Recently, while searching for something else far less interesting, I came across this 2011 video of Bob Culbertson playing the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the Chapman Stick.
As always, I figured I'd send it your way.
Culbertson's performance, which includes various expression techniques and a generous amount of improvisation, is mesmerizing, to say the least.
According to stick.com, "the home of the Chapman Stick," the design of the instrument is inspired by the "Free Hands" two-handed tapping method discovered by Emmett Chapman in 1969.
"With Emmett's method, both of your hands are equal partners," the site says. "As they approach the fretboard from opposite sides, your fingers line up parallel to the frets and a powerful new musical language emerges—bass lines, lead melodies, chords, and rhythm, simultaneously, and in any combination you desire."
For more about the Chapman Stick, visit stick.com. For more about Culbertson, check out his other (much more recent) Chapman Stick videos on his YouTube channel.
If, by any chance, you want to find out how the Chapman Stick is tuned, step right this way.
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