January 22nd, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
This mountain dulcimer blog chronicles my first year of playing. Its main purpose is to help me ingrain what I am learning about mountain dulcimer. I am posting weekly to chart my progress playing this beautiful instrument.
May 20th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
I bought a Yocky chromatic mountain dulcimer a few months back. It is a beautiful instrument but I haven’t played much mostly because I’m still busy learning the diatonic mountain dulcimer, but, I still will learn it given time and tools. Unfortunately there isn’t a method book for chromatic mountain dulcimer because it is relatively new idea for the MD, traditionally a diatonic instrument. You can find some resources in the chromatic mountain dulcimer group at EverythingDulcimer.com, you can also visit Bing Futch’s site where he has a start to chord harmonization, and you can do it yourself by visiting using the Strother’s chromatic chord wizard, but there is no complete method or chord charts online or in print.
With this lack of learning tools available for chromatic mountain dulcimer, I decided to go about learning the instrument SLOWLY by creating some for myself, and one day, hopefully within a couple of months or so, I’ll post them here. I started by taking a look at some guitar sites for scales, chords, and chord progressions. I’m modelling my little chord progression reference after many of those. At the moment, until I perhaps find a way to program the progressions on a per tuning basis, I’m sticking with DAdd tuning. It will include 12 major and minor keys and 3 or 4 fingering choices for common chord progressions in each of those keys. The chord shape choices will not be all L-chords, I’m trying to provide variety. Now, I’m not a mountain dulcimer expert, but I do know theory fairly well. The end result won’t be perfect, but it will be accurate and it will be a good starting place. The progressions fingering chart will include major and minor progressions common to traditional western music, folk, pop, and jazz . Doing this is really forcing me to become familiar with the instrument.
Progress is slow, but I get obsessed about things so it will be completed. I finish what I start. I work full-time and have a busy little life, so it’s taken me a week to map out the first chord progressions in C Major with many choices for each chord progression. The first key will become a map for the rest so things should move more quickly now. I think in a couple of months, I’ll have progressions in all major and minor keys. Stay tuned.
May 20th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
In my 35th week of playing mountain dulcimer I learned the old bluegrass, country, early jazz standard Li’l Liza Jane, also known as Liza Jane. According to Wikipedia, Liza Jane dates back to at least 1910 and probably has roots going back further than that because like many folk songs, the folk process took hold of the song’s ancestor and changed it over time.… Continue reading
May 13th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
This week, my 34th week of playing mountain dulcimer, I went back over some old lessons, seemingly simple lessons at dulcimerschool.com. In one such lesson “Strumming and Noting with Variety” Stephen Seifert teaches the basics of alternate strumming and how to add interest to the melodic line by adding notes above and below the main melody note, so called upper and lower neighbours.
Seifert uses many iterations… Continue reading
May 7th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
In my 33rd week of playing mountain dulcimer, I decided to post an improv. An unpracticed piece that makes itself out of thin air and imagination. Every now and then, I play something, anything, just to see what happens. I used to improvise on clarinet, a lot, and found it to really help me become familiar with the instrument. I think I learned more about the clarinet by allowing… Continue reading
April 30th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
Stephen Seifert has posted some new material over at dulcimerschool.com including Spanish Fandango, an American old-time guitar piece first published in an arrangement by W. B. Carter in 1854. This arrangement is by Stephen Seifert. You can view Seifert’s beautiful playing on Youtube. The tabs at Dulcimer School are great but there is no tab for the second half of the piece where Seifert is playing… Continue reading
April 23rd, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
This week, although I’ve been practicing quite a bit, I didn’t accomplish much. I think it was a case of burning myself out on a tune. I stayed with Carroll County Blues awhile longer. Last week I posted a version of it, played slowly, and well, quite badly. I may post an update this week. I noticed that in that rather slow version I’m not continuing to strum throughout… Continue reading
April 16th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
This week, I learned a Stephen Seifert/David Schnaufer mountain dulcimer arrangement of Carroll County Blues by by Mississippians W.T. Narmour (fiddle) and S.W. Smith (guitar). The duo cut about 50 sides between 1928 and 1934. Their most well known of these is Carroll County Blues named for Carroll County, Mississippi, their home. The tune was first recorded in 1929. If only I could play it as briskly as Seifert does… Continue reading
April 9th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
This week, I’ve been working on a version of Many Rivers to Cross, the Jimmy Cliff classic, on mountain dulcimer. Though the chord structure is simple, it took me awhile to figure out what it is. I had to find chords that would fit my lowish vocal range. I’m not particularly happy with the singing. I don’t have much of a voice or vocal range. I may record it again… Continue reading
April 6th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
I was studying Stephen Seifert’s version of Arkansas Traveler recently and realized I needed to slow down video playback to see what he is doing with his hands. I had been using QuickTime Pro, but found out through trial and error that VLC Media Player, a free media player, has the features required to both slow and zoom whereas Quicktime Pro does not zoom. VLC versions exist for… Continue reading
April 1st, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink
I’ve been watching Stephen Seifert’s video of Arkansas Traveler on Youtube. He does an amazing job playing this piece as usual. I’m not sure how he does it, but Seifert seems to have absolutely dead-on aim with his pick even at a quick tempo. His notes are so clean. I decided I wanted to learn this piece. We all know it somehow… Continue reading
