With two players you get a randomness that is great, but with bass, melody and chordal ideas coming from one brain, you can achieve an unparalleled, singular expression. With piano, you have all the notes, but not the expressiveness of strings.

Some of my favorite combinations have been Stick with mallets on drums, Stick with vibes and Stick with tablas.

Hey Dan
Here's Stick with "tablas" (or pie tin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5LLdJJn ... re=related

And here's Stick w/almost tablas and a badass vibes player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dio9KlXEAuE

Hey Stickists.

Wow, lots of great responses. I started writing this 2 days ago.....

For me there are two questions/statements going on here.

1. The ability of the Stick to be a bridge builder between any instrument.

2. The inherent pure desire of the emerging Stickist to define the Stick "role" and therefore add substance to the total contribution of the Stick to the music world.

Well, my feeling about the 2nd point is that the music comes first. We should'nt be too concerned about roles in a traditional sense. BUT, it is possible to be smart enough to do 2 things at once. One is to understand the traditional roles of the different instruments we sometimes emulate in order to get our chops up or transpose a new piece. The second is to consistently nourish the Stick-centric genius within and let the Stick say what it wants. Eventually we find our sound through a balance of both. Some folk don't even bother with that at all, look at Boris from Russia. It's a personal choice, yes?

Not having a totally well formed theoretical knowledge has helped me in some strange, wonderful way, to let the Stick speak through the unique tuning and free hands method. Actually, as I get better the weird stuff is becoming more and more focussed.

Bob's recent instruction at the AU seminar, made it wonderfully clear how I can take a simple melody and place it over both sides of the touchboard. This automatically made my playing sound more full, rich and fluent. The Stick roles were really expanded for me in this way.

Getting back to writing, I think we define new roles by the choices made within our compositions and the different line ups we use to facilitate these ideas. Naturally from there it's possible to create new performance opportunities and environments to back up our writing and artistry. We can invite different instrumentalists into these ensembles to create a totally new reality.

My feeling about point 1. The Stick is a strong bridge builder between different instruments. I think most instrumentalists get to a point were they want to define an individual sound, moving outside the standard ideas belonging to any instrument. The Stick naturally ignites the imagination of almost any performer, simply by virtue of the way its set up, not to mention the great players in this community. I was so happy to see the two guitarists from Tassie at the recent seminar, it really opened things up for us and gave the seminar a broader context. I know these guys were totally stocked to be around the crazy Stickists.

That's enough for now me thinks.

Stickist Regards.

Stickrad

The Stick has string.
It makes sounds.

Due to the heavy bias towards guitars (bass or not), that's how most of us try to frame the stick; rather erroneously.
I think it makes more sense looking at it as a piano-esque fretboard instrument, like many have mentioned.
The fact that the hands are "separated" might hinder this, but why not solo with both hands for instance? Or anything else for that matter.

Now, to the sound of:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtdWHFwmd2o[/youtube]
Touch it. Play it. Strum it. Jazz it. Rock it. Solo it. Thumb it. Bow it. Pick it. Bend it. Use it.

p.s. seriously, just play whatever you're hearing in your mind. that's what I constantly strive for, getting closer bit by bit.

One reason I can think of to address in concrete terms the question of the stick's role in music is when choosing lineups to play with.

For instance is it better to play with or without a bass player? One the one hand the stick can do a great bassline but a lot of music needs bass non stop and so that means one hand is tied down fulfilling duties most of the time.

So i'm thinking what do you guys think favourable stick band lineups are? For example, playing with a guitarist can fill the gap of rhythmic strumming etc which is hard to fill on stick, but there is some timbral overlap.

I play in a band with two guitarists and keys and there isn't much room up top and bass is the focus but i'm interested to hear others experiences.

I couldn't agree more, Greg and Mr. Chapman, sir.

The best way to proceed is to start jamming, find the person that isn't meshing with the sound you're laying down, and kick them out of the band.

+1 *giggle*

I played today with a guitarrist and a drummer friend. I'm parcial for trios, it's just a formation that I really connect with.
In short, it allows interesting opportunities for me as a stickista since everyone has plenty of room.

People make a good point. It's all about balance, doesn't matter if you have a bassist, two guitarrists or whatever; if you have good bandmates and a little creativity, you'll find your pocket eventually

All I know is when I sneeze or hiccup, both hands sneeze and hiccup

Peace, Marty

What a great discussion! Being a total beginner on the Stick I can only tell about what did attract me to pick up this instrument: I wanted a full range instrument that allows me to instantly play multiple orchestral roles. I was sort of attracted to the Stick as it "can be anything imaginable", plus its multitasking options. Before coming to the Stick I have tried to take other instruments into this direction by extending my playing with live looping technique controlled by foot pedals; typically laying down one part as a temporary loop while playing a complementary part on top. Compared to live looping the Stick is fun because it is hands-on and you actually play the multiple parts all the time. Good thing is this makes it possible to react instantly if playing improvised music in a duo or trio setting. Here's my Stick Dream: When I get a little better on the Stick I would love to play improvisation based concerts with monophonic guys like singers and wind players!