I want to learn to play the hammered dulcimer, but my specific interest is music other than fiddle tunes. Whats the best way to get started, given my interest?
I recommend starting with fiddle tunes, anyway. Here’s why: The short note values in fiddle tunes (mostly eighth and sixteenth notes) make negotiating stroke order very easy to discern and are essential for mastering both the resonance and movement that makes dulcimer playing musical. The quarter notes, half notes and larger found in so many hymns “mush up” the stroke order, and ultimately the musicality of each phrase. I ponder specifically a four-note scale of quarter notes in 3/4 time, going up, then down. There are six different stroke-order combinations for this scale, and they all articulate differently. That’s too much for a beginning dulcimer student to address, regardless of previous music experience. I therefore suggest that you regard fiddle tunes as highly useful exercises that will help you progress to the places you want to go. One of my private students has done just this–with not a lot of fiddle tunes from Striking Out and Winning!, but enough to catch the concepts–an
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