cds/culbertson.html
as well as Cides's Truibute to Bach: http://www.stick.com/videoscds/cds/cides.html
are great recordings.

Guitarists have always had to make choices about how to arrange music written for piano, but it's possible to play some things exactly as written, especially if you give yourself some preparation in knowing interval structures within the tuning.

Concentrate on the 3rds at first (major and minor) in both hands, recognizing that each hand can play any interval in two directions (unless you are at a fretboard boundary, like the highest or lowest string or the end of the fretboard).

Recognize that motion of the hand along the string is the key, rather than constantly using up-and-down motion of the fingers to play everything, especially with the longer-scale fret spacing near the nut.

Which tuning did you chose?

Also, I hope you can make it out on Thursday to my show in Vienna, Virginia. It would be great to meet you.

More about that here:
http://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1218

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I'm definitely going to look into the resources mentioned.

Tap in Peace,
~T