Stop Stopping

by Linda Ratcliff

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable. - Aaron Copeland

How to Stop Stopping

I think the main reason people don’t get what they want in life is because they give up too soon. You may have given up on something before, but let’s just apply this to your dulcimer playing..

You didn’t understand what those tabs meant - so you gave up.
You can’t figure out how to tune your dulcimer - so you gave up.
Your hammered dulcimer goes out of tune too often - so you gave up.
You went to a jam session but couldn’t keep up – so you gave up.
You tried to play a solo for your friends but froze – so you gave up.

If at least one of these "excuses" struck a chord in your heart, you gave up too soon. You may have called it in, packed it up and headed home - but it doesn’t have to be the end.

Here’s my suggestion. STOP STOPPING and start playing. Just decide that you’re not going to quit. This is so simple, you’re probably wondering why you didn’t think of that yourself. Tell yourself, "Quitting is NOT an option. No excuses ... no matter what. Period. End of Story."

If you get laughed at - join everyone in laughing too.
If you strum some wrong notes - shake it off and keep strumming.
If your instrument sounds weird - try tuning.
If you can't keep up - keep playing anyway. You'll catch up.
If you freeze - thaw out and try starting over again.
No matter what - keep on keepin' on with your jamming.

Be relentless. Pull out all the stops. Go all out. You can do it. I KNOW you can.

If you have any questions, always feel free to ask Steve or myself.

Happy dulcimering, Linda

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Jun 26, 2017 01:47am

By Steve Eulberg

Under chromatic mountain dulcimer, dulci-bro, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, lessons & mountain dulcimer

2 min read

Stop Stopping

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