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mountain dulcimer
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…
Sam Edelston in Concert
by Linda Ratcliff
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. - Arthur Ashe
Upcoming Live Concert
Sam Edelston
July 9th
8:30 p.m. EDT | 7:30 CDT | 6:30 MDT | 5:30 PDT
DulcimerCrossing.com will be presenting a FREE concert for all Premium Members streaming live via Concert Window. Sam Edelston is an entertainer with many facets. In recent years, he has been pushing the creative boundaries of the mountain dulcimer. He also performs on guitar, banjo, and occasionally hammered dulcime…
Fiddle-Tune-A-Day
by Steve Eulberg
In 2012, my buddy, Vi Wickam began a year-long project of recording a Fiddle Tune every day of the year. An awesome goal...AND in a leap year!
I was privileged to play with him for several of these days.
Here is a gallery of those videos.
Vi has collected the audio of each of these tunes, and is in the process of transcribing them as well.
We have collected and recorded several of these on our FiddleWhamdiddle Recordings:
Old School Old-Time (2012) CD, Download and Book (hard copy a…
In 2012, my buddy, Vi Wickam began a year-long project of recording a Fiddle Tune every day of the year. An awesome goal...AND in a leap year!
I was privileged to play with him for several of these days.
Here is a gallery of those videos.
Vi has collected the audio of each of these tunes, and is in the process of transcribing them as well.
We have collected and recorded several of these on our FiddleWhamdiddle Recordings:
Old School Old-Time (2012) CD, Download and Book (hard copy a…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…
Winning at Winfield
by Steve Eulberg
Steve com…
Defining what “winning” means to you is the first step!
For some people the notion of combining “competition” and “dulcimer” is oxymoronic. They just don’t go together!
I see music competitions as an opportunity to prepare some music to share with appreciative listeners. (Where else can you buy such an attentive audience for $.075 a head?—$15 entry fee/200 people)
And, the process of preparing tunes for this kind of presentation is an intensive artistic endeavor!
Steve com…DulcimerCrossing at Summer Festivals
by Steve Eulberg
You can find DulcimerCrossing Faculty teaching at several Dulcimer Festivals this summer!
Erin Mae Lewis (Mountain) will be teaching at Kentucky Music Week (June 24-29) in Bardstown, Kentucky and at Camp Kiya (July 22-26) in Tehachapi, California.
Don Pedi & Steve Eulberg (Mountain) will be teaching at Dulcimer U (July 22-27) at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
Don Pedi (Mountain) will be teaching at the Swannanoa Old-Time Week (July 15-21) Swannanoa, North …
You can find DulcimerCrossing Faculty teaching at several Dulcimer Festivals this summer!
Erin Mae Lewis (Mountain) will be teaching at Kentucky Music Week (June 24-29) in Bardstown, Kentucky and at Camp Kiya (July 22-26) in Tehachapi, California.
Don Pedi & Steve Eulberg (Mountain) will be teaching at Dulcimer U (July 22-27) at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
Don Pedi (Mountain) will be teaching at the Swannanoa Old-Time Week (July 15-21) Swannanoa, North …
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…
Shop Visit: Blue Lion Dulcimers
by Steve Eulberg A few years back my spouse, Connie, and I had a warm and welcoming visit with Janita and Bob Baker of Blue Lion Instruments in Santa Margarita, California. 
Watching people work through their rhythms and share their craft is a treasure and joy (for me: especially when there is a sawdust smell!) 
A hallmark of these beautiful mountain dulcimers is the inlay that Janita creates for the fretboards, at the request of the new owners of the instruments. (Picture above) But these hand…
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