The QuaranTUNE Dulcimer Festival

Registration is opening soon! Be sure to subscribe to the website at: https://www.virtualdulcimerfest.com/subscribe

With over 30 instructors and 200 workshops, I’ll make it easy for you to find what I’m teaching, along with the descriptions here!

Mountain Dulcimer - Making It Look Easy 

What makes a good arrangement great?  We've all hacked our way through a piece of tablature, but the real trick is in smoothing out the rough spots and being able to identify when extra care is needed when plotting fingerings and strumming/picking techniques.  We'll take a challenging arrangement, play through it, take note of "trouble spots" and then I'll lay some secrets on you for turning a shaky presentation into a deceptively breezy performance. (Advanced) A1/2

Mountain Dulcimer - Chromatic Dulcimer 101

More and more people are taking up the chromatic mountain dulcimer and for good reason!  It allows you to freely explore the wide world of music without leaving out notes or "cheating" chords.  It's also not as hard as you might think.  We'll work out of DAD tuning and get right into playing with chord shapes, scales and basic tricks to help familiarize yourself with the fretboard, take any piece of music and perform it! (Advanced) A1/1

Mountain Dulcimer - Jamming Without A Net

Learn how to jam by the seat of your pants with confidence!  How to play tunes that you don't know.  Rhythm and melody creation, harmony, counter-point, chops and arrangement support are all covered in this workshop that focuses on improvisational skills.  Capo required.  (Advanced) A2/2

Mountain Dulcimer - Irish Ballads

Learn some lovely Irish ballads while incorporating playing techniques such as slides, turnarounds, hammer-ons, pull-offs and vibrato.  We'll also get into the dynamics of rhythm and volume to bring tremendous emotional power to tunes like "Danny Boy." (Intermediate) I1/3

Mountain Dulcimer - "Hallelujah: A Study In Song" (Repeat Once)

Have a blast in this classic workshop that builds Leonard Cohen's haunting masterpiece "Hallelujah" from single melody plucked on the mountain dulcimer to adding, bit by bit, chords, harmonies, arpeggios and strums.  We'll also learn how to "feel" the song, which is so important for any piece of music, but especially this piece! (Intermediate) I2/3

Mountain Dulcimer Delta Blues (Repeat Once)

2016 International Blues Challenge Finalist Bing Futch offers up this fun and fascinating class on playing authentic Mississippi Delta Blues on the mountain dulcimer.  Three chords and heartbeat rhythms lead to us adding layer upon layer of new elements, all while strumming and playing the blues! Bing won the "Best Guitarist" award in the solo-duo category at the International Blues Challenge while playing the mountain dulcimer!  (Intermediate) I3/3

Mountain Dulcimer - Learning The Fretboard

This beginner-level course serves as an introduction to a proven method that will help you learn the notes of the fretboard while also shedding some light on how basic music theory works. Scale exercises reveal fun patterns that lead to colorful discoveries of harmony! (Beginners) B1/1

Mountain Dulcimer - Traditional Dulcimer Tuning - CGG (Repeat Once)

Learn to play your dulcimer in the traditional way by taking this workshop, which gets back to the roots of the instrument.  You'll get familiar with the 1-5-5 tuning and explore new territories within this versatile mode.  Deeper drones and fuller chords lead the way into a sound made popular by Jean Ritchie's "The Dulcimer Book."  We'll learn chord shapes, harmony building and gorgeous chord melodies.  Yes, DAA and DAD can play happily together! (Beginners) B1/2

Beginning Mountain Dulcimer

You've got to start somewhere and we'll do just that, beginning with the basics of strumming, picking, playing melody against the drone and how to read tablature.  You'll learn a few tunes and get to know your instrument a little bit better as we cover subjects like putting on strings, tuning, how to practice and learning the fretboard. (Beginners) B2/2

It’s going to be an awesome time! Also, to mark this historic event, be sure to pick up a t-shirt! This month has been cray-cray - see you guys on the other side of May!