Teachers, Workshops & Instruction Books Heidi Muller

Mountain Dulcimer Teachers
Call your local music store or folklore society for information about local teachers. If they don't know of anyone, there are websites with listings of teachers (see On-line Sources for Music and Instruction). See Sweet Music Kinfolk / Mountain Dulcimer Clubs. A mountain dulcimer club will know of local teachers (and is a great place to find musical encouragement and meet sweet music kinfolk).

When you find a teacher, set up one paid lesson to chat, get acquainted, demonstrate what you can play, and find out about the teacher (experience, musical styles, expectations of their students, number of students, etc). If all goes well, set up a regular schedule of weekly or bi-weekly lessons that may last a half-hour to an hour. Be sure you ask about your teacher's policies for payment and schedule changes. Many full-time teachers request a month's payment in advance and require at least twenty-four hours cancellation notice.

If a dulcimer player comes to your town to perform, feel free to call the sponsoring organization to request a private lesson, or ask the performer on the night of the show. Many performers also teach and are more than happy to accommodate students if they have spare time between concerts. An acceptable meeting place could be anywhere from your house to a quiet park bench somewhere.

Workshops
Workshops are offered all over the country at music stores, dulcimer club meetings, folk music festivals, and mountain dulcimer festivals. See Sweet Music Kinfolk / Some Fine Festivals for information about festivals from Sweet Music Digest. Dulcimer Players News is also a great source for this information.

Workshops often fill up early so make your reservation as soon as you can. Be sure to sign up for classes at your level of ability. If a more advanced class is being held, consider asking to sit in on it even if you don't feel you can play at that level. Ask permission to use a tape recorder; it's common for people to tape workshops. If you wish to make a video, be sure and get permission from the instructor first and stay in the background out of the way of other students. Inquire what tuning will be used in the workshop (DAD, DAA, etc) and arrive in tune!

Heidi Muller is a musician and performer living in Seattle, Washington. Do you have comments or questions about her article? Contact Ms. Muller directly by e-mail. To learn more about her, see the Contributors section of Sweet Music Index.

Mountain Dulcimer Instruction Books
Sweet Music Index asked the participants of the Sweet Music Digest discussion list, "What is your favorite mountain dulcimer instruction book?" Here are the responses:

LS recommends:

"Larkin's Dulcimer Book"
by Larkin Bryant
Riverlark Music
PO Box 40081
Memphis, TN 38174-0081
1-800-366-5275 or 901-725-6976
ISBN 0-943644-00-3

Beginner to Intermediate level. This book has a companion cassette tape. Very good basic beginner book. Written well. Easy to follow. Describes the dulcimer parts, different tunings, how to read music, basic strumming, and then more advanced fingerpicking styles. Chord charts in the back of the book. Has several different songs to learn in the different modes, and gives historical notes about each of the songs.

Since I had no instructor, I feel very fortunate to have had this book and tape recommended to me. I found it very easy to learn from.

MP concurs: I fortunately started with Larkin as a live teacher in a weeklong workshop and then went on to use her book.

I started teaching dulcimer about a year ago and was looking for existing teaching material that I would like to use with students. I decided that I wanted to use the DAD tuning rather than the DAA tuning so this left out Larkin's book. I didn't find other materials that I was happy with for my purposes so I started writing my own. I have found this to be very satisfying for me and my students. Who knows, maybe a published book will eventually come of this.

Likewise, JP says: In response to your request for recommendations of beginning dulcimer instruction books, I have to say that even though I have about a half-dozen of these around, I would happily toss them out in favor of Larkin's Dulcimer Book . It is the only one that really taught me to play and progressed me from strumming to flat picking and finger picking. On top of that, the accompanying tape is inspirational as well as helpful. She makes "Simple Gifts" sound like classical music.

DG agrees: My instruction book was also the Larkin book so guess I'm not offering anything new there, but after getting the basics there, I have found both Dulcimer Times and Dulcimer Players News to be of great value. Also the Sweet Music Digest list. The combination has been super. All I need now is practice time!!

DW continues: One of my favorite books and instructor for learning the mountain dulcimer, besides Larkin's book is:

"Complete Dulcimer Handbook"
by Mark Biggs
Mel Bay book no. MB94047

Between the two books above, I got my start on the MD with workshops and many, many other tab books on the market. Mark Nelson was one of the first videos I got. Dennis Lee has a video out for folks greener then grass, along with Mattie MacNeil. After those I would place Mark Biggs' video and last but not least David Schnaufer.

The WF family suggests:

"You Can't Do That On Dulcimer! Oh, Yes You Can!"
by Carol Kieg-Campbell
published by Kicking Mule (who are sadly no longer with us), circa 1988/1989

This is probably still available from the author, who lives in Morgan Hill, CA.

I dunno if it was the MOST helpful instruction book we ever had, but it certainly helped in the just-past-beginning stages. The book specializes in chords and jamming techniques for DAD dulcimer and delivers what the title promises. You may have thought there were some things you can't do on dulcimer, but Carol sets out to prove otherwise.

BO endorses:

"The Best Dulcimer Method -- Yet!"--E-Z instructions and 139 selections
by Albert Gamse
Lewis Music Publishing, 1974

This book gets you started with techniques for strumming, forming simple chords, and presents 139 traditional and spiritual songs all in the key of C with chord names and tablature numbers over the music and words.

WWA applauds:

"Music Theory and Chord Reference for the Mountain Dulcimer"
by Jerry Rockwell
J.C. Rockwell Music Publishing, 1994
PO Box 79
Guysville, OH 45735-0079
ISBN 0-9647222-1-6

I have had this book only a week, but for beginners the chord reference and appendix to Rockwell's book on chords looks to be a major help.

NW submits:

"Thirty Old Time Songs and Tunes for Mountain Dulcimer (and Autoharp)"
by Neal Walters and Heidi Cerrigione
Doofus Music, 1996
9507 Colesville Road
Silver Spring, MD 20901-4821
301/587-6652 or 301/588-5466

Heidi and I wanted to provide a repertoire book for people who: (1) want to learn a few nice and not necessarily the "same old" tunes, (2) might possibly want arrangements for both autoharp and dulcimer (although you don't need the other instrument to learn or play the tunes).

We also made a companion tape to illustrate how the tunes would sound when played together.  It wasn't intended to be anything beyond that but we're told it's nice listening, too.

NW sez: There is another good book recently published:

"The Mountain Dulcimer Index Book #2"
by Rosamund Campbell and Lois Hirsch
7453 Lowell Ave, Skokie, IL 60091
312/251-1115

A follow-on to The Mountain Dulcimer Book index originally published in 1986 by Judy Ireton (Not-ably Yours, 6865 S. Scarff Rd., New Carlisle, OH 45344 Noteably@aol.com 513 845-8232).  If a tune had been TAB’ed and published, one could find it in Judy’s index.  The Mountain Dulcimer Book Index II is a brand-new edition covering the numerous books that have been released since 1986.  The index lists over 1,700 titles and uses some cross-references for songs known by more
than one name.  It comes in three parts:  a list of books by code number which includes the author(s), titles, and copyright dates if available, a list of books alphabetical-by-title, and a song index which is alphabetical-by-title.  So if you want to know if a particular tune has been published in TAB form for mountain dulcimer, you simply look it up in the song index, go to the code index to find
the name of book, the author, and copyright date.  Sounds like the perfect response to those internet questions like "Has anybody ever seen ‘Revenge of the Snake People’ TAB’ed out for dulcimer?"  Look in your index, sunshine.

Thomasina wrote: Here is one of the many mountain dulcimer instruction books which are authored by one of the dulcimer world's most respected teacher, Dallas Cline.

"Moving Up with the Mountain Dulcimer"
by Dallas Cline
Common Treasury Publishing
998 Clayton Road
Ashley Falls, MA 01222
413/229-7973

This book covers the basic "bump diddy" strum, ballad or finger picking strums, and flat picking. There are sections teaching hammer-ons, pull-offs, chording, and modal tunings and scales covering Ionian, Dorian, Aeolian, and Mixolydian modes. It includes rounds, traditional songs, contemporary songs and duets. Dallas is in the process of recording an instructional tape to accompany this book.

Robinsong recommends:

"Southwest Samplera"--A Collection of Tunes for Fretted Dulcimer

This is a book of traditional and original tunes and arrangements compiled by local Southern California players and published by Southern California Dulcimer Heritage, the group who puts on the Harvest Festival of Dulcimers in Dana Point each year. I think it's a great book because of the wide variety of styles and different levels of playing difficulty represented (beginner to advanced).   Ruth Barret and Cynthia Smith both have pieces in the book that showcase their delicate fingerpicking styles, and Connie Allen offers two pieces arranged for four string equidistant tunings. A few tunes in the book are:  Frank Roche's Favorite, Caledonia, A-Soulin, Sweet Hour of Prayer, Wild Mountain Thyme. Good variety, and since the payment for the book goes to putting on the festival down there in folk-music starved Orange County, it's for a good cause!

There is now a companion cassette for the book, too. One side of the tape features slowed down "learning" versions and the other side features real performances of each tune.

Strumelia likes:

"Patterns & Patchwork"--Mountain Dulcimer Fingerpicking Made Easy
by Sue Carpenter

This was the very first book I got when I started dulcimer. It has very simple and clear instructions and tips for starting fingerpicking, and just starting to play, period! It has a good section on how to read TAB, choosing fingerpicks, etc. You will slowly learn rolls, pinches, and simple combinations that you practice with the familiar tunes Sue provides. The fingerpicked tune arrangements are just lovely, even the beginner ones. (I have yet to find a more beautiful sounding arrangement of Amazing Grace than Sue's version.) I found it quite easy to progress through this book! This is a wonderful book to learn fingerpicking with.

related web sites:
music teacher listing service
A free service to quickly find teachers of a wide variety of musical instruments from all over the world.

song of the sea's folk groups, teachers & players directory
Maintained to promote the performance of folk music .