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The Right Hand Fingerstyle Technique of David Massengill
by Steve Eulberg At the Gebhard Woods Festival I was given a tutorial by David Massengill about his right hand finger-style technique for playing mountain dulcimer. Take a look!
There are many different styles of playing our beloved instruments and being able to witness the variety always inspires my creativity!
David Massengill and Reverse Ionian Tuning
by Steve Eulberg On the road as part of my country-crossing-summer-tour, I got to visit with David Massengill at the Gebhard Woods Festival in Morris, Illinois in June. David has a long history with the mountain dulcimer and developed some playing styles that pre-date the 6-1/2 fret, DAd world that has been more common since the instrument was brought in from the "free-range." Here he demonstrates the beautiful of what he calls "Reverse Ionian Tuning". 5 - 1 - 5 are the relationships between…
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
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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