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Harmonics Lesson by Nina Zanetti
You know those beautiful chiming sounds that you hear on recordings or watch people play on the mountain dulcimer? Those are called harmonics and, when you know where and how to play them, they can be part of your toolkit for playing the mountain dulcimer, too.
Nina Zanetti, 2008 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion and DulcimerCrossing Instructor, is known for her lyrical instrumental finger-style arrangements of classical and celtic tunes. In this 20-episode lesson set, Nina explains …
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If you've been thinking that you want to get better at playing your dulcimer (either mountain or hammered!) our supportive and knowledgeable instructors may be just the tool you need to help you take your music from where you are to where you want it to grow!
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Introducing our newest Guest Instructor: Butch Ross
DulcimerCrossing is excited to have Butch Ross teaching on our site. He introduces himself and his lessons in this video:
Check out some of his lessons here: Right Hand Technique
Internal Metronome
Some Copyright Issues for Dulcimer Players of Music
by Steve Eulberg
May I offer a few musings on a recent conversation that has been seeded and is taking root in my brain?
Like many dulcimer players, I am just giddy when I discover that I can quickly play my favorite Jim Croce or John Denver, or Elton John or Blood Sweat and Tears tunes on the dulcimer I love! And....I get very confused when I am told that I have to respect copyrights when I want to share this music with others.
Copyright Laws were created to protect the intellectual property…
Odd Meters
by Steve Eulberg Playing traditional instruments in the western world, we get quite used to "square" or "even" rhythms and meters in the songs we play. Marches and Reels are in (4/4) time; Polkas are in (2/2 or 4/4). Even jigs (6/8) have 2 pulses in their measures. Waltzes (3/4) have a strong beat on 1. Slides (12/8 or 6/8) and Slip Jigs (9/8) have multiple pulses in their measures, but what all of these tunes tend to have in common is that they have a regular way to be counted based on the t…
Traditional Noter and Drone Style Lessons
by Linda Ratcliff
Traditional Noter Style
Many mountain dulcimer players play their instruments by pressing the fatty pads of their fingertips down on the strings to create the different notes. But there is another option. The traditional, old-time way of playing a mountain dulcimer is to use a noter. Your noter can be anything from the broad side of a popsicle stick to a wooden dowel - or anything around the house that can be used to press down on the strings. In this series of 14 videos, St…
DulcimerCrossing Festival Scholarships
At DulcimerCrossing.com we believe in supporting all the ways that students learn to play the music that is in their hearts. Some people learn better in the privacy of their homes, some with an individual tutor, and some learn best when immersed in a setting that is chock-FULL of music, with people who are engaged in the same pursuit as they are.
For this reason, DulcimerCrossing has provided some full and partial scholarships to selected weekend and week-long du…
New Lesson: So You Want to be Heard?
by Steve Eulberg
Amplifying the Mountain Dulcimer.
Steve adds a sample from a new lesson series about Amplifying the Mountain Dulcimer in the DulcimerCrossing website. This sample lesson from that series that describes and demonstrates the use of a contact pickup and the combination of that pickup with a microphone. A similar lesson series for amplifying the hammered dulcimer is in development.
Orphan Girl: New Chromatic Dulcimer Lesson!
Orphan Girl by Linda Ratcliff
For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer Players "Orphan Girl" was written by Gillian Welch, whose musical style combines elements of bluegrass, neotraditional country, Americana, old time string band music and folk into a rustic style that she dubs "American Primitive." Gillian and David Rawlings included "Orphan Girl" in their debut album, "Revival," in 1996. This song is somewhat autobiographical, as Gillian was adopted on the day she was born, and spiritual as none of u…
What to Do....when you're snowed in.
Most of you know I live full time in an RV. At the campground where we stay, they don't believe in plowing. And we live at the low end of the park. Early January, there was ice - on top of snow - on top of ice, with NO hope it would be cleared and we didn't even try to get out. Now most of you would have used that gift of time to practice your dulcimers. But I began going through our lessons one by one, and found some ways to make improvements.•Right now, videos are loaded in a …
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