Blog

linda ratcliff

The Blessings of Music

linda-playing-dulcimer
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
- Plato

The Blessings of Music


I’ve been around music all my life, for as long as I can remember. In fact, I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I didn’t have a tune in my head or a piece of music (or instrument) in my hands.

Music runs in our family. My grandmother was a concert pianist and traveled all over Europe – even playing for the queen of England. We always had a pia…

Read more…

My Musical Journey

by Linda Ratcliff

You can tell a lot about my moods from my music. So instead of asking how I'm doing, ask what songs I've been practicing lately.




Music has always been an integral part of my life. My grandmother was a concert pianist, and traveled all over Europe giving concerts. She was even invited to play for kings and queens at their castles. And so I was told, from an early age, that music was in my blood, and I was going to be a musician too when I grew up.

Until I was 12 years old, I was …

Read more…

How to Practice Smarter, Not Longer

Seek to accomplish more in less time - and have fun doing it. - Linda Ratcliff




We’ve all heard the saying, “Work smarter, not harder.” Actually, I’ve been trying to do that all my life - succeeding and making good money with some ideas and losing money in others. But I have never given up. I keep on trying to think up new ways to work smarter.
Work smarter, not harder!
Could we apply this mantra to our music. Most of us don’t need to practice harder - we are already practicing hard enough. But are we making any progres…

Read more…

Joy to the World

by Linda Ratcliff A holiday season favorite (sometimes listed as an Advent tune, and often as a Christmas tune), Linda leads us through an arrangement for playing on the Hammered Dulcimer.

Subscribe to dulcimercrossing.com and you can learn to play this tune from Linda step-by-step in the full lesson series.

Read more…

Practicing in the Dark

by Linda Ratcliff

I'm spending the winter in sunny California, but I know many of you have been getting hit with some pretty cold weather. Brrrr. That reminds me of the way I used to practice piano. I usually arrived at school, during both my high school and college years, at about 6:30 in the morning, and I always went straight to the practice rooms. Now the school didn't turn on the heaters full blast until about 7:30 a.m., so to challenge myself (and because no one was looking), I would st…

Read more…

Categories