You can attend the Faculty Concert of the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering even if you aren't registered for workshops! We'll be livestreaming though the Online Concert Thing on Friday night, 9:00 EDT, 6:00 PDT.  Sam Edelston will be headlining and DJ Hamouris, Steve Eulberg, and I will also perform.

You have two choices for your Friday night: watch the same old dulcimer videos on YouTube or watch live dulcimer music with us! Which sounds like more fun?

My concert set list is pretty much final. We're gonna have some fun in "virtual Berkeley" Friday evening!

Sam

DJ told me you were going to be there, John.  You might be the one "traveling" the farthest.  It should be fun. I have my sound check tomorrow for the concert. It will be my first ever livestream.

And although we all wish we could meet in person, one benefit of doing this online is that people like you can join from a distance. It will be fun, I'm sure.

Well, I'm certainly looking forward to it. I'll only be attending the concert and the first day, but I hope to take away some things to keep me busy.

Tuesday, May 12 is the last day to register for the (online) Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering.  No walk-in registrants. We will use the last few days to provide everyone the links to their workshops as well as instructional materials.

At the BDG, you are part of a community. We will meet in the "homeroom" hosted by Erin Mae Lewis in the morning, over our lunch for a live Q & A, and also after the workshops for a virtual jam circle.

Come for the music; stay for the friendship!

It's wonderful to see the dulcimer community--a group in general drawn to "old fangled" rather than "new fangled" stuff--embracing the technology that allows us to share music online.  I held my local dulcimer group online this past weekend and even those who were most skeptical reported having a great time. And it was also nice that people from around the country who wouldn't normally be part of our circle were able to join us.

I'm really looking forward to the online Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering. I know Sam and Steve and the other instructors have been practicing with the technology to work out all the bugs ahead of time.  And this year we won't have to worry about parking!

We are excited to see the Registration number tally rising!  In March, we feared we'd have to cancel, but we are very excited to figure out ways for us to have and share the music and several of us "dogs" have learned some new tricks.  When a Luddite like me can be a "tech guy" you know the world is upside down!  But the tunes still play beautifully.

Hi, all -

I'm looking forward to meeting everybody at BDG next month -- wherever in the country or world you are!

FYI, the concert was moved an hour earlier (to start now at 6pm PT, 9pm ET Friday) to make it more accessible to people on the East Coast.

When Bruce Hornsby made his dulcimer CD a few years ago, he told interviewers that he loved the dulcimer for its simplicity.

I love the dulcimer (in part) because, with only 3 strings, I can more easily do more complex things. The "3 Strings, 2 Voices" workshop that @Lois-Sprengnether-Keel asked about, in my mind, is a great "crack people's heads open and pour in some really interesting stuff that they never considered" workshop. (I told her I think she'll understand everything, even if it doesn't all fall neatly under her fingers on day 1.) And actually, all of my workshops there, including the 3-hour intensives on Sunday, are about bringing people new possibilities.

We'll have fun!

Sam

@Lois-Sprengnether-Keel, I always encourage attendees to challenge themselves and take workshops they might think are too advanced. After all, you don't have to "get" everything in the workshop. But hopefully you'll pick up a few tricks to add to your playing.

Having said that, if you are attending the mountain dulcimer intensive on Sunday, you'll be working pretty closely for many hours with Sam.  Make sure you check out some of the other instructors on Saturday. (And I'm not talking about myself. You can pick my brain anytime!)

Both!  (Now I know your non-Turtle name, too! )  Just sent Sam Edelston an email as I'm pretty solidly an Intermediate, but hope attending his 3 Strings, 2 Voices  won't be hopelessly beyond me & will have material I can take & continue working towards.

I've had a Zoom conference or 2 & wasn't overly thrilled.  Love the time difference & keeping it to just workshop expenses.  I confess to being somebody whose artistic preference is found in a gathering of people in front of me.  As a storyteller I'm looking at libraries & museums streaming by venues & teleconferences for the foreseeable future.  Like everything there are pluses & minuses.  The Berkeley Gathering has a huge plus since I definitely couldn't come otherwise.

I'm glad you're planning on joining us, @Lois-Sprengnether-Keel. Did you sign up for Saturday or Sunday or both?  I've been using Zoom and other teleconferencing software for longer than I've been playing the dulcimer.  It's pretty intuitive.  There are only 2 or 3 controls that you need to be mindful of.  And we are planning a couple of trainings.  I'm sure DJ will be in touch once you've registered.  And feel free to send me any questions you may have.

I know it's not the ideal way to join a dulcimer festival, but you and I are about 2,000 miles apart, and there's something magical about the fact that we'll be able to share music like this!

Just sent Ken a note saying we Night Owls don't get any respect, but I signed up for those a.m. workshops with more confidence as your Pacific time will be fine for this Eastern timezone body clock. 

I feel like I'm being dragged kicking & screaming into digital presentations, but this looks like a good way to proceed with this & appreciate the help with tech that looks like it's being built into this.

Very Cool! 

That's right!  The Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering is going online! You don't have to be in Northern California to join us.  And we've added Erin Mae Lewis , who has many years of experience with online music education, to be on call to help with tech problems and to host the "homeroom" where we'll meet before and after our workshops.

Come join the adventure and be part of the first ever online dulcimer festival!