We are pleased to welcome Karen Mueller to the faculty of DulcimerCrossing. Enshrined in the International Autoharp Hall of Fame, she is also an awarded and well-respected performer and teacher of the mountain dulcimer. Watch the video she made to introduce herself to our students.
Karen’s first lesson is Johnny Don’t Get Drunk. Watch her introduction of the tune below:
Remember, subscribers to DulcimerCrossing.com get access to ALL of the lessons in this series, as well as EVERY OTHER LESSON SERIES, 24/7!
Join us today for lesson than the cost of a weekly music lesson.
Bill Robinson, one of our hammered dulcimer instructors on DulcimerCrossing.com, introduces his original tune, Cold Winter Night, composed during the cold winter of 2014 in his Illinois home.
Bill teaches this tune in a new lesson series released in August aimed at Intermediate Level players.
Are you bored of being bored, because being bored is BORING?
Say NO To Boring
Have you ever been to a jam session and wondered how many times they’re going to repeat the same tune?
Have you ever gone to the nursing home to share your music, and watched your audience nodding off to sleep – bored by your performance?
Just as “gorgeous” is the ultimate compliment for a woman, “boring” is the most dreaded description of a performance a musician can hear.
So let’s say “NO” to boring, and spice up our playing with variations and ornamentations.
When playing a tune, try to think outside the box to create something that’s all yours and totally fresh. As a matter of fact, why don’t you just throw away the box? Keep your audience (and yourself) on their toes. If you’re playing through the tune three times, don’t feed them the same arrangement each time.
Here’s some suggestions on how to do this.
Play the melody an octave higher.
Play the melody an octave lower.
Change up the rhythm. Add syncopation.
For one verse, change the melody to a minor key if it was written in a major key. Or turn the minor key melody into a major key melody.
Add chords, instead of just playing the melody line alone.
Add a drone. On the hammered dulcimer, this can be a high octave drone, a low octave drone, or a 5th drone.
Play chords as arpeggios, especially where there is a half or whole note.
Listen to fiddlers playing the tune on YouTube. Note how they go over-under-and around the melody line. See if you can duplicate that sound.
If you know it, use it. Take a trick you learned for another tune and apply it to the song you’re arranging.
Challenge yourself to turn a well-known song into something completely different that represents your own musical influences and tastes better. At Dulcimer Crossing, we offer two lessons for our hammered dulcimer players on how to arrange and embellish a tune.
Keep in mind, if you’re playing with others … play WITH the others. Don’t use any variations you created that might clash with what the group is doing. Save those ideas for when you’re playing solo.
And here’s one final piece of advice. Arranging should be fun, so don’t get bogged down with trying to make your arrangement too difficult. Stretch your abilities so you will grow technically, but also know your limits and play within them.
You may be one of our YouTube channel subscribers and already know about this. But Steve has been uploading on YouTube the first video for every lesson we offer at Dulcimer Crossing. If you haven’t already subscribed to our YouTube channel … you should. That way you’ll receive a notice every time we have a new lesson to offer. (You’ll also receive a notice when I upload animations … and I only upload animations when I’m preparing a new lesson.)
Here are links to some of the first lessons Steve’s uploaded so far.
The key to success is so simple … just practice and then practice some more.
We have another new lesson ready for you this week – this time for our hammered dulcimer players. The tune is known by the name of the person who played it, Sarah Armstrong.
Sarah Gray Armstrong (3/18/1883 – 8/12/1957) was a well-known fiddle player in Pennsylvania. She began playing the fiddle when she was five, and learned most of her tunes from her uncle and father who were also accomplished musicians.
Here is the last video in this lesson series, with Steve Eulberg playing it up to speed with ornamentations.
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.
How Many Dulcimers is TOO Many Dulcimers? I recently watched a video in which Vince Gill talked about his collection of antique Martin guitars. He has still quite an impressive array of guitars, although he lost 50 in the Nashville flood of 2010. But, of all the rare and valuable guitars in his collection, he said the guitar he treasures the most is his father’s guitar (shown in the photo). >
Watching the video reminded me of my own obsession with instruments. It’s an addiction … I’m always wanting one more. It’s difficult to look at the posts put up on the dulcimer groups’ FB pages that show photos of another dulcimer up for sale, or one that someone just finished building. They just fan that flame of desire and I find myself mentally checking my finances and the space left in my home.
But how many dulcimers is too many dulcimers? I already own a 1995 Master Works hammered dulcimer, a beautiful mountain dulcimer and picking stick – both built byJerry Wright, a Yamaha guitar, two harmonicas, and a ukulele. What more could a girl want?
Well, I think I really need a resonator dulcimer (dulci-bro) and a baritone mountain dulcimer. We offer lessons at DulcimerCrossing for both of these, so I could learn to play them! I would like to have a backpack hammered dulcimer that would be easier to carry around. And I’ve been without a keyboard for 10 years now, ever since we started living full-time in an RV. We’re back in a home finally, so there’s space for one now.
Here’s what I think.
If I’m content to just mess around with a variety of instruments for fun, the only limit I might have would be my finances. But I need to be careful that I don’t personify that old phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Now you won’t ever hear me say, “I’ve mastered the hammered dulcimer.” I can always see where I need to work more on certain techniques. But the spirit behind the words holds true. If I have too many things on my plate, i.e. too many instruments hanging on my wall, then I might not actually get anywhere with any of them.
I’d love to hear from you! What do you think? How many dulcimers or instruments do you own? Do you actually play them, or are they just a good conversation starter when folks come over to visit?
Thursday, Aug 15, 5:30 pm PDT (=6:30 pm MDT, 7:30 pm CDT, 8:30 pm EDT) Steve Eulberg will give a live acoustic show featuring the resonator dulcimer or dulci-bro on ConcertWindow.com.
This is a pay-what-you-can show (as little as $1 or as generous as you feel) and you can watch from the comfort of your own home on your computer, or tablet or phone.
Here is the link to purchase tickets and get reminders about the upcoming show so you don’t miss it!
Steve also published his new book/CD this summer: Dulci-Bro: Method & Resources for Playing Resonator Dulcimer and it was used as the text for a week-long class at Kentucky Music Week in June.
