Go Ahead: B minor.

I hope you hung out in the key of D Major for awhile and had some fun exploring! I've been exploring the joys of spring cleaning here at the studio (and in the guest room and in the bedroom.) So sorry about the delay in posting the follow-up to our Major key study by delving into the relative minor key:

For every Major scale there is a relative minor or natural minor scale that shares the same notes, albeit in a different order. To find it within the Major key, simply begin on the sixth note of the scale and play the seven notes in sequence:

Major

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

minor

B  C#  D  E  F# G  A
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

Though we keep the scale degrees the same, the character of each tone remains the same as it was in the Major scale.

  

Major

D    E    F#    G    A    B    C#
I   IIm  IIIm  IV    V   VIm  VII°

minor

B    C#    D    E    F#   G    A
Im   II°  III   IVm  Vm   VI  VII 

This is as good a time as any to talk about more complex scale harmonization. As discussed in the last post, one of the foundations of harmony is taking a Major or minor scale and then adding a second note and then a third note on top to form a chord. For each note of the scale comes a full three notes played at the same time or a triad. You play one chord for each scale note and this creates harmonies all the way up the scale. To get the chord tones, just look at the scale and skip every other note.

Based off of the 1st minor scale degree, a B minor chord would be B (skip a letter), D (skip a letter) and F# as the notes. G Major would be G, B and D. See the pattern?

I'm going to write something in B minor, just to play with some chords a bit:

i - iv - VII - III

VI - iv - III - VII | ii°

which translates into:

Bm - Em - A - D

G - Em - D - A | C#dim

Okay, there are the changes. Eight measures with that final measure being three counts of A and then one count of C#dim as a passing chord. Passing chords can be viewed as "filler chords" to assist you in getting from one chord to another. Chords built off of the Major seventh scale degree (the same as the minor second in this minor scale) carry an inherent tension that leads naturally to the roots of these two scales. (6 1/2 - 6 - 8 will form a C#dim chord for you. Try playing that and then going to Bm. Then play the C#dim and go to D Major. Hear the resolution?

Quick review on chord building:

Major chords consist of a root - Major third - perfect fifth

In the case of D Major - skip every other letter from the root:

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#

D - F# - A = D Major

Minor chords consist of a root - minor third - perfect fifth

In the case of D minor - skip every other letter from the root.

D - E - F - G - A - Bb - C

D - F - A = D minor.

Another way to do that is to use the Major scale and simply take the Major third (F#) down a half-step (F).

Diminished chords are like minor chords but you also take the perfect fifth down a half step as well.

If you have a 8+ fret on your dulcimer, you can play a 6+ - 6+ - 8+ chord, which is C# Major. Then flatten, lower the third and fifth a half-step. What was C# - F - G# becomes C# - E - G. C# diminished!

In this exercise, play through the above chord progressions and then work out a melody that will fit neatly over the top. Generally speaking, when writing melodies, you should select notes that can be found within the scale of each chord. For example - melody notes for Bm should come from the B minor scale. Melody notes for A should come from the A Major scale and so on. Some of your melody notes will obviously be found in many different scales, which makes it easy to sustain melodies through the chord progressions. When you're ready to end your song, be sure to end it on the root of B minor.

For my tune, I've chosen a 3/4 time signature:

Go Ahead, B Minor.tef

Go Ahead, B Minor.pdf

Fun With 7th Chords

As promised, we'll have a quick look at 7th chords, of which there are a few. Please refer to the .pdf for D Scale Harmonization.

So, we've got Major chords and minor chords plus the odd-sounding diminished chord. What else is there? The answer to that question is "plenty." But for starters, we'll look at the different types of 7th chords.

When you see D7 - you're looking at the fundamental 7th chord, known as a dominant seventh. Is it bossy? Perhaps a little. I don't want to get into all of the scary music theory terms too early here, but suffice it to say that each of the scale degrees have names associated with them that are descriptive of their strengths and weaknesses. The fifth note of any scale is often referred to as the "dominant."

If you build a major triad starting with the fifth note of the scale and add a fourth note to the mix, you'll get a naturally occurring dominant seventh. Let's do this with D Major:

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#
    *        *   *       *

So, we're skipping every other letter, beginning with A, which is the fifth note of the D Major scale.

A (skip) C# (skip) E (skip) G

So, take A - C# - E - G and play them all simultaneously, you've got an A7 chord. Another way of thinking about this: take a Major chord and add the seventh note of the scale, flattened a half-step. In the case of D7 - we'd build a D Major chord:

D - F# - A and then add the seventh note of the D Major scale, which is C#. Then take that down a half-step to C. D - F# - A - C is a D7 chord.

As dulcimer players, we are often playing on three string courses, so how do we add a fourth note? By playing a rootless voicing. That is, taking the root out of the picture and playing only the remaining three notes. Believe it or not, it still works! Let's play an A7 chord this way.

Play 1 - 2 - 4 on your diatonic dulcimer. Now drop the A on the melody string down to the third fret, which is G. You're now playing, from bass to melody, E - C# - G which is enough to play the A7. Cool, huh?

Now, let's suppose you see this note: GMaj7. This is a Major seventh chord. Begin the same, with a Major chord. But now add the seventh note of the Major scale. In the case of G:

G - A - B - C - D - E - F#

Skipping every other note: G - B - D - F#

Try this - Play a 3 - 1 - 0 chord, your G Major in diatonia. You're playing, from bass to melody, G - B - D. Now, on the melody string, replace D with F# at the second fret. Voila! You're playing a GMaj7! It's got a distinctly jazzy sound and a great chord substitution for G Major.

A minor seventh chord takes, you guessed it, a minor triad and adds the minor seventh to it. Let's take a look at Em7:

Beginning with the E minor scale which has, remember, one sharp (F#) - 

E - F# - G - A - B - C - D

Skipping every other letter we get E - G - B - D

Play 8 - 6 - 5 and you've got E minor. Now play 8 - 6 - 7 and you've traded the B on the melody string for the flat seventh (D) and you've got an Em7! Remember that when the number 7 is there by itself, always use the flat/minor seventh.

So, what happens when you see AmMaj7? You play a minor triad and add the seventh note of the major scale, in other words, the Major seventh.

A minor scale

A - B - C - D - E - F - G

A Major scale

A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G#

Play 6 - 7 - 8 and you've got your A minor chord. (A - C - E) Now, switch out the root (A) for the G#. 6 - 6+ - 8 (A - G# - E) and you've got an AmMaj7 chord. Sort of mysterious sounding, isn't it?

Of course, not all of these chord options are going to be available for diatonic dulcimer players, but it helps to know how to build these chords. If you're looking down at your fretboard asking "what are my options?" The best way to proceed is to know what scales you can play from every root spot on the fretboard. And once you know those scales, you can build chords and begin working with extensions, "color chords", etc. If you're playing four-string equidistant, you'll get even more benefit out of these exercises.

Okay then! We've explored the key of D Major and its relative key of B minor. Coming up next, we'll get into the key of A Major and I'll introduce the Circle of Fifths as a way of keeping all of this stuff together. Happy Playing! And thank you to all who have been donating through PayPal. I appreciate it very much!

Studies in D for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer

[UPDATED: If you've already downloaded the .pdf for D Diatonic Scales, please download the correct version for D Diatonic Scales again. Inadvertently left the setting on CAPO 3, which effects fingering. Thank you!]

For a reference starting point to this series, please visit the link for Studies in C for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer.




• Download the .pdf for D Diatonic Scales



• Download the .pdf for D Chromatic Scales



• Download the .pdf for D Scale Harmonization

As we continue along on our journey through the 15 Major keys (and their relative minors), we reach the key of D - D for dulcimer. Since most mountain dulcimer players begin playing the instrument with a tuning of DAD (dd-A-D) this should be fairly familiar to many. Once again, chromatic players need not retune for any of these explorations.

Where the key of C had no flats (b) or sharps (#) and the key of G has one sharp, which is F# - we now add to that one sharp for the key of D. In addition to F#, we've also now got C#. Remember, flats and sharps effectively mean to lower (flatten) or raise (sharpen) notes a half step. Following the seven-note pattern, the D Major scale looks like this with its corresponding scale degrees:

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

A note by itself is simply that: a note.

Two notes comprise an interval: the measured distance between two notes.

Three notes officially becomes a chord or triad. You can also have more than three notes in a chord, but more on that later.

Begin building chords out of each note in the D Major scale by first choosing the root note and then skipping every other letter in the scale like this:

D  F#  A = D Major
E  G   B = E minor
F# A  C# = F#minor
G  B   D = G Major
A  C#  E = A Major
B  D  F# = B minor
C# E  G  = C# diminished

Major = root, Major third, perfect fifth
minor = root, minor third, perfect fifth

diminished = root, minor third, diminished fifth (or "flat fifth" or b5 or 5b)
augmented = root, Major third, raised or "augmented" fifth (or #5 or 5#)

Remember that even though we are dealing with seven-note scales, there are notes in between some of these steps that can be found by raising or lowering the notes a half-step.

According to Christian Schubart's "Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst", published in 1806, D Major is the key "triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key."

The key of D is certainly a preferred key for mountain dulcimer players, Old-Time performers and Celtic session musicans.

For every Major scale there is a relative minor or natural minor scale that shares the same notes, albeit in a different order. To find it within the Major key, simply begin on the sixth note of the scale and play the seven notes in sequence:

Major

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

minor

B  C#  D  E  F# G  A
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

I know I'm repeating things quite a bit, but that's one of the fundamental rules of learning - repeat, rinse, repeat (okay, maybe not the rinse part) until it's locked into your memory.

Speaking of repeating, you'll notice in the Major and minor diatonic and chromatic studies that are available for download on each of our key studies blog posts, I have not touched upon the relative (or natural) minor for each of the Major keys. Rather, I've dealt with Major and minor scales coming out of the same root. (C Major - C minor - G Major - G minor, etc.) This is to help you with playing Major and minor examples in the same areas of the fretboard. Nevertheless, the construction of both types of scales is the same:

Major

Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step

minor

Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step

(Did you figure out what the relative Major key of G minor was? How about the relative Major key of D minor?)


Scale Harmonizations

I figure now's as good a time as any to begin covering some of the extra materials in the .pdf files you're hopefully downloading. Along with Major and minor scales (and there are a few different types of minor scales, which we'll get into with the next post) for diatonic and chromatic fretboards, I've also included scale harmonizations. Scale harmonization can be described as using each note of a scale as a root note for a chord and then adding other notes within that scale to form a chord.

So, instead of playing a scale of seven notes, you're playing a scale of seven chords in sequence. This can be effectively viewed as a chord progression and it's the foundation upon which most music in the western world is based.

By the way - notice how the term "notes" is an anagram for "tones"? Cool, huh? They are one and the same.

Also, notice how I've been capitalizing the term "Major" and spelling "minor" with a lower-case letter. This has been by design, leading up to a better understanding of reading scale degrees.

Let's take our D Major and minor scales with their Arabic numerals (1-7):

Major

D  E  F#  G  A  B  C#
1  2  3   4  5  6  7

minor

B  C#  D  E  F# G  A
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

Now, let's replace the Arabic numerals with Roman numerals (I-VII)

Major

D   E   F#   G   A   B   C#
I  II  III  IV   V   VI  VII

minor

B   C#   D   E   F#  G   A
I   II  III  IV  V   VI  VII 

Now, remember, when we build chords off of each of these notes, skipping every other letter, the result is a mixture of 3 Major, 3 minor and 1 diminished chord. That's just the way the math works out.

For Major scales, you can always count on 1, 4 and 5 being Major chords (or scales), 2, 3 and 6 being minor chords (or scales) and the 7th being a diminished chord (or scale.)

For minor scales, you can always count on 1, 4 and 5 being minor chords (or scales), 3, 6 and 7 being Major chords (or scales) and 2 being a diminished chord (or scale).

If we use all uppercase Roman numbers, then we just add a lowercase "m" to those scale degrees that are minor. We then add a degree symbol "°" (like what is used to denote temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit) to the degrees that are diminished. Nothing is changed with the Major degrees. So we get this for the Major and minor scales:

Major

D    E    F#    G    A    B    C#
I   IIm  IIIm  IV    V   VIm  VII°

minor

B    C#    D    E    F#   G    A
Im   II°  III   IVm  Vm   VI  VII 

Notice how in either scale, the characteristics of each scale degree don't change between Major and minor scales. D remains Major, B remains minor, C# remains diminished, and so on. The order changes, but that's it.

Though this method is perfectly acceptable, there is also another way of going about this, and it's considered easier to read by many. You simply make the minor and diminished scale degrees lower-case. But be sure to keep the degree symbol on the diminished:

Major

D    E    F#    G    A    B    C#
I   ii   iii   IV    V   vi   vii°

minor

B    C#    D    E    F#   G    A
i   ii°   III   iv    v   VI  VII 

WHY is this important? Well, by using the scale degrees, we can talk about the progression of chords without having to specify the key.

For example, one of the most popular chord progressions of all time is:

I - IV - V

What does that mean? Well, at first glance, we can see that they are all Major chords. So, let's assign a key: D.

If we're using a D Major scale, that means that:

D  -  G  -  A
I  - IV  -  V

The chords built off of the first, fourth and fifth scale degrees. Try playing it on your mountain dulcimer (or whatever instrument you've got with you.) Sound familiar?

So, what if we see this?:

i  -  VII   -  VI

Our first clue that something is different is that our root chord is minor (lowercase.) So we're dealing with something in a minor key, even though it has Major chords as well. If we are in the key of Bm (B minor) then:

B  -   A    -  G
i  -  VII   -  VI

Of course, you can also write it out as Bm - A - G, but our focus now is on identifying Major, minor and diminished chords by looking at the scale degrees.

Next up: we'll get into the relative minor key from D Major and also dip into a look at chroma or extended chords.

A GEm of a Key

Howdy and welcome back!

The focus now has been on the key of "G." It has one sharp, which is F#. As mentioned in the previous post, we're now going to look at the minor side of this key.

We begin by assigning a number or scale degree to each note; seven notes total. For every Major scale, there is a relative minor scale that shares the same seven notes, only in a different sequence. If you begin the Major scale on the sixth note and then run in order for seven letters, you get a minor scale that takes its name from that sixth scale degree.

Major

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

minor

E  F#  G  A  B  C  D
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

In this case, the sixth note is "E", so if we begin with "E" and run through seven notes - we get an E minor scale. This one's easy to remember because the Major scale is G and the minor is Em. That spells "GEm." Not all Majors and their relative minors spell something cool, but you may want to play some word games like that to memorize a handful of them (with C Major and its relative minor of A, I sometimes think of a cam-shaft or "CAm.") You can always simply count six notes from the root, which is G. Or, you can go backwards two notes from the root, which puts you at six as well. There are a lot of little tricks that will help you to recall this stuff.

Quick recap: The order of notes has changed, yet it is still the same seven notes of the G Major scale. When played in this new order, beginning with E, the steps between notes become altered slightly, which gives minor chords and scales a darker, more somber tone. Now remember - the point at which we begin on the scale has changed, so the notes have not. Which means that each of those notes retains its Major/minor/diminished quality. You'll just encounter them in a different order like so:

Em -  F#dim  -  G   -  Am   -   Bm   -  C   -   D
i  -   ii°   - III  -  iv   -    v   -  VI  -  VII

Remember that, in the case of a Major scale, each of the seven notes can be used to build a chord or a scale. Because of the relationship between notes, scales/chords built from the 1st, 4th and 5th notes are Major; scales/chords built from the 2nd, 3rd and 6th are minor. The 7th note yields the mysterious-sounding diminished chords and scales.

But, if you begin this scale on the sixth note and use all of the same notes as the Major scale, you get the relative minor scale (also known as the natural minor or Aeolian mode.) So now, chords and scales built off of the 1st, 4th and 5th notes are minor, the 3rd, 6th and 7th now present Major scales and chords while the 2nd is the location for the diminished chords and scales.

To explore the key of Em in diatonic dulcimer land, here is an arrangement of "The Star Of The County Down." Tuning is dd-A-D (DAD) with a capo at the 1st fret. By using the capo, we are first putting the dulcimer into a tuning of ee-B-E (EBE) and then we are also using the E minor scale which begins at the first fret and continues through the 8th fret without using the 6 1/2. Below is the sheet music, the Tab|Edit file and a mp3 of the tune played one time through.

Star of the County Down.pdf

Star of the County Down.tef


The Star Of The County Down.mp3


So G Major has one sharp - F#. That means that E minor also has one sharp - F#. Remember that to go through your scales, you simply repeat the first seven letters of the alphabet, A through G. No matter where you start, whether it's on C or G or A or E, you'll always get to G and then start over again with A. There is no H, I, J, etc. Then, it's just a matter of knowing which flats and sharps are in each key. Once you know that, you simply add the appropriate symbol to one of those seven letters. Right now, we're going through the sharps and after that, we'll be exploring the flats. Not all of these are going to be suitable for diatonic mountain dulcimer, but it doesn't hurt to know all of the keys. This knowledge will assist you in playing other instruments as well. In fact; the more you know about music theory, the more inclined you are towards understanding how to play music in more ways! For chromatic mountain dulcimers, of course, this study will truly help you understand your instrument better.

Next up: probably the most popular key for mountain dulcimer players - that's D. D for dulcimer!

Dulcimerica 184 - "The 1 1/2 Fret Pt. 2"

Dulcimerica 183 - "The 1 1/2 Fret Pt. 1"

Studies in G for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer

For a reference starting point to this series, please visit the link for Studies in C for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer.



• Download the .pdf for G Diatonic Scales



• Download the .pdf for G Chromatic Scales



• Download the .pdf for G Scale Harmonization

The next stop on our journey through the 15 Major keys (and their relative minors) takes us to the key of G, which is an easy one for diatonic mountain dulcimer players. For this exploration, you'll need to be in DAD (dd-A-D) tuning with a capo at the third fret. Chromatic mountain dulcimer players will not need to use a capo, of course. If you don't have a capo - get yourself one quickly! It's an invaluable tool for switching keys without retuning.

Where the key of C had no flats (b) or sharps (#) - the key of G has one sharp, which is F#. Remember, flats and sharps effectively mean to lower (flatten) or raise (sharpen) notes a half step. Following the seven-note pattern, the G Major scale looks like this with its corresponding scale degrees:

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Off of each note in this scale, you can build either a chord or another scale. If we simply start anywhere on the scale and add every other note, we'll build a series of triads:

G  B  D = G Major
A  C  E = A minor
B  D  F# = B minor
C  E  G = C Major
D  F# A = D Major
E  G  B = E minor
F# A  C = F# diminished

Major = root, Major third, perfect fifth
minor = root, minor third, perfect fifth

diminished = root, minor third, diminished fifth (or "flat fifth" or b5 or 5b)
augmented = root, Major third, raised or "augmented" fifth (or #5 or 5#)

As we move through these 15 keys, we'll be adding sharps and, eventually, flats to the scale. According to Sir James Jeans, "Every additional sharp in the key signature is supposed to add to the brightness and sparkle of the music, while every flat contributes softness, pensiveness, and even melancholy."

The key of G is certainly a preferred key for many session musicians from Celtic and Old Time music traditions.

To review, out of each Major scale comes a relative minor scale that shares the exact same notes and chords, but in a different order. By starting on the sixth note of the Major scale and playing through all seven notes, ending an octave above where you began, you will then be playing the natural minor scale, which in the case of G Major ends up being E minor:

Major

G A B C D E F#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

minor

E  F#  G  A  B  C  D
1  2   3  4  5  6  7 

Same notes, different order.

You'll notice in the Major and minor diatonic and chromatic studies, I have not touched upon the relative (or natural) minor. Rather, I've dealt with Major and minor scales coming out of the same root. (C Major - C minor - G Major - G minor, etc.) This is to help you with playing Major and minor examples in the same areas of the fretboard. Nevertheless, the construction of both types of scales is the same:

Major

Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step

minor

Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step

(By the way - if your fingering exercises are coming out of G minor - then what is the relative Major key?)

Use the tablature above for fingering exercises, working out of the "boxes" to get familiar with the patterns. The scale harmonizations exercise take the various scales and stacks chords at equal distances apart, much like we've built triads out of the root notes of each scale note. Skip every other letter in the scale and, for each note, you'll have built a triad. Notice how certain "spellings" result in Major chords (bright and happy sounding), minor chords (somber and pensive) or diminished chords (quizzical, odd). For chromatic players, I've also included harmonizations for the harmonic minor, melodic minor and four-tone (seventh) scales.

Diatonic players take note: without a Bb or F, you'll need to bend in order to play the G minor scale listed in the tablature. Bends are a good habit to get into, so I'll be including all of the proper minor scales for each key that we explore.

Next post: we'll look more at the relative minor of G Major.

Dulcimerica 182 - "Build Me Up, Buttercup"

Gear In Action, Not Inactive Gear

So it's been a whirlwind since my last post, heading down to Key West and putting on our second annual Key West Dulcimer Fest: an easy-going gig if there ever was one. I took the Bose L1 Model 1 down there as our P.A. system for the instructor concerts and also ended up using it to amplify Butch Ross during his stint at the Key West Food and Wine Festival wine stroll on the first Thursday night. Armed with extra cables, I got intimate with the system fairly quickly and in the moment as I began to understand what it was capable of doing.

I also took delivery on my latest mountain dulcimer from Folkcraft Instruments, this one with the Fishman Aura Pro pre-amp built into it. Truthfully, I've not had much time to mess around with the Aura (it involves some downloads - and I've been without wi-fi for a while now) but the dulcimer is absolutely gorgeous and has a magnificent sound; great tone and volume. Last night, I performed my first solo show with the L1 and honestly don't know why I waited this long to get the system. It is like night and day - being able to hear yourself clearly, project out into a room (in this case, McWell's back bar) and, with only one of the B1 bass modules, still had enough bass to support the drum loops and bass pedal tones. I decided to go with one bass module as a test and will probably use both next time for added push.

The next few weeks will be spent experimenting in the lab with the new gear, seeing just how far I can push the system and changing my flow of operation. There are some things that I'd like to see improved and other things that have that taste of "yes, finally!" Of course, as things progress, I'll report here, just in case you're on a similar gear discovery of your own.

Living In The Future or What They Can Do With Sound Nowadays

Sucks to have missed NAMM this year. Still, the Anaheim Convention Center could scarcely hold back the pure flood of new inventive gear on the market for today's musician. Again, sort of swinging between two very distinctly different approaches to sound: the pure preservation of natural acoustics versus jack your signal into something other than what it actually is. The twain do meet, which makes for wonderful tonal contrast. The primal versus the chordal capitalist.

The solo show has evolved from the keyboard-and-backing-tracks whimsy of the 90's to something that's more organic, yet still very much wired-in. As an 80's kid, there was this huge embracing of synthetic music, with subsequent rejection as the next decade welcomed shabby, dirty rock as the new mainstream. I've discovered that while audiences unfamiliar with mountain dulcimer take to it very quickly - it's lacking the same kind of full-spectrum sound that a guitar puts out. With fewer strings of a lighter gauge and a smaller sound box, the dulcimer sounds typically quaint when on-stage. My approach was to get something to boost and function as the voice of a bass guitar (Octave pedal), a delay for creating tight acoustic sequences and a loop pedal to orchestrate it into parts. Along with drum loops and live percussion samples, this is a multi-layered approach to creating music. It's like the music exists beside itself in a parallel universe. You lay down eight or sixteen measures of chord changes, then start the loop, adding chops, a melody and maybe a harmony. Then, lay down a bass track and then pick up another instrument and solo while all of that is going on.

It's like tap-dancing. As if it isn't hard enough to play an instrument and sing with focus; then all this gandy-dancing going on.

And each little gee-gaw has its own instruction manual, software and little twirly knobs with levels to be set. By the time you factor that into a P.A. system (with or without monitors) and begin to play your set, you just never know how well you'll hear anything. Sometimes you go an entire set, tweaking things on your end to get it right. If you can't hear well, it's a block between you and the music, not to mention you and the audience.

Gee-Gaw #1: Gee-Whiz!

As part of the next phase of evolution for the solo show, I've been using more chromatic dulcimer as a way of keeping the road paved ahead. The modal structure of diatonic dulcimer is not something I'd gladly give up, but taking the same approach and applying it to a chromatic scale serves up multiple layers of benefits, from giving you a foundation based on chord shapes and scale to training you how to recognize chromatic patterns on the standard dulcimer. More mountain dulcimer players should give it a try - it's really not as hard as you might think.

So, Folkcraft has built me a new double with one side diatonic (with a 1+ and 8+) and the other side chromatic. This will be a 29" VSL, which should be interesting, stretch-wise for the fingers, but the tone should be fantastic.

Installed as the pre-amp is the Fishman Aura Pro. The Prefix Pro has been what I've been using and it's been incredible having that control over sound and tone right there on the instrument. Guitars have had it for awhile, why not mountain dulcimers? So many different tones for so many different rooms and surfaces. Shiny floors and glassy windows, wide open tile or tight wooden bunkers, they all change your sound. Being able to adjust the sound of the dulcimer in each different space is invaluable for performers. Not long after, Fishman debuted a pre-amp called the Prefix Pro Blend, which included the under-the-saddle pickup along with an actual microphone inside, which allowed you to blend the signals together.

With an ear towards replicating and amplifying the natural sounds of a gentle wooden instrument so that the original tone is pure and fresh (which makes even better source signal for all the crazywacky effects that you can channel it through - acoustic guitars make for the best distortion - it's true!) the Aura Pro takes that concept a step further. Dulcimers have been hooking up with USB computer ports for some time now, but are increasing in number. The irony is, the closer we get to preserving and projecting natural acoustic audio, the more goo-gads it seems to involve (at least they're getting lighter.)


Gee-Gaw #2: Good-God!

The first time I ever heard a Bose system it was like walking into the path of a bolt of lightning, struck in awe, left standing there thinking that it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. Many years later, a friend and I went to a Bose home theater demonstration and actually left with tears in our eyes. Bose has got a very interesting history. I'm convinced that there is more than meets the eye with them, but in the meantime, they can keep making cool stuff for us gear heads.

Like the L1 System.

By putting the speakers behind you, getting rid of the need for monitors and distributing the sound in a tightly packed configuration of speakers that send sound forward, not up and down, you get a cleaner, purer sound without needing to be loud. It doesn't need to be loud to be heard - it just needs to be clear.

The L1 Personal Amplification System blew my mind when I first heard it demoed and it's been a lusty number of years. After socking away savings and a massive fire sale in December, I chose not to settle for anything less than the Legend. Two bass modules give me support in the bottom end for drums, percussion and bass, one stand. Pedals and microphone, clear space, clear sound. After assembling the parts (the instructions literally are illustrated with pictures), Jae's eyes went wide as I put in a Peter Gabriel song and slowly began to crank it up. At low level - everything can be heard. At medium level - it's putting out a solid amount of sound, yet we're still able to have a conversation standing just feet from the speakers. Getting into more aggressive levels, slowly, the two subwoofers begin pushing more air and the room begins to pump. Extraordinary clarity.

The quest for tone and the communication of sound is something that performers must dance with for all of their careers. If it's not plugged in and demanding adjustment, it's unplugged and needing setting up or redesigning. We're hard wired as humans to push for perfection, however unattainable. The journey that we take while on the quest for anything is part of the training for enjoying those moments when everything becomes clear. With your music, which is close to the bone and next to the heart, you want to present it in the way that you hear it first. And when they come out with the consumer-level tech that allows music signals to be beamed right into the vibrations of your skull, you can count me out on jumping that bandwagon but I'll sure as hell be there for the demo.

Stompin' In The Garden and Barkin' At The Moon

There's always been stomp-box-loving people around me. Stomping. Looping. One-man-banding. I've done a little tap-dancing in my time, but never so much as to necessitate an actual "pedal board."

Well, they make a lot of sense, actually. And I knew exactly what pedals would be right for the job.

The mountain dulcimer is a magical, feathery instrument that has no problem capturing the attention of informal audiences. Its sound spectrum, however, is much narrower than that of comparable instruments that might be up on a stage with a solo performer. When not performing dulcimer in the traditional style, I opt for incorporating the instrument as a controller for this wild array of stuff. At the heart of the operation (for right now, anyway) is the Boss RC-20 Loop Station. I pre-load it with beats and bits, leaving some tracks empty for laying in multiple tracks of dulcimer; leads, rhythms, harmonies, sound effects, whatever comes to mind. Not only can you record your main instrument, you can also plug in a microphone or MP3 player and sample from other sources. Awesome sauce.

After weighing several options, I went with a Boss OC-3 Super Octave. Es chocolate polifónico, you can choose between mono and polyphonic modes and work multiple octaves of deep, fat bass. I kick this in and play on the bass string to lay in foundation on loops or live as a lead. It supports full chords with an earth-shaking pedal tone that, with proper E.Q., can turn your three strings into a seven-string, drop-D monster.

Finally, as a long-time owner of the classic Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal, I traded up into a DD-7, which includes a tap tempo feature for matching beats and routing for true stereo effects.

Create a beat on the drum that's being recorded into the loop pedal, now stop recording and switch on the octaver - hit record and play bass string on the dulcimer, switch octaver off and then layer in some normal dulcimer while tempo matching on the delay pedal - activate delay and you've got a shimmering, sparkling echo of your dulcimer playing, locked in to the rhythm track that you've just created. Of course you can see where this would allow for no sleep at the most crazed phases of the moon, it is simply an absorbing experience. It's you as the orchestra.

Anywhoo - there's a couple of Danalectro pedals in the picture up there - a tuner and a Daddy-O distortion pedal. I think I gave the tuner to Stephen Seifert. I don't remember. What I do remember is that I never did like tap-dancing. It has been a learning experience and for the bottom line question: has it accomplished what I was going for? It sure has. And probably in ways that I haven't even run into yet.

Is There Anybody In There?

We live next to an interstate, a fire station and a gentleman in a giant 4x4 who's fond of music with deep bass and, at the most horribly unexpected times, his real McCoy Amtrak air-horn. Floor space is at a premium, so building isolation booths never even entered the equation. After seriously considering giving up a chunk of the studio floor space in order to create a vocal booth, I ran across the VoxGuard.

In order to get that rich, open sound - we needed to be using condenser mics, which are notoriously good at recording everything in a mile radius. Still, with perhaps some more reflection and sound focusing (and post-production E.Q. tweaking on the occasional Silver Meteor) it could be pulled off. After reading several reviews at TweakHeadz, I settled (and why is that?) for the Studio Projects B-1.

This is all great gear, make no mistake about it, but in most of these upgrades, I'm stopping way short of pie-in-the-sky dreaming in the quest for the most excellent set-up. Money is usually the deciding factor, followed quickly and exuberantly by specs and word-of-mouth or good reviews. If people are generally digging it, you know? I'd love a studio pair of AKG-414 mics. At my bracket, 't'ain't hap'nin'.

Doesn't matter though, there's no jadedness here. The first real tests of the mic with VoxGuard have been extraordinarily good (and with that Tube Pac shaping the sound - it gets back to that "preserving" the audio side of things.)

Next Up: Living In The Future

Let Me In The Sound

When it comes to music, sounds as a general sort of array, you're either trying to preserve and present the sound with fidelity or you're attempting to change the sound in one or many ways and create something that's hopefully unique as much as it's familiar enough to resonate with the listener. Most folk musicians are in the former camp, keeping gentle company with acoustic music without amplification or amplified in such a way that it retains as much of its natural quality as possible. I'm down with that. When it boils right down to it, nothing beats the sound of an instrument au naturel.

But face it - sometimes, it's helpful to plug in so that you may be heard. Proper amplification takes whatever it is that you are doing and presents it to the listener as you intended it to be heard. Anything less and you might be settling, but there are many fine reasons for that too.

Take, for example, Audio 2000's AWP6040. I got this from Mike Clemmer at Wood 'N' Strings after he told me about how he uses it when teaching workshops.

It's a little 25 watt battery-powered wireless P.A. system that comes with both a lavalier and a lapel mic plus inputs for guitar cable both 1/4" and 3.5" - aux MP3 player jack - you can get one of the mics on you, clip the transmitter to your belt, plug your instrument directly into the box or splitter into the pack, set the tone, individual channel volumes, add a little slapback to the voice and, if you're strolling - you've got 100 feet to wander while you play and sing or speak.

I use this when I teach workshops at festivals and also in the past for ceremonies, house concerts and, tonight, a birthday party. It's truly surprising just how well this unit punches the sound out there. Better still: I don't know what Mike's selling these for now, but last summer, it was a steal at under $100. Right?

This is the *gear* post, so it's going to get tweaky in here real quick. It'll all end with the story of why I'm expecting a delivery in about twelve hours. Here now, the beginning of the past four month's deeper trip to get into the sound.

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, now
God, I’m going down
I don’t wanna drown now
Meet me in the sound - Bono

Is It Warm In Here?

If you haven't seen them already (and you can always access these kinds of posts by clicking on the "gear" label in the label cloud on the right) the Tube Pac probably started this whole move to upgrade, so this has been over the course of a year then. Recording mostly with dynamic microphones (Shure SM-57, SM-58Beta) left me wanting to capture more depth and richness in the studio, which led to this single-channel tube pre-amplification and compression unit. Right away, the difference in sound quality was amazing.

Then came the Digitech Vocalist 4, which is really quite funny to sneak into tunes and watch as people try to figure out where your other singers are.

Finally had to break down and get another audio interface. With one fried channel, the PreSonus Firebox was only half useful, not to mention glitchy. After a horrible side-trip into the world of M-Audio, I settled (a-ha, that word again) for a PreSonus Firestudio Mobile because they didn't have the Saffire Pro 40 at the Guitar Center near the house. Let's not chalk this up to impatience - album deadlines dictated that a glitching interface needed replaced, like, right then. And so you do.

There's still the occasional glitch - but nothing that harms recording quality. Just quality of non-frustration levels while waiting for Apple's Audio/MIDI program to connect the dots. No big. Play a round of Words With Friends. Right?

By the way, that P.A. pictured at the top of this post? That was mine - Fender Passport PD150. Nice unit - 4 channels (well, 3 channels and a stereo auxiliary), great for vocals and light duty work, but don't try and put anything that resembles bass through it. Nuh-uh. And unfortunately, that's exactly where I was attempting to go through all of this tone building and developing performance additions. As much as there is a time to strum the mountain dulcimer unaffected and free of cables, there is also much rejoicing to be had when you can really throw it through a heap of processors and turn it into the paintbrushes of your musical dreams.

Next Up: Stompin' In The Garden and Barkin' At The Moon

The Pursuit of Tone and A Minor Event

Good week to you!

The focus has been on the key of "C." It's the only one out of fifteen keys that has absolutely no sharps and no flats. It's all the white keys of the piano, pure and uncomplicated. To a point. As promised in the last post, we get to the dark side of things now.

Quick recap - we number the seven notes of the Major scale, beginning with the root note or tonic, which is "C".

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7


C - Dm - Em  - F  - G - Am - Bdim
I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii°

Each of the seven notes can be used to build a chord or a scale. Because of the relationship between notes, scales/chords built from the 1st, 4th and 5th notes are Major; scales/chords built from the 2nd, 3rd and 6th are minor. The 7th note yields the mysterious-sounding diminished chords and scales.

It's because of this particular sequence of distances (or intervals) between notes that the Major scale has its up, happy and bright sound. Now, change the sequence and watch what happens.

If you begin this scale on the sixth note and use all of the same notes as the Major scale, you get the relative minor scale (also known as the natural minor or Aeolian mode.) Since the sixth note of the C Major scale is "A", then this will be known as the A minor scale (note the lowercase "minor" - this is important.)

A B C D E F G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The order of notes has changed, yet it is still the same seven notes of the C Major scale. When played in this order, the steps between notes become altered slightly, which gives minor chords and scales a darker, more somber tone. Now remember - the point at which we begin on the scale has changed, so the notes have not. Which means that each of those notes retains its Major/minor/diminished quality. You'll just encounter them in a different order like so:

Am -  Bdim  -  C   -  Dm   -   Em   -   F   -   G
i  -   ii°   - III -  iv   -    v   -   VI  -  VII

Leading the way...

Chords have an interesting relationship with each other. Some lead to one another in a natural, expected way while others have a prickly sort of chemistry that seems forced and rough. It's the push and pull of these elements that creates musical tension. Our ears are attracted by (and spirits moved by) certain types of musical conflict and a good road map for that is this charting of chord progressions:

I chord leads to any chord
ii leads to IV, V, vii° chords
iii leads to ii, IV, vi chords
IV leads to I, iii, V, vii° chords
V leads to I chords
vi leads to ii, IV, V, I chords
vii° leads to I, ii chords

These rules were made to be broken, of course, and there's more down the road about borrowed chords and note replacement, but generally speaking, when moving chords through a piece of music - the above standards for western music apply.


So, in crafting a look at the world of the natural minor, I went totally overboard and composed a three-part arrangement for mountain dulcimer ensemble called "A Minor Event." Tuning is CGC. The file has individual pieces for the chords, lead and counterpoint as well as the .tef file for TablEdit users. Even if you don't have the registered version of the program, you can download the free TEF Viewer to listen to the piece.

First off - go to Play > Relative Speed and set it for 62. Experiment with different tempos and see how it sounds to you. If you're not familiar with multiple modules with TablEdit, take a look at the top right hand corner of the main screen when you open "A Minor Event." You'll see three green tabs with numbers. Each one of those represents a part of the arrangement. You can click each one to bring the tablature to the front (unfortunately, no way to watch all three at once, unless you print it out, but then it's not moving and scrolling and playing music, is it? No fun there.) Slowing down the playback will allow you to practice difficult passages.

The arrangement is a demonstration of chord progressions in A minor, how to grow melodies and harmonies out of those chords. A song should be like a little adventure that takes the listener on an exciting journey. Where did that come from? Where are we going next? The twists and turns with each new emotion draw us further into the journey and then, at the end, a logical conclusion, a resolving of conflict and tension to reach the root; our home. Just as long as this trip brings everyone back home, allow your song to roam the hills. Keep melodies moving in nearby clusters of notes - make it easy to hum.

Think of the root note as home. As you begin to chart your way from that root - certain paths will work better than others until you finally bring it home. Once you lay down the chord progressions - weave your melody out of the scales associated with each chord. When the chord changes to C, pick notes out of the C Major scale. When the chord moves on to D minor, concentrate on notes picked from the D minor scale. Of course, some notes will overlap between keys, but this is a good road map for creating melody, rules made to be broken again, of course.

This was written for an orchestra of mountain dulcimers, with several playing each part, but it can be done with just three instruments. With the chords - I've just indicated the fingerings for each one in whole notes. You can either play it just like that, one strum every four beats, or you can apply a bit of rhythm in the form of quarter notes, maybe arpeggiate through the changes. I've tried to create movement mostly with the other two parts - so the whole notes, while not entirely interesting, allow those chords to breathe. Play the tablature as written - so the lead part is sometimes played on only one string at a time. The lead harmonizes with the counterpoint, which also serves as bass for this piece. None of these parts played by themselves is much of a head-turner - it's how they interweave, dance and pronounce the movements of the chords, as mirrored by melody and harmony.

If you don't have two other people to play this with - try recording it! (They have an app for that. And if you're reading this blog you probably do have some kind of digital audio workstation. If you don't, you probably want one and know where to look.)


Instead of hanging out in the key of C and its relative key of A minor, we're going to travel through the different keys and continue to explore how it all works together. Next - we're getting sharp with a look at the key of G.

Tools Of The Trade-Off

I've been living in a cave on eBay for the past few months, carefully implementing a plan that would step up my game a bit here at the studio. Living in the city is hell on recording studios and my modified car port wasn't designed to be sound tight. Since we won't be moving to the country anytime soon, I decided to make a huge sacrifice and invest in a major upgrade for both my recording and live performance rigs.

Jae and I love to watch HGTV for all of the shows about people buying and selling homes, re-designing and decorating, adding on, etc. With an eye towards better space management in the studio, with the side benefit of fund raising for one of the upgrades, I began selling some of the mountain dulcimers from my personal collection. Dulcimers with names like Nikki, Bridget, Kamalani and Helen. Each with their own stories, sometimes caught in a moment and posted on a Facebook page somewhere, some of the instruments used to write and record albums, they went flying off the shelf to some eagle-eyed folks on eBay and now, I can almost see the chromakey blue of the walls.

A few people seemed surprised that I would part with a part of my musical history so easily. Taking a page from the great Pixar film "Toy Story 2"; great instruments were meant to be played and enjoyed. These instruments have now gone on to places where they will be a vibrant, living part of the melody of love instead of stored in a dark case for most of the time.

The money doesn't hurt either. Needed that.

Here, on many different levels of importance for doing the dance that is the dance with music, some of the gear-head stuff that I've been embracing to step it up.

Genius App



Music Theory Pro can be addicting and, for an application that is basically drilling pure music theory, that says a lot about its draw. A real bargain at 99 cents, this application is sort of like having a set of digital flashcards with you at all times (or as long as you've got your smartphone around.) Four areas concentrate on Note Names, Key Signatures, Intervals and Chords, allowing you to set certain parameters to customize your learning experience (include just triads or other chords as well?)

The fifth area focuses on ear training in the areas of Tempos, Intervals, Scales and Chords. Right answers are greeted with approval ("Great Work!" "Keep Going!" flash at you like electronic cheerleaders) while incorrect answers are gently corrected ("You guessed Bb I'm sorry the correct answer is E" Polite, even.)

While you wander through the various pop quizzes, seconds whiz by at the top right hand corner. A gauge in the top left corner keeps track of how you do. Accuracy and speed pay off in high scores that can then be posted on a global ranking viewable through the app and on the website. Cool. Whoever added the competitive angle was a genius. Nothing like seeing someone else's score and thinking "I know C# in bass clef better than them!"

The customization aspect is also great. Play speed rounds of ten questions or marathons of five hundred. Drill on major and minor keys or add sevenths, diminished and augmented. You'll find yourself running through the quizzes whenever you've got a spare moment. The repetition is fantastic for putting into practice what you've just learned - so much so that you can jump in without knowing your way around and then begin to figure the rhyme and reason as you continue to play. Great all-around music theory app - I use this even more than Karajan now, though that app is far superior in terms of keeping data on your strong and weak points (!)

Even though you may not know what you're doing with it right away - ear training is an invaluable tool for playing and understanding music more fully.

Next: Let Me In The Sound

Mucking about in the key of C: More diatonic study

If you're familiar with the concept of music therapy, then you're probably aware of the connection between the various keys and their respective characteristics. Out of all the colors of the rainbow, it is the total absence of color, white, that is most often associated with the key of C. From this page comes the quote "Pure, certain, decisive; expressive of innocence, powerful resolve, manly earnestness and deep religious feeling." No flats. No sharps. Not complicated. It's a basic "home key."

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Seven notes. In a scale, we typically play a total of eight notes. The seven notes of the scale beginning with the root or tonic note (in this case, C) and ending with the same note an octave higher (from the Latin octavus - meaning "eight".)

You can build chords from each note by skipping every other letter. Remember that 1, 4 and 5 are Major chords, 2,3 and 6 are minor chords and the seventh is a diminished chord.

C E G = C Major
D F A = D minor
E G B = E minor
F A C = F Major
G B D = G Major
A C E = A minor
B D F = B diminished

Major = root, Major third, perfect fifth
minor = root, minor third, perfect fifth
diminished = root, minor third, diminished fifth (or "flat fifth" or b5 or 5b)

and while we're at it

augmented = root, Major third, raised or "augmented" fifth

All of these chords are possible on a standard mountain dulcimer. So far, we're sticking with triads; these chords with three notes. Later, we'll get more into so-called "chroma" or extended chords like 6ths, 7ths and suspended chords.

Working out of the possible chord progressions for basic fundamental key of C, I came up with this piece called "C Musing Myself." No strum instructions have been included, so you'll need to fill out and propel this piece once you've mastered playing it through as written.

Now, one thing about playing in CGC tuning is that it requires a light touch if you're using moderately light gauge strings such as .011 - .014 on your melody and middle string. Heavier strings (I sometimes use .016 - .017) will hold up better on most instruments that can tolerate being tuned down a whole step from what they're used to. After talking with several builders, it can be said that some dulcimers are built to sound best when tuned to variables of D (DAA, DAD, DGD, etc.) so you may need to play around with the tuning a bit.

For each movement to a different chord, the bits of melody are taken from that chord and its corresponding scale. Using chords and notes that are not in the scale is standard practice - I just kept it simple for this first composition. It's a tremendously fun exercise. Just choose your key (know the territory), lay out your chord progressions, build a melody and explore the many different personalities of the various keys.

At least a couple of music theory websites made note (pun intended) of a dual-personality for the key of C, which also swung towards the "war like" side. Perhaps that's best reflected in the relative minor key of C which can be found by going to the sixth note of the Major scale, whatever it might be. In this case, the note is A - so the key is A minor. Same notes as the C scale - just started in a different spot:

C D E F G A B C

A B C D E F G A

(a good mental mind-map = six up or two back from the root is the relative minor. C minus two = A)

A look at the minor side of the C coming up next!

Studies in C for Diatonic and Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer

• Download the .pdf for C Diatonic Scales



• Download the .pdf for C Chromatic Scales



• Download the .pdf for C Scale Harmonizing

I've decided to take a walkabout with the music and I'm inviting you to come along for a journey into the not-so-scary world of music theory. Some of this will skew easier to chromatic mountain dulcimer, but there's absolutely no harm in learning the bigger picture. You just never know when the urge to purchase that first chromatic instrument may come, so be prepared.

Creating music really is all about knowing how to say what you want to say when you want to say it. That's it. If you can hear it in your head and your heart, you can bring it to life. It requires active, constant engagement on your part, because the music is all there. Most importantly, knowing what your instrument is capable of will give you the opportunity to make full use of its versatility when you're ready to explore.

Get In Training

Like going to the gym, there are lots of exercises that you can do to help fine-tune your sense of music. Beating out rhythms on coffee tables, with and without a metronome to sync up the beat, is a great groove developing tool. Ear-training is something I've mentioned here before and I cannot stress the importance of dialing in the various pitches and how they relate to each other as intervals, chords and melodies. Seeing them written on paper is an important part of the equation, but it's the hearing of these things that will solidify them as part of your developing vocabulary. There are a number of ear-training sites on the web as well as apps for iPhone and Android ( Ricci Adams' newly-refurbished theory site is my favorite spot online while Karajan keeps me studying when I'm mobile. )

Every day, like you're training for the big event, do it just for a little while as part of your rehearsals or even separately. You can quickly run through ten sets of intervals with your smart phone during the day at work at some point. How will this help you? As you continue to work with scales, those combinations of notes that inform so much of what we play in western music, you'll have a better sense of "place" within musical phrases by training your ear to hear the distance between notes. Not only between two notes, but between three, four and beyond even five notes in beautiful extended chords. The more you train, the more you'll be able to incorporate those colors into your playing.

Scales & Chords: Building Blocks

The musical 'alphabet' is a twelve-note scale called chromatic. Out of those twelve notes, a smaller series of seven notes serves as the basis for most Western music. This scale is called diatonic. The traditional mountain dulcimer is diatonic in nature, it's built around the seven steps of a seven-note scale. Each note of the scale has its own personality through chords and other scales that it can influence.

Some notes on the above tablature. I'm experimenting with a different way of formatting for chromatic dulcimer. You'll see a fourth line at the bottom; just ignore it. Think of it as a place to rest your pick. There are only three lines/strings of tablature data - also, for chromatic dulcimer, I'm using the straight numbering system - which is 1 through 12 for the frets. Most of you went with positioning dots at the 3, 5, 7, 9, and double at the 12 as is standard for guitars. Though the tuning is different, by approaching chromatic dulcimer this way will open up a world of discovery for you on other instruments as well. Forget about the + symbol for the time being - it's hard work on the eyes.

Learn your scales, know where every instance of the note lives on the fretboard. Start with the first octave (7th fret for diatonic, 12th for chromatic.) Make sure you're tuned CGC for diatonic and DAD for chromatic. We're gonna hang out in the key of C for a while and see what we can come up with. For now, let's consider this. We're building chords in triads. Each note of the scale has a number. We're in the key of C.

C - D - E - F - G - A - B

I - ii - iii - IV -V - vi - vii°

If you build a chord out of every other note in the C scale, you get either major or minor chords depending on the various relationships.

C -> E -> G = C Major

D -> F -> A = D minor

E -> G -> B = E minor - etc.

This is just how the math works out. I, IV, V will be major scales/chords and lowercase ii, iii, vi will be minor scales/chords with vii° representing something called a diminished which is either a minor chord with a flattened fifth note or a scale based off of the Locrian mode. Playing through the tablature will show you what each of the possible chords sound like for not only the key of C but for C minor as well. What I'm doing is setting up some muscle-memory exercises for working the scales into patterns. So instead of going to the relative minor scale of C (which would be A minor), we're going to make changes to the major scale in order to play three different types of minor scales; natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor.

Beyond Three Notes

This is where the ear-training will really pay off. By the time you began playing in C minor (if you have a 1+ fret on diatonic) you have crossed the threshold between diatonic and chromatic. Once over, it's a world full of rich, complex chords that are possible on both diatonic and chromatic. The key here is: learning the scales first, knowing where the notes are located across two octaves of fretboard, then beginning to build chords using those memorized notes. Exploring the number of ways that a chord can be not only shifted and molded within itself, but also how certain movements of chords work more favorably than others.

To review, based on a seven-note scale, a chord is made up of at least three notes - a root, a third and a fifth. Some of those notes can go up or down a half step (sharp or flat #/b ) and create other kinds of chords. Finally, you can add other notes for color.

Major chord - R (root) + 3rd + 5th

Minor chord - R + minor 3rd (down a half step) + 5th

Seventh chord - R + 3rd - 5th + minor 7th

Major Seventh chord - R + 3rd + 5th + Major 7th

Minor Seventh chord - R + minor 3rd + 5th + minor 7th

You can use rootless voicings if working in three string mode - dropping the root is often enough.

Remember:

L-Shaped chords have the root of the chord on the bass string (1st position - non inverted)

Slant-Shaped chords have the root on the middle string (1st position - non inverted)

Extended-Slant-Shaped chords have the root on the melody string (1st position - non inverted)

During your own chordal explorations, try moving the root, the 3 and the 5 around. Half-steps on the dulcimer are the narrow spaces on the fretboard. Two of those spaces fit within one of the wide spaces on diatonic fretboards. Where ever there is a wide space, there is a fret missing (though some people have put some back in, like the 6+ the 1+, etc.)

The final exercise, scale harmonies - is a great exercise for exploring the variety of color chords available to you on chromatic dulcimer.

Diatonic dulcimers - experiment with second inversion chord shapes to see how that changes the texture and feeling of your chords. Inversions in DAD tuning are easy since it's a symmetrical tuning (234 D-chord becomes 432 D-chord with lower bass tone)

Next up we'll look at chord movement and melody!

New Year's Night

Every New Year's Eve, it's just about the same thing. I have to work on something and not just be content to sit back and let the year roll in. Why? Might be lots of reasons.

Still, keeping with a basic spirit of "sharing is caring", I posted a new track tonight called "New Year's Night" which probably won't stay as it is, but has risen out of two days that required me to embrace the new recording set-up.

The track isn't done, by any means - just my first emotional rendering for the new year. Equal parts texture and tension, it speaks of the ease of rolling in loosely-defined meadows before buckling down and allowing the inner monologue to kick in. What do you think?

Retrointrospection: In Brief

Just exactly who reads this stuff, anyway? If you're reading this, please leave a comment. Want to see if this thing is working. You've got plenty of interesting stops on the Information Superhighway to make, so I'm chuffed to bits that you've chosen to stop and have a scone or two here in my own little ghetto of the grid.

"Let There Be Peace On Earth" was released this month after missing the opportunity to release it during last year's holiday season. It features the incredible pipes of Benjamin Dehart: The Cracker Tenor and you can check it out here, if you haven't already.

Also, if you missed the album that flew under the radar, check it out here.
A project for the good people at Folkcraft Instruments.

Christmas is over. New Year's Eve is never a big deal around this household. A couple of movies. A bottle (or three) of bubbly. Kiss. Snuggle. Chill.

What this means is: time to dig in.

There's lots of exciting new stuff that's been developing over the past month or so and it's all been kept very under the hat. I'm looking forward to the Key West Dulcimer Fest in January, of course hoping that our good weather isn't on back-order come that third week.

Looking back on the past year, I see a lot of those days spent planning were put to good use. That just reinforces the time that I spend studying. Researching, working through test books and memorizing elements of music theory. Practicing scales, bouncing improvisations off of the wall. Sitting at the computer for infinite stretches of time putting it out into the universe; data salvo!

Times are tough all over and they're going to get tougher before they get better. That, coupled together with the ongoing studio improvements here at Casa de Milagro has seen a sort of bittersweet decision to sell a lot of my dulcimer collection to raise funds for equipment upgrades. To be fair, these were instruments that were not being played on a regular basis and would probably only be engaged on special occasions in the foreseeable future, though they'd all seen their share of stage-time. They each went to good homes where they'll be loved and played as a primary instrument, meanwhile leaving me with enough cash to do some shopping.

What I got (and what's on the table) will be the focus of the next couple of blog posts as we begin a brand new year of renewed production.

For everybody who reads this blog, watches "Dulcimerica", listens to my music or attends my workshops; if you've paid any attention to me this year: thank you. Somewhere between time wasted and a worthwhile time spent is a place where everyone is grooving to the same beat. Happy New Year and many blessings to you for a great 2011! The beat goes on.


If this year was any kind of forecast, then 2011 is going to be a great one for everybody (keep putting that good mojo out into the universe.)

"Dulcimerica: Volume 2" - NOW AVAILABLE!

Now available! You can preview all the tracks and download two full tracks as well.

The first 30 copies are signed and numbered - plus no shipping! I'll have some this week at McWell's for the December 8th edition of The Pub Thang.