If Knowledge Corresponds to the Past...

"Wisdom is also the key to understanding the age, creating the time..."

-Daisaku Ikeda (SGI-USA)

"Champions know that success is inevitable; there is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

They know the only way to forcast the future is to create..."

As a musician, Derryl Thomas-Holmes performs on the 12 Stringed Grand Stick and The SB8 Stickbass designed and invented by Emmett Chapman of Woodland Hills California.

Derryl has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe under the guise of: "Windflight" or "Future Primitive" Music.

His music, is a hybrid of Jazz-Rock Fusion and what is known as World Music.

To achieve the manifestation of divine insight (called intuition), one must decide what needs to be done, and what one has the inner desire to accomplish.

Then one must develop a plan of action to intergrate the two and consistently strive to keep the positive forces abundant in your environment as one pursues their dreams and aspirations (through application)...

Most importantly, through intuition one gains enlightenment and direction from our Creator.

This wisdom is real, and though we can't see it, it is a part of us.

Many people think that intuition and wisdom is only revealed to a "certain" group of people, but it is a resource that provides an additional level of information and recognition of the presence God within us all...

The Chapman Stick (generally known to its players simply as the Stick) is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s.

A polyphonic member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick has been used on many popular music recordings to play various parts (bass, lead, chords and textures).

Superficially, a Stick looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar, with 8, 10 or 12 strings.

It is considerably longer and wider than a guitar fretboard, however. Unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them.

Instead of one hand fretting and the other hand plucking, both hands sound notes by striking the strings against the fingerboard just behind the appropriate frets for the desired notes.

For this reason, it can sound many more notes at once than most other stringed instruments, making it more comparable to a keyboard instrument than to other stringed instruments.

This arrangement lends itself to playing multiple lines at once and many Stick players have mastered performing bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously.

Typically, the Chapman Stick is held via a belt-hook (worn at the front of the body) and a shoulder strap.

The player hooks the instrument onto their belt and places their head and left arm through the shoulder strap.

The instrument then settles into a position approximately 30 to 40 degrees from vertical, which allows both of the player's hands to naturally and comfortably address the fretboard.

(In comparison, a typically held guitar's fretboard is more or less horizontal.)

The player then hammers onto the strings with their fingertips in the same way that one would strike a piano key.

The technique is very similar to that of piano in as much as the player covers both bass and melody notes together with both hands.

Chapman, originally a jazz guitarist,sought to create an instrument designed for the "Free Hands" tapping method of both hands parallel to the frets, which he originally developed for use on his guitar in 1969.

The first production model of the Stick was shipped in 1974. Chapman brought his instrument to public attention by demonstrating it on the game show What's My Line? on October 10, 1974.

The Stick was subsequently picked up on by several prominent musicians. Ex-Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson was among the first musicians to introduce the Chapman Stick to the public.

Another relatively early user was Tony Levin, who was playing the instrument from the mid-1970s and would bring it to arguably its highest public profile on sessions and tours with Peter Gabriel.

Levin has also prominently featured the Stick in his work as a member of King Crimson from 1981 onwards, and in sessions for bands including Pink Floyd and Yes.

Recordings which have been influential on many Stick players (due to the prominent role played by the Stick) include the 1981 King Crimson album Discipline (played by Tony Levin) and Emmett Chapman's own 1985 album Parallel Galaxy.

Amy Grant's hit single "Angels" also featured a Stick solo (played by Andy Widders-Ellis).

Elsewhere in the public eye, the Stick made a (slightly disguised) appearance in David Lynch's film, Dune as Gurney Halleck's baliset, though the scene where Halleck (played by Patrick Stewart), actually plays the instrument was removed from the theatrical version and can only be seen in the various extended versions of the film.

The piece being played in the scene is a quote from Emmett Chapman's album Parallel Galaxy.

*Information provided by Wikipedia.org