The mountain dulcimer has a long and interesting history in the southern Appalachian mountains, and it's an instrument that so many of us enjoy playing. The book begins with the basics of tuning, strumming and finding notes on the dulcimer. The songs and tunes include favorites of dulcimer players, such as Boil That Cabbage Down, Old Joe Clark, Waterbound, Amazing Grace, Aura Lee and Are You Sleeping. The tracks in the accompanying online audio include count-ins and are played at easy-to-follow moderate tempos. Includes access to online audio.

The title says it all: "Dirt Simple." This book and accompanying online audio are designed for a rank beginner who knows nothing about the hammered dulcimer, providing them the tools to make music right away. Starting with the fundamentals of how to hold hammers and tune the instrument, it delves deeper into mastery with posture, stand height/angle, and replacing strings to set up the beginner for a lifetime of good habits. Every concept introduced is simultaneously presented with illustrations and songs that demonstrate and reinforce. Whether the student reads music or plays by ear, the result is the same - music making right from the beginning! Dr. Mark Alan Wade is an experienced teacher with an undergraduate degree in music education and years of public school teaching experience. Now teaching music theory and dulcimer at Denison University, Dr. Wade offers a unique perspective on teaching hammered dulcimer and has three students who have also won the National Hammered Dulcimer Contest as evidence of his master teaching. It's all about the music! Dirt Simple Hammered Dulcimer is written so that the carefully selected tunes are the true teacher. Hands-on learning is made easy with the accompanying audio. Each song is played slowly for students to learn by ear in addition to reading notation. This also allows for the students to hear style traits such as swing, that aren't easily conveyed in written notation. With 29 songs, this book and online audio available for download are a year's worth of private lessons in one concise package!

This book was written to aid the dulcimer player in playing as a backup musician. It provides the tools necessary for musicians who are seeking to go beyond simple melody lines. the majority of chords diagrammed are those most commonly used, and those whose notes are clustered on the instrument in six repeated shapes. Diagrams are shown for the 15/14 dulcimer.

Although designed for newcomers to the upright bass and bluegrass music in general, this unique approach to creating basslines has something for everyone! The first half focuses on bass-playing essentials, giving the reader a solid technical footing with the instrument. Then, using his own baritone voice and the classic bluegrass song, “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” author Nate Sabat reveals his creative process in crafting effective basslines from the song’s melody and chord progression. The second half focuses on bass playing within the specific context of complementing bluegrass vocals. Well beyond what you might expect from an introductory method, Nate tastefully guides the reader by presenting multiple composed bassline options for each of five well-known bluegrass songs: Rabbit in the Log, Don’t this Road Look Rough and Rocky?, Long Journey Home, I Am a Pilgrim, and Angel Band. Nate’s warm, pitch-perfect vocals can be heard on virtually every track, giving this method an undeniable musicality. A lightly accompanied vocal track with no bass is also provided, so you can be the sole upright or electric bassist in the band. You’ll not only want to back Nate up—but sing harmony with him too! The impulse to sing can’t help but influence your bass playing in a natural and positive way. Nate provides notated versions of the eight major scales most commonly used in bluegrass. Once you get them under your fingers, you’ll soon be able to play along with the book’s 50 companion online recordings. With its simple harmonic palette and repetitive nature, bluegrass music offers bassists the perfect opportunity to become musically literate. If you’ve hesitated to learn to read music, this is the time and place to eliminate that drawback. Working through these 46 pages will provide the tools and confidence needed to create your own engaging and musical basslines and hopefully, you’ll be inspired to continue your bluegrass bass journey for years to come. Includes access to online audio.

You CAN play the mountain or lap dulcimer. This book makes it easy The mountain dulcimer is in the midst of a great revival It has found renewed popularity throughout the world. Persons of all nationalities are discovering the sweet music of this grand old instrument.

Earth ovens combine the utility of a wood-fired, retained-heat oven with the ease and timeless beauty of earthen construction. Building one will appeal to bakers, builders, and beginners of all kinds, from: - the serious or aspiring baker who wants the best low-cost bread oven, to - gardeners who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen, to - outdoor chefs, to - creative people interested in low-cost materials and simple technology, to - teachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential project for students of all ages (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults). Build Your Own Earth Oven is fully illustrated with step-by-step directions, including how to tend the fire, and how to make perfect sourdough hearth loaves in the artisan tradition. The average do-it-yourselfer with a few tools and a scrap pile can build an oven for free, or close to it. Otherwise, $30 should cover all your materials--less than the price of a fancy "baking stone." Good building soil is often right in your back yard, under your feet. Build the simplest oven in a day! With a bit more time and imagination, you can make a permanent foundation and a fire-breathing dragon-oven or any other shape you can dream up. Earth ovens are familiar to many that have seen a southwestern "horno" or a European "bee-hive" oven. The idea, pioneered by Egyptian bakers in the second millennium BCE, is simplicity itself: fill the oven with wood, light a fire, and let it burn down to ashes. The dense, 3- to 12-inch-thick earthen walls hold and store the heat of the fire, the baker sweeps the floor clean, and the hot oven walls radiate steady, intense heat for hours. Home bakers who can't afford a fancy, steam-injected bread oven will be delighted to find that a simple earth oven can produce loaves to equal the fanciest "artisan" bakery. It also makes delicious roast meats, cakes, pies, pizzas, and other creations. Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes or less. Vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil roast up in minutes for a simple, elegant, and delicious meal. Efficient cooks will find the residual heat useful for slow-baked dishes, and even for drying surplus produce, or incubating homemade yogurt.

The mountain dulcimer is in the midst of a great revival! It has found renewed popularity throughout the world. Persons of all nationalities are discovering the "sweet music" of this grand old instrument. Lessons include - begin with learning the components, the technique of holding your dulcimer, understanding the Noter, strings and strumming. Much detail in mastering the tuning of your dulcimer and unique insight in reading dulcimer tablature.

Melodies on the mountain dulcimer are wonderful. In this book we’ll explore how to decorate melodies with chords to add variety and creativity to your playing in DAD and DAA tunings. Lessons begin with simple chords and show you when an how to progress. In addition, we’ll study how to play backup chords on our dulcimers for accompaniment in gatherings and jam sessions. Includes access to online audio.

Joni Mitchell is one of the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and her landmark 1971 album, Blue, is one of her most beloved and revered works. Generations of people have come of age listening to the album, inspired by the way it clarified their own difficult emotions. Critics and musicians admire the idiosyncratic virtuosity of its compositions. Will You Take Me As I Am -- the first book about Joni Mitchell to include original interviews with her -- looks at Blue to explore the development of an extraordinary artist, the history of songwriting, and much more. In extensive conversations with Mitchell, Michelle Mercer heard firsthand about Joni's internal and external journeys as she composed the largely autobiographical albums of what Mercer calls her Blue Period, which lasted through the mid-1970s. Incorporating biography, memoir, reportage, criticism, and interviews into an illuminating narrative, Mercer moves beyond the "making of an album" genre to arrive at a new form of music writing. In 1970, Mitchell was living with Graham Nash in Laurel Canyon and had made a name for herself as a so-called folk singer notable for her soaring voice and skillful compositions. Soon, though, feeling hemmed in, she fled to the hippie cave community of Matala, Greece. Here and on further travels, her compositions were freshly inspired by the lands and people she encountered as well as by her own radically changing interior landscape. After returning home to record Blue, Mitchell retreated to British Columbia, eventually reemerging as the leader of a successful jazz-rock group and turning outward in her songwriting toward social commentary. Finally, a stint with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and a pivotal meeting with the Tibetan lama ChÖgyam Trungpa prompted Mitchell's return to personal songwriting, which resulted in her 1976 masterpiece album, Hejira. Mercer interlaces this fascinating account of Mitchell's Blue Period with meditations on topics related to her work, including the impact of landscape on music, the value of autobiographical songwriting for artist and listener, and the literary history of confessionalism. Mercer also provides rich analyses of Mitchell's creative achievements: her innovative manner of marrying lyrics to melody; her inventive, highly expressive chords that achieve her signature blend of wonder and melancholy; how she pioneered personal songwriting and, along with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, brought a new literacy to the popular song. Fans will appreciate the previously unpublished photos and a coda of Mitchell's unedited commentary on the places, books, music, pastimes, and philosophies she holds dear. This utterly original book offers a unique portrait of a great musician and her remarkable work, as well as new perspectives on the art of songwriting itself.

Every aspect of the hammered dulcimer and its playing techniques is covered in this comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand text. A masterful teacher, Madeline MacNeil exceeds the expectations of a beginner's book, providing a firm foundation for the development of a total musician while maintaining an engaging, informal tone throughout. with detailed discussions on dulcimer layout, hammers, tuning, and stands plus extensive performance notes on every tune, this book is a valuable asset to the beginning through intermediate player. from Oh Suzanna to Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Madeline shows the novice dulcimer player how to map your way through a new piece of music, finding clear, musical directions through what at first must seem like a maze of strings. All tunes are in standard notation. the book's 87 pages are illustrated with photos as well as quaint woodcuts, engravings, and pen and ink drawings.