New Hammered Dulcimer!
I am super excited to announce that I have a new hammered dulcimer! Hand-built by Zachary Hamilton at Song of the Wood, my new instrument is a custom JRS Grande Concertmaster with Spruce top and figured Cherry endrails. Covering a range of 5 octaves, this instrument...
Constellations!
Playing the hammered dulcimer involves patterns. Chords and arpeggios can be visualized as patterns that can be moved around and connected in various ways across the instrument…
“Music is the study of invisible relationships between internal objects.”
As a performer, I’ve had a number of experiences over the years in which my music has touched someone emotionally in some deep way. While some of these stories are too personal to convey, I’ve become very interested in further understanding the powerful relationship between music and emotion.
So what is a hammered dulcimer anyway?
An explanation of what exactly a hammered dulcimer is.
Getting started on hammered dulcimer
Here are a few suggestions based on my own experience with getting started on hammered dulcimer. Of course you'll want to do your own research, and there is plenty of information available elsewhere on the web. But basically all you need is a hammered dulcimer...
Hammered dulcimer web resources
Here are a few links related to hammered dulcimer. I’ve listed the major sites first, since these will gateway you to a much more extensive array of hammered dulcimer information than I can provide here. If you’d like your site to be listed here, just drop me a line.
Instruction books & videos I’ve used
There’s actually a fair amount of instructional material available for the hammered dulcimer. Here I’ll discuss the books and videos that I’ve used, along with information about where to purchase this stuff and some links to other book and video information on the web.
My favorite hammered dulcimer CDs
The hammered dulcimer has a hauntingly beautiful sound and is used in a variety of musical styles including Celtic, new age, classical (particularly medieval and renaissance), up-tempo fiddle tunes, and so on. There are quite a few hammered dulcimer recordings to choose from.