I am really surprised that you would say that coming from a piano background. I thought to myself recently that the piano is so logical, so basic in it's layout
and the keys are big and solid compared to hitting little squishy strings on the Stick or a guitar that it would be easy compared to the Stick. It's true, or true enough, right? But deceiving . I set myself the task of learning the scales, chords too, but just looking at scales, the amount of odd turnarounds similar to the minor third "irregular" issue on guitar is just daunting by comparison. And yet, for some as yet unexplainable reason, I like it. The progress is really slow but I noticed today that being at the very beginning of something like the piano keyboard has enhanced my playing on the Stick(?) What is that about .Just from that I think that struggling with the piano keyboard is worth it if it makes the Stick fret board more easy to see and navigate.

I played the NS for several years in 4th's like everyone else and it was fine but I always missed the chords and leads that you can do on a guitar.
The first time I changed it I did not change the tuning to Guitar Intervals but to a DADGAD version of the NS. I thought I was a genius and wrote Emmett
about the "new" tuning. Emmett yawned. Okay, Guitar Intervals then But raised a whole step with capos at the fifth fret. It's a revolution brothers
and I am fine with a revolution of one .

jRj
*j*
.~

That makes total sense. If I had to learn piano today, I would hate it! As it was, I taught myself, over several long decades. And there are several notes in the chromatic scale that I've never written or even played a tune, using it as the root. C#? G#? Really, almost any scale built on a base of a black key is somewhat problematic for me. There's obviously no such problem with a Stick with any regular tuning.

I loves me some piano, though. I couldn't imagine any other interface, until I "saw" a Linnstrument, tuned in 4ths like a string instrument. I still haven't got my hands on one yet to play with it. Jeremy keeps making me want to get one! Maybe next year. But now I want a 12-string Stick. Maybe a Gold Plasma Railboard.

Also, Vive la Revolution!

Thats funny, a long time ago I took a piano lesson and I said something quite naive to the teacher, something like "the white keys sound better" and he said
"All the notes are the same, just notes" . Blues anyone? Also, talking piano here, I don't remember what the name of the movie was but it was a documentary
about Miles Davis and all the 'cool cats' are talking about Miles and Dizzy Gillespie says "Miles, you gota check out the piano, so you can understand the whole
spectrum of music". I tried to find the clip of that, no luck, but I got that as a concept a long time ago and finally, at least up to a point I want to understand 'that spectrum'...

I don't know the Linnstrument could be a great departure for someone with the skills but I think for me it would be a distraction, at least for the time being..

;j;

One can always retune the NS at any moment for a particular song of needed. The lower action/flatter neck profile limits the effect of intonation changes compared to a guitar or bass. I’ve tried ADADGADG once and it did not sound as horrible as I thought it would. As I once mentioned in a previous post I’ve used two Schubb capos at the 12th fret and used. The open strings as one would on a guitar. What’s limiting is the width of the neck. The way to compensate for the extra reach is learn everything one string higher, and tap the notes you cannot reach with fretting with your left hand. Talking fingerstyle/classical guitar techniques here, with a pick trying to emulate a guitar is a little more forgiving until you try barre chords. And for that it may be possible with altered tunings.

That being said, this Friday Don Ross is playing in the neighborhood between where myself and Paigan live, should be a good inspiration for this subject
There’s some good ideas from guitar players like Hedges, Ross, Billy McLaughlin, etc that you can apply to the NS for altered tunings.

Hey Steve, thanks for mentioning my NS pages. They no longer exist but are available via the Way Back Machine.
Here are the links along with my YouTube channel that has NS videos.

NS/Stick Review and Comparison to The Stick
https://web.archive.org/web/20151002144020/http://home.comcast.net/~rwkeating/stick/articles/NSReview/Index.html


NS/Stick One Year later - Review and Follow-Up
https://web.archive.org/web/20151002144019/http://home.comcast.net/~rwkeating/stick/articles/NSReview2/Index.html

NS/Stick GK install
https://web.archive.org/web/20151002144020/http://home.comcast.net/~rwkeating/stick/articles/NSGK-3/Index.html

Youtube page:
https://www.youtube.com/user/rqkeating