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. Teaching
Stick in the Age of Internet
It
used to be that learning an instrument was reserved for the wealthy.
A family would hire
a notable musician to teach the craft to their children.
Concerts were held
for those that could afford to appreciate their beauty
while the commoners
toiled away, focused on the daily task of survival.
Fast forward a few
hundred years and Leo Fender has helped to popularize
and mass produce
the electric guitar. A plethora of method books follow
as the instrument
gains popularity and contemporary music styles shift
from one generation
to the next. Cheaper instruments and more access
to knowledge meant
that just about anyone could learn to play. Soon,
VHS tapes that covered
specialized topics could be ordered from
magazines so aspiring
young musicians would be able to learn all the
hottest tricks from
their favorite players. The birth of the internet saw
the sharing of information
reach an all time high, and with the rise of
YouTube, the way
music is taught was changed forever.
In 1974, Emmett
Chapman put the first model of his instrument, the
Chapman Stick, up
for public sale. In October of that year, he delivers
it to the first
buyer. The instrument, an evolutionary offshoot of the electric
guitar and bass,
gained notoriety as it got picked up by one high profile
player after the
other. A few of the players made books, and later, some
videos. Unfortunately
getting an instrument to catch on, especially one as
complex as the Stick,
is a herculean task and it seemed the Stick’s steady
growth was starting
to wane in the 90’s. Chapman, however, never stopped
improving on his
invention, and people still took interest in it.
Seminars were still
hosted for it around the world, and people still learned
it and shared their
knowledge however they could.
In 2006, Rob Martino
uploaded a playthrough video of his song “One Cloud”
onto YouTube, and
within a few years it’d gained viral attention. Thanks to
the access to information
granted by the internet, and to people’s lust for
new and exciting
things, the Stick was gaining attention again. In 2009 I
saw “One Cloud”
while killing time looking up cool guitarists in my college’s
computer lab.
My jaw hit the floor, and in 2010 I ordered one. I studied with
Steve Adelson for
a while, and gleaned what I could from books and the
few videos available
on YouTube, but ultimately there just wasn’t that much
information out
there.
By 2012, there were
whole sections of YouTube dedicated to teaching
music. Short
videos that covered bite sized concepts and songs were
the norm, allowing
anyone with an instrument to learn whatever they could
find online.
However, there was nothing like this for the Stick. Sure, Bob
Culbertson had a
handful of instructional videos up on YouTube, as did
Greg Howard at the
time, but all these videos were just ripped from their
instructional DVDs,
and there wasn’t much beyond those videos without
ordering the full
DVD set. Broke and frustrated, I began Stick Science.
Initially, Stick
Science was supposed to be a way to teach myself.
It consisted of
short videos that covered bite sized concepts on the Stick,
and worked as a
way to organize my thoughts and give direction to my
studies.I put them
up online to share what I’d discovered with the community.
I never really thought
much would come of it, but because of that series,
as well as my work
with my old band, in 2013 I became the youngest
Stickist to receive
an artist feature from Stick Enterprises. I might
be wrong, but I
believe Stick Science was the first instance of a Stick-based
educational series
being put up for free on YouTube in the established
YouTuber music education
format.
I learned a great deal from making this
series. Unfortunately, as my skills
grew, so did my frustrations with my life
and my band. By August 2014,
I had quit my band and moved from New
York to Boston in hopes of a
fresh start pursuing a new project titled
“GEPH” with drummer Josh Merhar
and fellow Stickist John Tyler Kent. The
frustrations of New York, however,
lingered like a bad infection and I largely
stopped making videos. The
frustration generated by the process of
making them far outweighed the
reward of new knowledge gained and the
praise from the Stick community
I would receive. Even going to rehearsal
was something that I had to force
myself to do for quite a while, no matter
how much I liked my band members
and the music we wrote together.
As time passed, being part of the Boston
music scene reinvigorated my
passions for music. I focussed my
efforts toward releasing my first solo
album (www.theafrocircus.bandcamp.com)
with support from a number
of friends and talented musicians from
around the United States. I also
joined another group called Body English
and GEPH released our first
album (www.geph.bandcamp.com).
I was making money teaching guitar
and piano in my area. I was pretty
happy, but something was missing.
I missed teaching Stick and I missed making
videos. I got myself a nice
camera and tried to make a few Stick Science
videos, but at that time
I felt trapped by the formula. Stick
Science had been a big part of my life
when I had been making it, but that part
of my life was over..
Around this time I learned of Patreon,
a site that lets you host personalized
subscription based services. Many
YouTubers were involved in Patreon,
offering exclusive content to their subscribers
that was unavailable for free
on YouTube.I thought of the limits of
Stick Science and how Patreon could
provide an avenue around these limitations.
Often people lose interest in
YouTube videos longer than five or seven
minutes. This often limited me
to staying extremely shallow in what I
discussed. If people were paying a
small fee each month, they might feel
more invested and I could create
longer videos that got more in depth on
the topics. YouTube could only
host videos, so I was unable to effectively
make transcriptions and fretboard
charts, but Patreon would host these things.
I could interact directly with
the people that were consuming my content
and allow them to help shape
what I put out, making my videos much
more collaborative and communa
So, on my 28th birthday, January 6th 2017,
Tap Theory was born.
(www.patreon.com/jgolbergmusic).
It is the world’s first online Chapman
Stick school.
It’s definitely way more work than Stick
Science ever was, but it’s very
worth it. I am constantly thinking
of ways to improve my content, and
I haven’t been this excited about making
videos and teaching the Stick
since 2013. April saw me surpass
50 pieces of curriculum, and every
month the community grows. It now
has instructional videos, exercises,
arrangements and musical studies, transcriptions
and fretboard charts,
and soon I’ll be giving live lessons via
Skype.
The Stick is such a niche instrument that
it’s difficult to reach people
face to face. Most of my subscribers
are from completely different
parts of the world! It is just incredible
to me that I can connect with
people I may never meet in person over
something that we both love
and yearn to explore. I have big
plans for Tap Theory as it grows too,
including guest appearances, community
musical games, and more.
We live in an incredible time of technological
advancement, and that
affords us the opportunity to overcome
the tyranny of time and distance
and come together as one community.
I’d like to think Tap Theory and
the Stick community itself will exemplify
this.
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3
Thank you so much
Josh for your collaboration and for your kind and informative youtubes
Epakta. |
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