J C Rockwell DulciBlog

New YAMs in Stock

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:28:00 +0000

I have a few new YAMs in stock now -- this one is walnut sides and back, sassafras top, and cherry fingerboard. It has a 24" VSL (nut to bridge open string length).

10th Annual SouthEast Ohio Dulcimer Festival

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:12:00 +0000

We'll be having our tiny dulcimer festival again in Stewart, Ohio, at the Federal Valley Resource Center, on Saturday, October 22nd. Last year we had some very intimate workshops and an incredible staff concert in the evening. This year we have most of the same folks teaching, along with a few new teachers, so it should be another great year.

This year everything is a benefit for the FVRC, so it is a great, big team effort!

web site down for a while

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:32:00 +0000

I guess every once in a while you need to make a major change: in our case we've had pretty good luck for well over a decade (a VERY long stretch in web-time!) with a small hosting service and ISP in SE Ohio. About a week ago they were moving some of their web hosting customers to a new server, and something catastrophic must have happened, because now they won't return phone calls, and there is a constant busy signal on their main local phone line.

We've got a new hosting service all lined up, but it will probably be a few weeks before everything is back up and running. Thanks for your patience on this - we are doing everything we can to restore the site. With any luck (and, of course, a certain measure of skill!) we might even have a simpler, cleaner design and user interface. We've put off a major redesign for too long.

Thanks,

Jerry Rockwell

I Love This!

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:08:00 +0000

Shambhu has some very appealing music - check it out:

http://www.shambhumusic.com/

New Group at Soundcloud!

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:49:00 +0000

I've just formed a new group at SoundCloud.com dedicated to sharing audio sketches and works-in-progress among mountain dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/acoustic-dulcimer-instrumentals

SoundCloud is an awesome community for musicians, but a great deal of their content seems to be electronic (at least to me so far), or singer/songwriter. It is hard to find pure acoustic instrumental tracks, and dulcimer players are few and far between.

So -- if you've got some MD or HD instrumental sketches you'd like to share, sign up (it is very easy and fast) and upload!

Thanks!

Jerry

New Prototype: Fully Chromatic Dulcimer for Playing Underneath

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:48:00 +0000

I've got this new prototype set up in 4-string equidistant, and the strings are reversed to make it familiar to guitar players. I'm tuning DADE or 1-5-8-9 to start, but I'll probably try a huge variety of other options before I spend any serious time working out chord shapes and such.

Interview on Dulcimer Sessions!

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:07:00 +0000

The April/May issue of Mel Bay's Dulcimer Sessions web site has an interview with me, beautifully and professionally put together by my long-time friend and fellow dulcimer player, Lois Hornbostel.

There is a video linked in the interview where I'm playing an semi-improvised version of my tune Light Into Darkness. Back on my home page, I recently put up a pdf of a fairly composed study on the same D-A-Bm-G chord progression. (the famous "Axis of Awesome" chords!). This written study is made to go with the ground bass, which I have in the first eight measures of the study.

Dulcimer Sessions is an absolutely incredible resource for learning mountain as well as hammered dulcimer: the issues go way back, so be sure to look through the listing of back issues.

Reference Structure 1

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:34:00 +0000

Sometimes I call this "In My World" but it is basically a very circular Mixolydian Progression:

A D Em D

Try it in a variety of tempos and time signatures. I think it makes a great progression for 6/8 and 9/8 jig-like ideas. Have Fun!!

Refreshing the DulciTheory Pages

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:43:00 +0000

I'll be doing some editing on the DulciTheory pages over the next few weeks.

DulciTheory was originally an email newsletter, but I moved most of the newsletters to my website, and I've tried to format them a little nicer than the plain-text format of the newsletters.

The whole idea behind DulciTheory was to add some useful applications and expand the scope of my Music Theory and Chord Reference book. The book has been very popular over the years, but it is more like a quick reference than anything else. As I get to going over the theory pages, I will be looking toward improving them and, of course, adding some new articles. So please let me know if you have some ideas for future topics, or if you need help in applying what is already there.

Aargh! Website down, blog & email up

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:53:00 +0000

Last time we checked, (yesterday) it was up there and working fine-- now it's down, along with many other websites served by our host, a local ISP in Athens, Ohio.

Our email's still available (jcrockwell@gmail.com or jerry@jcrmusic.com). Best case: everything is OK by lunchtime... worst case: fried hardware and reconstituted websites.

Meanwhile, Jerry's music is also at iTunes, MySpace, Jango, YouTube, and FolkAlley. Several articles are posted online at Dirty Linen Magazine and EveryThing Dulcimer. You can also visit him on Facebook.

I'm working on fulfilling current book and CD orders that were placed through July 25 from our website.

--from the guest blogger, Mary

Refreshing My Blog - Hooking Up Everything

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:33:00 +0000

Well, slowly but surely I seem to be making some progress in getting all of my online profiles and presences hooked up and working. With any luck, you should be seeing my new ReverbNation "store widget" where you can buy downloads directly from me.

I'm also slowly but surely updating my old, dusty web site. Mary and I first got that site working in 1997, and some of the pages are exactly the same as they were then! Some of the articles have been very popular over the years, and I'd like to write some more like these to keep things fresh. If you have any specific questions, please let me know so I can blog about them and consider them for the web site.

String Gauges for Mountain Dulcimer

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:16:00 +0000

Probably the most frequently asked question I get from my web site readers has to do with what strings I use on my dulcimers. I always tell people right from the start that I'm only giving my personal preferences, and that they should not take these to be any sort of standard or default. String gauge preference is a very subjective thing.

Most of the basic bare-bones dulcimers I'm working on now have either 25" or 26" VSLs (Vibrating String Length - nut to bridge). Since I'm setting up the instruments to be tuned DAD, I choose gauges that work pretty well for that specific tuning, although tunings that are close - like DGD, or DAC - should work fine too. If I want to spend a bunch of time playing in DAA, I will use a heavier, thicker gauge for the melody string.

Here are my preferences:

bass: .024"W
middle: .015"
melody: .012"

I usually prefer a nickel-wrap string for the bass. This is purely preference, and many other players and builders like phosphor bronze or some bronze/brass combination.

Keep in mind that the dulcimer tends to be a pretty delicate, gentle kind of instrument (my dulcimers are not known for their volume), and the string tension on a mountain dulcimer is much less than it is on a guitar, for instance. Now, if you want more volume and punch, feel free to try thicker gauges, which will make your strings feel tighter, and they will be a little harder to press down to the frets -- making it seem like you have a slightly higher string action. Experimenting with string gauge is one of the healthiest activities I can think of -- be brave!

Refreshing My Blog

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:34:00 +0000

After many, many false starts and abandoned blogs, I am back in the saddle again. I will make a concerted effort to post little paragraphs often.

J C Rockwell Dulcimer Podcast No.1

noreply@blogger.com (J C Rockwell) — Fri, 18 May 2007 04:46:00 +0000

This first episode is based upon a circular Mixolydian Mode chord progression:

A / / / | / / / / |D / / / | / / / / |Em7 / / / | / / / / |D / / / | / / / / :||

It is based upon improvisations done from November 2006 to the present under the Modal-Improv framework, which is basically a list of about 25 simple, circular modal chord progressions.

These little progressions are great for improvising around, especially on the dulcimer where you can't really hit any (or many) "wrong" notes.