Chapman Stick

A Chapman Stick is a bit like a cross between a guitar and a piano. It's a stringed instrument, but you play it by pressing the strings in different positions along the fretboard, with very sensitive pickups used to capture the sound. Players use both hands to create more complicated melodies. In this video the musician, Guillermo Cides, goes further and uses a digital looping machine to build up a progressively thicker sound over the length of the music. It's a nice moment of calm in an otherwise slightly frantic time.



It'd be a good instrument for me, I think, if I was going to take up music again. It's a bit of a shame that they cost thousands of pounds, and are all made to order with a waiting list that's about a year long...