Aside from the occasional hammer-ons and harmonic work, the right hand seems dedicated solely to the task of pushing the strings into action. Honorable work certainly, but I am still left with the feeling that I could be doing much more.

Touch style instruments can unlock the right hand simply through the physics of the instrument. Suddenly, both hands can move into the musical arena as chord shapers and ‘tone generators’.

For the few that are not aware of those physics, we must first look at conventional guitar and bass. For argument sake, we will be referring to this as if we were all right handed players playing right-handed. The left hand depresses the string to the fretboard and the right hand plucks the appropriate string(s). The tone produced is of course sensed by the pick up and reproduced.

The difference with the touch style method of playing is that the note is produced simply by depressing the string to the fretboard. No other action is necessary. With multiple strings covering the musical range of a bass and guitar, using 8, 10, 12 or more strings, the right hand, usually relegated to plucking the string, is now free to depress even more strings, covering even more chordal work or producing counter melodies and matching the parts played by the left. What you have in effect is the ability and a freedom usually reserved for piano players.

In interviewing Tony Levin for this issue and the previous one, I had to do a bit of homework on his work as a Stick player as well as his other roles on electric and acoustic bass. Profile wise, Mr. Levin has the highest level of recognition in the world of Stick players. No one seems to have made quite the dent in the world of music playing Stick as he has, so far.

That is not to say that there aren’t artists out there of comparable ability playing The Stick and other touch style instruments, but Tony was one of the first. In interviewing him, it was interesting to note that Tony repeatedly refers to his playing as being somewhat minimalistic, deliberately kept simple.

When you listen to the various bands he has been in, most notably King Crimson and his own most recent solo project, Waters of Eden, he sounds anything but simplistic. He does say that he tends to try to keep things down to basics, staying away from chordal work and in fact mostly favoring the bottom register, the bass strings themselves, tending to leave the upper register alone. In his other new double CD with Bill Bruford, entitled Blue Nights, he does venture however into that upper register, reinforcing the guitarist David Torn’s playing area.

There are many other touch style instrument players out there who have approached the instrument from an entirely different angle. You must realize that for all intents and purposes, this is a new instrument with a history of only 2 decades. You will find there is no absolute school for the ‘correct way’ to play touch style. There are certainly instructional books out there, and it is even possible to enroll in a 5 to 6 year course at a college in Spain that will cover the playing of the instrument like it would the playing of classical guitar, but there is still a lot of latitude available.

This latitude produces two results immediately: a free environment expressing great creativity, and a field of complete indiscipline producing volumes of dismal mundane music. The natural tendency in uncharted areas is to take the path beaten out by previous travelers, subsequently a lot of these players and the groups they are members of, tend to write tunes that come across very much like King Crimson. In time, as the instrument matures in the artist’s minds, there will less of a tendency to do that.

In this first of 3 parts examining this method of playing called `touch style’, we will be looking at some of the up and coming bands using both The Chapman Stick and Warr Guitars. Bands like `99 names of god’ take the Warr path while the Ozone Quartet and Smokstick opt for the Stick. All produce interesting music and all must be commended for being willing to ‘think outside of the box’ when it comes to musical instruments.

In this issue we talk to Mark Cook, Warr Guitarist for `99 names of god’, examining their new album and talking with him about his experiences with both the Warr Guitar and the Chapman Stick. He has great things to say about both of the instruments and explains his perspective on the differences between them.

Mark: There’s less stress on the strings. With the Warr guitar I tend to do a lot more plucking and hammer-ons. When you are using the Stick or the Warr guitar, you have that bass string in the middle of the neck of the instrument…and usually I find that that bass string can feed into the melody pickup. I’ve owned 5 Sticks and I’ve owned 4 Warr guitars. It happens in all of them, it’s inherent n the design. It really affects your phrasing when you’re trying to sustain a melody note and then allowing that note to decay, then this bass string starts to bleed into your distorted signal. This can really wreak havoc on your sound. The idea of the new instrument is to separate the electronics. Then you have a very distinct bass sound.

Global: With such a large number of strings, how do you manage to damp all of them so they don’t start vibrating sympathetically?

Mark: They have the muting at the top of the neck. I usually add a little more muting with the palm of my hand. On the new instrument, I’ve actually added some soft felt and that kinda eliminates some of the ringing.

Global: Was it pretty intimidating when you first started to tangle with such large necks? How do you keep it all sorted in your head?

Mark: I started in late `89 when I bought my first Stick. I was a guitar player before, so it really was kind of a shock at first. The Stick is very different than the traditional bass or guitar. The feel, the play, the sound, everything is different. Usually you almost have to give up your first instrument to really progress. It tends to return to a safe zone, where you are used to what you have always played. The best thing though is to move on (Oh, keep playing your bass if you want to!), but find out what is different and innovative about the instrument.

Web Pages for the Instruments Described Above… 

A link page for the Stick featuring books, seminars and a multitude of Stick Players…

Frank Jolliffe’s pages on all methods and philosophies, books, lessons, seminars & clinics on Touch Style and tapping can be found at

Mark Cook and the CD’s for 99 names of god can be found at