Thanks for that! So it's possible I actually interacted with Emmett himself. That's awesome.

I was so clueless at the time.... ah, well.

As I get older (64 now) I'm really struck by how random events that happened years ago resonate down through the years. I've experienced and forgotten so much since then, but some things just stay with you. This was one of them.

adouglas: Start tapping. If Tony can do it...
I'm 65/66 and all I play is my Stick. I still suck, but I enjoy myself. Two-handed bass, and melody, tapping becomes more natural as you give it a go. I live in Jersey so PM if your of the inquisitive nature...

I just wanted to be able to reach those lower notes. Even with an 8string guitar, there were all these notes that Bach wrote for lute that were impossible to play (except of course my teacher wrote arrangements using real weird tunings for all Bach's lute works - as I said, impossible to play).
Then heard of this instrument, found one in Vienna with the help of Andre Müller.
BTW, picked up a guitar again this week. Feels like a toy now

I just realized that my very first contact was at a friend's home around 1993. I was playing bass for about 2 years, and i had just purchased a beautiful record in a limited edition. That was Damage from Sylvian/Fripp. Looking at the booklet, one of the pictures was a blurry photo of some guy (trey Gunn) playing a strange instrument. Then i was hooked by the bass sound and lines of titles such as the wonderful Firepower. I was recently thinking of that because i finally found a mint copy of that disc on the second hand market. Obviously i bought it as quickly as i could.

An expanded version of my previous post. It's about the persistence of memory and the incredible power of first impressions.

My particular journey started 40 years ago. I'd been doing horrible things with (and to) bass guitars for a couple of years by then, prompted by a desire ignited when I first heard Chris Squire of Yes crank out the bass riff on Roundabout, the hit track from the first rock record I ever bought. That sound--piercing, grinding, resonant, piano-like--had wormed its way into my reptilian brain and would never leave.

Summer 1983. There was a music expo in NYC, so I went. I was barely able to play the simplest of songs, had almost no knowledge, even less skill and zero feel... but I had this sound in my head and I couldn't let it go.

The only thing I remember about that show was this: There was a booth with this bizarre thing that looked like a piece of lumber with a zillion strings on it, called The Stick. In hindsight, I now realize that the inventor, Emmett Chapman, was probably the guy manning the booth. I had no idea.

As I recall they had it set up so that you could play it through headphones, so I picked it up just for the hell of it.

By sheer accident, magic happened.

I put my fingers down on the strings and this beautiful sound came forth all by itself. The memory is vivid to this day. It has never left me.

There was no intent to ever pursue the thing. I knew that I wanted to be a bass player, and that's what I became. But over the years, from time to time that memory would return, unbidden. That sound. That feeling. It just wouldn't leave.

Older and with more resources, I decided to get one with the vague intention of someday learning how to play it. So I bought one, and it's been sitting in the closet for awhile. I didn't do much with it at first. It was intimidating as hell. But deep down I knew that someday, somehow, I'd figure out what to do with it.

For whatever reason, a week or two ago a switch flipped somewhere in my so-called brain. Funny, that. A lot of the things I do happen that way. One day, it's just time to do it. There's no conscious decision.

I've been an active bassist for many years and still am. I've reached a level of proficiency that keeps me semi-professionally engaged as a musician, but I'm really just a self-taught hack barely good enough to not get fired.

Doing the deed for so long, though, has made me at least marginally literate in a musical sense. If I think real hard I can work out theory, but I still can't sight read. It's all instinct and muscle memory.

Hell, I can't even play guitar worth a damn. All I really know is the bass.

The Stick is something else entirely. It's tuned funny... in fourths like I'm used to on the treble half of it, but in fifths on the bass side. The lowest strings are in the middle and the highest are on the edges. So on the bass side where my head is at, it's upside down and warped. None of my muscle memory works.

I have to learn entirely new ways of thinking about where things are. And I have to start thinking about harmony, chords and hand independence, not just melodic bass lines.

On top of that, you make the notes sound simply by putting your finger down. The interplay between fretting hand and plucking hand doesn't exist. It's a lot more like a piano than a bass or guitar, but it's kind of a mix of all of them. I now wish I'd had piano lessons.

So this marks the beginning of a new chapter that's going to keep me happily busy when I finally do retire. And I'm looking forward to it. I've got music in my head that I want to manifest with my hands. I just don't have the ability yet.

Maybe I'll never quite get there. It'll be a long time before I'll be ready to play this in front of anyone. But that doesn't matter. The journey is what counts.

That 1983 Guitar expo was my first encounter with Emmett and the Stick as well. Steve Oz was helping Emmett at the booth. I had been exploring tapping on my guitar after catching Stanley Jordan playing on a street corner in Greenwich Village NYC
Bought my first Stick a few months later from Sam Ash music. 40 years later, the rewards have been amazing. Thanks Emmett!!!!

Steve A

Long story stretched out over many years. My first memory of the Stick was watching an interview with Christopher Cross on TV after his success with the soundtrack to "Arthur". I recall seeing an instrument with strings and no body which struck my curiosity around 1981 when that movie was released. No idea what it was, no internet back then. I played woodwind instruments in school, and took up bass a year later in my sophomore year of high school, inspired by Geddy Lee and Chris Squire. Sometime between 1981 and 1995 I bought a certain issue of Bass Player Magazine and on the very back page was a photo of Dale Ladouceur with her Stick held over her face with a pyramid shaped glass building in the background. That sparked my memory of the 1981 interview and thanks to Dale's photo I learned what a Chapman Stick is. A short time later another Bass Player issue came out talking about the Stick and Warr Guitar with King Crimson's "Thrak" album with an interview with Tony Levin. Never knew much about King Crimson in the 1980's, no radio play and I did not know anyone who listened to them. This will come to haunt me twenty years+ later after I started playing Stick. I bought the album to hear what Tony and Trey Gunn sounded like. And shortly after of all places on AM radio, was an interview with the UK-based Christian crossover pop-rock band Iona with Nick Beggs on bass and Stick. I managed to find a copy of "The Book of Kells" in an Ann Arbor record store. In the mid 1990's I went on a quest of SE Michigan Music stores looking for someone that knew anything about the instrument. Only one person, Stickist Steve "Oz" Osburn who owned Oz's Music in Ann Arbor. He was on his honeymoon and I was in the middle of going back to college for a second bachelor's degree in engineering. So I never pursued the Stick until ten years later. I had already purchased earlier a Zon bass where the dealer introduced me to Michael Manring's music and I was getting more and more into solo bass music.

In 2004 a coworker who played in a local rock band asked me where he could find a Chapman Stick. I mentioned the story above and suggested Oz's in Ann Arbor. The next day he said they had the 8 string model. Again, from Bass Player, I remember the NS Stick model. I went to check it out, could actually played it and said I'll buy it. Well - that wasn't actually for sale, but I could order one. So I did, but Yuta warned me that the NS was being changed over to a graphite necked version, and if I want want one now, I'd better buy Oz's if he would sell it, as it would likely be 2-3 years before I'd get a new one. So I went back and Oz's wife was there. I made a cash offer over the actual price. Two weeks later to Oz's dismay, his wife calls me back and says they need the money more than Oz needs another Stick. So that's how I obtained my first NS. I did make friends with Oz, and bought quite a few Stick CD's from his store.

In 2006 Oz launched the International Stick Festival in Ann Arbor. I didn't have a normal Stick, so I did not attend the Stick seminar in his store, but got a private NS Stick lesson with Gary Jibilian in his former house in Ferndale. After watching Steve Adelson and Bob Culbertson jam on a Chile Menucci song in the day long festival, I was inspired to buy a Graphite Grand which I still have to this day.

Via the Chapman Stick artists page, I learned of and met Glenn Poorman, who ironically went to the same High School as me. His association with Interlochen is a whole other story where through the Interlochen Stick Seminars, I got into the annual guitar seminars and a few other adult classes they hold there. I've brought my Sticks there a few times outside of the Stick activities. Thanks to Glenn I got to know the area, which in 2019 would become a necessity when I had to move up here. I knew half of what I needed via doing mountain bike races up here, but my knowledge of the area was all on the wrong side of Traverse City

As time went on I took group guitar lessons with Oz, and helped him schedule monthly Stick gatherings at his store. Roughly about a dozen Stick players would attend this from SE Michigan and Northern Ohio. This went on until I had to move up north in 2019.

About King Crimson haunting me, once the musicians I knew found out I played Stick, they would tell their other musician friends, and a few times I would sit through long lectures about how great the 1980's King Crimson era was. The assumption has always been that like many other Stick players I got into it because of King Crimson. Was never the case for me. My inspiration has always come from musicians I've met first hand who play it. I would later meet Bob Culbertson in 2010 in Melbourne Australia at the Stick seminar there. Some of my last surviving relatives live there, and I've always wanted to go, so playing the Stick got me off my arse to go "down under" finally, thanks to Konrad and Justin, and some assistance from Andy. Ironically, one of my relatives was a huge fan of King Crimson and Tony Levin fan, but never heard of the Stick. My cousin drove me back to the hotel where I retrieved my Stick and I played him a few tunes without an amp. He was quite puzzled that he never knew about Levin playing it, and had to see it. That was my first experience as being a "Stick Ambassador", literally in a foreign country.

In 2015 Oz took me to NAMM where I got to meet Tony Levin via 3-4 other Stick players there. As we were all standing in the isle talking, fittingly between the booths of Ned Steinberger and Joe Zon, Tony holds out his hand and introduces himself to me, saying "Hi, my name is Tony Levin" So many years later Tony Levin is now one of those Stick players I've actually met and shaken hands with A pretty nice guy, very down to earth.

2019 I had a work related move to Northern Michigan, a few miles north of Interlochen. By chance I met a friend whom I had met at several guitar seminars who also moved up there after retiring, and invited me to a local open mic at a winery. Since then, I perform weekly not only there, but a few other open mics and coworkers pole barn parties. I always bring a Stick and one other guitar or bass to do solo instrumentals. Ironically, again, up here I met someone who is a huge fan of Tony Levin, but had no idea of what a Stick is.

For me personally, the Stick has become an important part of my life that's also had a positive impact outside of the subject of music. "Getting into Sticking" is an ongoing process for me, which is close to twenty years now, and still developing. I should also mention I've read many of Neil Peart's books and have some of his DVD's. Even though I am not a drummer, his attitude towards playing has been a huge influence on me, especially with regards to his claim that no one really masters their instrument. It's an ongoing process where there's always something new to learn, and always new opportunities.

Yeah. That's the magic that sealed the deal for me. Although at the time that lightning bolt hit me I had a Railboard on order that wasn't to arrive for another year. But somehow I imagined what it must be like to play, and when I first got my hands on one (thanks Greg!) it was exactly as I'd imagined.

So two funny stories:
I was cooking at a venue and Stickmen were performing. After the soundcheck while Tony was still on stage I waved my truss key that was on my keychain, he smiled and we had a talk before the show. (BTW, loudest band EVER@ this venue)
Just watched a bio on Daryl Jones. When he got a phone call thru a friend from Miles Davis, he had been practicing on a new instrument, the Chapman Stick.
I guess he got too busy w/ Miles to persue it any further.
( I do think I saw a weird shaped case in one of the studio clips)

In 1987 I became a fan of Bruce Cockburn and saw him live for the first time in Chapel Hill, NC. I was excited to be front row, right in front of Fergus Jemison-Marsh. At first I watched Bruce for a few songs but then spent the rest of the night enthralled with Fergus. He was playing the role of bass player and keyboard/rhythm guitar player with a midi pickup. I was hooked. It took several years before I actually bought a Stick. I went to NAMM in 98 or 99 for my job to retrieve cymbals and stopped at the Stick booth. I bought Greg Howard's magnificent "Water on the Moon" CD and was even more hooked. Now I play an NS/Stick and couldn't be happier.