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mountain dulcimer

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…

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What to Do....when you're snowed in.

by Linda Ratcliff

snowedinMost 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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DulcimerCrossing Teacher Sighting(s)!

Steve Eulberg and Don Pedi, both teachers at DulcimerCrossing.com, play this Old-Time (Scottish-Heritage) tune at a Fort Collins House Concert in Summer 2013.  Miss McLeod's Reel (aka "Have You Ever Been to Meetin', Uncle Joe?" and "Have You Ever Seen the Devil, Uncle Joe?" and "Hop High, Ladies") is played by them on mountain dulcimers with Vi Wickam playing fiddle.

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DulcimerCrossing & Music Education

bBoardNotes3As former public school educators, Linda Ratcliff and Steve Eulberg, have designed the DulcimerCrossing.com website to support Music Educators, students and Homeschool students and teachers.

The National Association for Music Education has created nationwide standards for musical education for the United States of America.

DulcimerCrossing.com lessons are designed to equip students to be successful in demonstrating their proficiency on 6 of these 9 standards.

You can read more about our goals here,…

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Comparing the Chromatic and Diatonic Fretboards

In this FREE SAMPLE LESSON from www.dulcimercrossing.com, Guest Instructor, Erin Rogers, compares the Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer Fretboard with the (close to standard) Diatonic Freboard.

This is the first in Erin's Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer Lesson Series on our site. And I just found this treasure:  David Beede, the maker of Erin's Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer filmed some video on its actual "Birthday"!  Take a look:

Erin will be teaching in Winfield at the Warm-Up Picnic on Saturday, Se…

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How to Choose a Mountain Dulcimer

MountainDulcimerBeach

mcspadden6.5Criteria for Purchasing a Mountain Dulcimer

by Steve Eulberg We are fortunate to live in the midst of a sustained dulcimer revival! I used to host a list of builders across the North American Continent on my www.owlmountainmusic.com website.  John Sackenheim had begun compiling that in the late 1990s.  The list grew so large and had so many additions that it eventually became outdated and I let it return to the dust. Today, not only are there kits available for you to build your own, there are…

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Building Your Own Instrument?

I've this said this over and over again:

"If I hadn't built my first dulcimers, I probably wouldn't be playing them."

I'm not kidding.  I played piano, trumpet, harmonica, guitar and mandolin before I ever heard a dulcimer (of either kind.)  I first heard both kinds of dulcimers in college, played by traveling musicians who performed for us.  The sounds were deeply implanted in me, because now playing these instruments is a large part of how I make my living.

But I never felt I deserved (or could a…

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Introducing our newest Guest Instructor: Don Pedi!

DulcimerCrossing.com is very pleased to welcome Don Pedi as a mountain dulcimer instructor on our site. Here is a video in which he talks about how he got started playing and introduces us to some of his influences.

  We encourage you to take his lessons and let him become one of YOUR influences!

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Back 2 School Special!

It is that time of year again, when we change our rhythms, get out the school clothes, take pictures of the first day of school, and pick up our instruments to play them after our summer vacations. Here at DulcimerCrossing.com, we want to help you further develop your skills and enjoyment in making and sharing the music in your soul.  So we have a deal for you!

We've added new teachers, we've got lessons for both mountain and hammered dulcimers, we've got lessons for dulci-bro (slide dulcimer…

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Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer--The Dark Side?

The debate rages between:

"traditionalists" who argue for a standard diatonic dulcimer ("I don't want no extra frets bygummit!");

"neo-traditionalists" who argue for a modified diatonic dulcimer with a 6+ fret ("well it is pretty standard these days");

"practical-neo-traditionalists" who are supporters of multi-modified diatonic dulcimer with 6+ AND 1+ frets; ("but I NEED that extra fret to play C and F chords!")

"people on the DARK side" who are supporters of entirely chromatic mountain dulcimers. …

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