# Marcy Prochaska

### Hammered Dulcimer

## Sheep May Safely Graze

Tomorrow morning I am playing at the South Bend Farmers Market, outside, on probation. If approved, I might get to play there regularly, and inside.

I thought I would need to tune the beastie this afternoon, and didn’t get around to it before my student arrived. I noticed that it sounded fine as she played it, so I figured it would be fine for tomorrow as well. Whew! It’s always nice to avoid a tuning, especially when I’ve been doing a lot of work with my hands and don’t want to stress them. (I have hypermobility and not much strength, so they’re prone to injury; hence my special ergonomic hammers.)

Anyway, I rejoiced by practicing the obligato for Sheep May Safely Graze, and then decided to try recording it. I wasn’t able to get an errorless recording, but here it is anyway. Oh, and I’m sorry it’s rather quiet — I forgot how weak my camera’s mic is!

(I can’t play the obligato and the melody at the same time; check out this one to hear the melody sung beautifully.)

Published in:

- Miscellany
- Videos

on September 8, 2010 at 8:30 pm Comments (2)
Tags: Bach, classical

## Rhythm stickers

I had this idea the other day that I thought might help visual learners with understanding rhythm — the lengths of notes, how they combine into measures, and so on. Understanding rhythm can help a dulcimer player with selecting hammering patterns. And for any musician, a good sense of rhythm is essential for musicality — smooth, expressive playing.

I’ll need to add some dotted notes, too, and trim everything to fit more precisely.

The board currently only has room for two measures; if I want to show a pick-up measure, I could put it above the two full measures. Or, to analyze a pick-up measure, I could put it in the first measure-box, and use rests to fill in before the pick-up note(s). Guess I’ll need to make some rests, too! Since dulcimer has no real control of when a note ends, rests are not as frequently important as they are for other instruments.

Published in:

- Teaching

on September 5, 2010 at 9:57 pm Comments Off on Rhythm stickers
Tags: rhythm
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