Sunday, January 08, 2006

Three Songs

I've now learned a third song (two variations) to play on my hammered dulcimer. The song is: "Mississippi Sawyer" - it's yet another reel (that's the timing of the music, as opposed to a waltz, or a jig, or ...). The lessons on CD are good, and I'm getting pretty good at reading the tablature. However, the author of the series has definitely deviated from the tablature on a couple of occasions. The first time was just three notes, but for this song, the two examples of variations for part A are complete wrong. They might be acceptable sound-wise (hard to tell when I'm trying to play them), but the do not match the music on the CD at all.

Though, perhaps it is because my dulcimer is further out of tune...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi
Are you using Ken Kolodner's CD to learn that song? He says he never plays a song the same way twice because he thinks more in chords than notes. Thinking that way has helped me a lot, too, although I'm not as familiar with my chords as I should be. Don't get too hung up on playing the notes as written, or even as heard. Just play what you like & vary as needed!

Off to get my Masterworks out of her case!
Jen.

a said...

Actually, I'm using the John McCutcheon CDs. He probably does something similar, which will be useful once I get a little more hammering under my belt.