Hi Per,

For improvisers, I think there is no better instrument. The range (especially in the left hand) and split output make for limitless orchestral and sonic possibilities.



I released a CD in 1998 called Water on the Moon, a non-stop one-hour live improvisation recorded at a club. Reviewers always made the mistake of thinking it was loop-based, because they didn't understand the nature of the instrument, and because at the very beginning or the piece I used a "pseudo-loop" - a long delay with high feedback - sound soup, if you will.

sound samples here:

http://www.greghoward.com/recordings/

I'm glad you've identified the "musician-as-organic-loop" idea, and I'm excited to hear how you explore it.

I've performed in many different improvisational duo and formats. As Sticks and Stones, Tim Reynolds and I were both multi-instrumentalists. At first he was only playing electric guitar, but then he began to bring sitar, violin, cello, percussion, mandolin, etc. Sometimes I'd play sax or synths, and this was in the time before I really knew how to play The Stick, so when I picked it up it was for its sonic character, not it's orchestral possibilities, but as I spent more time performing as a soloist, and built up my technique, the power of it as a spontaneous compositional tool really emerged for me.

Improvising in duo with a drummer is a natural role for the Stick player, too. Emmett did a lot of this early on with Les DeMerle, and in a quartet setting with Tim Buckley doing some truly wild vocals. He also used to jam with Nyle Steiner, and also with a great improvising vocalist named Josh Hannah, who was heavily into harmonizers and other effects. You can hear the two of them together on Emmett's Parallel Galaxy.

The Stick is an improviser's dream come true.

Indeed so! Thanks for filling in on the records, Greg! Much appreciated. I enjoy your cover version of "Tomorrow Never Knows" on YouTube It's my "go to" video when someone asks me "but what is this... stick?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCXjEIQANes

Wow - what a cool topic. As a new Stick player I have often considered the role of the sick, for example, in my band. Where we already have bass, guitar, a harmonica player, what role would the Stick play. For me the answer was relatively (and perhaps naively) straightforward: it depends on how good are you at composition and arrangement.

I always considered the Stick to have the ability to add yet another sonic layer or palate to an existing song. Alternatively, if the song is first composed on the Stick, it will essentially set the stage (so to speak) for how the rest of the band would arrange their parts around it. In that sense, I really think it is no different that when I compose on the piano versus composing on the guitar - it comes down to the subsequent arrangement of other instruments and the musicality of the musicians playing them.

I play a lot with bands who sometimes have three guitars (not including bass!) playing at the same time! Its difficult to argue that there is no room for the Stick.

Lovely questions and discussion posted here indeed!

I'm as big a fan of Tim Reynolds as I'm a fan of you Greg! Needless to say I love Dave Matthews works.

Btw, Per Boysen is seriously an incredibly creative musician himself! I had the lovely chance to meet and play with him at the Y2K7 Loopfest in Santa Cruz. Hope you will there this year for Y2KX Per!

Randolf Arriola

Hi Randolf,
I'll try to hit Santa Cruz om October 12-19. Long way from Sweden, so as I can't afford the travel cost I'm looking around here for art funds to put in a grant appliance. Are you going there? Anyone else?

Damn...finally something close to home and I'll be in Afghanistan!

Well, I've never thought of Sweden as being close to Afghanistan but on the other hand everything is just a matter of perspective...

The Stick is a fretboard based percussive instrument intended to allow a single player the polyphony of a piano and the fluidity of a guitar. Though it can be strummed or plucked, the Stick is better suited to “tapping” in a manner similar to playing a keyboard, but in the upright posture of a guitar.

When properly set up and amplified the Stick is capable of a vast array of sounds. With practice, one can achieve a comfortable balance between two handed (ten finger) independence and single note rapid fire articulation. Like playing the piano or the drum kit, practicing independence is crucial to your level of execution.

A player with previous exposure to guitar or bass might ignore one aspect (side) of the Stick and focus on the instruments most familiar features, leading to an imbalance of skill and technique. It isn’t easy to move from plucking to tapping, the left hand usually has the advantage of several years of fretting while the right hand has to catch up (this situation is reversed for left handed players). This suggests that most Stick players come to the instrument with this physical bias (rather than as virgin players). That said, the fret hand bias is far from impossible to overcome and many Stick players develop balanced left and right hand technique with near equal facility.

Perhaps the consummate Stick player has not yet appeared, but people like Wendy Phua and Kevin Keith are worth watching.

Because the Stick is so flexible you can take on ANY role from soloist, to ensemble, to orchestra.

Like the piano, the Stick can perform almost any role in music. With the addition of MIDI the Stick can reproduce any conceivable sound. The only limitations being the imagination, the Stick player has the choice / option of doing everything (rhythm, melody, chords, noise) one thing exclusively, or anything in between.

The cultural value of the instrument remains to be established because of its relatively short history. The violin, for example, is firmly established in its musical role. Though there are unorthodox ways of using it, we tend toward the traditional. Only time and exposure will fix the Stick in the minds of a world of listeners. Perhaps like the synthesizer, it will be seen as a sound creating device rather than a singular sound source. On the other hand, a player might emerge who will define the instrument in the way Miles Davis, Arto Lindsay or Terry Bozzio have defined theirs. YOU MIGHT BE THAT PLAYER !

I was referring to the festival in Santa Cruz. That's closer to me.

To me, it's a big guitar. Which, of course, doesn't say diddly squat about its role, since a guitar can fulfill many.