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It's Dulcimer Festival Time! | Notes on Practicing: Mountain Dulcimer | Major Scales and Harmony

Introduction.

I have often watched a master musician play or perform and thought: "how does she (or he) make it look so easy?" I know from my own experience that playing an instrument is not always easy so I marvel at musicians who appear to play effortlessly. If asked, a master musician would likely say that the answer is practice. There's no way around it--progress requires practice, and practice leads to progress.

When someone asks me how many hours a day I practice my answer is often "I never practice. I play." I answer this way to reframe the idea of practicing. I love the dulcimer and I love playing music, so it rarely feels like the drudgery we associate with the word practice. It helps me to think: "this is my time to play" not "I have to practice." Within that play, however, I always incorporate a few solid educational and developmental techniques to help me progress on my instrument. It's true that this can be hard work. But the process of doing this work, and the results I notice over time, are both deeply satisfying.

In this article I explore a few things I have learned over the years about practicing and playing. Some I have learned from teachers, some from a few good books, and others from my own experience. Many of them I am still learning. You certainly don't need to follow all of these ideas to get better at the dulcimer. Try incorporating a few of them for a month or two and see if they help your playing.

1. Warm Up.

Just as any athlete warms up before working out, musicians need to warm up before tackling actual music. Musicians exercise fine motor control over small muscles in ways that are similar to athletes using large muscles. It helps to warm up the large muscles first, getting blood and energy flowing through the body, before using small muscles on our instruments. Five or ten minutes of walking, or similar exercise, followed by a session of stretching is an ideal way to begin warming up the body in preparation for playing music. Stretches that loosen the neck, shoulders and torso are particularly valuable for preventing excess tension in areas that are typically problematic for musicians. They also encourage energy to flow freely from the torso through the hands and fingers. It is important to get blood running easily through these areas to help muscles recover from the exertion that is to follow. Madeline Bruser, in her very useful book, The Art of Practicing, presents basic warm-up stretches for musicians along with information on why and how to stretch.

2. Begin with a few technical exercises.

With the larger muscles warmed up you can begin paying attention to the smaller muscles of the hands and fingers involved in playing the dulcimer. I suggest starting every practice session with a few technical exercises and studies. This provides an easy, low stress way to prepare these smaller muscles for the more rigorous movements and stretches that will be needed for actual music. It also serves to gradually improve and develop your technique on the instrument. For example, try Exercise 5: Scale Exercise in D from the Hands-On Dulcimer book, notated below. This is a simple scale in rhythm that is an excellent way to start. It stretches the small muscles of your left hand while warming up the flatpicking muscles of your right. Try playing it at a normal volume first, then play it as loud as you can followed by one time through as soft as you can. This helps to build strength as well as increase your ability to play with different dynamic levels. You can also alternate measures playing loud and soft. Listen to the attached sound file if you want to hear how this exercise sounds.

Spending just five or ten minutes per day working on exercises that focus on your own specific problem areas will pay future dividends in both healthier hands and greater facility on the dulcimer. For further information on using technical exercises and studies you can consult my book Hands-On Dulcimer: Developing Technique Through Exercises and Studies published by Mel Bay. The book presents hundreds of exercises, tips on how to use them and a CD with recorded examples.

3. Decide on the intensity level for the practice session.

Decide ahead of time what you want to achieve with a practice session. Sometimes you might want to just play a few tunes. For other sessions your goal might be to dig in and work on a specific piece or technique that is difficult for you. Both approaches are valid and needed. Thinking about what you want to accomplish focuses your mental energy in ways that help you accomplish your goal for the session. Be realistic about this—achieving noticeable results often happens gradually over time, not in one practice session.

4. Develop both long-term and short-term projects.

I am fond of telling my students that we all have long-term and short-term projects in life and our musical lives are no different. Just as saving money to buy that first house doesn’t happen in a month, neither does perfecting that first full-length piece or difficult technique. Musical skill accumulates gradually over time through consistent and persistent effort. I always have several things I am working on that I don’t expect to master anytime soon. I have spent years working on difficult pieces or developing specific techniques. In other words, it took years for the pieces to be playable in front of others or the techniques to become consistent enough to incorporate.

Short-term projects are equally important, whether it is learning a simple tune or adding a new chord to a piece you already play. Achieving success with the shortterm goals—what a friend once termed small task completion—keeps us energized to continue working on our long-term projects.

5. Stay conscious.

It took me a long time to learn that the length of time you spend practicing does not necessarily have any bearing on how much progress you make. Practicing can become rote and unconscious like anything else. While it might be desirable to pay less attention to some routine things in our lives, music is not one of them. It is important to practice with as much curiosity, interest and attention to detail as possible. Just going through the motions has limited benefit. Sometimes putting down the instrument and doing something else has a more dramatic impact on our progress than pushing through when we are not paying good attention. Returning to practicing with refreshed mental acuity can make a huge difference.

6. Break things down and build them up.

I find it helpful to break difficult tunes or techniques into small pieces and concentrate on them one at a time. A good way to approach this is to take all of the hard spots in a piece of music--maybe four or five sections of a measure or two each, for example--and practice those by themselves. Perhaps it is a difficult chord change or fingering, a string that needs to be played by itself with the right hand without hitting the others around it, or a run of sixteenth notes. Isolate the problem area then play it slow, play it medium and play it fast. Change the rhythm, play it with dotted rhythms then play it straight, play it connected then with gaps. After practicing each problem area to your satisfaction, play the entire piece again. Pay close attention to transition points, which are often the most difficult in a piece. Transition points occur between pieces in a medley, between the first and second time through a piece if the arrangement changes, into or out of a difficult chord, from the lower to the higher octave on the dulcimer, etc.

Another way to break things down is to work on small, consecutive sections of a piece including both the difficult and easy parts. Practice the first four or eight measures, then move to the next four or eight. When you have worked through the entire piece put it back together.

To put some of these ideas into practice, try Exercise #29: Modal Independence from the Hands-On Dulcimer book, notated below. This exercise helps develop left hand finger independence while building strength and dexterity, particularly in the little and ring fingers. This exercise is somewhat difficult and I would suggest learning it one measure at a time. Don't try to play all of it at first but focus on the first measure or two. With those under your fingers, add another measure, etc. Note that the A section repeats every other measure so once you learn it you know half of the exercise! The transition from the fifth note (fret 6 of the bass string) to the sixth note (fret 6 of the melody string) in the A section is tricky, so practice just this transition by itself. When you reach the fifth note you have two fingers on the dulcimer--the ring finger on fret 6 of the bass and the little finger just behind it on fret 5 of the bass (this is the note you just played--leave this finger down after playing it). To make the transition to the sixth note move both of these fingers as a unit to the melody string and put them down together on frets 5 and 6. Try making this transition with just the left hand (do not strike the strings with the right). Then, work on the transition by playing just the fourth through seventh notes (one note before to one note after the transition) over and over until if feels comfortable. Then, play the entire A section. When you are ready, move on to learning the B section. There are many more opportunities to break things down and build them back up in this exercise! Listen to the accompanying sound file to hear this exercise.

7. Work on the hard stuff.

If your middle finger is weaker than the others it may be tempting to avoid using it, letting other fingers take its place. This will often lead to inefficient fingering and related problems like missed melody notes and poor rhythm. If you never use your middle finger then you will never be able to use it, and you will always limit your ability on the dulcimer. The same is true of a difficult technique. Make sure that you spend some time on the hard stuff so you can become more flexible on the instrument.

8. Work on rhythm.

We often get caught up with the stretching and placing of the left hand to make melodies and forget that much of the power of our music comes from solid rhythm that is generated largely by the right hand. Uneven rhythm produces uneasy feelings in our listeners. Solid rhythm, on the other hand, can mask dropped melody notes, missed chords and other problems. I have learned that it is important to spend part of nearly every practice session working specifically on rhythm. A metronome can become your best friend in this endeavor. Here are a few ideas for working with a 'nome:

a. Find your desired tempo for a piece, then practice it at half that tempo, or less. Gradually work your way up to your goal. It may take weeks or months of playing it slow before you feel ready to try it at your desired tempo. Remember that all solid fast playing is grounded in solid slow playing. If you can't play it slow you probably can't play it cleanly, with good rhythm, up to tempo.
b. After you have learned a piece well play it faster than your desired tempo and work your way down;
c. Pay attention to the notes in-between the clicks of the metronome and make sure these inner notes are absolutely in rhythm;
d. Place the metronome setting at half of your working tempo but play the piece up to speed. This gives you more material between each metronome beat and forces you to play more of the tune rhythmically on your own.
e. Try tapping your feet (a challenge with the dulcimer) in time to the metronome to help get the rhythm into your body. You can also try tapping one foot on the downbeat and one on the upbeat.

Another rhythm-building technique to try, with or without the metronome, is overaccenting the downbeat of a piece. Then, play the same thing while over-accenting the upbeat. This will help you develop rhythmic flexibility. Remember to return to a subtle accent unless the piece calls for a strong accent.

9. Record yourself.

Sometimes we don't hear the mistakes we make or the uneven rhythms we use. Using a recorder can help to identify problem areas as well as aid in listening critically to arrangements to see if you are achieving what you intended. Although the recording device usually doesn't lie in terms of mistakes and rhythm, it may not do a good job of reproducing the tonal qualities of the dulcimer or the nuances of our playing. Learn how to judge what the recorder is giving you, using it to discover areas that you want to improve.

10. Pretend you are performing.

It can be useful to pretend that a friend or an audience is sitting across from you listening to every note you play. When we practice we often stop when we make a mistake and play the part again. If you are playing for someone else, of course, you move through the mistake and keep going with the piece. This is a learned skill and it is important to practice moving through mistakes without losing the thread of the piece.

If you perform, or aspire to perform, it can also help to play your entire program from beginning to end as if there was an audience present. You will learn which pieces are easy and which are more difficult, how long the performance lasts, whether the order of the pieces works, where you have extensive re-tuning to do, where you need to be prepared to talk to the audience, etc. Working through your performance in this way will help you become familiar with all of these issues so that when you are before an actual audience you are more likely to feel prepared and confident.

11. Be patient.

Above all else try to remain patient with yourself. Although you may not be able to play a specific piece of music or execute a particular technique right now, with regular practice over time your abilities will grow. Some techniques or exercises will take a month to learn, others may take years. But, we have years—indeed, a lifetime—in which to develop our musical abilities.

12. Explore and have fun.

Every practice session is an exploration, even if you decide ahead of time exactly what you will work on. You may be exploring different ways to master a specific technique or alternative arrangement ideas. You may be exploring your own limitations as you struggle to teach yourself something new. Maintaining a sense of exploration will help you stay curious and engaged in your art. Enjoy the process and don’t worry so much about the results. Enjoy the chance to play your instrument and make music.

Not every practice session needs to be scripted. If you get inspired go on a tangent and explore whatever is drawing you in. Just be careful not to use this as a reason to skip the hard stuff. Sometimes you may want to play a few tunes without working too hard and that can also be valuable. Sometimes it is best to have no expectations when you take the dulcimer out of its case other than that you will play it and see where it leads. A healthy dose of both approaches—disciplined work on the hard stuff and curious playing with few expectations—is particularly strong. Incorporating both ideas into one practice session can also work well.

Conclusion.

Practicing is not just a means to reach a desired end, but is also a process. It is the process of playing music, of exploring our musical lives, of accepting challenges and working to overcome them, of learning to be realistic, of embracing strengths and limitations, and of having fun. The further our musical skills develop, the more fun and satisfying it becomes. No matter what our goals or abilities it is a great gift to be able to make music.

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Known as an innovator on the lap dulcimer, Mike Casey's unique style incorporates techniques from a variety of Irish and American instruments including banjo, cittern, fiddle and flute, establishing the dulcimer as a legitimate lead instrument. According to Victory Review, Mike "takes the Appalachian dulcimer to new heights…picking the melody as intricately as a classical guitarist." He plays a five-string instrument that extends one octave lower than other dulcimers, and his repertoire ranges from Celtic harp pieces and Scottish laments to old-time fiddle tunes and Irish jigs, reels and hornpipes. Mike is also an accomplished flute and guitar player and has performed and taught at festivals and music camps around the country over the past 15 years, including the week-long dulcimer workshop at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC; the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV; the Swannanoa Gathering in NC; the Meadowlark Music Camp in Washington, ME; the Memphis Dulcimer Festival, the Old Songs Festival and Cranberry Dulcimer Festival in New York, among others. He has released two solo recordings, The Hourglass and The Pleasures of Hope, along with two recordings with the band Cucanandy, with whom he toured for many years. In 2003 Mel Bay released his instructional book Hands-On Dulcimer: Developing Technique Through Exercises and Studies, which is designed to help dulcimer players grow in their technical abilities regardless of the type of music they play.

Mike can be reached at mikecasey@mindspring.com.