Jason Brock demonstrates the Chapman Stick, a hybrid musical instrument combining elements of guitar, bass, piano and percussion. ______________________________________________________________
Jason Brock doesn’t know where he’d be without the Chapman Stick.
Brock, 32, began playing the Stick—the hybrid musical instrument combines elements of piano, guitar, bass and percussion playing—four years ago after suffering an industrial accident which severely damaged his right wrist and ligaments in that arm.
“It changed my life,” Brock said.
“It changed my musical direction, my career direction, and it’s helping to heal me physically and emotionally. Being in chronic pain, all I had to do was play my Stick for ten or fifteen minutes and my mind focused again. I can't say how much that helped me.”
Once a bass player in bar bands, Brock has not only become a Chapman Stick soloist playing numerous gigs around North Bay, but a dedicated apostle of the instrument determined to spread the word about it.
Lead and bass Los Angeles jazz guitarist Emmett Chapman invented the Stick in the early ‘70s and began producing it by hand commercially in 1974.
The Stick resembles a large electric guitar neck and comes in eight, 10 and 12-string models. Bass strings are found on the right half of the instrument and treble on the left.
An electronic pick-up at the bottom of the instrument provides the amplification, and players produce music through touching or tapping the strings rather than plucking.
Both hands are used, essentially allowing the player to produce lead and bass lines.
Excited me Brock found out about the Stick when he moved to Calgary from North Bay in 1993.
“I was a Peter Gabriel and King Crimson fan and saw Tony Levin playing it, and being a bass player it really fascinated me,” Brock said.
He was taking bass lessons from Calgary musician Roli Mack at the time, who also owned a Stick.
“That got me very excited. I took lessons from him and he let me fool around on his Stick. It really excited me but financially it was just out of my reach,” Brock said.
Kicked my butt The turning point in Brock’s life came in 1999 after an industrial accident at the Calgary bakery he was working in.
“Someone else had walked away from their job and I ran over to their pan-line that had backed up with red-hot pans from the oven. I pulled the hot pan out to try to save the oven, which sent all the rest of the pans with all the weight of the line into my one wrist, Brock said.
A year of physiotherapy followed and doctors recommended surgery to fuse the wrist almost entirely.
Brock said the accident “kicked my butt” toward taking the Stick up fulltime.
“I couldn’t do a lot of my other hobbies like biking or anything physical because of chronic pain in right arm and tendonitis in my left, and I was feeling depressed,” Brock said.
Curative effects He took the plunge and purchased a Chapman Stick in October of 2000, just two weeks before his wrist surgery.
“That's what really kept me going. Even in the worst case scenario I could still play with one hand,” Brock said.
He began practicing on the Stick within days after his surgery.
He soon began noticing the instrument wasn’t only producing music, but curative effects as well.
“Since I started playing The Stick I don't have tendonitis in my left arm anymore. Usually people get tendonitis from playing an instrument, I actually lost it,” Brock said.
Great feeling Stick playing also helps alleviate pain in his right wrist, which he can only move 15 degrees.
”Other than playing Stick, everything I do with that wrist hurts: moving my fingers, gripping, touch,” Brock said.
His hand muscles have also strengthened, although he can only spread his right-hand fingers about 60 per cent as far as his left.
While his physical condition was improving, the Stick also helped Brock overcome emotional distress.
“I was suffering from a great deal with depression,” Brock said.
“For over a year, there was nothing, nothing was healing, then all of a sudden I had this instrument and each day I was a bit better at it. It was such a great feeling.”
Going to help Brock said his doctor, nurse and physiotherapist were supportive, even to the point of coming over to his house to watch him play the Stick.
“They all agreed that playing The Stick wasn't going to harm me, it was just going to help,” said Brock, who’d also like to pursue a career in music therapy.
Brock says the Stick has also helped him tap into his creative well, and he’s composed over 50 pieces.
A visionary While primarily a solo performer, Brock has gotten together with local violinist Chris Hermann and drummer Drew Vendetti to form Interslice, an improvisational “space music” group.
Brock has also recorded a CD entitled Medicine Stick.
“People might think I’m playing something called a medicine stick, but I named the CD like that because of what this instrument has done for my life.”
None of it would have been possible, Brock adds, without Emmett Chapman.
“He’s like a second father to me, a visionary, someone to whom I’ll always be thankful.”
