I broke my Stick cable last night, so instead of practicing I'm posting.

Initial progress on the Stick came pretty quickly for me. Sure there were fits & starts, but I set some semi-modest goals and felt I have achieved them pretty well. The main goal was to develop a small repertoire so I could do a bit of preforming. I have reached that goal, and I can probably entertain for about 15-20 mins. at this point.

But now, I find my progress on a long slow plateau. I knew it would come, and I know there will be more plateaus in the future. I've been through this many times with guitar. Nonetheless, I am frustrated with my current rate of progress. Also, other projects have been interfering with practice (possible reunion gig, and history project from my nearly-famous band from the 1980s http://www.myspace.com/candycremeandthewetdream if you are interested).

Anyway, I am sure glad to these seminars are coming up (Interlochen, FredTap), I could use something to charge me up. I really appreciate those of you putting forth the effort to make these things happen. I also want to express my gratitude to those of you who maintain this site and make it a rich resource for information and inspiration.

I'm right there with you man!

It can be even more noticeable when you come to the Stick from a fairly high level of musicianship on another instrument. The technique and accessible chord shapes of the Stick make it "easy" to get a quick start.

I hit my first real wall after about a year, and because I was only playing sporadically (at night after a full day of work, or the occasional jam), I settled into a comfort zone. There was also the temptation to go back to my bass, particularly when things got tough. To be honest, my plateau lasted for about 5 years!

Cheers,
Andy

Well, I'm still mostly a beginner so I can't offer that much. But, for me it appears that working on technique helps me advance. I have been hitting the metronome hard for a few months and I feel some progress. The problem for me has been figuring out what technique I should be working on. That's where lessons with Greg have been very helpful. He was able to recommend things to work on and the approach to them that I hadn't figured out myself.

A Stick seminar can really kick you out of this, too. The Interlochen workshop is longer and has Emmett and Greg as teachers. I think you will get enough inspiration, material, and focus to last for well over a year of gains.

Now, I better change these ancient strings so they settle down by the workshop. It's only 11 days away!

-Eric

Jeff:

as always you help me out when needed.. i belive most people here are trully wanting us to help each other...so I am here to help you..

the stick isnt easy... it's not for the faint of heart.. but this wonderful instrument has been a dream of mine ever since i saw my 1st one...

you have to approach this instrument not like a guitare.. or a bass... but as a stick... take everything from what you know on guitar or bass.. and transpose it to this... thats the hard part

Gnat aka Darren

I think we've all hit "the wall" during our developement on the Stick and other instruments. I always work that way ... get to a point, stagnate THEN one day break through and reach the next level.

Personally I’ve hit a temporary but complete standstill in my developement on the Stick. I’ve developed bad tendonitis in my left elbow and it kills me when I play the Stick or do anything where my arm is bent in one position for any length of time. I know this will eventually get better, I've been taking pain medication and icing it, but I haven’t been able to play and enjoy my Stick for almost a month now and there's no quick end in sight. That’s VERY disheartening.

The only UP side to my situation is I have a new computer and the Logic 8 recording program to learn so I’m devoting my free time to that. However I fear when I can get back to my Stick it’ll take me months to get back to the (low) level of ability I’ve achieved up to this point in time.

OH well … at least I know the Stick will be waiting for me when I’m ready.

This is a topic that's actually somewhat near and dear just because as I began playing Stick way back when, I knew these would be coming and I was always trying to preemptively figure out ways to avoid them. To a certain degree they are unavoidable. But I think there are things you can do to shorten them a bit.

For starters, there are multiple aspects of playing any instrument and generally we don't split our time evenly between them. So a plateau might be an opportunity to switch gears a little. If your technique work is leveling off, forget about it for a while and concentrate on writing some original tunes. The originals aren't coming? Take the opportunity to make a list of covers you want to learn and put your focus there. Covers are all boring to you right now? Focus on technique. Exercises. Ear training. Recording. You get the picture.

Another thing ... Andy mentioned that the plateau can be more noticeable when your coming from a high level of musicianship. As a multi-instrumentalist though, I can safely say that any practice is good practice and also that most practice is applicable to everything you do. When I started to play Stick and pretty much spent 100% of my time on the Stick, I noticed when I finally went back to playing some piano that in some ways my piano playing actually improved. At other times, I've hit the dreaded Stick plateau and opted to spend a month working up some additional piano repertoire only to pickup my Stick later and feel refreshed and in some ways better than when I'd put it down. The same has gone for guitar and bass (although I must say that guitar has been the most neglected over the years )

In other words, as long as you keep playing music all things can be applicable to all things and if you're coming from a musical background, you can use that to your advantage.

I just recently started working on a piece for piano that isn't real fast but is really tricky in the hand independence department and I'm not convinced I would have made the progress I've made if I hadn't been playing Stick all these years.

this is what is helping me.. not forcing to become another.. steve addleson.. or tony levin or trey gunn... i am just letting the stick happen..
breaking my time between learning the bass side.. and then taking another time to spend on the melody side..

i know sooner or later i will look at the stick with great confusion.. but then i know sooner or later i will be better

gnat aaka darren

Thanks for the encouragement folks.

only frustrated, not discouraged

I can sympathize with you - been going thru that for several weeks. It finally has gotten to a point where the pain is mostly gone. I had also been playing my 6 string bass and while that had gotten me thru some of my Stick road blocks, I still had the elbow issue to deal with. So I got to a point where I didn't play any instruments for almost two weeks - what a difference. During that down time I took time to do gear maintenance, brushed up on some theory, really listened to music I like and would like to do on Stick...it was quite refreshing...