Divine intervention
Image source: http://stick.com/
A long time ago I was introduced to Stanley Jordan’s rendition of Elanor Rigby. When he plays the part at around 1:00 into the song my jaw dropped. He used the guitar in a new way that I had never seen before, and it sounded beautiful! I believe he called the playing style “touching”. It is basically two-handed tapping where your left hand plays the chords, and the right hand takes care of the melodies. I instantly started to read up on the method and practicing on my electric guitar. It soon dawned on me that the guitar would need some adjustments and optimization to play the touch style. Some examples are alternate tunings, extremely low string height and deadening the strings on the first fret with a piece of cloth so that they stop ringing as soon as you lift your fingers. However, that would have rendered the guitar unusable for normal playing. Touch style is very difficult even on a properly setup guitar, and if you try to play it on a regular guitar it becomes even harder. Frustrated, I started looking for a smarter way to do it, and that is when I learned about the Chapman Stick.
The Chapman Stick is a giant fretboard with 10 or 12 strings, where the whole instrument has been optimized for two-handed tapping instead of strumming. Even the frets are triangle-shaped instead of U-shaped like on a guitar, two make tapping easier. There are no open strings on a Stick. When you release your finger from the fretboard, it goes silent. The string height is insanely low, which makes tapping effortless. On a guitar, you need to tap the strings much harder. The Stick is played vertically to improve the ergonomics. I consider the Stick the most ergonomic and comfortable instrument I have ever played. This sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well, there’s always a catch, and with the Stick it is the price. Every instrument is custom-made, and the price tag is over $4000 depending on the configuration. To pay a lot of money for an exquisite musical instrument is not a problem if you intend to use it. The problem is that these Sticks are rare, and chances are you have never seen one before reading about it in this blog. Before I was going to pull the trigger, I had to at least try one. But how do you try something that is so rare? My Stick dreams thus lay dormant. .
Many years later, I was in London and while on our way to the theater, I encountered a street musician by the name of Bucky Muttel. My jaw dropped again, just as much as when I first heard Stanley Jordan. Here was a live musician in front of me, playing the instrument of my dreams. Unfortunately, we were a bit late and I was part of a group, so I could only listen a couple of seconds and then we had to move on. I gave a donation before I left, but this was frustrating beyond belief. I wish I could have stayed and have a chat with him and ask him to try playing the Stick. That’s when divine intervention occurred. The next day, we were heading somewhere else in the London Underground. We did a change of trains in some station half-way to our destination when I heard the familiar sound of a Chapman Stick once again. There he was again, Bucky, and this time I had all the time in the world. I listened for a couple of songs and the I told him my story and got to play the Stick for the first time. He gave me a crash course, and I had been playing lots and lots of tapping/touching on my electric guitar – trying to imitate a Stick – I could get some kind of music out of it. Playing the Stick for the first time will melt your brain. A proper description is playing the guitar, bass, piano and drums - At the same time. I will never forget that someone gave ME a donation when playing, and Bucky cheered that I had just earned my first money as a busker. That was one of the coolest experiences in my life. I HAD to get a Stick.
Back home, I started to save money. I also started looking if there were any Swedish Stick players around. That’s when I found out about Jan Hellman in some bass forum. I just gave him a call and told him my story and asked if we could meet up. Jan turned out to be one of the friendliest guys I have met. And more… he had a Stick for sale, with the same configuration I had been looking at in Chapman’s webshop for the past decade. That sealed the deal. As soon as I got home, I started to sell of all my unused stuff. I even sold my precious snowmobile (!) because the Stick was more important. Shortly thereafter, I finally had a Stick and started tapping like there was no tomorrow.
Here’s my Stick in action in the studio, with both clean and distorted sound (04:00-06:00). And here’s a recent live performance of Hallelujah.
If this story is not an example of divine intervention, I don’t know what is. I am so grateful that I met both Bucky and Jan.