Instruments of prog: The Chapman Stick

In addition to having its own style, progressive rock tends to have cornered the market on a couple of instruments. These are perfectly normal instruments, not custom-made one of a kinds, that over the years have just become associated with prog through its use by certain iconic figres or bands. While they might be normal, these instruments never really punched their way into mainstream music, and so have been left as a sort of footnote in the history of progressive rock.

First up is the Chapman Stick. The Chapman Stick was developed in the early 1970s by Emmet Chapman. It is designed to be played by both the left and right hands in a tapping style. No strumming or picking! It basically looks like a widened guitar fret board, and comes in 8, 10, and 12 string models:

This is a 10 string:

Although it is not technically a guitar it is often referred to as a kind of guitar, and even thogh it is not considered a bass guitar it has over the years become a substitute for the bass in manhy prog bands. This is due to a couple of reasons. First, IMO basses are seen as more replaceable than guitars in most bands, so if this is going to take over the duties of one of them, why not the bass? Second, it does have a low end so it can take over the bass, but since it can go high as well it's lke adding another melodic component, rather than taking away one. Third, and most importantly, the Chapman stick was really made famous by Tony Levin, the bass player for bands like King Crimson and Peter Gabriel. It was his work on the 1981 King Crimson album Discipline that really brought this instrument to the prog listener's attention. This is a video from them playing the song "Elephant Talk" on TV in 1981:

that's Adrian Belew on one of the guitars, folks, working with KC right after laying some heavy-hitting stuff on the Talking Heads album Remain in Light. Bill Bruford (formerly of Yes) on drums, and of course Robert Fripp on the other guitar. But he's the subject for a whole other series of posts!

The Stick has been used in other outfits as well, but none have been as widely known as King Crimson (with the exception of one Dave Matthews Band album, but I haven' heard it). It's been used with acts such as Dream Theater, Laundry, Liquid Tension Experiment (also a Tony Levin project), Kajagoogoo(?) and Lana Lane. In addition, some players have focused almost solely on the Stick, most notably Trey Gunn, also sometimes of King Crimson fame, who now also plays a different instrumet called a Warr Guitar (again, that's a different post).

The Stick may not be the most widely used instrument, but it has added a whole dimension to the sound of music and progressive rock. It is at least partly responsible for the reinvented King Crimson sound of the 80s, and it is that sound that helped to usher in a new era of progressive rock, blending the old with the new and creating something entirely unique.