Please excuse this post, but no-one in my world wants to hear me prattle on about this stuff, and the Stick Workshop is still a few months off. My dog listens to me attentively, but I’m not sure he’s picking up what I’m laying down, so YOU FOLKS get to read or ignore as you prefer!

I spent many years learning to play blues lead guitar, but it wasn’t until I started studying theory that I realized how limiting that was. My technique was pretty good, and I would memorize lead solos that I could play quite well over a backing track, but never developed any kind of “repertoire” so I could never sit down and just “play a song” whether by myself or for others. I also picked up the bass a few years ago, which further showed how limiting the blues is, and how important some understanding of theory is.

A year ago December I finally got a Stick, and last June my Railboard finally made its arrival. In the last 18 months I have learned 5 pieces and almost have a sixth under my fingers now. I’ll probably have at least one more learned by the time of the Workshop in August. So not only am I here to share my experiences with The Stick, but also the (for me) completely new experience of developing a repertoire.

For some inexplicable reason, I had the feeling that the Stick was the instrument that I was destined to play. Why I would feel this way, having never touched one, and only been close to one once when Bob Culbertson showed up at a local art fair, is a mystery. But I have to say that nothing has ever so quickly come to feel so right in my hands. I can’t confess to an obsession, but the most common thought I have upon waking each morning is that I’m going to practice the Stick that day. I consistently practice 1-2 hours a day, and the few days I don’t play it is usually a deliberate decision to give it a rest. I just really REALLY love this instrument.

I’ve started to end my daily practice with some fun noodling. Sometimes I’ll put on a shuffled playlist and try to play something coherent along with the tracks that come up. Other times I’ll add some gnarly effects (I have a plugin that reminds me of a Strymon Big Sky) and just goof around improvising melodies using various scales or different modes and some accompanying harmony.

But the most interesting things I’ve noticed have been surprises. First is how I seem to develop a very intimate relationship with each piece. Sometimes it’s a bit of a love/hate for a while as there is usually some section or phrase that gives me fits. But as those rough spots get practiced more (sometimes 50, 100 times more!!) my relationship with the piece changes. Very strange experience. Also, after playing a particular piece 400 or 500 times, and as I start to be a little less constrained by struggling to simply get all the notes right, it’s been surprising how expression from varying the tempo and dynamics just naturally begins to creep in! I had no idea I could make music like that!!

Lastly (and of course this is very Stick-specific) having learned a bunch of pieces notated with StaffTab, I have learned two pieces that had no fingering information. Thanks to the technique that Greg Howard demonstrates in his transcriptions, I have found it incredibly easy to develop extremely effective fingerings for both pieces. I can’t help but feel I am part of Greg’s legacy.

So anyway, a year-and-a-half into this adventure, I feel like I’m very, VERY well on my way. At my age there can be so many regrets. I’m so happy that I had enough courage and faith in myself that I took this chance. No going back now!

Always happy (& interested) to read what you have to say Steve.

Even happier to read of your progress and of the general positive vibe of the whole Stick experiece for you.

Free those hands!

Great to see that you've stuck with it!

I'm only about a month into ownership of my 10-string polycarbonate (haven't played a note yet; still waiting on strings), I too feel an allure to the instrument. Is it the influence of hearing Tony Levin with King Crimson (and yes, as a session guy for Gowan's "Strange Animal" album) and later, Trey Gunn (Sunday All Over The World, Fripp/Sylvian, King Crimson), or something else sorta "cosmic" (not meaning to sound too hoaky!LOL)? I couldn't say.

But what I can say is this- I too feel the need to expand my boundaries past 35+ years as a bass guitarist, 2 years as a recording guitarist, and the last 10 years as a home studio "recordist", it were. All these things have lead up to a great experience so far, have given me confidence in my own playing (so far) and have taught me a great deal about song writing/production.

I have a long way to go in all the fields of study. But I also know that there are no bounds to communication and emotion too!

Keep at it!

I hear ya on the "destined to play" thing.

For background, I've been playing guitar and bass -- primarily bass, 4 & 6 string fretted and fretless -- for decades (and keyboards and drums, but that's going off a bit.)

There was always just something about the Stick that drew me to it. Like many, Tony Levin was my gateway from listening to Gabriel and Crimson. Not just the particular tone and attack of the instrument, but also the more subtle ways bass lines were composed and played on it.

Anyway, fast forward to last October when I finally had my own Stick in my hands. Felt right from the first time I laid a finger on it. I've literally played it every single day since I got it. As I've become more familiar with it over time, I'm finding I can sit down with it and more easily improvise and let things happen than I could on guitar and bass. I can start my drum machine (or not), get my fingers on the Stick, and proceed to lose myself in it. Which is exactly what I was hoping for, and had a hunch would be the case before I even got the instrument.

+1 to that.
Before Stick, as I'd added instruments (keyboard, then guitar, then harmonica) I kept things sort of in balance. That was still th ecase with Stick at first, but now I've settled on a tuning (which took a while...) and am settling in to getting to know my friend(s), Stick is very much at the head of the queue. The others are not ignored, but they just get a few minutes here & there. It's Stick that is the instrument I pick when I think practice time - & 'play time' too, come to that.


That's also my direction. I think of it as "Play to explore" and "Discovery driven development". I have most of the Stick tutorial materials that are available, but none of those are in my (weird) choice of tuning (but that doesn't stop them being useful references to an extent). I do play a few tunes, but what I most like doing is to start playing & see what happens. Along the way I'm finding things that work (&, of course, things that don't work too). Both player (me) and audience (also me) are finding this all immensly interesting & absorbing.

Yes. It’s very weird. Many things turn out to be much more challenging than they appear. Not so the Stick. That’s not to say that you don’t have to practice a lot to get the nuances of technique down. Good dynamic control, clean articulation, consistent, controlled legato take time. But yes, you get to working on those subtleties right away because making good basic musical noises comes very naturally. The first time I held and played a Stick it felt exactly like I expected it to feel. It took years for a guitar to feel completely at home in my hands. The Stick took a few months if that.