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Baritone: New Lesson Series

by Steve Eulberg

The Baritone Mountain Dulcimer, tuned A-E-a, lower than the standard, adds a rich voice to the tonal range of dulcimer playing.

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I won my Baritone in 1998 at the Walnut Valley Festival and it began my journey to explore how this instrument, tuned in a familiar way (1-5-8) could play with others when it sounds so different.

This brand new lesson series, Introduction to the Mountain Dulcimer has just been added to DulcimerCrossing.com.  I am excited to be joined by my duo partner Erin…

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Face Your Fears (at home!)

by Linda Ratcliff

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it. That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to CONQUER fear. - Dale Carnegie



Face Your Fears (at home)!
 
It will surely happen eventually if you attend jam sessions.  The lead will go all the way around the circle and finally, to your dismay, it will be your turn.  You try to laugh it off and pass the lead on to the next person in the row, but the others won't hear of it.  They are insisting.  It is your turn to ta…

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Theatricum Botanicum

by Steve Eulberg

While on tour in southern California in August, DulcimerCrossing instructors, Erin Mae Lewis and Steve Eulberg arrived early for their gig, Peter Alsop's Kids Koncerts (Dulcimer-Wellcimer) at the "magical treehouse" of Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum.

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Erin took these photos as we prepared for the pre-school kids concert on Sunday morning.

As Erin relates in this highlight video from their recent Concert Window show, Steve was playing this new composition, inspired by the setting, …

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Dulcimer Events Page

by Steve Eulberg & Linda Ratcliff

Each of us loves to have a trusted and reliable location to learn of the things going on that are important in our universe.

For many years EverythingDulcimer.com was that place.

As that website moves into an historical position in the internet dulcimer world, we want to be certain that none of us loses access to the information about upcoming Dulcimer Events.

We have been hosting Live Events at DulcimerCrossing.com as a benefit for our Basic and Premium Subscribers…

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Ukrainian Tsimbaly Busker

by Steve Eulberg

Hammered Dulcimer Sighting!

Albrecht-Thietmar Schweidnitz-Schäßburg posted this video of a busker in Ukraine playing the Tsimbaly (the Ukrainian hammered Dulcimer) on the Hammered Dulcimer Players Page on Facebook.

Busking (playing music on the street for tips) happens the world over, AND, people are playing their dulcimers the world over as well!

 

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Chord Wizard Tool

by Steve Eulberg

Have you ever wondered how to find a particular chord you are looking for?  You might be familiar with a couple of fingerings for your favorite chords, but then there is that "weird" one that the music calls for and your musical chord theory is a bit rusty.

This one is for you!  Tom Strothers has created this interactive webpage as tools to help mountain dulcimer players.

Diatonic Chord Wizard This page has an interactive Fret Finder Tool, below which is a tool to find the notes on…

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Mountain Dulcimer Sighting!

by Steve Eulberg It is always exciting to uncover or bump into another dulcimer sighting, in the course of one's daily life (and/or internet searching!) In this video there is a visual and audio sighting of Frank Profitt playing and singing the ballad Barbara Allen from 8:46-11:09.

His part of the video footage is from the Alan Lomax Collection The Theme:  The Cultures of the Scots-Irish in the New world, the role that music plays on both sides of the Atlantic, during the passage across the s…

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Try to Make ANYthing that happens...

by Steve Eulberg

...into something of Value."

--Herbie Hancock

Jazz Pianist Herbie Hancock tells a story of something that happened when he played

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a "wrong" chord during Miles Davis' solo.

This video is from Herbie's MasterClass.

This is some GOOD advice for more than just jazz music.  It is for ALL music.

And for life.

(Thanks to Lois Hornbostel for sharing this on Facebook!)

 

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Learn More from Mistakes

by Linda Ratcliff

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. - John Powell






I Learn More from My Mistakes Than Successes. Do You?
 
I love to play through a tune perfectly, time after time, but lets get real - in my world, that simply doesn't happen.  I fail to play a tune perfectly more often than I succeed. But mistakes can be good. In every mistake, there is the potential for growth. They can help me, if I will just take time to do the work.  For example ...

Mistakes help me…

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Slipping Dulcimer?

by Linda Ratcliff

Either you let your life slip away without doing the things you want to do,  (like learning to play the dulcimer) or you just get up and do them. - Roger von Oech 



Slipping Dulcimer?
Do you feel like you're constantly chasing your dulcimer? I've heard and read comments from several people who can't seem to get the dulcimer to stay put on their laps when playing. As a matter of fact, I am sure most of us experienced this problem when we first began to learn to play.
I have sev…

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