• TouchGuitarist.com

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Introduction / FAQs

What is TouchGuitar?

         Touch Guitar is an instrument that produces sound by touching or tapping the string to a guitar fret board with an electric pickup.  The standard guitar creates sounds pressing the strings down with one hand and strumming/picking/plucking the strings with the other hand.  Touch Guitar allows both hands to produce sound independent of each other.  The result is a harp-like/acoustic sound with a piano-like approach to harmony, chords and melody.  The advantage over the piano is that both hands can play high or low on the fretboard without physically interfering with each other.   

What are your musical background and influences?

         The beginning of my desire to play chords and melody came from my mother’s perplexity at not recognizing the songs I was strumming.  I found it difficult to play chords and melody at the same time.  Early on I was exposed to Joe Pass and Chet Atkins who effortlessly played chords and melodies and sounded like two guitarists playing at the same time. 

        The most important breakthrough occurred when I first heard the Touch Guitar playing of Stanley Jordan who played with both hands on a single electric guitar.  Stanley remains the best Touch Guitarist I’ve ever heard or seen and I am thankful for him paving the way for me and others.  Jordan tunes his guitar in fourths which is easier to tap than the standard guitar tuning. 

        I tried to duplicate Stanley Jordan’s technique but never could.  He himself had to modify his technique because it was creating problems for his wrists due to the playing position he was using.  The biggest difficulty of Stanley’s technique is the limitation of playing both hands on 6 strings.  His melodies are by necessity in the higher register and his chording is often incomplete because the higher fret positions of the same string are the only ones heard.  He overcomes this by playing two separate guitars at once.

        In the mid 90’s I made my first step forward to playing Touch Guitar by purchasing a Chapman Stick.  Emmett Chapman had developed a bass/guitar Touch Guitar which was tuned in ascending fourths on the melody/guitar side and descending fifths on the chord/bass side.  The large bass string is in the middle of the instrument and the higher strings are on the far ends.  The Stick is played with crossed hands and bent wrists. 

        I found the Stick tuning to be difficult and the hand/wrist positioning to be impossible to maintain for long periods of time.  What’s more, I am a guitar player and was not interested in playing bass.  The first person I saw that played the double guitar tuning was Katsu, a Japanese Stick player.  Upon seeing his video I immediately emailed him for details of what he was doing.  Surprisingly he responded immediately.  I tuned my Stick that same day and started trying to play like Katsu.  Again, his technique involved crossing the hands and arching the wrists which I found to be very difficult.

        Out of curiosity I surfed the Internet to look for other Touch Guitarists and found the Warr Guitar website and their affiliate ADG website.  I called them and met Jim Wright on the phone.  Jim told me about his “uncrossed technique” which eliminated the wrist strain.  This was the missing piece of the puzzle!!!  I could now play both sides of the guitar without straining my wrists and without interfering with the hand positions due to crossing.  Jim plays a guitar/bass tuning setup in ascending fourths on both sides.  The tuning is easy for bass players and was easy for me to learn as a guitarist.

        The final step was to offset the two fourths tunings so the chording hand bass notes fell on the fret board dots and the right hand melody side coincided with a familiar twelfth fret tuning.  The stage was set for easily learning tunes that I’ve always enjoyed and playing them solo!  To my knowledge I am the only Touch Guitarist to play uncrossed with this offset tuning.  I’m sure there will be others.

 Who makes the guitar?

         I have a Chapman Grand Stick with 12 strings, An ADG 10 string, A Warr Guitar 12 string with piezo and midi pickups.  I also have a 7 string Ibanez and Steinberger modified for Touch Guitar and a NS Stick 8 string bass tuned in ascending fourths.  I have a Starr Switch midi instrument that looks like a guitar with buttons to trigger midi synthesizers.

 How much does it cost?

        The ADG costs 1375-1575 depending on the options.  It is currently available in 8 and 10 strings.

        The Warr Guitar costs from 2700-4000 depending on the options.  It is available in 8, 10, 12 and 14 strings.  

        The Stick costs from 1600-2700 available in 8 string, 10 and 12 strings.

 How do I learn to play it?

         If you want to learn the Stick 4ths and inverted 5ths tuning there are a few books available at www.stick.com by Greg Howard, Emmett Chapman and Bob Culbertson.  For the tuning I use there is currently no method book I know of.  I’m working on that.  I learned to play it with my knowledge of the guitar and music theory.  After a while the fourths tuning is pleasingly repetitive and you can easily see the musical patterns.  I’ll announce my method book on my website:  www.touchguitarist.com.  Watch for it.

 Is it tuned like a normal guitar?

         My touch guitars are tuned in ascending fourths with the low strings on the top side and high strings ascending as you move down the fretboard.  The Stick tuning has the ascending fourths and inverted fifths, this is not what I use.

 Who else plays this way?

         Stanley Jordan and Katsu play the two guitar tuning, the following play bass/guitar tunings:  Jim Wright, Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Greg Howard, Bob Culbertson to name a few.  The Stick website is a good place to start to get familiar with what and who is out there.  www.stickist.com  and www.touchstyle.com are also helpful.

 What can it do and what can’t it do?

         The limitations are the inflections you get from a pick or your strumming hand.  You really need to view this as a harp or piano to see the possibilities.  Touch Guitar still has the possibilities of bending strings and harmonics that are electric guitar techniques.

 Why play this way?

         I play this way because I can play solo and make a lot of music easily.

 What are your future plans for developing touch guitar?

         I look forward to playing more types of music, developing more rhythmic and improvisational complexity and just playing better.