Chords for Dulci-Help #1...The Strum by John Keane

_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
Hello there and welcome to the first edition of Dulce Help.
My name is John
Keen and in case you're going why am I looking at a mountain dulcimer video
with drumsticks in it, I'm going to try to draw some parallels between the
percussive nature of a drum and the percussive nature of the strum of a
dulcimer.
Now sometimes learning how to play dulcimer can be a lonely thing
because a lot of us feel like we're the only mountain dulcimer player wherever
we are.
Well sometimes these little videos might be able to help somebody
and if it helps one or two folks out there it'll just_
Now I have a little bit
of percussion background and I was having a conversation with Richard
Ashenfall of Kraft Instruments not long ago and we were talking about the
percussive nature of the strum.
Well I try to relate a lot of things that I
approach mountain dulcimer with.
I relate it to percussion and to me one of those
things is how there's such a constant motion in a lot of drumming.
You have
differences in what you see and what you hear.
Now if you do [D] a drum roll,
everybody's heard of a drum roll, which basically means the [Bm] sticks are bouncing.
_ _ _ _ Interrupt that roll with different taps or accents and create all kinds of crazy
drum rolls.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ Rhythm that you hear _ [N] doesn't necessarily go with the pattern that you
see.
You're still seeing that constant motion.
Okay well on a dulcimer, same
thing when you strum.
You'll see a constant motion of the strum but you
won't [F#] just always hear da da da da [G] da da da.
You interrupt that strum with different
periods of silence and sound.
So that's the parallel that we're going to try to
draw and hopefully it'll help someone out there and we'll be back in just a
second with an actual dulcimer demonstration. _ _ _ _
_ Alright let's get started.
First of all make sure that your dulcimer is in a good playing [E] position
with your first fret somewhere above your left knee and the body of the
instrument pulled in towards you.
We're going to for our purposes today we're
going to take and lightly touch the strings with our fingers so that we
don't actually sound notes.
We [G] just get kind of a strum sound.
Alright and we're
going to start with eight out strums.
Now by out strums that means every time you
strum you're going to strum out.
Now there's a reason for this so bear with
me here for a second.
If you're an instrummer do the same thing just come
inwards instead of outwards.
_ One two ready go.
One two three [F#] four five [G] six
seven eight.
Alright now as we went eight out strums you may [D] notice that we have a
return trip each time with the pick.
It's that return trip that we're going
to set up some of the other type strum patterns and get into the keeping the
motion constant but making contact with the strings not just when we're headed
out but when we're headed in as well sometimes.
Now there's a classic term
called bum-ditty for a strum.
I like to call it [N] boom-chicka-boom but it works
out to be the same rhythm where you get this type of effect.
Boom-chicka-boom
boom-chicka-boom _ and you'll notice that the motion of the pick remains constant.
It's when you actually touch the strings that changes.
So if I set it up to where
I do _ eight counts of straight outs and then eight counts of boom-chicka-boom
you get this type of effect.
Ready and one two three four five six seven eight.
Boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom.
_ All the time the pick motion is constant
just like when I was demonstrating with the drumsticks on the drum.
It's a
constant motion.
You're the one that's interrupting the sound or the silence to
make a different sound.
Another strum that you might hear referred to sometimes
as laying down a backbeat is what some people call the boom-boom-ditty-ditty
boom-boom-ditty-ditty or I call it the boom-boom-chicka-chicka-boom-boom-chicka [D]-chicka
but it's achieved the same way.
You have your out strum going but that
pick still has to make the return trip so you would change over into touching
the strings on the way back [G] occasionally.
_ _ _ [F] _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ Just _ depending on your needs at the time.
Now I'm going to demonstrate Twinkle Twinkle Little Star how you can take and
if you play it just a little bit differently than what the words are how
you can add life to it just by varying up your strum but keeping your motion
the same.
Okay here's just regular [D] a part of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ _
I
actually had to have my pick come to a stop once in that [N] but if I keep my
motion consistent and try to do a boom-chicka where the long note occurs I
actually end up giving a little [D] more life to the song.
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _
_ _ Just that one little
change or if someone's going to be singing along with you and you just want
to add a lot more [A] movement and body to the song you can boom-chicka-boom the
whole thing. _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
Just keeping that constant motion with the pick.
[G] That is where that
percussion similarity is and how I hope this will help some of you to visualize
that so that in your own practicing and playing it'll make a real difference for
you.
Thank you very much.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _