Tips on Creating Your Own Style (Glowstring)

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Friday, 08 February 2008 09:29

Article on Combo Construction and Developing Your Style for Glowstringing.

The purpose of this post you are about to read is to help stringers understand my way of combo construction. Hopefully it will help everyone create unique and distinct combos. This is by no means the ?best? or the ?only? way to go about it, if you already have a method that works for you, you do not have to listen to me. However, I still hope that you will give my article a chance, maybe it will spark some inspiration in some.

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Style : an element all glowstickers, stringers, dancers alike would want to achieve and call it their own.

It?s hard for freehand glowstickers to reach the point where they can have their own distinctive style. It is even harder for glowstringers. Freehanders can add in body movements and other dance elements into their arsenal easier because they are only holding the glowsticks in their hands. For glowstringers, the movements of the glowsticks are limited by the swing of the strings (mostly circular, usually no long pauses). The physics of the swing (the speed, the path of travel) also limits a stringer of his/her body movements. So what?s the best way for a stringer to achieve the style element?

I believe the answer lies in unique and creative combos (I will only discuss wrap combos in this article for reason of not over-complicate things).

Wrap combos: compiling multiple wraps one after another.

Almost every stringer do some sort of wrap combos nowadays. So now, the question becomes, how do you avoid making up the same combos that others have done already? How do you give depth to your combos and make them more complicated? How do you take it to the next level and expand the way you think about wrap combos? How do you make yourself say, ?Wow, now that?s a satisfying combo??

1.) Think in all directions (top, down, left, right, front back)

Once you have some combos down, try to think about how it works. What makes this combo tick? What makes it look good?

Now take that element ? the ?cool? element, and try to create the same combo upside down (using your neck instead of your leg or vice versa). Then with the same idea, try to do it behind the back (if it was originally a combo you made up to do in front of you).

Even though it may seem like it?s the exact same combo. The way your glowsticks bounce and the angle they recoil may be very different when you perform the same combo on your neck instead of your leg. (or switching from doing it in front of you to behind you).

Keep in mind that you don?t have to keep the entire combo the same after you flip it around. You can simply keep the ?cool? element and change what you add before or after it. Then you will have a brand new combo!

Flipping what you do on the left to the right side is the least useful of all directions because it will often end up identical (except the horizontal flip). That in turn sparks less creativity for me.

2.) Constructing a combo from scratch

This is the most important section of this article in my opinion.

So what do you do when you exhausted all your combos? You done it top, down, left, right, front, and back? What do you do now? You will need to make up something completely new if you want to keep going.

First, you will need a ?starting point? ? the first wrap in your new combo.

You can get this from several places. Think about the combos you currently know, do you have a favorite? Focus on just one of your combos, what does it begin with? Which wrap does it end with? What?s the ?cool? element? Can you start with the ?cool? element?

You can take any of the above and make it your ?starting point.? But try to focus on just that one single wrap now. Focus. Visualize it in your head. Think about which way the strings are coming, and which way are they going. Think about if the glowsticks are wrapping at the same time or split timed.

Now, after you are comfortable with visualizing that ONE wrap in your head. Move your focus to the direction of your strings as they exit this wrap. Which way is the right string going? How about the left? Try to see what your options are for continuing this combo. Where can you wrap next? Would you wrap at the same time or split time? You can probably easily think of 2-3 options, but what you will want to go for here is UNEXPECTED-ness.

Try to dig deeper, think of odd ways to move your strings. Do what is unexpected. Try to think of several more options before you give up. Then pick the MOST UNEXPECTED one.

Then do the same for your other hand, and repeat this process until you have yourself a new combo.

3.) The planes of glowstringology

To further help you explore your ?options? for continuing combos while you construct them, you should under the PLANES of glowstringology.

The swings of your glowsticks should travel within a ?plane? most of the time. For example, when you are doing alternate arm wraps, the glowsticks are within a plane in front of you (which should be parallel to your body). When you are weaving, you are usually utilizing the planes to the sides of you (perpendicular to your body).

When you can visualize the ?planes? your glowsticks travel in, it will be easier to know what your options are for the next wrap. Put one of your limbs/body parts INTO the plane to block the glowsticks from traveling and you have yourself a wrap.

This is NOT a fool-proof way of thinking, however. Sometimes I see people force the direction of the swing to change and create some neat combos that I would have never thought about because I am so used to thinking in terms of the planes.

4.) Watching others and videos

Sometimes you might be stuck or have stringers? block and you need some inspiration to get you going. Watching others or videos might help since everybody construct their combos different (different thought process). They might have a way of moving the strings that you never thought of.

Instead of copying a combo u liked wrap by wrap. Try to analyze it. Watch it, look for the unique ways the stringer move his/her strings. See if you can find out WHY you liked that combo. Look for the ?cool? element.

Use those as your ?starting point.? Flip it around and change it a bit. Take the concepts of the ?cool? element and create a different combo with similar concept.

This will be more beneficial than just copying.

*****

I hope this article help some stringers out there. For me by using the above methods I was able to make every practice more efficient. It shouldn?t be about how many hours you practice everyday. You should spend more time visualizing and creating new combos. Then when practice comes around you can try them out physically. It should shorten your practice time dramatically and you will always be doing something new.

Remember the golden rules of practicing as you make up new combos or try to do new combos after you visualize them in your head. If you can?t do it yet?

Practice one hand at a time.

Go slow.

Try to aim and control your swings.

It will save you some pain. Have fun kids.

-Wes

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