Hammered Dulcimer Fundamentals and Exercises

6 videos (26 minutes)

Don’t be fooled by this ordinary title! There is a ton here. My experience is that even most intermediate and advanced players do not have a full grasp of the organization of the instrument. 

The videos provide a full explanation of the 12-page document “Map of the Dulcimer.” These videos along with “The Map” should provide years of exploration and discovery in order to achieve a full appreciation and understanding of the instrument. 

Videos Included:

• Mapping the dulcimer: identifying keys; location of accidentals; the circle of fifths organization of the instrument; identifying intervals (location of half and whole steps)
  

• ​Hammering technique and issues: keeping hands low, hammer heads up, avoiding indiscriminate bouncing, where to strike (tone) and much more
  

• Three ways of playing scales and the importance of “duplicated” notes; octave and opposite direction scales to build equality of hands; “thirds” scales
  

• Three note chord patterns: “right” and “left” patterns; deriving three note chords from “shed,” “parallelogram” and “Nevada” shapes; brief discussion on the importance of learning to “harmonize a scale”
  

• Five root position arpeggio shapes: combining the five root position arpeggios to play the entire range of arpeggios; major, minor and diminished chords
  

• “Random” movement through arpeggios: hand independence using arpeggios; learning to see the entire range of arpeggios and chords through random movement
  

• Includes a written Map of the Dulcimer document
  

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Recorded 2014 Sandbridge Hammered Dulcimer Retreat