Hello, World!

Like the title says, what got you into "sticking"?

I guess for many people there is a point at which they heard an instrument or saw a performance and thought "I want to play that!".

For me, it was 2003/2004 and my brother showed me a video of a cool band (link below) called Liquid Tension Experiment where they were performing a song called Universal Mind live. I do like rock and progressive music, but then I saw that guy (Tony Levin) playing that thing (Chapman Stick) and I was like Whaaat? That is so cool, I want to play that!

Immediately I went to the internet and found SE's website and learned all I could about it. At that time I was a student living with my parents, so it was way out of my budget, without even mentioning how rare they were... About 15 years later down the road, I found a used one in Geneva and I got on the next train and bought it in a heartbeat! Since then, I've been Sticking.

Hi Walt,

King Crimson -> Tony Levin
David Sylvian -> Trey Gunn
Steven Wilson -> Nick Beggs

I'm originally a piano/keys player but got into bass at around 17. I've probably gigged professionally on both roughly equally.

Some bass gigs can be so unchallenging I'd occasionally play bass with my left hand and hold chords on keys with the right but, since my main bass is 6-string, damping was a little fiddly so realised I NEEEEEEDED a Stick just for the bass side. Thirty years later managed to get one and I've ended up hardly using the bass side (despite that fact that it has such a great sound!) and have been writing and recording silly tracks in silly time signatures ever since.

Cheers,
Nick

On my side it was in 2007 when I saw Steve Adelson playing at the Montreal Jazz Festival inside a building called Place Desjardins. I finally bought my first stick in 2010.

It was the first time I saw someone playing it in front of me. But, around '75 or '76, a good friend of mine called me to look at a night show on american television telling there is a strange instrument. It was Emmett presenting the Chapman Stick. I didn't buy it at this time but I think the price was around 500$. Mistake from me not trying to get one in these years.

I work for the airlines as a flight simulator technician and get to fly to many destinations for the cost of lunch. I visit Maui often and on one trip I discovered Michael Kollwitz playing the Chapman Stick in the Lahaina banyan tree park. When I heard that sound, I knew that I had to have that instrument.

I play a lot of instruments. I'm not professional at any of them but I play well enough to entertain myself and that's what is important to me. I have no desire to entertain others. I use music as a way to relax and escape into a world of my own. I play saxophone, keyboards, guitar, Stick, harmonica, etc, etc.

I play by ear and I can adapt to almost any instrument with very little instruction. I do my own thing and I really like making my own flavor of music. I hear it in my head and I experiment enough to figure out how to make that sound come alive thru instruments.

There's no pressure to impress anyone, so the creative process flows without too much outside interference. It really is a way to escape all of the crazy things that are happening in this world. Entering into a world of my own...

https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Adventures ... 0BRPFWHF9/
https://www.amazon.ca/Stick-Adventures- ... 0BRPFWHF9/

First eye-contact was through french Bass Magazine, featuring an article written by a then stick player, Thierry Bedoucha, and later showing tony Levin with this strange instrument.
Had to call Youenn Landreau then to have a discuss about that. Then I managed to buy an ironwood from a guy in my area that I literally harassed, so he accepted to sell it to me. I then managed to meet several times Ron Baggerman who was playing on summers on the french Riviera.
Finally, I met a lot of players, frencn or not, on the Allaire tapping festival in Brittany, organized by Youenn Landreau. The rest is history!

Leicester Square ,London

A chapman stick busker called Eliah Levy

In my home state of Texas. Late 1980s-early 90s.

A very popular local band Ten Hands. Stickist Gary Mueller played the bass lines of their songs.

Although I was always intrigued with what Tony did on Discipline, for me I decided to go the Stick route after breaking up a dog fight - where my dog got attacked - and when I pulled her off the dog that bit her, she did a 360 spin while I held her harness and the fingers on my left hand were never the same after that.

I'm not sure when that was, but it was several years back.

So, losing the dexterity of my left hand was a very big factor, since Stick could be played [to quote Tony] two fingered piano.

I also really liked the tuning possibilities, the whole 5ths thing was very enticing especially since a very good friend of mine who sadly left this earth far too soon who was also a Guitar Craft student back in the late 1980s in NYC turned me on to the whole 5ths, cycle of 5ths, and for many years I played bass C G D A, which I still use on occasion to this day - although I like another suggestion Wayne gave me back then [1991.92...] even better: D A E G

Since I am a musician who only plays one's own work, as opposed to musicians who enjoy playing the works of others, the Stick really expanded my pallet of colors, and while my playing could probably be considered pathetic compared to those who actually know what they are doing, the Stick brings me great joy and satisfaction, even in my very very limited playing capacity.

The trigger for me was when someone started a topic called "Lesser Known Musical Instruments" on the Musical-U forum. The first post featured a thing called a Chapman Stick being played by a guy called Bob Culbertson. I had to investigate further. Less than 2 months later I was ordering a Stick from SE. If I'm fortunate that original order might be completed in 2-3 months, but in the meantime I've been fortunate enough to pick up some used instruments (which has also led into even more fun messing with tunings).

Like Werkspace I'm not out to entertain others. My feeble attempts to play Stick are for my entertainment & relaxation. I do try to learn some tunes, mainly adaptations from things I can play on keyboard or guitar, but what I most enjoy doing is just exploring the sounds I can make with this wonderful instrument, without constraint.


Free hands, and more...

Me? A bassist. In order, played Fender Jazz, upright, and then fretless P bass. (playing in tune was harder on P bass than upright). Saw the little Stick ad in Guitar Player. Read an interview with Emmett Chapman. At some point got one of those floppy records of Emmetts playing. Big Weather Report fan, before Al Johnson even, but when he started doing solo albums bought 'em all.
Then...
Playing in an original band. My bass sound was somewhere John Wetton and Percy Jones. "Hey Marty, check out Unorthodox Behavior. Dude sounds like you". "Discipline" came out. All this time I was intrigued by the percussive bass of the Stick, and the possibilities of the melody strings, because "I" could not play guitar. Just couldn't fret those chords. Tony Levin...
A couple years go by, I call Sam Ash NYC and they have a Stick. $1200. ('85). Get in my '67 Fairlane station wagon and high-tail it up the Turnpike. Salesman hands me the Stick and says, "Good luck". I just put it in the case and fork over the dough. Our guitarist threatens to cut off the Melody strings. Soon gets used to the fact that I stay out of his way, and now he has a rhythm guitarist that actually can play in tune, and is not a frustated lead guitarist. Been trudging the road to happy destiny since...