I love your videos! I love the setting, the wardrobe, the comments written in afterwards, the cat coming and going and your comments back and forth with your wife--all of it! I think we all feel like we're there having a jam with you! Keep 'em coming!
Sarah Morgan (US Mountain Dulcimer Champion 2012) taught me about playing triplets. It helps to think of them as a "triple-it" when you count out your rhythms. : "One Triple-it three four" or " Triple-it, two-and, three, four-and" etc.
Hi Mark, yeah triplets can be a bit tough. You should be able to hear how I do it in the video demo. But there are more general ways of learning triplets, too.
Sing the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again." Better yet, sing it while you are marching around your living room. (Don't worry, you don't have to video tape this, although it would be amusing to see!) You should be stepping to the following beats: "john" and "march" and "home" and "gain" and so forth.
When you sing "Johnny Comes" and "give him a" and "cheer and the," those are all triplets. They are places where we play three notes of equal duration in the space where we hear one beat.
I think in your earlier video I saw you practicing hammer-ons by plucking the bass string and hammering-on the first and third frets of the bass string, then doing the same thing on the middle string, and then plucking the melody string. (That is an exercise the Aaron O'Rourke teaches at Stephen Seifert's Dulcimer School and I just guessed that's where you got it.) When you do that exercise in rhythm, you are playing triplets on the bass and middle strings.
Thank y'all for the encouragement and kind words. I'll keep practicing this one and get it in time. I really like the movement in the piece, which becomes dulcimer gymnastics for me! Hammer on and slide and pull off this way and that. This is a lot for a short piece.
I see what you are writing, Marion. I couldn't put a word to the feeling I have, but I think tension is a good one. The more I play the tune the more I mess it up the more I learn it and relax and play it correctly. Weird but true.
Thank you for the reinforcement, Dusty. I wanted to learn the notes and then get the timing, but Val, my wife who is a music teacher, said that I should do it all at once. I resisted because I'm the worst student on the planet, and now I can tell her that you gave me permission to do it my way! She usually only intervenes when I ask for help, and since I'm fiercely independent that doesn't happen often--lets me fall down a lot, she must. But she's always there to pick me up and dust me off.
I wanted to ask about the triplet, I think my wife called it. It was funny because I was adding up the notes and they just didn't add up; I probably spent twenty minutes on that fret until I finally asked Val what was going on. I am befuddled by numbers and systems to begin with, so this anomaly set me for a loop. Is there a way to practice for this as I'm getting the timing right? The quitter in me says just play two notes, but the champion in me says buck up and do it, little camper. So any advice here'd be great.
Mark, you're doing great! And it's wonderful to see you working with the hammer-ons and pull-offs. For the record, I never do a pull-off forward the way you do, but others do. Apparently it's a banjo trick and FOTMD Randy Adams does it occasionally.
When my daughter learns her piano tunes, she starts with just trying to get all the notes right. Then she moves on to get the rhythm down as a second step. I would suggest you do the same. The songs you play will indeed sound better once you have a steady rhythm, but the first step is just to get the notes, and you're doing great with that!
I have to admit that I'm kind of flattered you're actually working on this. Let me know if you have any questions.
I love your videos! I love the setting, the wardrobe, the comments written in afterwards, the cat coming and going and your comments back and forth with your wife--all of it! I think we all feel like we're there having a jam with you! Keep 'em coming!
Sarah Morgan (US Mountain Dulcimer Champion 2012) taught me about playing triplets. It helps to think of them as a "triple-it" when you count out your rhythms. : "One Triple-it three four" or " Triple-it, two-and, three, four-and" etc.
Hi Mark, yeah triplets can be a bit tough. You should be able to hear how I do it in the video demo. But there are more general ways of learning triplets, too.
Sing the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again." Better yet, sing it while you are marching around your living room. (Don't worry, you don't have to video tape this, although it would be amusing to see!) You should be stepping to the following beats: "john" and "march" and "home" and "gain" and so forth.
When you sing "Johnny Comes" and "give him a" and "cheer and the," those are all triplets. They are places where we play three notes of equal duration in the space where we hear one beat.
I think in your earlier video I saw you practicing hammer-ons by plucking the bass string and hammering-on the first and third frets of the bass string, then doing the same thing on the middle string, and then plucking the melody string. (That is an exercise the Aaron O'Rourke teaches at Stephen Seifert's Dulcimer School and I just guessed that's where you got it.) When you do that exercise in rhythm, you are playing triplets on the bass and middle strings.
Hope that helps.
Thank y'all for the encouragement and kind words. I'll keep practicing this one and get it in time. I really like the movement in the piece, which becomes dulcimer gymnastics for me! Hammer on and slide and pull off this way and that. This is a lot for a short piece.
I see what you are writing, Marion. I couldn't put a word to the feeling I have, but I think tension is a good one. The more I play the tune the more I mess it up the more I learn it and relax and play it correctly. Weird but true.
Thank you for the reinforcement, Dusty. I wanted to learn the notes and then get the timing, but Val, my wife who is a music teacher, said that I should do it all at once. I resisted because I'm the worst student on the planet, and now I can tell her that you gave me permission to do it my way! She usually only intervenes when I ask for help, and since I'm fiercely independent that doesn't happen often--lets me fall down a lot, she must. But she's always there to pick me up and dust me off.
I wanted to ask about the triplet, I think my wife called it. It was funny because I was adding up the notes and they just didn't add up; I probably spent twenty minutes on that fret until I finally asked Val what was going on. I am befuddled by numbers and systems to begin with, so this anomaly set me for a loop. Is there a way to practice for this as I'm getting the timing right? The quitter in me says just play two notes, but the champion in me says buck up and do it, little camper. So any advice here'd be great.
Big smiles to all y'all.
Well since I don't really know the tune I had no idea what you put in or left out. But I gotta say it was just plain real pretty to listen to !
Mark, you're doing great! And it's wonderful to see you working with the hammer-ons and pull-offs. For the record, I never do a pull-off forward the way you do, but others do. Apparently it's a banjo trick and FOTMD Randy Adams does it occasionally.
When my daughter learns her piano tunes, she starts with just trying to get all the notes right. Then she moves on to get the rhythm down as a second step. I would suggest you do the same. The songs you play will indeed sound better once you have a steady rhythm, but the first step is just to get the notes, and you're doing great with that!
I have to admit that I'm kind of flattered you're actually working on this.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Mark, your enthusiasm will get you far.