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General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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Forum Activity for @sgarrity
Where have all the beginners gone, long time passing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
While not a total beginner player, I’m certainly new to the dulcimer world. I easily found info on the Quarantune festival. Facebook, love it or hate it, is a good place for sharing that kind of info. People will find you if your info is out on the web.
Where have all the beginners gone, long time passing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
This seems to be a uniquely dulcimer related question. I’ve been playing mandolin since college, so 20+ years now. I’ve attended camps, workshops, and festivals across the country. And while I’ve helped new players many times I’ve never tried to get someone to play the mandolin. Or guitar, or banjo, etc. In the dulcimer world there seems to be a desire to spread the word about the instrument.
I attended the recent Quarantune online festival. Overall it was really well done. But for me personally the quality of the classes was kinda meh. One instructor was excellent. Another really good. The others seemed focused on just walking you through tab. I could have taught the stuff in the beginner and novice classes.
I think the untapped market is people who are already musicians of some kind.
There’s no real polite way to say it but dulcimers have a bit of a stereotype in the music world. It’s seen as the “easy” instrument for retirees to take up. I’m 42 and I was the youngest person by 20-30 years in most of those classes. I’m 100% for everybody making music however they can. But it needs a wider audience.
