My
name is Keith Kim, guitarist based on South Korea. I'm a solo artist
and member of project
band 'Metal Cat'. Berklee college of music alumni,
and have a Master's
degree in art. Guitarist since 17 years old, and started
to play Chapman
stick since 2007 and very first Chapman stick player in
Korea. My style
of music is based on Progressive rock and hard rock.
.
1. Discovery
of the Stick and touch style instrument.
.
The very first moment
I encountered Chapman Stick was when I heard
the 'Falling into
infinity' album of Dream Theater. John Myung, the bass
player of the band
was performing with the stick when I saw them live in
1997 and it shocked
me. I've never thought playing an instrument such
way was possible.
.
The second time
I heard and saw the instrument was by the true master,
Tony Levin.
I was very fortunate to witness his performance in LA,
California, with
Liquid Tension Experiment which they only played twice.
NY and LA. and I
fell in love with the instrument right away.
.
The Third time I
saw such a touch style instrument was when I was
attending Berklee
College of Music. I became friends with so many
great musicians
and one of them was Kai Kurosawa, who is a great
bass player but
also was a Warr Guitar player. Although Kai is a true
master virtuoso
of the touch style instrument at this moment, while in
Berklee, Kai Kurosawa
discovered a touch style instrument, and I
remember asking
him and bugged him to show me what it can to
because when I was
in Berklee, I was already a fan of Tony Levin.
.
2. My play style
of guitar.
.
While attending Berklee
College of music, I met many great teachers
such as Jon Finn,
Joe Stump, Scott Tarulli, Jim Kelly and many others.
One of them was
one of my greatest influence, Don Lappin.
.
Don Lappin is one
of the very first teacher I met in Berklee College of
Music and he is
a guitarist who students called 'tappin lappin'. His style
of playing requires
99% of tapping, playing guitar like a keyboard,
considering each
frets and string parts as keys of piano. While I was
struggling to get
better within so many great talents in Berklee, I needed
something that can
stand out. So I asked Don Lappin if he can teach me
outside of school
as well.
.
With very intense
lessons from him, at school and after school, I, finally
became very confident
about my tapping skill and I tried to become a
Don Lappin's finest
apprentice. Now, when I improvise or write guitar
lines, many of my
solos includes tapping.
.
3. Getting a
stick, the ultimate monster instrument.
.
Just now, I wrote about
my teachers and I had 2 of the greatest influences
in Berklee. Don
Lappin was one of them, like I wrote. Jon Finn is the other.
Jon Finn has
been teaching in Berklee College of Music so many years
and he was very
popular by many students who focus progressive rock
style. I was very
fortunate to study with him for many semesters and I got
to learn one of
his tune called "All Tapped out" which is a very hard piece
requires independence
technique, playing left hand and right had together
like a piano. I
had hard time learning the tune, but at last, I nailed it and it
helped me to learn
the possibility of guitar.
.
While I was learning
Jon's tune, I realized that the technique it was used
is very similar
to playing a chapman stick. Because I was very confident
about my tapping
technique, I wanted to explore next level and challenge
the new instrument.
.
I was a fool.
.
After getting my
hands on my first Chapman stick, It took me less than
5 minutes until
I realize my so called, great tapping technique, could not
help me be great
with the stick. My guitar tapping technique was very
different from tapping
Chapman stick.
.
4. Mechanism
of Chapman Stick.
.
The basic tapping technique
of playing Chapman Stick and tapping in
guitar is very different.
.
Basic tapping in
guitar usually requires holding few frets with left hand
and tapping one
or two (sometimes three!) fingers from picking hand and
plug the strings
to frets that is being held by left hand which can also pull
off to other frets.
.
Basic playing technique
in chapman stick and other touch style instrument
is just like playing
piano. Tapping the frets with every possible finger.
Of course, you can
perform it with same guitar tapping technique ( You can
even strum it if
you want!), but your hand position, angle and number of
hands and fingers
on the same string make it hard to play EXACTLY like
a guitar. Basically,
it is a completely different instrument and it is truly a
next level and whole
new world to explore.
.
The stick is basically
designed to play 2 instrument lines that has range
of bass guitar and
guitar. which is like a 88 key piano. That is very large
range with so many
strings up to 12 strings with so many same notes on
one instrument!
That is a total chaos. Every guitarist knows that all the
same notes in guitar
has different tone to it and it can be a nightmare.
The stick has more
than guitar.
Because it is designed
to play 2 parts with 2 hands, the basic string set
up is also unorthodox,
having thickest string of both guitar and bass range
placed in the middle
of the instrument. that is also a trouble for the beginners.
.
5. Total Package.
.
Based on all the things
I said, Chapman stick is a very very difficult
instrument and whoever
first encounter will most likely panic and don't
even know what to
do with it. However, it also has a great potential.
You can choose to
play only with in the bass range. You can stay on
guitar range. You
can play both hands and play both parts for yourself,
and hey, you can
even put different effect pedals on each different parts!
You can find Tony
Levin mostly stay in the bass range, you can see
Greg Howard play
bass line and melody line together. you can see Kai
Kurosawa perform
with horizontally with instrument, not crossed like
many other musicians
(He even uses his thumbs to play notes!).
You can tune the
instrument anyway you want. My personal set up is
having guitar ranged
parts tune just like a guitar (4th tune with exception
of 2nd and 3rd string
which is tuned 3rd) and having bass part strings
tuned all 4ths except
the thinnest string and 2nd thinnest string is tuned
tritone.
.
Stick and other
touch style instruments are very hard instrument and hard
to come by.
It will be harder instrument than you imagine. However, it is
very fun instrument
and it can be whatever you want it to be. Many strings
it has can be a
nightmare, but it also tells you that it can have many things
done. You can play
it with one hand, two hands and simultaneously.
Because of its range
of notes, your creativity will boost. If you are not afraid
of learning a brand
new instrument and looking for an instrument that can
expend your creativity,
Stick can show you many diverse possibilities.
.
Thanks a lot Keith
Epakta
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