Dulcimer 

Hammer Dulcimer - Week 1

Bowed Dulcimer - Week 1

Mountain Dulcimer - Week 1
  

You are in Week 1 Hammered Dulcimer Courses
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FREE, LOANER INSTRUMENTS ARE AVAILABLE.  LET US KNOW IF YOU NEED ONE. 

Beginning Hammered Dulcimer: This course is intended to move the student from complete unfamiliarity with the instrument to the ability to tune, play and practice with confidence and joy. You will need an instrument, a pair of hammers, a tuning wrench and a stand for your dulcimer.  An electronic tuner and a tape recorder are extremely helpful tools too.  No previous musical experience is required. You do not have to read music.  In addition to playing skills, the class will cover instrument maintenance, how to go about buying a dulcimer, an introduction to chords and how to make use of ABC notation.   At the conclusion of the course, beginners will be able to tune the dulcimer, play scales in the keys of D and G, play several tunes from the standard repertoire of dulcimer music, perform warm-up drills, locate all the notes on the instrument and design practice sessions to advance their playing techniques.  This class will meet for two morning and one afternoon period.  Students will have access to online PDF files of the class notes and an podcasts of practice drills.
Periods 1 & 2, Bill Troxler and  Joe Healy

Hammered Dulcimer - Rudiments and Rhythm Your key to improving speed, control, strong hand vs. weak hand issues and rhythmic accuracy in playing.  Through studying materials endorsed by the Percussive Arts Society, we will discover ways for more efficient, exciting, and expressive playing. We'll learn how to recognize where these rudiments occur in hammer patterns of familiar tunes and how this knowledge can speed the learning process and memorization.  We'll work on timing. You’ll learn hammer patterns and exercises that create foundations for embellishing, writing and arranging songs. 
Periods 1 & 2, Dan Landrum

Hammered Dulcimer - Expressive Playing  Exercises for developing expressive playing and creativity.  Learning a few essential percussion rudiments opens your playing to expressive hammering.  We'll learn exercises to help you get the essentials out of your head and under your hammers where they need to be.  These groove-based excersizes are easilly adapted to support tune you already know and are the launch pads for improvision and composing new tunes. 
Periods 3 & 4, Stephen Humphries

Note:  The courses offered by Dan and Stephen are most effective when taken as a pair!

Repertoire- Hammered Dulcimer II:  intermediate - Advanced This class will teach lively and upbeat tunes including Southern-style fiddle tunes.  We will aso learn some of the words to these tunes andhave fun singing with them.  Students will learn the basic melody and then learn how to embellish the tunes using rhythm, chords and harmony.  Instruction materials will be provided. 
Periods 3 & 4 , David Lindsey 

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You are in Week 1 Mountain Dulcimer & Bowed Dulcimer Courses
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Mountain Dulcimer I: Beginning - Novice  The mountain dulcimer is known for its beautiful sound and ease of play.  It is a great instrument for those who have always wanted to play a stringed instrument but who may have been wary.  This class will begin in the Ionian mode and start with basic strumming across all the strings to enjoy the drone qualities of the instrument.  For dulcimer students returning to Common Ground, a new curriculum will be covered this year, building on the foundation established in the past.  The joy of singing folk songs and ballads with the mountain dulcimer with some introductory harmonies will be introduced.  The beautiful modal qualities of the mountain dulcimer will be shared and a brief history of the mountain dulcimer will presented. The class will progress at a relaxed pace, learning the melodies together.   
Period 2, Susan Boyer Haley 

Mountain Dulcimers in the Classroom - Building & Playing for Teachers, Parents & Others: This class is good for everyone - individuals who want to learn to play and need an instrument, music teachers, regular classroom teachers who would like a user-friendly musical addition to their classes, or parents who want to share music with children. Lois has taught over 19,000 elementary school children to play and build mountain dulcimers and has worked teaching dulcimer in Silver Burdett music workshops. In this class you will build your own dulcimer from the user-friendly, sturdy Backyard Music kits.  You'll learn to tune and play easy and melodious music on your dulcimer, along with Lois's methods for teaching youngsters to play. Cost of the dulcimer kit is $55. They have strong cardboard bodies, last for years, are full-size with good volume and tone, with pre-fretted mahogany fretboards and machine tuners. Please bring if you have: a regular hammer, small Phillips screwdriver, Elmer's wood glue.  We can enroll parents with children if parents are with child fulltime and responsible for the child's security and conduct.  
Period 1, Lois Hornbostel 

Mountain Dulcimer II - Continuing Playing:   If you have played dulcimer before and would like to build your skills and have some more fun, this class will show you a variety of playing techniques and styles of music from Appalachian to contemporary. You'll learn more about tunings, right and left-hand techniques, and have plenty of individual help.  
Period 3, Lois Hornbostel

Bowed Dulcimer:   All levels The bowed dulcimer is a seldom heard yet venerable traditional instrument. Instrumental wizard Ken Bloom has turned his attention to playing, building and teaching this beautifully voiced and relatively easy to play instrument.  His method of teaching the bowed dulcimer includes all levels. Ken takes a tune and writes it up for three parts. The first part is for experienced players and has all the fingering and bowing problems that are appropriate for them. Second parts are restricted mostly to first position with some bowing challenges. Third parts are for the beginners. These are in first position with simple bowings and long notes. This has proven to be an effective teaching method for the instrument and produces a good sounding class! Instruments may be purchased from or perhaps rented/loaned by Ken. Contact him www.boweddulcimer.com
Period 4, Ken Bloom

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