Here There and Everywhere - Greg Howard plays the Railboard Chapman Stick
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- Опубліковано 15 гру 2013
- Greg Howard plays the new Railboard, tuned in the new Raised Matched Reciprocal tuning. This recording was made using the optional active mode on the R-Block Villex pickup module, which allows the player to plug direct into phantom-powered mic preamps via the provided XLR splitter cable.
For more information about the Railboard, a radically new and more affordable Chapman Stick model, see: www.stick.com/railboard
Nice sound. Sweet performance, improv and always a pleasure hearing you play Greg.
I've been following the Stick for decades now and you are the first I've heard it played where it really works as a great instrument. Very nice playing, arrangement, and emotion.
So effortless.. Tone and articulation first, then comes the flow, pouring out in all musical directions. Sheesh, the last note…….!
Luv & regards. Stickrad
Incredible as always. Harmonic at the end was perfect.
Very very nice. Good clean tone. Sounds like a second player on bass. IMPRESSIVE!
It was great to see this feature demonstrated. I am sure Bob Culbertson, and anyone else who runs into a mixer, will love this feature.
Always a fan of your work, Greg. And I even enjoyed the "3-fingers" discussion below! Great tapping and expression, as always!
Fantastic stick sound, unmatched and very recognisable. Love your interpretation of this Beatles song also - thanks for sharing!
Super classy! Looks as good she sounds! Well done, Greg
Chills brother Chills! So love that sound!
Is there a 1/4 to dual XLR cable to allow for the phantom power available to purchase?
Greg and Emmett .....if I have the option and the cost is permissive, I would like to add a midi controller (small 25 to 37 keys) to this Railboard....expanding the dimensions. For example adding piano and strings while playing the melody with the Railboard. Or, playing bass with the Railboard and layered sounds with the midi controller. Adding a midi pick up will only play when the guitar strings are tapped while midi controller connected to a laptop can sustain the sounds. Imagine a one person orchestral performance. thanks Ed
As usual, super nice. Love the tone. Excellent right and left hand independence. I do notice however you don't use your right hand 4th finger. As a pianist and guitarist, that would be a big no-no (smile.) Is that because of the physical shape of the Stick?
In terms of execution, it's actually faster and more fluid to use only three finger rather than four. Imagine instead of one row of keys on a piano you had two or three. If they were separated by fourths then for each diatonic note pattern, you would only use three notes, and then move on to the next row of keys. It's the same with The Stick. You simply don't need four finger, and with three I never have to chose which finger I'm going to use for any sequence of notes along the string.
It's actually much faster and more consistent to use three than four, especially when you factor in things like repeated notes.
Hi guys! There are many schools of thought re pinky use, Greg obviously believes it's not necessary at all. I think it should be approached the same way as pianists approach it, to use it when necessary; most schooled pianists are taught to use it, and thus they exercise and develop it to strengthen it. Emmett himself, the guy who invented the stick, uses his rh pinky when it's needed, and I might point out so do most other successful stickists, Culbertson et al. I think it requires a lot of jumping around and large stretches between digits to ignore the pinky, especially if one doesn't have large fingers. Scalar patterns require some slides and superfluous movement, again only imo, without the pinky. But hey, Django proved that one doesn't need to use all those fingers if you don't got 'em, and since we're all making our way in this world thank God there is room for differing opinions. In the end, hopefully we all reach Rome one way or another~ I just don't think ignoring a useful finger is a good thing, heck I wish I could get my damned thumb involved, it's the strongest surest one of all haha... Very nice work, Greg!
Eric Morris With respect, The Stick is not a guitar nor is it a piano. Emmett advocated a three-finger technique with the fourth finger for special effects in his book, Free Hands (pages 40-41). I took that approach to heart and it has never let me down.
There are many things that are more difficult to do with a four-finger approach, because you are constantly having to choose which finger to use depending on which string of the scale pattern you are using. It's fine for playing "set pieces" where there's no variation in the fingering, but not newrly as fluid or instinctive for improvising, IMO.
With a three-finger approach, as I've shown in my DVD, "Basic Free Hands Technique", you can use any finger to play any note at any time. you hands are truly "free".
gregplaysthestick Hi Greg, nothing but respect back atcha! Even though the stick is neither guitar nor piano, to ignore ergonomics lessons gained from centuries of technique on every instrument ever played seems a but obtuse, at least to me. Sax players use their pinkies, flautists and all woodwinds the same, all members of the viol family ditto; in fact I can't think of a single instrument that ignores available digits, only the 5 string banjo on the plucking side of things. Emmett uses his pinky quite liberally in the vids I've viewed, if those are special effects so be it. You don't use it at all in the right hand, yet you use it in the left quite easily and naturally, at least from the vids that I've seen. Why the difference, just because they're different hands? Culbertson uses it quite freely in both hands, and I don't think he has shown any difficulties playing the instrument fluidly and naturally. You made a very broad statement when you said it's faster and more fluid to use only 3 fingers period; perhaps that is the case for you, but I submit others (again I'll use Culbertson as perhaps the most visible and virtuosic of examples) find the opposite to be the case. I tried both approaches, and at least for me putting my pinky into play when appropriate is useful, and for me it is a more fluid approach, with less uncomfortable stretching, especially that whole step stretch between index and middle finger using 3 finger style; I had lots of tension in my fingers and hand when I used the 3 finger approach, tension I don't have when I utilize the pinky in the mix. I don't view alternate fingerings available with the pinky utilized as a limitation at all, it adds possibilities in my view, and imo a versatile player should be able to do both 3 fingers and 4, and pick and choose. For example, your v. of hark how the bells would be impossible, or quite difficult, using pinky technique, so in that regard yes, you are right about repeated notes being difficult using the pinky, and the 3 finger technique is the way to go for that v. of that piece. Again, there are many roads to Rome, and I have nothing but appreciation and admiration for your thoughtful playing and dedicated commitment to the instrument~ but with any instrument there are many schools of thought and many approaches, hopefully all leading to great music making and happy players and audiences. And ***** needs to see that, just like pianists and guitarists, we don't always agree! ;-)
Eric Morris Eric, thanks for a thought-provoking discussion. My approach only seems obtuse to you because you haven't looked into it. I teach and use hand movement, not hand stretching. There are some other things you don't know:
-Nature has tied the 3rd and 4th fingers together with a common tendon, so using them in a sequence will always be slower than just using 1,2 and 3.
-If you want to cite Bob's use of his pinky as an example, you should also note that his pinkies are much longer than mine (much longer than most peoples), so it's easier for him to get them on a line with his other fingers, especially on the highest melody string. I know this because I held my hands up to his when we were teaching in Interlochen.
-I do use my 4th finger in my left hand, but not when I'm playing baselines or counterpoint. I use it when I have to make a stretch to play a sustained chord shape.
-Stretching the hand is pointless, unless you are playing a chord that requires you to do so. So I advocate moving the hand along the board, and keeping it relaxed, is not only easier, but it adds power and flexibility. I don't stretch my hand out when playing a melody. I don't have to, I move it instead. As a result I don't merely play in scale positions, I play the whole key all over the board, fluidly and without having to figure which finger to use, to play which note as I do it.
-To me, the worst idea is to assign fingers to notes in a scale position. This means that playing repeated notes and 4ths and 7ths in a sequence will require a whole different approach than playing notes that fit the predetermined finger/pitch pattern. With a 3-finger approach, all possibilities of intervals, repeated notes and scalar movements use the same technique.
You can compare my approach to soloing to that used by 4-finger players to see the differences I'm talking about. Why should 4ths and 7ths be left out of the improvisers toolbox?
I "ignore" the pinky because I can, because using it will actually slow me down. I'm not interested in being slowed down. It would be great if you spent some time with the actual method of using 3 fingers I tech, which is based on hand movement, not stretching, before you dismiss it "out of hand"
Clavinet
Is there any evidence that Michael Hedges ever played the Chapman Stick? Every time I hear this instrument, it just seems to scream Hedges!
+ramosel I have watched every Hedges video I could find, and listened to all released studio material.
He did not put anything out on Stick, but it's likely that he was aware of it, being a tapper.
Hedges' instrument was the acoustic guitar.