Blog

chromatic mountain dulcimer

Why Don't I Practice More???

PracticeasifyouretheworstPlayasifyourethebest

Weren't you totally excited the day you brought home your first dulcimer?  I imagine you practiced 'til your fingertips were sore, or your arms felt like they were falling off from wielding those two hammers.  But then, as days or weeks went by, the time you invested in practicing decreased ... maybe even stopped altogether.  You found excuses to push practice time to the back burner.  I wonder why this has happened to so many of us.  

Well, I have some thoughts about this (of course).  Let's …

Read more…

DulcimerCrossing as a Way to Invest in Yourself

SteveElectricMDHands

by Steve Eulberg

Investing in your own musical growth and development only takes your decisions:

1. To try it

2.  To try it again

3.  To learn how to remember what you've tried

4.  To discover what you DON'T get or don't (yet) understand

5.  To search for the answers to decision #4.

6.  To connect with others who may be a step ahead of you on the path

7.  To connect with others who are well-traveled guides on this path.

SteveHandsFront

ALL of us who teach at DulcimerCrossing have faced and made these…

Read more…

Can You Make Progress Without Playing?

DustyStringsHDApp

All too often, our busy lives prevent us from picking up our dulcimer or our hammers, and spending time in practice. I look on practice time as a gift to myself, a reward for being a good girl and getting everything done that needs to be done. But sometimes I get so busy doing the things I ought to do, time runs out before I even get close to playing my instruments.

First of all, if we were face-to-face, you’d probably tell me I need to re-order my priorities. And I know you’d be right. But e…

Read more…

If My Dulcimer Could Talk

mdulcimeronpillow

Your faithful, highly treasured, beautiful dulcimer is sitting by itself over there in the corner. What would it say if it could talk? What if it could tell you what it’s really thinking? Well, I’ve taken a guess about a few things you might hear it say.

  • I’m so honored that you chose me. Choosing your first dulcimer is important, because if the workmanship turns out to be an inferior quality, it may not hold its tuning properly. Many think they will start off with an inexpensive dulcimer,…

Read more…

The Gold Standard Dulcimer

PXL_20220906_194910334

Dulcimer players often joke about having DAD — Dulcimer Acquisition Disorder.

It’s true that most of us have more than one dulcimer, and some people have large collections of instruments. We can become addicted to “just one more instrument”. I, personally, have a relatively small collection, with “just” 5 mountain dulcimers (though, I have to admit that I also keep about a dozen student dulcimers and seem to have a revolving door of instruments passing through my home to pass onto young people …

Read more…

New Feature: Sample Lessons

NEW FEATURE: Sample Lessons

SampleLessons

We've added a new feature on our DulcimerCrossing.com website:  Sample Lessons by several of our instructors for each of the instruments for which we teach Courses.

Click here to Sample them!

Mountain Dulcimer:

These are sample mountain dulcimer lessons from DulcimerCrossing's curriculum, one from each level we teach:

Absolute Beginning-Level 1-Steve Eulberg

Beyond Beginning-Level 2-Butch Ross

Intermediate-Level 3-Neal Hellman

Advanced-Level 4-Nina Zanetti

Read more…

NGFDA hosts DulcimerCrossing Teachers at their Fall Festival in November!

NGFDAFall2021Logo

DulcimerCrossing.com is honored to be a sponsor for NGFDA Fall Festival which happens online Nov. 18-20 this year.

We have a long history of providing sponsorship and scholarship support to festivals across the country because we know that there is no substitute for in-person learning.

We are also excited that several of our teachers are providing workshops for this festival!

Erin Mae Lewis

Butch Ross

Nina Zanetti

Karen Mueller

DJ Hamouris

Larry and Elaine Conger

Aubrey Atwater, and

ou…

Read more…

Categories