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chromatic mountain dulcimer
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…
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.
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, …
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.
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, …
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…
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…
Try to Make ANYthing that happens...
by Steve Eulberg
[wpvideo rR2tvMIs]
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!)
...into something of Value."
--Herbie Hancock
Jazz Pianist Herbie Hancock tells a story of something that happened when he played[wpvideo rR2tvMIs]
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!)
Learn More from Mistakes
by Linda Ratcliff
I Learn More from My Mistakes Than Successes. Do You?
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…
Mistakes help me…
Slipping Dulcimer?
by Linda Ratcliff
Slipping Dulcimer?
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…
Learn Something New
by Linda Ratcliff
You will learn something new everyday if you pay attention. - Ray LeBlond
Learn Something New
Sometimes the process of learning a new tune is sabotaged before you even begin. You allow a spirit of doom to hang over your head, because you think the piece is too difficult. You might say ...
- Part B seems complicated, and I'm looking for something easier to learn.
- This piece is in an odd tuning (like D-G-d), and it's a nightmare to retune.
- This tune has hammer-ons and hammer…
Dulcified & Amplified
by Linda Ratcliff
Your success in learning to play the dulcimer is not something new.
It merely amplifies what was already inside you.
- Linda Ratcliff
Dulcified & Amplified
You’ve been playing your dulcimer for a while now, and you’ve learned how to play several tunes. Your friends have told you that you sound pretty good. So you decided to play at the local nursing home. Afterwards, you thought the mini concert went very well until the seniors gathered around. They thanked you for coming, bu…
Top 10 Tips for Jam Sessions
by Linda Ratcliff
Relax and enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll realize they were the big things. - Kurt Vonnegut
Top Ten Tips for Jam Sessions
i.e. Jam Etiquette
Going to jam sessions can be intimidating. And yet, they can also be the most fun and rewarding music experiences of your dulcimer life. So how can you move past your fears and inhibitions, and just have a great time?
- First of all, tell yourself it’s ok to make mistakes. This is not a performance. You’re just there to…
More Backing Tracks for Premium Members!
by Steve Eulberg
We continue to add to the Backing Tracks Library on DulcimerCrossing.com. We now have over 250 special tracks in this collection. 
This library is sortable by all of the categories at the top of the list and all of the blue text are links to support using each track. Not familiar with Backing Tracks and how to use them? Here is an introduction I filmed:
All Premium Members have access to all the Backing Tracks all the time! Sign up today!
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