Tapping on the Far Side

First published May 14, 2003 on Stickwire

From: "Stick Enterprises, Inc." <stick@earthlink.net>
To: STICKWIRE-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM

Thanks Henrik, for your insights on advantages of fingertips playing on opposite sides.

Yes, I do have some "different reasons", but I also agree with yours. After play testing every instrument I've made or repaired over almost 30 years, I know that it feels better to have a space between where your right thumb pivots (usually pressed against the rear beveled bass side) and where your right fingertips play the melody strings.

And yes, the wrists do bend differently if you play on the sides closest to hands approaching the board. My elbows end up hugging my sides, and my angle of finger attack is steeper, sometimes pushing the outer strings off the fretboard.

The Stick is designed in every detail for all possible tunings, and is a "blank slate" in that regard, but if I were making a lot of Sticks with interchanged bass and melody sides, I'd advocate a double neck model and get zero cross-talk in the process.

With the standard family of Stick tunings, each hand hovers over the near string group and engages the far side, but measured from the thumb, the far side is just the right distance for a lot of players, even on a wider board. The bonus is, each hand also has immediate access to the nearest string group, enabling each hand to more readily play on all ten or twelve strings.

Two boards on one board - the permutations are endless, as Steve often likes to point out in various colorful ways. For example, play a LH bass note with a RH three-note chord on the lower melody strings. While holding the bass note, add the left pinky on the first string at a modally related position. Now add the right thumb on one of the bass strings in the higher register.

Now you've got a complex chord. At this point you could spot several other good notes with your left pinky and right thumb. Then start arpeggiating the RH chord. Then start juggling a few more balls into the mix. Do it as fast as you can, like a banjo picker. Slow it down to an ethereal background.

The greatest reward may be in shifting RH chords with corresponding added notes from the conceptual sixth finger on each hand. (We are a breed of mutants.) You are now juggling several sets of balls as you move through chord progressions.

There are six elements for live improvised composition here, as in my "Shifting Elements" recording of the mid '80s. Any one of these elements can become thematic, that is, can carry the lead melodic movement. Especially powerful here is to place that lead line on the lower bass strings - a meaningful and elaborate bass solo with accompaniment.

Each hand crossing over the board leads to harmonic and rhythmic permutations not available on a double neck instrument and not so easily executed on Stick tunings with reversed string groups.

A big "however" clause, however. Never underestimate what an artist can create with any set of tools.

Best, Emmett.