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.

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!

This video demostrates a drill that I have used to help improve my scale work. This is just one of many scale drills that you should add to your practice routine.

In the video, I must admit that I played the scales rather quickly in order to make the video shorter. Many beginning or intermediate players may not be able to handle it at this speed, and I don’t want you to feel frustrated or intimidated! While speed is important to strive for, be more concerned about timing consistency, intentional note volumes, and accuracy. The speed will eventually fall into place.

I have broken down the effects into two categories, “Cool Tools” and “Dulcimer Onomatopoeia”. The descriptions of each effect are not meant to be complete but a supplemental guide to the instructional video.

Cool Tools

Bending
Strike or pluck a string, then use your finger to bend the string from the opposite side of the same bridge where the note was played.

Finger-Dampening
With one finger, dampen the string by pushing on the bridge directly on any course. With your other hand, strike or pluck the dampened course.

Harmonics
With one finger, gently touch the middle or fifth of a string. With your other hand strike or pluck the string. Harmonics will sound the best on the bass bridge.

Stops
Strike or pluck a string, then stop the sustain with your hand before it naturally fades. The effect is most prominent if you stop a note soon after striking it.

Octave With One Hammer
Played on the far left of your instrument, where the octave from the left and right bridges become adjacent to each other. May not be possible on all hammer dulcimers.

Dulcimer “Onomatopoeia”

Harp Dulcimer
Pluck the dulcimer in a way that the harp would be played. This is done with long, extended arpeggios.

Chimes
Find the middle of any string on the right bridge and pluck it. It should sound similar to a chime. (Remember! You can use the chime effect to make your dulcimer sound similar to a doorbell or grandfather clock!!)

Autoharp Dulcimer
Use one hand to mute the strings that you don’t want and with the other hand strum a chord.

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