| This Month | From the Prez | Playing backup |
| Last Month | Group Tunes | Photos |
Meeting: Saturday March 19, 2005 5:30 PM. Be sure to work on the group tunes!
Gee, it's almost spring, and that means that we'll be running off to more dulcimer festivals. Right now, I'm almost on the road to the Ohio Valley Gathering over in Lexington, KY. I haven't been to that part of the dulcimer world before, so I'm really looking forward to it. This event was held in Evansville IN last year, and I really enjoyed being there.
Next up for me will be the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View AR, for the Dulcimer Jamboree, to be held April 19-23 this year. This newly expanded festival will run from Tuesday thru Saturday for the first time in its almost 30-year history. And a few weeks after that, we'll be off to Glen Rose TX for the fun and free festival put on by our pals of the LSSDS club. That will be on Mother's Day weekend.
Mixed in among all those outings, of course, our own little group will be meeting on March 19, April 16 and May 21. So there are lots of opportunities for us to get together for some good dulcimer times in the next few weeks. Join me at all of these events, okay?
Now we get to play the Irish Washer Woman up to speed! Its been almost two months to get our arms around this one! These group tunes are fun eh?
Ok this time its the Arkansas Traveler in D. The mountain dulcimer tab is posted, so download it and print yourself a copy! Lets get polished up for the meeting.. also work on the previous months tunes so we can do them too!
Well sadly I have to miss this months meeting, so if anybody can get some photos and send them to me I would be very appreciative. Hopefully I will be back for the next month. The good news is I have a gig to play so I will get to sit around for a few hours making my fingers sore, and the ears of the poor listeners will be beyond description. Just the way it is .. sacrifices eh?
Dana
Ever wanted to join in the group but only knew one part?
How do you come up with something on the spot? Improvising is a topic all by itself, but you can get started playing with others quite easily! There are a couple of tricks it helps to know.
If you know the chords for the tune, just play the chords with a tasty rythem. But what if you dont know where the chords changes are, or which chord comes next? A little secret.. whey you are totally unsure it is usually safe to just play the bass note for the key of the tune. So when you dont know what else to do play a G note if the tune is in the key of G. Occasionally that clearly is wrong, so try a 5th higher or a 5th lower. Usually if the "tonic" note doesnt work one of those will. With a little practice you will develop a "knack" for figuring out which one to use. This is pretty easy if you already know how to play the lead for the tune.
If you play chords with the melody whey you play the tune by yourself, try just playing different notes out of the chords you are playing than the melody. That will always fit in nicely.
Knowing how you would play the tune without chords, "just the melody", try playing the melody a fifth higher. Usually that will harmonize effortlessly and sound very nice. Music snobs may sneer at playing "parallel fifths", however this is a very pleasing thing to the ear. Let them sneer, play the fifths anyway.
Beyond playing fifths, you might work out a counter melody. Generally a counter melody is "counter" in direction. That is when the melody goes up, the counter melody goes down and vice-versa. This takes more experience to do, but sounds absolutely great when its done. To really "fill in" with the person playing lead, try to play the melody in a different but related rythem. This skill is very worth the effort to learn, give it a try!
Add some sound effects.. bend the notes if you are on a fretted instrument. Damp the notes with your hand if you are on the hammered dulcimer. Try to play in a different but complimentary style than the lead player. Use lots of grace notes. Agumented forth chords make great transitions into chord changes. So do playing the seventh chord or the related minors. Lots of things to experiment with.
If all else fails you can use your istrument as a drum and tap a rythem pattern on the soundboard. If your rythem is tasty nobody will object, just dont be too loud. Sometimes its nice to play the percussion even when you know the chords or melody, try it a while.
| Month: | Tune common name: | Key: |
| January | Greensleves | Em |
| February | Irish Washer Woman | D |
| March | Arkansas Travler | D |
See the photos from January!
See you at the meeting, or the one in April in my case!
Dana