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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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How to Choose a Hammered Dulcimer

HamDulcWePlayMusic

Criteria for Purchasing a Hammered Dulcimer

by Steve Eulberg & Linda Ratcliff

SteveHDAndyOrdination Steve playing a Prelude for an Ordination service. We are fortunate to live in the midst of a sustained dulcimer revival! Today, not only are there kits available for you to build your own, there are a good number of quality builders who have refined the process and are able to make instruments that are reliably good from instrument to instrument and who stand behind their work. In addition, there are also a good nu…

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Dulcimer Sighting!

While on tour in North Carolina, Steve Eulberg stops a Jerry Read Smith's Song of the Wood Dulcimer Shop in Black Mountain and look who he sees playing in the shade out in front of the shop! Joshua Messick, National Champion.

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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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Duet with Hammered Dulcimer Lead

Linda Thomas, one of our guest instructors at dulcimercrossing.com, plays a fine duet with Dan Delancey.

Here the hammered dulcimer takes the lead.  Linda also teaches the entire tune on our site, together with tasteful hammered dulcimer backup to Dan's smooth guitar-picking lead.

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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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Linda Thomas Interview (an excerpt)

When Linda Thomas and Dan Delancey were in our studio to film lessons, we had a chance to ask some questions and find out more about Linda and how she began playing the hammered dulcimer. Here is an excerpt of the interview:

The entire interview can be viewed on our website here.

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