“The discipline to learn the Stick is no different than any other instrument. I guess because it’s not mainstream, beginners are intimidated. Quite the contrary. I truly believe, the Stick is a very easy instrument to learn.” – Steve Adelson

Ok. The Chapman Stick has 10 to 12 strings and it looks a bit odd.

However, when you look at it more closely you can soon understand that it is really not much different than learning the piano.

You can play more than 1 musical phrase at a time.

You have pretty much all the notes available on a piano.

For example, if you watch a “Boogie Woogie” piano player, you will notice that the left-hand plays a bass motif or riff. The right-hand plays the melody/chords.

When I do this on the “Stick” my left-hand plays a bass part while my right-hand plays melodies and chords. And like a piano man, I sing while accompanying my voice with chords and bass grooves.

If you have any questions about the “Stick”, let me know in the comments.