1. I have a new sister: Christie Burns. I am pleased. We didn’t really spend any time together when we’d both been at the Upper Potomac Fest, but both times in Chattanooga we’ve enjoyed each other’s company. She feels like a sister to me, somehow; maybe it’s the New Jersey connection, or maybe something else.

2. Two excellent salads: Blackened chicken at the Big River Grill, with perfect greens, the kind of bleu cheese crumbles I actually like, sunflower seeds, and so on; Citrus Salmon at Tony’s, also with perfect greens and with a citrus aioli dressing I was nervous about (I don’t really know what aioli is except it has garlic) but was perfect.

3. Cute dessert idea: Also at the Big River Grill, little mini desserts for a buck-fifty served in glasses — bigger than shot glasses, smaller than juice glasses. The berry trifle was fabulous.

4. Rick Davis and Christie Burns moved to Chattanooga with the help of the ArtsMove organization. They live just about across the street from each other. Their neighborhood is a handful of quiet streets lined with mostly three bedroom single-story homes, mostly new construction. Yes, the train goes by very close, but seriously the window glass is so good I never heard the train while I was inside with the windows closed.

5. Buddha Board: Rick and Brandy had one of these on the counter. It’s a large board that looks like some kind of stone — actually it seems to be some kind of paper or plastic film attached to plastic, but the original one is finished so nicely that it doesn’t look like paper or plastic. It sits on a water-filled base that holds a brush. You paint with plain water and get black marks that gradually fade — they stay long enough to draw a pretty complete picture, but fade quickly enough to draw another in several minutes. They kindly got me one of the little ones; it’s red instead of black.

6. Depression: I found out that several dulcimer folks I know also deal with depression and anxiety and some of them are also medicated. It is always good to feel less alone.

7. Anxiety and sleep: I got one hour of sleep Wednesday night before traveling to the festival. That’s not really a good way to start such an event. I continued to sleep rather poorly during the festival, even though I tried to get into bed at a reasonable hour and faithfully took my anti-anxiety medication. I didn’t usually feel all that anxious, but just agitated; festivals are busy places with lots of people, and even good stress is stress. Saturday morning I woke up feeling miserable enough that if I’d had my own car, I would have gone home. But as the day went on I actually found energy and enjoyment, and it was a better day than Friday was.

8. People. I met Bruce, John Bob, Ted, Rosalind, and several other folks but didn’t get to talk to them much. I saw a bit more of Larry, who I knew from Everything Dulcimer but hadn’t met in person until this festival, and of Dawn, who I met last time. I saw many folks I’d met before, but again didn’t get to spend much time with: Ann and Darlene from Virginia, Lisa, Dan and Angie, Mark, Bob, Randy, Stephen, Garrett, Jerry, and I’m sure several others. And of course I saw a lot of Shelley, Dave, Rick and Brandy, Christie, and Kitty.

9. I tuned my dulcimer Wednesday morning. I haven’t tuned it since — I’m supposed to play this evening, so I need to at least check it before I go out, but it was so stable despite different air conditioning and outdoor conditions, I expect it’ll still be sounding fine tonight. I discovered that Shelley takes just as long to tune as I do. I’m not alone!

This weekend I went to the Chattanooga Dulcimer Fest.

Shelley from Chicago spent the night here, then we drove eleven hours on Thursday. When we arrived, we got her checked into the hotel, found our mutual friend Dave, and finally got some dinner around 8 or 9, then got me over to Rick Davis’ house.

On Friday, after registering and putting in my lunch order, I played on the front steps in lieu of a first class, which was a nice way to get started.

My second class was Dan Landrum’s Rudiments II — the third time I’ve taken it, I think. It’s interesting each time, although I still haven’t done much work on these things on my own.

Lunch was provided on site — in the vendor area — by a local restaurant; I had a roast beef and cheddar sandwich. It might have been nice to have tables, but at least there were chairs and plenty of space. And people playing music while we ate.

Stephen Humphries’ class on playing tunes in different genres and styles was fun to listen to, and I learned a tiny little blues riff, but the topic was so broad that it was more introduction and demonstration and not so much practical.

Then Christie Burns taught us a cool tune that has both B and Bb, C and C#, and F and F#. I think it might have been Swedish. Yes. It was a polska. Right now I only remember bits, but I have the sheet music.

Classes didn’t end until 5:30, which made dinner a little tight, with the concert at 8. We were still at the restaurant at 8:15, I think. Being rather tired, I just went back to the Davis’s and relaxed and went to bed early.

My Saturday began with Mark Wade’s class “Playing Nicely With Others,” which was a handful of nice little rounds. Nothing I have a burning desire to perform or record, but a wonderful way to begin the day, just exactly playing nicely with others — and a nice idea for dulcimer clubs to include in their sessions.

I especially liked the way he taught the tunes. He let the music-readers sight-read, which gave the ear-players something to listen to, then did a call and response / echo for each phrase to be sure we all got it. That’s a nice way to balance the needs and preferences of music-readers and ear-players.

Then I sat in on Kendra Ward’s class on licks — arranging / improvisation ideas. Her approach is like Rick Thum’s — more replacing phrases with something similar, and not so much ornamentation.

This time I brought a sandwich instead of buying one, and after Rick played a set, I played a little at Dan’s invitation.

My favorite class of the weekend came next — Christie Burns taught a polyrhythmic African song. The foundation or ground of the piece had a bit in three for the left hand and a bit in a swung four for the right hand, which is a nice challenge and fun to play, and it is also just really lovely. Then there are some other bits that can be sung or played over the ground. I really really like this piece. Christie said she’d record it and post it on her blog soon.

I was supposed to go to Stephen Humphries’ class on rudiments next, but I just wasn’t in the mood. So I returned downstairs to the vendor area and there was a jam class going on. I borrowed a guitar from a vendor and played thunky amateur chords and had fun and hopefully didn’t annoy anyone too much.

Another dinner, and this time I went to the concert, and enjoyed it rather much. It was diverse, with each performer just doing two pieces, and various combinations of folks and styles. I think that’s a great idea for a festival — usually I’m so tired and hopped up from the festival day that I don’t have the attention and mood for an extended set from one performer.

I went to the Irish jam afterwards for just a few tunes without even getting out my dulcimer. I was tired — and I didn’t know any of the tunes.

On Sunday, there were little lectures or something going on in the morning; I got there at the tail end, in time to catch a group for lunch and get over to the aquarium for the jamming outside there.

There was some nice jamming here and there for a while. Then some non-dulcimer players started rattling off tunes amongst themselves and the circle of dulcimers around them was empty and silent. After a bit Shelley, Dave, Kitty, and I ran around the corner with our dulcimers and played by ourselves.

And that was the Chattanooga Dulcimer Fest. But wait! There’s more!

The four of us stopped at Ben and Jerry’s, then back to Christie’s and Rick’s houses where we hung out chatting with the English folks, Christine and her husband Peter, then went out to the Tremont Tavern to listen to the Irish session and eat dinner. No one but Rick took a dulcimer, but I got to play one or two pieces that Rick didn’t know.

On Monday, we all traipsed about Chattanooga — Christie, Rick and Brandy, Christine and Peter, Shelley, and I. (Dave left after a late breakfast at Niedlov’s Bakery). We looked around the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, visited Horsin’ Around, a carousel animal carving school, visited a book store, rode the downtown carousel, ate a late lunch and more ice cream (Clumpie’s is much better than Ben and Jerry’s, and they have coconut almond chip, and better prices, too), meandered back to the neighborhood, then went out to the place where the Old Time session was. Shelley and Christine and I had our dulcimers, and Christie played fiddle. That was fun.

Tuesday morning we eventually got up and dressed and said good-byes, and Shelley and I headed home — arriving in time to see daughter before she went to bed. The next day Shelley went on to her home in Chicago.

Next — some thoughts and stories and such about other things that happened while I was there.

The town of Plymouth is having its second annual Yellow River Festival on Saturday, June 7. I’m new in town, but from what I hear, it’s got crafts and food and music and such somewhat focused on the town’s pre-1900 history.

I will be playing from 11 to noon.

My set list is still developing, but I’m planning some O’Carolan and Bach (both 18th C), some British Isles stuff (reels, jigs, a 3/2 hornpipe), and some original and contemporary stuff.

The Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival this weekend was great!

The schedule is great!

There are six classes, three on Friday and three on Saturday. They’re all an hour and a half long, which is a nice length. An hour is too short to do more than lecture or learn a tune. Longer can be nice for some things, but there was only one class I thought really needed more than ninety minutes.

There is plenty of time to rest and recover from things. The lunch break is nice and long, with a mini-concert in the middle. Everyone eats together in the cafeteria, where the festival store is also set up. Angie took lunch orders during the morning class and so lunch was just a matter of picking out your sandwich and sitting down to eat it. Very relaxed and easy — for the participants if not for Angie!

There’s also a nice long break between the afternoon class and the evening concert. A jam happens in the cafeteria, or you can duck into one of the classrooms to practice something you learned or talk to a teacher or whatever else you need to do. It’s so nice to have jamming happen in the afternoon while folks are still awake, and not have to wait until after a long evening concert and battle the sleepies. Makes the concert more enjoyable, too, since you know you can go right to bed afterwards if you so desire.

The approach is great!

This festival is focused on technique. My other favorite festival, the Upper Potomac, also has lots of classes that focus on building skills, but apparently this is not the typical festival fare. I think it’s great — why go to a festival just to learn tunes? If you learn technique, you’ll be that much better equipped to learn — and arrange and compose and perform and improvise — tunes.

The classes are all team-taught. That means more help for the students — when there’s time to try something just taught, teacher and helper can both go around answering questions and making suggestions. Or if some folks are particularly struggling, the helper can stand near them and quietly advise without interrupting or slowing down the rest of the class. Helpers also may have a different way of explaining or demonstrating something. It’s also great from a teacher’s perspective — I got to see how three other teachers approach things, which can help me become a better and more effective teacher.

The classes were great!

I taught two classes, one introducing chords and one introducing some separated hands techniques. I had the help of Christie Burns in the one and Stephen Humphries in the other. The students in the classes were great, enjoyable to teach, willing to try new things, patient, etc.

Christie taught a class on bringing new life to old tunes — a new beginner and I spent the class out in the hall working on stuff more at her level, something that wouldn’t have been possible without the team-teaching approach. I’ll have to remember to ask Christie to send me her notes!

Mark Wade taught a class on adding accompaniment to melodies. I’ve talked to students before about “filler notes” or “arpeggios,” but Mark broke it down into very specific kinds of arpeggios — descending, down and up, ascending, with bass notes, and so on.

Saturday, Dan Landrum taught a class on modes. When I teach about modes, I focus on the four most commonly found in Celtic and Old Time music — Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, and Aeolian — and what tunes in these modes sound like. Dan’s approach is jazz-influenced: He taught how to find all seven modal scales, talked about chords from a jazz perspective (which led into a long discussion trying to clarify the different types of seventh chords), and went on to talk a little about improvising or composing based on modal scale and chord patterns. This is a class I would have enjoyed for another hour or so; ninety minutes was just enough time to introduce the topic and answer questions that had to be addressed before getting into the meat of it.

That afternoon Mark, Christie, and I talked about practicing. Mark had a great handout full of different drills you can do with two-octave scales and arpeggios, practicing shifting accents, evening out both hands, and so on. At the end we had a short question-and-answer / sharing time to discuss other practice tips and ideas.

There were also other classes going on — two or three at a time just for hammered dulcimer, plus some classes for mountain dulcimer.

What else was great?

I confess I skipped most of Friday’s concert, but the bit of Lee Rowe’s mountain dulcimer performance I caught was great. Saturday’s mini-concert by Stephen Humphries was really cool – it broke out into some discussion in the middle, and brought everyone to their feet at the end. Saturday’s evening concert was also a lot of fun, with various combinations of the instructors in the first half, and Dan’s new jazz group in the second half. I especially liked Christie and Butch’s two songs, one about getting married which was sweet, and one about being a folk musician which was funny.

I didn’t get to the pasta or Chinese places, but the Mexican place was great and so was the barbecue.

I think the festival store was pretty great, too. Jerry and Doug brought not only Jerry’s dulcimers, but also some made by Dusty Strings and MasterWorks and I think some others, plus bowed psalteries, mountain dulcimers, hammers, and other accessories. Plus there was a great selection of performers’ and teachers’ CDs, t-shirts, and more.

The downtown jam at the aquarium was a lot of fun — started out with a group of students and some of the teachers just jamming as usual, and morphed into Dan, Stephen, Christie, Mark, Randy Clepper, and others doing improv and other wild and unusual things.

You know what else was great? The people and the atmosphere. I got to know some of the other teachers better than I had before, partly because of the team-teaching thing, and just enjoyed hanging out with folks in general — at meals, at the guest house, at the Landrums’ Sunday after most folks had already gone home, and so on. And the Mountain Arts Community Center was homey and comfortable, and the whole weekend felt relaxed and peaceful.

Sure, I’ll go back if I can. And I’d recommend the festival to anyone, especially anyone who really wants to develop their musicianship and not just increase their repertoire.