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Erin Mae Lewis featured in Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast

Here is another resource for mountain dulcimer players!

HeartsofDulcimerDVDcoverWayne Jiang and Patricia Delich, the producers of the Hearts of the Dulcimer DVD, have created a regular Podcast, called Hearts of the Dulcimer.

The most recent episode (#007) features our own DulcimerCrossing teacher,  Erin Mae Lewis, not as a Bond girl, but as the Secret Agent of Dulcimer herself! ErinMaeHeartsofDulcimerPodcast

Each episode features several explorations of the dulcimer, its history, its players, its past and its future.

This episode features the playing…

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Chromatic Scale Patterns

Erin Mae Lewis teaches a new lesson on the skill of playing what she calls "forward" and "backward" scale patterns. This is what she uses to move her scales all over her chromatic mountain dulcimer, enabling her to playing the "string-band" keys, as well as the "singing" keys and helps her be not only a welcomed player, but a sought-after player for bluegrass jams sessions! Her tips will definitely help you, even if you are playing standard mountain dulcimer only.

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Erin Mae Lewis' 30 Minute Practice Session Strategy

Here is a question that all of our instructors hear often:  How should I practice? Erin Mae Lewis (formerly Erin Rogers) gives us insights and her suggestions in this lesson in the Mountain Dulcimer Skills section of our website Take a look at a preview below:

Subscribe to DulcimerCrossing.com to see the rest of the lesson!

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Orphan Girl: New Chromatic Dulcimer Lesson!

Orphan Girl by Linda Ratcliff

For Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer Players "Orphan Girl" was written by Gillian Welch, whose musical style combines elements of bluegrass, neotraditional country, Americana, old time string band music and folk into a rustic style that she dubs "American Primitive." Gillian and David Rawlings included "Orphan Girl" in their debut album, "Revival," in 1996. This song is somewhat autobiographical, as Gillian was adopted on the day she was born, and spiritual as none of u…

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What to Do....when you're snowed in.

by Linda Ratcliff

snowedinMost of you know I live full time in an RV. At the campground where we stay, they don't believe in plowing. And we live at the low end of the park. Early January, there was ice - on top of snow - on top of ice, with NO hope it would be cleared and we didn't even try to get out. Now most of you would have used that gift of time to practice your dulcimers. But I began going through our lessons one by one, and found some ways to make improvements.

•Right now, videos are loaded in a …

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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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Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer--The Dark Side?

The debate rages between:

"traditionalists" who argue for a standard diatonic dulcimer ("I don't want no extra frets bygummit!");

"neo-traditionalists" who argue for a modified diatonic dulcimer with a 6+ fret ("well it is pretty standard these days");

"practical-neo-traditionalists" who are supporters of multi-modified diatonic dulcimer with 6+ AND 1+ frets; ("but I NEED that extra fret to play C and F chords!")

"people on the DARK side" who are supporters of entirely chromatic mountain dulcimers. …

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