Hi everyone,

After several hundred hours and an odyssey of several years, this weekend I'm finishing the editing of my first instructional DVD.

If all goes according to plan, Basic Free Hands Technique: Learning the Chapman Stick from the Bottom Up should be available by mid-December.

It contains two full hours of material, divided up into six lessons:

Basic Hand Movement (truly different from conventional fretting techniques)
Hand Independence (a whole body approach to separating your hands)
Bassline Movement (with examples from Still Water, Blues for the Status Quo,etc)
Melody Movement (learning the key, not just the scale)
Independence Training (exercises to help free your hands from each other)
Rhythmic Independence (putting all the pieces together)

here are a couple of screenshots:





There are over 200 graphics that show pitch, movement and fingering info, and no notation to read.

All the material is applicable to all of the major tunings, so there's nothing on-screen that can't be played on Classic, MR, Baritone Melody or Deep Baritone 10-string tuned instruments.

This DVD clearly illustrates the technique concepts I've been writing about here for so long, specifically those having to do with hand movement as a basis for two-handed tapping, and all it's implications, including its impact on timing, tone, comfort, dynamic control and hand independence.

I think you'll find there's nothing else like this material out there, and that it can apply equally to any genre of music. I'm not a guitarist, so the method I learned comes truly from Emmett's book, and from the Stick itself, through 26 years of playing and teaching experience.

My thanks to Emmett for permission to use his finger symbols from the original Free Hands book. They are a great concept, and really help to get the points across on screen.

More details on an exact release date and pricing soon.

Greg,
fantastic!
Really appreciate your work.....

Talk soon
Oliver

Wow, thats an auto-buy for me!!!!!!!!!! This is fantastic, The next best thing to having you there one on one. For anyone who hasn't had a lesson with Greg I can't recommend this stuff enough, I still work on the material Greg has shown me everyday.

Thank you soooooooo much for doing this Greg, as Oliver said it is truly appreciated.

Brett

Hi, Greg!!

Can`t wait to get this DVD.
Your techniques are guiding my way on the Sitck (the stick book and the the song book are both fantastic!) and I`m sure this will be another GREAT tool!!


Hugo.

Hey Greg,

Looking forward to adding this to my instructional materials.
Thanks!

Excellent!! Have been looking froward to this!

Karma

thanks for all the hard work, greg. it couldn't be better timing. i'll have your DVD in hand a few weeks before my first stick arrives. i plan on using it exclusively from day 1. that makes me a future potential poster boy for how well it works. i'll make you proud.

6th in line. (5 above me)

jimi

Wow, Thanks for all the enthusiasm everyone!

Brett, you forgot to mention the advantage of the DVD being that you can turn it off...

A few more details. It is NTSC, but I understand that most people in Europe have some device they can play this format on, and even though there are no subtitles, all the important points are reinforced with short English text explanations as well, which will be more helpful than just having me talking.

Much of what's covered in the DVD is material that I present to students in their first couple of lessons, so for people like Oliver it will provide a nice reference to go back to.

(Compressor is churning away as we speak...)

Congrats Greg... I want one!!

Thanks Greg... as usual, YOU DELIVER!