Hi Everyone,

First, a big thanks to Manny for getting the forum back online so quickly. This is a great community and a great resource for people looking for genuine info about The Stick.

This is another video from "Hands Across the Board." It's too long for YouTube, and MySpace video ended up very compressed, but the sound is good.

I'll be posting hi-res versions on stick.com shortly.

Enjoy:

[myspacevideo]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=60082007[/myspacevideo]

A marvelously "striped" performance. Many ideas and concepts unified in an adventurously improvised statement.
A special look inside the history of the music as presented on The Stick.

Dee Veedy

My favorite Stick version of my favorite classical guitar piece! Thanks so much for posting this! This one really lit the fire for me when I was learning on my old ironwood back in the day. I do my own version of the song, but it's nothing like Emmett's tour de force!

Hi Greg - I stopped using MySpace some time back. This disallows me from seeing the video, as I understand it. Anxious to see it!!!!
Sean Stirling

Hi Sean,

Anyone should be able to see the video as a part of my original forum post.

Strangely, the coding didn't continue to show the embedded video. I relinked it in my original post and now it seems to work okay.

Any thoughts on why this would happen, Manny? Curious.

Hi Greg - thanks for reworking the post. Such a delight to see Emmett play. He told me last year of his own personal vision of hands on the strings while he plays and it was great to see him talk about it in this video. We had discussed how the notes are seen/felt/heard while you are playing.

Myself - I'm a lucky piano muso with incredible chops (at last!). When I improvise on the keys any notes that make any sense to play in the next few seconds sort of appear to me under my hands like some overproduced, surreal video. I just reach out and touch the notes I see and great things happen. Emmett explained to me how his fingers feel the shapes when he improvises. That's got to be an amazing feeling! (Double meaning intended.)

What a great thing music is and such a diversity of experience for all of us. I again thank Emmett for this marvelous extension of my musical id - and thanks to you for your energies and endless contributions to our community.
Sean Rhys Stirling

Hi Sean,

Thank you. I feel like I have a great opportunity, not only to share what I know about making music this way, but to make sure that the record of what happened in the development of tapping music, especially Emmett's role, is accurately conveyed, and that the marvel of his music is seen as the catalyst it really has been, since 1969.

Thinking about our recent holiday, and I drive by Jefferson's house every day, Emmett is the Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin of Free Hands, a rare conveyor of inspiration, crystallization and invention all together.

I guess maybe that makes me James Madison....

I have the Hands across the board video, but I always enjoy to watch these vintage videos (I was nine and played Lego at this time)
I'm always amazed by the 'visionnarism' of Emmett Chapman, his "fight" to spread the word about his invention and his global vision of the music through this "tool".
Thanks for putting this extract on the net, it's the best way and response to those willing to mimimize Emmett's role and impact on "tapping history" and music.

There will be more of Emmett's music to come, new and vintage.

At the time this video was made, Emmett was deep into The Grid, using a lot of triggered synth sounds and effects mixed together. Most people weren't even aware of MIDI in 1987, but Emmett embraced the new technology wholeheartedly, and used it in conjunction with the distinctive natural sound of the instrument very effectively.

His demo cassette recording called "Touchboard to Circuitboard" is a really interesting precursor to this video.