Hammer dulcimer music, videos, and lessons by Joshua Messick » Songs

Instruments With Voices

jmessick — Sat, 01 May 2010 17:14:22 +0000

The release of The Entrance of Sound is almost here. Click play to listen to Instrument With Voices.

Video: Plucking the Hammer Dulcimer

jmessick — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:12:56 +0000

Here is a video I made of me plucking an improvisation. I made it for personal use to gather ideas and concepts for The Entrance of Sound. I thought I’d go ahead and share it with you.

Reflections

jmessick — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:25:44 +0000

Here is just an improvisation that I did to try out some new sound recording equipment that I am able to use.It’s still not studio quality, but it is stereo and is a drastic upgrade from the built-in mic on the camcorder that I was using.

New Recording Coming Soon!

jmessick — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:08:55 +0000

It is called The Entrance of Sound.

It will be live. All solo. No overdubs. Pure hammer dulcimer. Mostly original compositions. Release date is May 2010.

Improvising (Demonstrational Video)

jmessick — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:48:12 +0000

This is not a lesson to help you learn how to improvise. This is a picture into how I use improvising as a practice habit and development skill. For me personally, the thought of only playing what other people have already put to music sounds boring. I like to do my own things and make music that is unique. This is why I enjoy composing and arranging. Improvising helps me come up with new ideas.

I improvise all the time. I clear my mind and just let the music flow with what feels right at that given time. But, I’m always paying close attention to what I’m communicating, when the song needs “breathing room”, and when change needs to happen.

With this approach, I can discover some passages and different licks that I really like. I then develop and memorize them. Sometimes, I may use just one passage from an improv to enhance an arrangement Or, I may be hopeful of what happened, and try to use it as a main theme to a new song.

One thing that is helpful when improvising is to record yourself. This gives another opportunity to analyze your playing, figure out the passages that worked, and remember what you actually played!

This video is an example of a blind improvise that I did during a practice session last night. I’ll use this video to analyze what I’ve done, decide what I liked and didn’t like, and probably use it to develop a new song one day.

The Irish Washerwoman (Demonstrational Video)

jmessick — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:25:45 +0000

I live in an older home, and when the winter arrives, the drain line for the washer machine often freezes and I can’t do my laundry! Thankfully, this is only during a hard freeze. Recently, we an extended period where I couldn’t do my laundry. (No worries, I have a lot of clothes!) As the weather warmed up, there were a few days where it seemed like all I did was laundry.

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, and my recent days dedicated to laundry, I thought it appropriate to play The Irish Washerwoman.

This is just a quick arrangement of the tune tailored exclusively for this blog. I play it rapidly, as expression of how much I wish that laundry could be done with FAST!

Enjoy!

Desire for Departure (Demonstrational Video)

jmessick — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:50:43 +0000

A lot of people have been asking me how Desire for Departure is played. One day, I do hope to release the notation for it. But for now, this is a live demonstration of my composition, Desire for Departure.

This is a solo version of the song. When originally arranged, I had the instrumentation in mind. Since the song is largely repetitive and doesn’t rely on tune variations/additional embellishments to enhance the arrangement, the gradual speed increase is intentional to create tension and interest in order to keep it from dragging. Normally, I would not recommend this approach.

The secondary purpose for showing this demonstration is that hand independence is used throughout the song. I am sure that I will be referencing this video in future posts discussing the advantages of hand independence.

For a full-version free download of what appears on my CD release, please check out the listen section to the right