What what this year about, anyway?

Never mind the subject line - progress can't be measured in years, at least where music is concerned. You can't cleanly divide the lines between December and January and call it anything of worth. It's an ongoing process that has to stand up to the larger curve of our existence. In other words - Happy New Year, yeah-yeah-yeah, get on with it.

Many folks approach me and say that I must be blessed or gifted or something. That's very nice of them. In my head and heart, I know it's a constant struggle to stay on the @#$%^ horse. And even then, we didn't learn to ride until late in life. That's the "royal we" there.

'Splain.

Sure, I was playing clarinet in elementary school, for what it's worth (nearly nothing, except the death of my cello-playing dreams. What I get for being born to a woodwind-playing father. But I kid. Ha-hah.)

And sure, I continued to play clarinet all through junior high school and then, finally, high school, where the dreaded stake finally was driven through the impetus and skidded to a bloody stop before I could claim my diploma. The week after graduation, I was suddenly a bassist.

How do you like me now, papa? I liked strings from the get-go. You can't fight city hall or some shit.

In any case - it took some evolution. First bass guitar, then dalliance with guitar. Much keyboard mushing before the mountain dulcimer came along and said 'howdy' two years after I narrowly escaped the five-year plan. Though I would come to relish my wind-blowing tendencies later in life - it was such a relief to pluck, pick, strum and bend my way into a whole other existence after formal music education.

But seriously, it wasn't until much later in life that the strings made any sense to me. It was never taught, there were no tutors or coaches, and I was in my 30's before I could find my way around a stringed instrument knowing the notes, chords, scales and whatnot.

So, what seems like natural ability is actually something fought for, scraped for and seemingly out of reach if it wasn't for the stubborn and perpetual motion that made me cry "don't care! will do! won't quit!"

That, in itself, is part of what anyone who seeks to succeed in music needs - a determination to make it work. Like hypnotism, it only works if the hypnotized is willing. And if you're a musician who wants to be a better musician, you'll only get there if you believe that it is possible.

There is no easy road, unless you're a genius of some sort. You must fight for every gain and struggle for every bit. Like anything else in life, what you want takes effort. But if what you want is what you love, then the effort is not a big deal whatsoever.

What was this year about, anyway?

For me, it was the continuing effort to "stay on the horse." Despite what some of you might think, if I don't keep practicing what I know, it will soon dissipate and become yesterday's memories. It's not instilled in my fingers or the core of my being like some folks who have performed and played all their lives. Though I had an early start - I didn't connect with the music until very late in life, which means a) I'm a late-bloomer and b) it gets harder all the time to maintain even what I've fought so long to obtain. Keep that in mind as you traipse down the path.

So, what might the new year hold? The same old concoction, my dear friends. Keep practicing the basics; your scales, your chords, your inversions, your techniques. Listen to music that you're not familiar with, experiment with time signatures that are strange and foreign. Get out of your comfort zone and try something that you've never tried before. I guarantee that it will all amount to something wonderful as long as you keep it up, revisit it often and take it all as seriously as you possibly can - with the right amount of levity, of course. If it's not fun, it's not really music, is it?

Christmas Eve Double Feature

THANK you for the donations that have been coming in! Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Big Thanks, Some Changes

Those of you who follow The Dulcimerica Video Podcast know that I've slowed down the posting of podcasts in the final quarter of this year. That's mainly due to how mind-boggling busy I've been, not only with fall gigs, but also with preparation for the Key West Dulcimer Fest.

There is another reason which I hesitate to mention, but since it seems that I may be the last person on the internet to actually put voice to this reason, then I've held on tenaciously.

Earlier this year, a "Donation" button quietly appeared on the Dulcimerica site along with a suggested tagline to encourage donations. (I won't mention whose idea this was - but they are a highly respected member of the dulcimer community.) The bottom line is: the podcast is a labor of love, begun three years ago and maintained with alarming consistency where most new podcasts begin to appear erratic after six months. To produce a single episode (there are over 130) takes approximately eight hours; from shooting the footage to logging it into the computer, editing it together, compressing it into form for the web, uploading it to two sites (sometimes three) and maintaining the archives. With my YouTube page, this is cost-free. With the official Dulcimerica page, all of the movie files are stored on my server. More than once, I've had to delete files (in one case, all of the AFI Radio podcasts) in order to make physical room for the increasing number of videos and my ISP has threatened to shut me down due to the enormous amount of bandwidth I use. It's a private server which I've had since 1994 and I'm afraid I'll need to go with a public ISP due to the huge hits that Dulcimerica gets.

Add to that the cost of videotape, camera maintenance and supplementary gear and it all adds up. For a while, I considered putting Dulcimerica behind a firewall and charging a nominal fee for access, but decided against it, choosing instead to place a donation button on the site. Problem is, not a single donation has ever been made. Granted, I've never pointed out the fact that there's a donation button in existence (it's tucked into the right margin just under the subscription buttons) and many people who subscribe to the show either do it through iTunes, another podcatcher or watch it on YouTube.

The reason I mention this now is, as you know, we're living in tough economic times; not terrible, but enough to make everyone cinch up their belts a tad. As I head into a fourth year of producing Dulcimerica, I'd like to revamp a few things, put more time into instructional episodes, creating graphics and supplementary materials for the podcasts. This, of course, will take time, materials and server space as well as bandwidth. Many thousands of people have viewed Dulcimerica on YouTube and via Blogger, enjoying the song demos, instruction, tips and workshops, road trips and interviews. The podcast has over 1600 subscribers! If everyone donated between $2 to $5, it would very nicely help to support and preserve the show as well as our extensive archives.

Please consider making a donation - it would go a long way towards development of what has become a fixture within the dulcimer community.

I'm currently knocking out the remainder of footage from 2009, beginning with the post above from the Winter Creek Reunion. Before the end of the year, footage from New Harmony, Smoky Mountain Dulcimer Retreat and Unicoi will go up. After that, I'll be revamping the opening credits (including the show's new name, which will be simply "Dulcimerica".) Carla Maxwell, who has held the Dulcimerica.com domain name since before the show existed, has lovingly re-directed the domain to the main website - so you can now type Dulcimerica.com and it will take you to the Blogger site. This will not effect subscriptions via iTunes or any of the podcatchers out there.

I'll be kicking off the new year with some instructional videos, quickly followed by road trip episodes from Kentucky Music Winter Weekend, Winter Dulcimer Fest, NAMM Show and the Key West Dulcimer Fest. New graphics and format will be introduced as well. It's my aim to return to four times a month and more if the event calls for it.

If you'd like to donate to Dulcimerica, please use this button:

Even if you're not a PayPal member, you can still make a donation by following the link at the bottom of the screen. Thank you for allowing me to make a telethon post here - I will more than likely do the same through the podcast as well. Your contribution is very much appreciated!

A lesson in chord voicings

This will be brief, yet complicated. Don't be frightened.

I've been learning "Wichita Lineman", a song I've loved for years, and found that if you were to simply look up the chords online, you wouldn't come anywhere close to playing it as it was recorded by Glen Campbell. For example, one of the many sites I found offering tablature for the tune laid this out for my consumption:

Wichita Lineman:  Jimmy Webb (as performed by Glen Campbell)

 
Intro:  F  Gm7  F  Gm7
 
                       Bbmaj7  Am7                     Gm7
I am a lineman for the county,    and I drive the main road
 
Dm7              Am7     G           D
searchin' in the sun for another overload.
 
                          Am7                               
I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you through the 

G
whine
 
Gm                 D        Asus4                Bb
   And the Wichita Lineman       is still on the line.
 
 
Am7   Bb   Gm7
 
                       Bbmaj7    Am7                    Gm7
I know I need a small vacation, but it don't look like rain.
 
    Dm7              Am7                      G              
And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the 

D
strain.
 
                         Am7                              G
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.
 
Gm                  D         Asus4                  Bb
    And the Wichita Lineman          is still on the line.
 
 
Am7     Bb     Gm7    

Solo over: 

Bbmaj7   Am7    Gm7

Dm7   Am7    G    D

                         Am7                              G
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.
 
Gm                  D         Asus4                  Bb
    And the Wichita Lineman          is still on the line.


Am7     Bb     Gm7    


Bb   C   Bb   C   Gm7 (or C9 is a nice touch)   C   Bb   C  

(fade)

Okay, first of all - you diatonic dulcimer players are not going to have fun with this, sorry about that. But you chromatic dulcimer players and other instrumentalists will find this interesting. If you know this tune, go ahead and sing the words with those chords and ask yourself "just what is missing here?"

The problem is the lack of definitive chord voicing. All of these chords are laid out pretty straightforward starting from the root and then progressing through the thirds, fifths and sevenths. What makes this tune so dreamy is how passing tones step through the chords and create a sense of ascending or descending continuity. In this song's case, it's mainly a descending line that creates the drama. What we need, to make it sound as it was recorded, are chord inversions.

A basic 1-3-5 or 1-b3-5 chord is going to have the root note on the bottom, the middle note in the middle and the fifth at the end or top. Using different chord voicings can change the fundamental sound of a chord, even though it uses the same notes, by rearranging the order of the notes. For example, changing the order of notes so that the third is on the bottom, acting as the bass or root - it becomes a first inversion.

So, a C major chord: C - E - G would become E - C - G.

Now, make the fifth the bottom or root note, and you have a second inversion.

G - C - E

This is the most basic stuff. If you're using extended or "color" chords, there are more than the two possible inversions. But I'm not going into that right now.

When you write out a chord symbol for an inversion, it's often called a "slash chord." You'll see the chord symbol and then a slash and then another note. The note after the slash indicates that this is what the root or bass note should be. So, a first inversion C chord would look like this: C/E

A second inversion C chord would read: C/G

With that in mind, let's re-voice the above chords for "Wichita Lineman" and see if it doesn't sound more like the recorded version. I've also changed a few chords for us three-stringers, to get to the heart of the changes. Chord adaptations are in bold.

Intro:  F  Gm7  F  Gm7
 
                       Bbmaj7  Am7                     Gm7
I am a lineman for the county,    and I drive the main road
 
Dm7              Am      G           D
searchin' in the sun for another overload.
 
                          C                              
I hear you singing in the wires, I can hear you through the 

G/B
whine
 
Gm/Bb              D/A        Asus4                Bb
   And the Wichita Lineman       is still on the line.
 
 
Am7   Bb   Gm7
 
                       Bbmaj7    Am7                    Gm7
I know I need a small vacation, but it don't look like rain.
 
    Dm7              Am                       G              
And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the 

D
strain.
 
                         C                                G/B
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.
 
Gm/Bb               D/A         Asus4                  Bb
    And the Wichita Lineman          is still on the line.
 
 
Am7     Bb     Gm7    

Solo over: 

Bbmaj7   Am7    Gm7

Dm7   Am7    G    D


                         C                                G/B
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.
 
Gm/Bb               D/A         Asus4                  Bb
    And the Wichita Lineman          is still on the line.
 


Am7     Bb     Gm7    


Bb   C   Bb   C   Gm7 (or C9 is a nice touch)   C   Bb   C  (fade)

Can you hear how the descending notes in the chorus create the melancholy effect in the song? Not the same at all if you played all of the chords as straight 1-3-5 voicings. Sometimes, a chord inversion is a strong element of movement in a tune, so be sure to learn as many different voicings of chords on your instrument, whatever it might be!

Key West Dulcimer Fest 2010