Thanks Dennis, it's sweet of you to post this.I too am happy to see dulcimer people of all different levels as members of our community here- running the gamut all the way from the very newest beginner to the most experienced professional musician.
I am finding that the tone and format here at Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer is enabling me to get to know people who for years were merely anonymous names to me before. As I get to know them more as people here, I find I am learning from them in many small unexpected ways. I bet a lot of members are finding this to be true for them as well.
It reminds me a bit of something I wrote in my noter blog back in April of this year, 2009:
"As I look back now over my own limited experiences and see them from the standpoint of having myself been a total beginner not very long ago, I realize that all the musical learning experiences in my journey, the moments and realizations that were most intense and profound, were not learned through books, workshops, & classes. Rather they were quiet and slow and small moments of musical sharing and learning and realizations. Perhaps I happened upon a beginner fiddler sitting alone under a tree scratching out a tune at some festival, and I stopped to play for just a minute with them- and wound up figuring out something amazing and simple in trying to play with them, something that I had never thought of before.
In trying to solve a problem on my own, I learned in a meaningful way...even if I couldn't solve the problem! Perhaps I played a few tunes with someone who was just learning banjo, or with a very old player, and they gave me some fascinating story from their life that forever effected the way I think about music for myself...or perhaps I said something silly about music that really impressed my 9 year old banjo student. And perhaps all these small moments of wonder made me somehow feel like the best musician in the whole world.
When I think about it, all the most memorable and enriching learning experiences in my life as a whole have been during quiet moments of listening or reflection or experimentation, or through non-rushed personal interaction with another person. I think of music as a living thing- it needs to be lovingly nourished, and it needs to breathe."
I too look forward to hearing more from the accomplished musicians we are honored to have as FOTMD members here. But I also look forward to hearing more from every single one of the 158 members here! Even the newest beginner players with absolutely no musical background at all are inspiring me and teaching me new things here every single day . Isn't it wonderful that we can all inspire and encourage each other? thank you Dennis. :)
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Site Owner
Those irritated by grain of sand best avoid beach.
-Strumelia proverb c.1990
updated by @strumelia: 02/21/16 09:12:48PM
