In
the day I'd jam with different bands and players that came into Las
Vegas town. Tony
Klatka from Blood Sweat and Tears, musicians from
other hotel showrooms
and this time in particular Les DeMerle the drummer
from the Harry James
orchestra. He told me of this guy in Los Angeles that
plays an instrument
that sounds like bass and guitar at the same time.
WOW, I thought and
so that was my introduction to Emmett Chapman and
the "Chapman
Stick!"
I visited, I met,
I saw, I bought one lol. One of the greatest moments in my
career. Emmett and
I have been dear friends all these years since.
I adapted a playing
style on the Stick that Emmett described as "creating
chord and rhythm
parts to support my bass lines". Which I didn't think about
it at that time,
but that is exactly what I was doing.
What better way
to make my bass grooves more exacting and exciting than
to have the perfect
chord voicing and rhythm comping behind it. LOVED IT!
It was not Emmett's
original intention of the instrument.
His view was more
a total musical experience in the instrument itself, not a
bass, not a guitar
but a mirror to the individual player themselves. I imagine
like a piano, two
hands creating individual parts... now with hands turned in
and tapping on a
fretboard grid rather than a keyboard. Ingenious no matter
how you look at
it.
In 1999 about, Emmett
invites me over to give an opinion on his latest
invention. A co-design
with Ned Steinberger called the NS/Stick.
Again, brilliant.
Now not only do have have tapping out music on each
hand like the Stick.
I also have plucking, picking, strumming back all
in one instrument.
I LOVE IT!
I came up with several
techniques I hadn't thought of before. I put a
Carabiner between
in my first and second finger of my right hand.
I now can "Slide"
slide like a slide on a guitar and Tap at the same
time in one hand,
play bass and chords in the other. Ohhh I could go
on and on with techniques
that I use.
E-mail me and I'll
go on and on for you. (Further down in this article
there is a Rocket
Scientist song link that will show that).
.
How
I got started doing sessions with the Stick
So now I turn my attention
to a move to Los Angeles. I pack the family
and pets in the
car and off we go. My dreams and goals are to do record
sessions, join bands,
write songs. Serendipity leads me to someone I'd
done gigs with back
in Delaware. He in turn says, hey I know this guy Frank.
His wife Tully sings
and they are doing a demo. So I call, meet them and
play Stick and electric
bass on his wife's demos.
Frank is also building
a studio in his garage. We get a long so nicely,
when the studio
is done he invites me over and I start doing session at
his place. Tully
also starts writing songs and asks if I'd write with her.
As I get called
to play sessions I want to use the Stick. Generally no one
wants you experimenting
around their dime with an instrument they never
heard of like the
Stick . So I would just pull out the Stick and say it was a
bass.
I was hired to play
bass, so the client thinks nothing of it. After they would
love the new style
of bass lines and tone... I'd then say, "Ya know..."
it's really called
the Chapman Stick. I then develop a reputation with it and
then would get calls
to 'bring that other thing you play'. I owe so much
Emmett, Frank and
his studio.
..
Serendipity
is my best friend
Eddie Money comes into
the studio one day and needs a bassist. Frank
jumps in and says,
"I know just the person'. Also around that time Tully
and I had written
a nice catalogue of music that we demoed with Frank.
Pat Benatar's producer
came into the studio when Frank had one of our
tunes up. He asks
who the writers are and can he take it to Pat.
We placed the tune
on her album "Wide Awake In Dreamland" with the
song "Cerebral Man"...
We got gold albums for it. .
I met Sherly Crow through
Frank and his studio and did some recordings
with her after she
came off the Michael Jackson tour.
A prog rock band
comes into the studio with LOTS of time changes and
interesting songs.
Frank says, "Hey let me call Don for your session." I do
the first album
for Erik Norlander and Mark McCrite of "Rocket Scientists".
They loved the Stick
and encouraged me to do whatever I could do on it.
Afterwards they
felt it colored the sound of the band enough to make me
an honorary member.
I've been with them for oh my about 35 years.
Touring was a blast,
Erik would bring the huge Moog, like 5 feet high,
6 feet wide with
blinking lights and wires all over. I had my Sticks midied
so I'm playing my
Stick bass lines with chord/rhythm accompaniment and
midied keyboard
sounds and Mark had his Line 6 Variax guitar that
emulated so many
electric guitars and acoustic guitars.
What a sound we
had. That was the core of the band and we would add
other players drummers
in particular as needed. We had Tommy Amato,
Greg Ellis, Gregg
Bissonette, Nick D'Virgilio, Chris Quarte to name a few.
.
This is a Rocket
Scientists song that features the NS/Stick.
.
.
One of the earlier
bands I joined and played Stick in was "Desert Sun".
A great folk rock
band. Brooks Posten on vocal/guitar, Jane Boltinhouse
with an Incredible
large beautiful strong voice. Brooks, soft spoken, kind
gentle man and had
a 'way' about him that one day led me to ask. "You
carry yourself like
some big event happened in your life, famous like"..
and then he told
me what it was. Yikes! A good man in-spite of what he'd
gone through. (google
him if your curious). I met a manager through them
who said, I know
this guitar singer that could use someone like you on Stick.
And so I met
Dwight Yoakum. He came over my house and we recorded
some demos of his
songs that I later heard on his first album. A wonderful,
kind man. It seems
I had a roll on Country Stick, did a tour with Pam Tillis
as well as an album
and tour with The Indian River Boys.
.
I like to say, "Serendipity
is my best friend". Stick Enterprises (Emmett
in particular) referred
me as a Stick teacher for someone that wanted
to play Stick. I
gave a few lessons.
A year later he
becomes a successful screenwriter. Calls me up and says,
I have a couple
films coming out, I've always liked your music, will you score
the films for me.
"Serendipity is ..." well you know.
He wrote one of
my favorite movies... "Mr. Holland Opus". When writing
that screenplay
he would ask me about growing up with music teacher
parents. Then I
see the movie and some scenes are the stories I told.
How fun is that!
We have been friends all this time and still do projects
together. Through
him, I was introduced to Felicia Day who starred and
wrote "The Guild".
I scored music for the show and wrote the theme.
It lasted 7 seasons.
(www.watchtheguild.com).
For films I've
scored music for And... even acted in! visit : Don
Schiff - IMDb
.This
is getting to be a long story so lets zip forward a bit.
I lived in Los Angeles
for 39 years when my wife decides she wanted us
to move to Napa,
Ca. I said, "Wow, great dream but it is very expensive
however I'll dream
it with you. " I really didn't want to move, thinking that
all my contacts
for work are here in LA not there. She said, "When is the
last time you went
into a studio? You always get the music files, load it
into your studio,
then send the tracks back over the internet... you can live
anywhere". Hmmmmm,
I'm still hoping/thinking... to expensive to get a
house there. Well
after researching home buying/selling options it turns
out you can sell
your greatly overpriced home in Los Angeles and get a
greatly overpriced
home in Napa! So we moved... found a lovely home
that overlooks a
lake from a mountain side. I turned one floor of the home
into a beautiful
recording studio and we live on the floor above It turns out
'I can' live anywhere
and send my sessions out over the internet.
One of my first
sessions here was for producer Andy Kinch (from England).
He had Kelly Groucutt
(of Electric Light Orchestra) singing one of his songs
and hired me to
.... "Do what you do".
So for that one
I played NS/Stickbass and then arranged a Cello and Viola
string section in
the ELO style and Mandolin. There's a nice YouTube video
of the vinyl record
playing and inside jacket! https://youtu.be/rmq0hDsk8P4 You can hear the
NS/Stickbass and string parts nice 'n loud. Hey like I say,
"Loud 'N Proud".
I would have liked to record at Abbey Road Studios, but
at least my tracks
made it there.
.
So now I've established
myself as a session Stick player, bass player,
song writer, film
score.. With the times changing so rapidly of how music
is recorded.. having
a studio and recording remotely.. well after all is
said and done...It
was a lovely idea to move and the way to go.
Oh she is quite
the inspiration.
There is so much
more to tell, I should write a book of stories, maybe
one day. For now
I'll leave you with the same tip I tell myself regarding
how do I get from
here to there musically. I have tried planning, worrying,
would of's, should
of's and could of's, if only's. Those simply gave me
nice anxiety over
my life. What did work:
I will always play
regardless of if I get paid or if I become famous or not...
therefore persistence
along with my ability to do what I do best and love
is on my side. My
choice in life is whether to be happy at the moment of
where I am or not.
Strive for happy
and let the next day unfold as you make way and let
"Serendipity be
your best friend".
I appreciate each
and everyone of you reading this and wish you all
the very best in
your pursuits..
.
