Most players would rather play simple things well than play difficult things poorly. We’ll use a collection of satisfying tunes to develop accurate strumming, clean fretting, steady rhythm, and the confidence to keep playing from beginning to end.

You’ll work with melody against the drones, easy backup chords, simple chord-melody, slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and a capo. More than anything, I want to help you turn the basics into real music you enjoy playing.

You should be able to tune your dulcimer to DAD, read basic tablature, and play a few simple tunes. Bring a capo. Tablature and other practice materials will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

We’ll use reliable jam tunes to develop a strong, musical blend of picking and strumming. Each tune will help you improve right-hand control, clean string changes, fingering, rhythm, and your ability to place melodies across the strings.

We’ll explore different octaves, minimal chord-melody, useful variations, and simple intros and endings. The tunes are the attraction, but the real goal is to give you skills you can use on all kinds of music.

You should be comfortable reading ordinary tablature, maintaining a steady rhythm, and forming common chords. We’ll use DAD tuning. Bring a capo. Complete tablature will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

Instead of guessing at chords or waiting for someone else to write them above the tablature, learn a practical system for finding chords that support the melody.

We’ll work with chord families, melody notes, the number system, common progressions, keys, and useful fretboard relationships. We’ll also turn the process around and use chords to find melody notes, harmonies, fills, and other musical possibilities.

I’ll use my interactive mountain dulcimer chord and fretboard website throughout the course so you can see why the notes and chords fit together. You’ll be able to use the website between sessions as you practice and experiment.

This is music theory for making music. My goal is to help you become more confident, creative, and independent. We’ll use DAD tuning. Bring a capo. Tablature and printed reference materials will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

Classical and early music can sound wonderful on the mountain dulcimer. We’ll learn a collection of finished arrangements drawn from medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, or familiar classical music.

The pieces will give us good reasons to work on clean fingering, phrasing, tone, dynamics, richer chords, flatpicking, fingerpicking, and moving melodies around the instrument. I’ll help you understand what makes each arrangement work and how to polish it into music you would be proud to perform.

Confident upper-intermediate players who are ready for a challenge are welcome. We’ll primarily use DAD tuning unless a particular piece gives us a compelling musical reason to do something else. Bring a capo. Complete tablature will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

You don’t have to memorize a thick chord book to know where your major and minor chords are. I’ll show you an easy-to-remember system built around the three main chord shapes.

We’ll use that system to find chords, play backup, create chord-melody arrangements, find harmonies, and move more confidently around the fretboard. We’ll put everything to work with real music instead of studying diagrams without a musical purpose.

I’ll use my interactive mountain dulcimer chord and fretboard website throughout the course. You’ll be able to see the shapes and relationships we’re discussing and use the website while practicing between classes.

This is not about collecting more chord diagrams. It is about understanding how the chord system works so you can find what you need. We’ll use DAD tuning. Bring a capo. Tablature and chord reference materials will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

England has given us a beautiful collection of folk songs, and many of them fit the mountain dulcimer wonderfully. We’ll use these melodies to develop rich, expressive fingerpicking arrangements.

You’ll work on relaxed right-hand technique, tone control, filler picking, chord choices, smooth transitions, and different ways of supporting a melody. I especially want to help you play a song more than once without making every verse sound exactly the same.

You’ll finish with a collection of complete arrangements plus fingerpicking ideas you can use with other music. We’ll use DAD tuning. Bring a capo. Complete tablature will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

You really can learn to play harmonica by ear. I’ve developed a new visual approach that connects what you hear with what you need to do on the instrument.

I’ll use my new harmonica visualization tool throughout the course to make melodies easier to follow, remember, and play back. We’ll begin with short musical ideas and familiar folk tunes, then work toward playing complete melodies with confidence.

We’ll also work on clean single notes, breathing, rhythm, tremolo, scales, and playing simple chords with melodies. We’ll learn the tunes primarily by ear, but you will not have to depend on memory alone. You’ll receive standard music notation and harmonica tablature for every tune we cover.

The course preview video will include a short demonstration of my new visual teaching approach. Bring a ten-hole diatonic harmonica in the key of D. A regular or low D is fine.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.

Every song in this course will receive two useful arrangements. First, we’ll learn the backup chords so you can accompany singing or another instrument. Then we’ll create a very simple chord-melody arrangement that lets you play the melody and chords together.

We’ll work on steady strumming, smooth chord changes, easy fingerpicking, and finding melody notes around familiar chord shapes. I’ll also use my new interactive ukulele chord and fretboard tool to show how the chords, melody notes, and fretboard fit together.

Each song will begin simply and gradually become more complete. By the end, you’ll have music you can play two different ways and a better understanding of how to make your own arrangements.

Bring a four-string soprano, concert, or tenor ukulele tuned GCEA. Either a regular high G or a low G is fine. Song sheets, chord references, and other practice materials will be provided.

I’ll record each entire live session from beginning to end. You’ll receive all five complete session videos whether or not you attend live, so you can review the instruction, practice along again, or catch up on anything you miss.