Steven Smith wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:32 pm
Pretty darn cool but for me, I think I have enough trouble with the acoustic guitar!
I'm finding that learning a musical instrument is "additive". I played (mostly electric) 6-string guitar for many, many years. Started noodling with a bass a few years ago, and picked it up fairly quickly, although I have to admit studying theory at the same time helped a lot with learning bass. Started taking drumming lessons in January, and it has improved both my bass and guitar playing, and all the rhythmic figures were perfectly familiar (except 5's - like triplets, but 5 instead of 3 - those are really strange to me). The challenge is really getting the "muscle memory" engaged which just takes practice. I was surprised how quickly working with a drum set came to me after working just the snare for more than 6 months. As a musician you hear music differently, and when you learn a new instrument, you start hearing that instrument in the mix to a degree you never did before. With drums, as with guitar and bass I'm finding that there are three learning stages - first, reading the music and counting it out to get the rhythm right, and then just listening and playing what I hear. The sooner I get to the second step, the faster I progress, and the muscle memory starts to develop. The last step is practicing enough that I begin to "own" the piece, and am playing almost by "instinct" and locking in with the piece I'm playing.
I would expect that learning the Chapman Stick would be similar.