Relationships

This month, I'm going to discuss relationships. No, not with your loved ones, but between string groups of your favorite instrument. Before I start, let me say - this lesson is aimed toward beginners using Classic or Baritone tunings and Classic tuned Grand. Inherently, all of the Matched Reciprocal tunings have an obvious bass to melody string-group relationship - thus not addressed here. Likewise, you probably already know your way around the Touchboard if you are using an unconventional tuning.

With that said, you will need to download the accompanying file.

sticknotes.pdf

This file contains three charts for you to pick from - Classic, Baritone, and Grand. Print out the chart that applies to you and we'll get started.

Finding notes on the Stick is easy, but finding the right one is sometimes frustrating. One of the first things you will do as a beginner is to learn the "open" tuned note names of each string. This is perfect and if you have previous experience on another stringed instrument - you know that the 12th and 24th frets hold the octaves to those string names. For a while, these positions will be your only reference points, until you learn to recognize other positions on the fret board. I will assume, for most players, that the left-hand feels most at home around the 5-7th fret and the right-hand gravitates near the 12-14th fret. Wherever your hands feel at home, make it a point to know the surrounding notes.

Using the charts, lets explore our surroundings. Ignoring the fact that the notes are unison or an octave(s) apart, the lines connecting dots relate to the same named note. Figure #1 relates notes on the same fret to different strings. Your understanding of this relationship will help you find some notes more quickly. For example, let's say you want to find a RH melody-side note that's in unfamiliar territory, but near the LH. You can identify a LH bass-side note, relate it to a melody-side string, land it where it's at, or make a few steps sharp or flat to the desired note. Just the same, you could locate a LH bass-side note with respect to known RH melody-side notes.

Figure #2 shows the remaining melody strings from Figure #1 and their relationship to the bass-side strings. Figure #3 shows a composite of Figures #1 & #2 with reference to the melody strings and Figure #4 references the bass strings.

If you've come from a guitar or bass background, you are probably familiar with playing octaves. For example, find any note on string 3 - your root. The octave is found two fret spaces up from your root and two strings across (Figure #6). Octaves can be found like this all over the Stick - bass-side and melody-side. Figure #6 also relates one string group to the other and Figure #5 isolates this relationship. Once again, you can use this concept to find notes in unfamiliar territory with respect to familiar territory.

Figure #7 is similar to Figure #2 with the addition of octaves on the same string group. Using this concept as a map, you can find any note with a hop, skip, jump, and maybe a little slide sharp or flat. On the Grand chart, you see how all twelve strings are covered.

For Grand and Baritone only, Figure #8 shows a unique relationship between the two inside strings (bass/melody). And for Grand, this reaches to the outside strings as well.

That's all folks.

Chris
www.ChrisCrain.com