Stick Science Josh likes to share his ideas on exploring the instrument with Free Hands and other techniques through his series of informal "Stick Science" videos. The offer tips for Stick players on a variety of subjects and deliver a healthy dose of Josh's wry, self-deprecating sense of humor. This one deals with strumming chords on The Stick. You can find the whole series on his YouTube Channel.







From Bach to Video Games... Guthrie Govan, Greg Howe, Matthais Eklundh and Scott Henderson are probably my biggest influences right now. I've also been listening to a lot of 8 string guitar players like Tosin Abasi and bands like Periphery lately. It definitely shows up in how I'm treating the mono function of the Stick.

I was a jazz and classical guitar major in college, so huge amounts of both of those styles. My jazz playing has been heavily influenced by my teachers as well. I took lessons for a few years from Jay Azzolina (Spyro Gyra) and Gustavo Assis-Brasil, and both of those guys shine through often. Compositionally I've been really influenced by guys like Chopin, Beethoven, Berlioz and Wagner, just to name a few. I came up with an expanded form of Wagner's leitmotif technique that I've been using to generate a lot of material for the new stuff that And The Traveler is working on. I also have a Bach action figure in my room.

And of course video game music. Video game music is probably the ultimate reason I got into playing music in the first place. When done right, it's so descriptive and beautiful. You can see the scene in your mind's eye, even if you've never played the game before. I remember being 11 and playing Final Fantasy 7 in my dad's apartment. At one point, I just set the controller down and listened to the music for a while because it was so incredible. Just recently I got commissioned to compose all the music for an upcoming phone game and this is literally a childhood dream come true.

A new generation, passing it on... Josh has studied with New York jazz Stickmeister Steve Adelson and picked up techniques from watching other Stick players' videos online, he says he started he "Stick Science" series,



"as a tool to teach myself, and because I didn't notice anyone else really doing it. I figured that if the Stick was to ever be close to as popular as the guitar, it needed to have the kind of informational access that the guitar does, amongst other things. For a little while I thought I was the only person doing that, aside of course from the videos that you (Greg) and Bob have put up. But then I started to notice that other Stick players had similar videos for different topics. They hadn't made a series out of it, they didn't spend their time talking to themselves while wrapping their head in toilet paper or wearing a box to pretend to be someone else, but a lot of the videos had really good lessons to teach anyway. So between the video lessons online, and whatever I can glean from watching and listening to other players, I'll take influence from just about anyone!".