General Sessions

Welcome to dulcimer Boot Camp! If you’re new to the Mountain Dulcimer, this class is for you. We’ll start with the basics - what to call the various parts of your dulcimer, how to hold it, and how to tune it. Using simple building blocks, we’ll start playing the very first day and learn how to strum or pick with one hand, and how to fret with the other hand. You’ll learn how to read dulcimer tab (the kind of sheet music used by dulcimer players), and you’ll learn about keys and scales, time signatures and how to count your music, note values and the rhythms they produce. You’ll learn about individual notes as well as chords on the mountain dulcimer. 

We’ll spend some time all together as a class, but you’ll also have some time for individual or small group practice and one-on-one instruction during each day. By the time you leave Black Mountain you’ll be able to play some simple tunes and will have a solid start for your dulcimer journey! You’ll need to have a standard dulcimer with three strings tuned to Dad for this class, a tuner (can be an app on your cell phone), and a pick or two. A music stand is also helpful.

It’s not all about owning a program that can print out tablature. This class focuses on how to write good tab that others can use successfully. We will talk about tools that can help you write tab effectively and efficiently. Some attention will also be given to discussing copyright issues.

This workshop will use some exercises and a variety of music styles to improve your confidence and the quality of sound of the music you play. We will focus on right and left hand techniques, and also listening to the sound you produce, as we play some great tunes! Let’s build/reinforce the foundation of your dulcimer playing! PLEASE BRING A CAPO.

A variety of ballads and songs from Appalachia and Beyond. Some old favorites and some newly tabbed.

Improve your play of slow songs in a smooth and melodic style.  Discover left and right-hand techniques which facilitate smooth play.  Explore ways of adding expression and feeling to your play.  Learn how to provide backup accompaniment for others playing slowly.  Incorporate these techniques into popular melodies you already know.  All new material for 2024.  DAD

In this class you will learn all of the tools needed to get started playing your dulcimer.  Sessions one and two will be used to teach how your instrument works and other techniques of music as applied to the hammered dulcimer.  Session three will be used to learn a new song each day.  My goal is for you to go home knowing how to hear a tune and then be able to play it and embellish it.  You will also learn how to play and use chords as both embellishments and backup when playing with others.  After the second day you will have the tools to feel comfortable joining in on the jams.  I hope to teach you how to make your instrument sound the way you always dreamed it could sound.  I look forward to see you in class and helping you get started on your new musical journey.

Thinking beyond the melody line (or rather behind). Performing with a band, I play a lot of backup. This is one of the aspects of playing the H.D. I am asked questions about the most. We will look at a variety of ways to play back up and apply these skills using some well loved “dulcimer tunes” so you will not be needing to learn the tunes themselves, and can focus on learning “alternative stuff” behind the main melodies.

Playing tunes note-for-note can be fun and rewarding, but developing an intuition about your instrument is where the musicianship happens.  It allows you to embellish with less conscious effort, work through the inevitable mistakes, and music that is unique to “you.”  In this class, we will focus on exploring creative exercises that build your musical intuition and reinforce a deeper connection with your hammered dulcimer.

You may have wondered, "Am I the only one who gets nervous playing in front of others?" (you are NOT!) Do your hands shake so badly you drop your hammers or can't strum? Can't even remember how the tune goes? It's totally OK to be nervous—it's how we learn to manage the jitters that is important. Let's learn some strategies in a supportive environment where we can test the waters of performing for your peers. Come with a couple of tunes you know well. All levels and all instruments welcome; class limited to 12 participants.

Playing steel-string acoustic guitar with a pick offers many possibilities, from hard-driving rhythm to melodies of fiddle tunes, and from intricate crosspicking accompaniment to no-limits improvisation. In this class we'll start with the basics: pick choice, pick grip, and basic rhythm, and expand from there to explore melody playing, creating our own variations on standard fiddle tunes, crosspicking, and whatever else we feel like taking on. Come get in touch with your inner Doc Watson or Norman Blake!

Shape-note singing is a communal, participatory singing tradition that has been a part of American culture since the 18th century. The music is known for its haunting harmonies, traditional modes, and high energy. The shape-note system was developed as a practical tool to teach total beginners how to sing these harmonies. While shape-note singing schools once flourished across the United States, the tradition found a lasting home in rural Southern communities, where it remains a vibrant practice today. In Western North Carolina, we sing from the Christian Harmony, a seven-shape book. This class will explore both the skills needed to sing shape-note music and the history and culture of the tradition as it exists today. No experience required!

(Continued) - Sign up for all three sessions.

Come sing and or play a variety of Traditional songs from the mountains and beyond. Each class will feature a different theme: Railroad Songs, Love Songs, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Feathers and Fur.

Wonderful fiddle tunes that are sure to spice up any jam session. Improve your playing of fiddle tunes and faster songs. Explore left and right-hand techniques that facilitate smooth play. Discover how to easily play in the keys of D, G, A, Am, Em, and C. Use “chopped” chords to make your backup accompaniment come alive. Don’t worry about keeping up. We will learn all tunes slowly and then build speed. A capo and smile are required! All new material for 2024. DAD

Unleash your musical creativity with looper pedals! You'll learn the fundamentals of loop creation and overdubbing, discover how to enhance your practice routines, play ensemble pieces, compose your own music, and revolutionize your approach to practice, rehearsal, composition, and performance. Bring your looper, amp, cable and headphones for hands-on training with your specific gear. Harness the power of looping and easily expand your musical palette.

The first two days, I'll show you the fastest way I know to learn all the major and minor chord shapes on your dulcimer. On the third day, we'll do some chord-melody which involves playing melody and chords at the same time. On the fourth day we'll cover arpeggios which are excellent for adding cool little licks to tunes you already play.

This workshop covers hearing chord changes, melodic structure, and rhythm. We’ll scratch the surface of music theory and learn how to apply its basic concepts to our playing. Emphasis will be on how to play a tune in a jam without having TAB or written music.

(Continued) - Sign up for all three sessions.

The Irish tradition is rich with a wide range of types of tunes including jigs, reels, slip jigs, set dances, barn dances, hornpipes, slow airs, and much more. We will touch on the most common types of Irish session tunes by learning a reel, a jig, and a hornpipe, along with some of the ornamentation. If we can slide in a quick polka, we will! Our focus will be getting the rhythms of each type of tune.

You can reach new audiences and appeal to younger listeners while still honoring the hammered dulcimer's history and traditional folk roots. This workshop will focus on finding the happy medium between playing fiddle tunes and playing “a bunch cool-sounding stuff”.  We'll focus on arrangements that incorporate rhythmic and melodic elements in a more contemporary style and techniques that can be applied to tunes across the board.

Nothing captures the magic of Christmas quite like the "Linus and Lucy" theme from "A Charlie Brown Christmas!" Wouldn't it be fun to play something your friends & family will instantly recognize? In this workshop, you'll learn my arrangement designed as a duet for two hammered dulcimer players. But don't worry, if you don't have a playing partner, we will also teach you how to make your own play-along track! For copyright and licensing purposes, you’ll need to purchase the sheet music for $9.99. Scholarships for the cost of the sheet music are available through HD Homeland to ensure everyone can join in the fun.

By far, the old hymns are some of my favorite pieces to perform on the hammered dulcimer! Part of this class will be learning to “hammer out” 3 hymn arrangements (titles to be determined with your help), and a portion of this class will be discussing how to apply the embellishment skills learned within these hymns - into your own hymn arrangements.

Put down the pick and unleash your picking-hand fingers! Whether playing solo or with other instruments, fingerpicking is an endlessly versatile approach to the guitar, making it possible to carry melody, chords, bass lines and rhythm all at the same time. We'll start with some simple patterns and then move past them into a world of limitless possibility, adding interest to our accompaniment and arranging melodies for solo interpretation. If we have time, we'll also explore a few altered tunings that open up the guitar's potential even more. If you know a handful of basic chords, you're ready for this!

Boost your whistle skills with this lively and engaging session! We'll combine fun-to-play exercises with catchy tunes that reinforce essential techniques like hand position, breath control, and tricky fingerings. You'll love the tunes I bring, and before you know it, your fingers will be flying—without even realizing you're working!

(Continued) - Sign up for all three sessions.

This workshop covers several well known songs recorded by the Carter Family, the “First Family of Country Music”. Includes TAB, chords and lyrics.

This class will get you playing dance tunes even if you have two left feet! Regular rhythms and beautiful melodies make waltzes relatively easy and fun to play. From country folk waltzes to more classically inspired ones, enhance your repertoire with these really pretty tunes.

If you want to add some personal expression and flavor to the tunes you play, this workshop is for you! If you don’t want to play a tune the same way every time, this workshop is for you! We will explore how to add notes, rhythm changes, dynamics and other variations to any type of music you play (fiddle tunes, Celtic airs, waltzes, etc.) while still being true to the melody. The result is more interesting music, more freedom, and more fun…and who doesn’t like that! PLEASE BRING A CAPO!

Each day we'll cover one to two arrangements from my favorite dulcimer player David Schnaufer. David spent years collecting all the best ideas from all the best dulcimer players of his day. He respectfully stood on the shoulders of giants to produce what I consider to be dulcimer masterpieces. In addition to the tunes, we'll talk about all the techniques needed to get everything rolling. Expect a bunch of great stories as well.

Accent tastes good on food, and it also tastes good in music! Learn to break down and emphasize patterns within a rhythm to create driving support for any tune. Get your hands and fingers on fun techniques that bring a percussive element to your groove. We'll hear the difference between "strong" and "weak" beats, and use them to develop syncopated jams built from straight sixteenth notes to demonstrate the crucial role held by volume dynamics when playing.

(Continued) - Sign up for all three sessions.

The hammered dulcimer could also be named… “the Christmas instrument” as far as I’m concerned - It just “seems” to be made for this genre! During this class, we will delve into some of the fun and lighthearted music from the “crooner” era… “White Christmas” “Let It Snow” “Winter Wonderland” are all solid favorite

Students frequently ask me for hymn arrangements to play in church and/or nursing homes. We will learn a simple arrangement for the well loved hymn "The Old Rugged Cross," by George Bennard (1912). The beauty of playing hymns that people know is that you don't have to add a lot of fancy stuff to reach your heart and the hearts of your listeners. My hope is that by the end of the class you will have a version of this hymn that you love. I will provide written music and video followup to help you remember what we have learned in class.

Come find out what a BEAD tune is! We will explore two of the classic “BEAD” old-time rags: Stone’s Rag and Peacock Rag. We will tackle the essential elements of rags: syncopation, chromatics, variations, circle of fifths chord movement, and backup ideas.

There is an untapped treasure-trove of hymns that are gorgeous on the dulcimer and are fun to play. In this class, we’ll explore a rich variety of hymns—from sublime slow hymns to rousing fast hymns. Each offers something new to learn, such as finding chord patterns quicker, hand independence, developing accuracy and flow. Let me know what your favorites are too!

Although not a standard instrument in Irish or Scottish traditions, the mandolin has nevertheless found a home there, being tuned the same as a fiddle and having the same range as the other traditional melody instruments. In this class we'll learn some jigs, reels, hornpipes and harp tunes, along the way discussing technique, picking up tunes by ear, and how to navigate an Irish session with a mandolin.

I remember all too clearly as a young musician wanting to sit with a large group of musicians and join the jam. I've learned a lot since then, and I want to pass all of it on to you. Along with plenty of tricks and techniques, I'm bringing a good bunch of bare-bones versions of common jam tunes. This class will be more action and less talk. Each day I want you to practice plenty the concepts presented.

Scottish music is not all bagpipes and plaid kilts. It has a long history that has influenced the music of Ireland and the rest of the world. In this workshop, you’ll explore great pieces of Scottish music that sound great on the mountain dulcimer.

TAB is your friend, but don’t let it be a crutch or limit you! Playing with your ears (listening), your brain (and not just your eyes), and your heart (what you feel), can really help your playing be more expressive and creative! We will apply these ideas to a variety of types of music and time signatures. The goal is for you to be able to understand what you feel when you play a tune and how to share it with others! If you have a tune you’d like share with us, we will try to leave some time for some of you to play a tune for the class so we can all practice our listening, understanding what we heard, and possibly share some ideas for you to consider…that process is extremely helpful to all! PLEASE BRING A CAPO!

Expand your repertoire with wonderful tunes from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Slow beautiful melodies sprinkled with jigs, reels, and hornpipes, O my!  Turlough O’Carolan, Robert Burns, and many more.  Discover techniques that promote smooth play and improve dynamics. Introductions, endings and moving melodies around the fretboard.  Bring your four-leaf clover and a big smile!  DAD

Traditional Songs and Fiddle Tunes covering a variety of topics. Mostly material not taught in previous years. Develop the skill to experience the joy of playing what you hear when you hear it, without relying on or being limited to what is written on a page. Yes. Tab will be available at the end of class.

Do you want to play with others? Do you want to do something other than just play the melody? I do! We will learn the melody and backup for two pieces. The Winter is Past (Denmark – bring your own Danish) has a lovely descending bassline. Gentle Eily (Ireland) has a stunningly beautiful chord progression enhanced by a rising bass line that covers a full octave. We will use chord shapes to navigate these tunes, and walk away being able to play both the melody and backup with friends.

In this workshop we will explore the process of arranging popular music for the hammered dulcimer.  What makes a popular tune a good fit on the hammered dulcimer? Pop tunes have many layers of instruments, vocals, and effects. Hammered dulcimer players have two mallets. How do you decide what stays and what goes? How do you approach the awkward elements of popular music like modulations, spoken verses, and fade-outs?  We will look at examples and learn about all this and more.

This fun repertoire-building class is designed to boost your playing skills while adding some fantastic tunes to your jam list! I've chosen steppingstone tunes that reinforce essential techniques like dominant hand lead and solid hammer skills. These tunes aren't just great learning tools—they’re also a blast to play! By the end of the week, you'll walk away with new skills, improved technique, and a handful of enjoyable tunes to keep you inspired.

Learn the Basics and beyond of a traditional dance from the Appalachian mountains. Make rhythms with your feet to recorded old-time fiddle tunes. No experience needed. You will learn a flatfoot step and ways to use it to improvise. You'll learn a variety of clogging steps and understand the difference between clogging and flatfoot. Then we'll work to string together several steps so you will leave ready to move around next time you hear musicians jamming. Wear comfortable loose-fitting clothes and be prepared to sweat. Dress in layers, since the old gym is not heated. Bring shoes that slide easily on a wooden floor - leather-soled shoes that tie on are ideal but hard to find. Tap shoes are fine too (and I'll bring extras.) Bring your water bottle and an open mind.

Learn how to play the 5-hole and 6-hole Native American flute in this workshop.  Understanding flute anatomy leads to breathing exercises for support and control. After learning two scales as a source for melody, we add embellishments, effects, and vibrato to a musical toolkit containing our basic vocabulary for this extraordinary instrument. Experience playing tunes from tablature, and also by playing in the wild on one of our field trips on the mountain.

This workshop covers the basics of playing mandolin in the Old Time style. Covers picking techniques, chords, and rhythm for several common Old Time tunes. We’ll look at the basic melody, then add some melodic notes to add that Old Time feel.