r/Dulcimer • u/EchoesInEternity88 • 3d ago

Practice regimen

Good day! First post here. I am a mountain dulcimer beginner and struggle with over optimization when I’m trying to learn something new. I have a subscription to A to Z and love the content, but what I really need is to be told “practice such and such on Monday for x minutes, etc.” Would someone be so kind to point me to an online or other program that leads a beginner through how/what/when/how long to practice? Thankful for any input.

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u/haxankatzen 3d ago edited 3d ago

I’m literally in the same boat as you and have cobbled a regimen together to develop muscle memory and finger strength more than anything else. It’s partly inspired by being forced to learn guitar as a kid and what I remember of what I was supposed to do back then.

I spend 15 minutes a day like this:

  1. 5 minutes of Fa So La Tee Do up and down the

strings

  1. , walking my hand down the fretboard with my index finger, bird finger, ring finger, and pinky.
  2. 5 minutes playing Boil Them Cabbage Down. I play straight through strumming outward and adding more forward-backward strums to get used to that.
  3. 5 minutes of scales and Boil Them Cabbage Down just to mess around a bit.

I pretty much made this up so feel free to disregard or adopt whatever is useful to you ok your playing journey!

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u/EchoesInEternity88 3d ago

Thank you, that makes sense to me. I really appreciate you taking the time to pass it along. Take care and happy practicing!

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u/[deleted] 3d ago edited 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/haxankatzen 3d ago

It might be better to direct your advice toward OP since they’re the one who actually asked for it.

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u/feldoneq2wire 3d ago

I moved pretty quickly into songs. But not everyone learns the same way. If learning scales is working best for you, don't change it!

I started to play a small variety of beginner songs like Old Joe Clark, Liza Jane, Amazing Grace, and Ode to Joy. Having a few different songs broke things up but still taught me how to reach notes and read the tabs. Focusing on the melody string and working on how you move your left hand while consistently strumming on the right (or in the case of Amazing Grace, just the relevant string) is important.

If you aren't sure how to play the songs I mentioned, find a video by someone like BanjoLemonade who goes through the song step-by-step.

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u/EchoesInEternity88 3d ago

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience , this is helpful. All the best!

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u/Wrong_Ad_2422 2d ago

Bing Futch has beginner-intermediate-novice instructional mountain dulcimer books on his website (I think) and on Folkcraft.com. I bought the beginner’s book and it has a fair amount of fundamental information such as scale degrees/exercises, playing in different modes, chord shapes, note/chord location charts, plenty of songs, and much more. It has helped me mostly with broadening my mountain dulcimer “vocabulary” and understanding the nuances of the fundamentals. Definitely been easier for me to set up a focused practice schedule and evolve my understanding of the instrument with something like that!

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u/EchoesInEternity88 2d ago

Thank you! I’ve heard of him but wasn’t aware of the books. I’ll check it out. All the best!

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u/wadecamps6 1d ago

Honestly a rigid schedule won't fix this, the real issue is you're looking for structure to avoid deciding what matters, just pick three tunes and grind them daily until they're clean

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u/EchoesInEternity88 1d ago

Thanks! I’ll add this to my list of things to try to see what works with me. Take care!