Workshop Information
One of the most exciting parts of the Colorado Dulcimer Festival is the opportunity to participate in workshops with local and nationally renowned Dulcimer Players and experts, teaching both Hammered Dulcimer (HD) and Mountain Dulcimer (MD). These workshops are organized by instructor, skill level and instrument, and will take place during the workshop times shown on the Festival Schedule.
Mountain Dulcimer and Hammered Dulcimer
Mountain Dulcimer and Hammered Dulcimer
Bing Futch
Traditional Tuning - DAA (MD, Beginner)
Get familiar with the DAA tuning or explore new territories within this versatile mode. Deeper drones and fuller chords lead the way into a more traditional tuning as we learn chord shapes, harmony building and gorgeous tri-tone melodies. Yes, DAA and DAD can play together happily!
Jamming without a net (MD, Intermediate)
Learn how to jam by the seat of your pants with confidence! How to play tunes that you don't know. Rhythm and melody creation, harmony, counter-point, chops and arrangement suport are all covered in this workshop that focuses on improvisational skills. Capo required.
Flatpicking Fun (MD, Advanced)
Pick melodies across the strings and learn the secrets of playing "inside the box" with scale exercises and a focus on pick direction, finger placement with pick/strum techniques. We'll work on a couple of fiddle tunes to practice.
How One Little Fret Will Change Your Life (MD)
More and more players are adding the 1+ and 8+ frets to their dulcimers and loving it. In this workshop, I'll show you how these frets can be useful for not only playing tunes, but also understanding the basics of music theory. If you don't have a 1+ fret on your dulcimer, we'll help you put a temporary one in using our materials.
Karen Ashbrook
Etudes for Beginners (HD, Beginner)
Fun tunes that teach ear-training and good hammering patterns
Manx Tunes (HD, Intermediate)
Celtic music from the Isle of Man. We'll learn a beautiful lullaby, covering a variety of ornamental techniques and also alternate chord progressions in E minor.
Klezmer Dulcimer! (HD, Advanced)
This class will cover a fun, upbeat klezmer-style tune in harmonic minor. Don't forget to tune your D#s!
The Gold Stud: Accents, Chromatics, and playing in E harmonic minor (HD, Intermediate and Advanced)
Using the Gold Stud- a simple but very cool Irish reel in E harmonic minor, we will cover a descending chromatic bass line, accenting down beats, back beats and off beats and simple i-iv-V accompaniment in harmonic minor.
Paul Oorts
Flemish Hommel (MD, intermediate)
Bring your Capos!
2 different guitar classes! (Intermediate)
Tina Gugeler
Learn patterns, chords, simple back up and some simple harmonies (HD, Beginner)
Learn patterns, chords, simple back up and some simple harmonies for this popular Irish polka in D, sometimes called the "chop-chop" polka, John Ryan's
Play this haunting B minor waltz with chords and arpeggios (HD, Intermediate)
Play this haunting B minor waltz with chords and arpeggios, Try your hand at invention your own introduction for the tune,Two Rivers, written by a great tune smith, Larry Unger.
"Is that one hammered dulcimer or two??" (HD, Advanced)
Using a couple of simple tunes, we'll explore playing a melody against the back drop of tremolos to create a "2" dulcimer sound, each hand will be doing something different!
Hand independenc (HD, Intermediate)
Play simple "music box" style back up with one hand and melody with the other, then migrate to a more syncopated style melody and steady back up. (warm up by rubbing head and patting tummy!)
Steve Eulberg
Bossa Nova for DAd & FAC tunings TOGETHER (MD, Beginner-Advanced)
Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Wave” is a tune that demonstrates the beauty and breadth of dulcimers playing together in both familiar and unfamiliar ways. This class is for people who are nervous about leaving DAd tuning but want to explore a Latin tradition AND those who are ready to expand and explore!
Traditional Noter Style for Mountain Dulcimer (MD, Beginner)
We’ll have fun exploring this traditional style of playing, which is what landed Steve in the Final round of the National Dulcimer Championship last fall!
Left-Hand Exercises (MD, Beginner)
We’ll develop our comfort and dexterity with using more than one finger with several different exercises that easily translate into playing fiddle tunes.
Chords for BackUp and Accompaniment (MD, Beginner)
Melodies are great, but playing the chords to backup other people on melody, playing for singing, and adding chords to melodies can really expand our skills and repertoire.
Bonnie Carol
Teaching Tunes from the Carp Camp at Winfield (HD, Advanced)
Every September thousands of people spend a couple of weeks at the Winfield, Kansas Walnut Valley Festival playing tunes as part of one style of music's camp or another. Bonnie goes to Carp Camp where she gets the biggest dose of traditional Old TIme and Celtic tunes (and recently tunes composed tunes in this format) available on the planet. The repertoire is magnificent, and she will share a couple of her favorite tunes in this workshop and offer help with the phenomenon of learning in jams through the oral tradition.
Cowboy songs! (MD, Intermediate)
We'll sing and accompany some favorite tunes from our beloved western campfire cowboy song collection. This will be a good place to learn to hear chord progressions, understand WHY chords change, and what chords you might expect.
Getting the Most out of your practice (HD & MD, Advanced)
This workshop will explore how to structure your practice time, how often you need to practice, and strategies for learning tunes and techniques most efficiently. There's a great deal of research and discovery in the learning field about what makes expertise in any endeavor that we can apply to increase the efficiency of our own learning. Bonnie will share tips and techniques from her 40+ years of teaching, learning, and playing dulcimer.
Judy Jones
Learning the Map of the Hammered Dulcimer (HD, Beginner)
Get familiar with the D scale, play up and down, learn chords and letter names. Compare 2 notes as being higher or lower. Find, sing and play a simple common song by ear. Same exercises and play in G key. Play rounds. Learn an unfamiliar song by ear by finding and repeating phrases over and over. (Traditional learning)
A continuation of Workshop 1 (HD, Beginner)
Learning and putting phrases together for an A and B Part and play them together. Look at sheet music, notations, how to read. Continue playing common tunes by ear and by looking at sheet music.
Alice Freeman
Introduction to Modes for Hammered and Mountain Dulcimer Players (HD & MD)
Learn how to identify the seven modes in Western music and how to play them in different keys on your instrument. Hear how a therapeutic musician uses them to influence our emotions, our sense of well-being and our thoughts. Alice has been using modes and improvisation in her private practice as a bedside musician for healing and transitioning (dying) patients since 2008. She is certified as a Healing Musician and a Therapeutic Harp Practitioner. (Open to any instruments and bring your instrument.)
Paul HendersonBlues (Advanced MD)
Marta Dean
Absolute Beginner Hammered Dulcimer (Both days)
Malacha Hall
Absolute Beginner Mountain Dulcimer (Both days)
To help you pick the best workshops for your experience, all of our workshops are classified by the skill level of the material. Although you're welcome to attend any classes you'd like (and there will be no test), you're likely to get more from classes designed with somebody of your skill in mind.
Absolute Beginner Mountain Dulcimer: No previous dulcimer experience nor musical background necessary.
Beginner level MD: You know how to hold your instrument, and can strum and play some simple tunes. You may not feel confident yet, but you love the music that your instrument can make! These classes will help you learn some chords, gain more comfort with your instrument and your ability to find and play tunes by ear and from music and tablature.
Intermediate MD: You have the skills of the previous levels and you've learned the basics of strumming and reading tablature, you need to expand your playing techniques and musical theory. Learn to embellish your basic music with hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides; to adapt an arrangement with different chord positions; to play in and modulate to different keys with and without a capo or retuning; to flatpick and fingerpick a tune. You can find play in different tunings.
Advanced MD: You have the skills of the other levels plus the ability to play at least 4 chords in DAD or DAA tuning, to use 2-3 fingers (left hand), and be comfortable with at least 2-3 basic rhythms, utilize melody runs on all the strings using scales, then adding arpeggios and patterns from within chords, as well as a strummed chordal melody.
Absolute Beginner Hammered Dulcimer: No previous dulcimer experience nor musical background necessary.
Beginner level HD: You know how to hold your hammers, the basic layout of your dulcimer and how to play within the box and are comfortable playing some simple tunes by ear and/or music. These classes will help you learn some chords, gain more comfort with your instrument and your ability to find and play tunes by ear and from music and tablature.
Intermediate HD: You have the skills of the previous levels and you can play some simple chords. These classes will help you with ornamentation, finding those occasional weird chromatic notes, and hammering techniques.
Advanced HD: You have the the skills of the other levels plus the ability to lead with either hand, play by ear and/or music/tablature. You are very familiar with the layout of your dulcimer and can play in several major and minor keys.