I Can’t… I’m Going to Winfield
The Walnut Valley Festival draws thousands of people to Winfield, KS on the third weekend of September each year. Kansas’ biggest folk...
Old Time Jam
There's a new old-time music jam session in town, sponsored by the Kansas Bluegrass Association. It will be held once a month at the...
Making Time for Music
Is your schedule as busy as mine? Do you wake up realizing you haven't picked up your instrument for … days … weeks …??? It's so easy for...
Learning From Other Instruments
My first dulcimer teacher was my dad – a fledgling mandolin player. For the first several years that I played dulcimer, I didn't even...
12 Tips for Arranging on Mountain Dulcimer
Add Chords. Most music has chords written in. You simply have to find the best form of the chord to use to get the best sound &...
Pass It On
Traditions exist because one person teaches another person to value them and keep them going. As old-time musicians, there are many...
Notes from Madame President...
Happy New Year, GPDA! 'Tis the season of "New Year's Resolutions." Have you made some? Personally, I have never been a fan of making...
Dashing through the snow…..
If you have participated in any of our recent playdates, you will no doubt have that tune floating through your head. That's not such bad...
How Not to Buy a Dulcimer
Denny and I sat in the studio of David McKinney in Batesville, Arkansas settling in on her new “Modern Mountain Dulcimer”. In truth, the...
It Starts with a Tree
Perhaps it starts on a cold winter day and a tree is harvested. I say "harvested" because there are trees that are simply "cut down" and...
