Video: Plucking the Hammer Dulcimer
Here is a video I made of me plucking an improvisation. I made it for personal use to gather ideas and concepts for The Entrance of Sound. I thought I’d go ahead and share it with you.
Improvising (Demonstrational Video)
Mar 16, 2009 Development Zone, Songs, Videos
This is not a lesson to help you learn how to improvise. This is a picture into how I use improvising as a practice habit and development skill. For me personally, the thought of only playing what other people have already put to music sounds boring. I like to do my own things and make music that is unique. This is why I enjoy composing and arranging. Improvising helps me come up with new ideas.
I improvise all the time. I clear my mind and just let the music flow with what feels right at that given time. But, I’m always paying close attention to what I’m communicating, when the song needs “breathing room”, and when change needs to happen.
With this approach, I can discover some passages and different licks that I really like. I then develop and memorize them. Sometimes, I may use just one passage from an improv to enhance an arrangement Or, I may be hopeful of what happened, and try to use it as a main theme to a new song.
One thing that is helpful when improvising is to record yourself. This gives another opportunity to analyze your playing, figure out the passages that worked, and remember what you actually played!
This video is an example of a blind improvise that I did during a practice session last night. I’ll use this video to analyze what I’ve done, decide what I liked and didn’t like, and probably use it to develop a new song one day.
Tags: improvise, improvising, video
The Irish Washerwoman (Demonstrational Video)
I live in an older home, and when the winter arrives, the drain line for the washer machine often freezes and I can’t do my laundry! Thankfully, this is only during a hard freeze. Recently, we an extended period where I couldn’t do my laundry. (No worries, I have a lot of clothes!) As the weather warmed up, there were a few days where it seemed like all I did was laundry.
With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, and my recent days dedicated to laundry, I thought it appropriate to play The Irish Washerwoman.
This is just a quick arrangement of the tune tailored exclusively for this blog. I play it rapidly, as expression of how much I wish that laundry could be done with FAST!
Enjoy!
Tags: Demonstration, irish, tune
Step on the Scale Drill (Instructional Video)
Whenever you go to the doctor, he may ask you to step on the scale as part of your checkup. Your weight is insightful to the status of your overall health! In the same way, when you “step on the scale” of your dulcimer, it will give you an awareness to your development and/or health as a hammer dulcimer player.
This video demostrates a drill that I have used to help improve my scale work. This is just one of many scale drills that you should add to your practice routine.
In the video, I must admit that I played the scales rather quickly in order to make the video shorter. Many beginning or intermediate players may not be able to handle it at this speed, and I don’t want you to feel frustrated or intimidated! While speed is important to strive for, be more concerned about timing consistency, intentional note volumes, and accuracy. The speed will eventually fall into place.
The Ladder Drill (Instructional Video)
The primary goal of the ladder drill is to assist with developing hand independence.