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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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Introducing our newest Guest Instructor: Don Pedi!

DulcimerCrossing.com is very pleased to welcome Don Pedi as a mountain dulcimer instructor on our site. Here is a video in which he talks about how he got started playing and introduces us to some of his influences.

  We encourage you to take his lessons and let him become one of YOUR influences!

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Back 2 School Special!

It is that time of year again, when we change our rhythms, get out the school clothes, take pictures of the first day of school, and pick up our instruments to play them after our summer vacations. Here at DulcimerCrossing.com, we want to help you further develop your skills and enjoyment in making and sharing the music in your soul.  So we have a deal for you!

We've added new teachers, we've got lessons for both mountain and hammered dulcimers, we've got lessons for dulci-bro (slide dulcimer…

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Benefits and Limitations of Different Tunings on Mountain Dulcimer? Part 1



Epinette scroll head

by Steve Eulberg

So how does one choose between the benefits and the limitations of different tunings when playing mountain dulcimer?  To me the most important factors in this decision are:
 
1)  What kind of dulcimer do I have?  Is it "traditional" (with no extra frets like 6-1/2 or 1-1/2)?
 
2)  What kind of music do I want to play?
 
3)  In what style do I want to play this music?  Do I want to play in the traditional noter or drone style?  Do I want to play back-up chords?  Do I want to …

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