I Love This!

Shambhu has some very appealing music - check it out:

http://www.shambhumusic.com/

New Prototype: Fully Chromatic Dulcimer for Playing Underneath

I've got this new prototype set up in 4-string equidistant, and the strings are reversed to make it familiar to guitar players. I'm tuning DADE or 1-5-8-9 to start, but I'll probably try a huge variety of other options before I spend any serious time working out chord shapes and such.

Interview on Dulcimer Sessions!

The April/May issue of Mel Bay's Dulcimer Sessions web site has an interview with me, beautifully and professionally put together by my long-time friend and fellow dulcimer player, Lois Hornbostel.

There is a video linked in the interview where I'm playing an semi-improvised version of my tune Light Into Darkness. Back on my home page, I recently put up a pdf of a fairly composed study on the same D-A-Bm-G chord progression. (the famous "Axis of Awesome" chords!). This written study is made to go with the ground bass, which I have in the first eight measures of the study.

Dulcimer Sessions is an absolutely incredible resource for learning mountain as well as hammered dulcimer: the issues go way back, so be sure to look through the listing of back issues.

Reference Structure 1

Sometimes I call this "In My World" but it is basically a very circular Mixolydian Progression:

A D Em D

Try it in a variety of tempos and time signatures. I think it makes a great progression for 6/8 and 9/8 jig-like ideas. Have Fun!!

Refreshing the DulciTheory Pages

I'll be doing some editing on the DulciTheory pages over the next few weeks.

DulciTheory was originally an email newsletter, but I moved most of the newsletters to my website, and I've tried to format them a little nicer than the plain-text format of the newsletters.

The whole idea behind DulciTheory was to add some useful applications and expand the scope of my Music Theory and Chord Reference book. The book has been very popular over the years, but it is more like a quick reference than anything else. As I get to going over the theory pages, I will be looking toward improving them and, of course, adding some new articles. So please let me know if you have some ideas for future topics, or if you need help in applying what is already there.

Aargh! Website down, blog & email up

Last time we checked, (yesterday) it was up there and working fine-- now it's down, along with many other websites served by our host, a local ISP in Athens, Ohio.

Our email's still available (jcrockwell@gmail.com or jerry@jcrmusic.com). Best case: everything is OK by lunchtime... worst case: fried hardware and reconstituted websites.

Meanwhile, Jerry's music is also at iTunes, MySpace, Jango, YouTube, and FolkAlley. Several articles are posted online at Dirty Linen Magazine and EveryThing Dulcimer. You can also visit him on Facebook.

I'm working on fulfilling current book and CD orders that were placed through July 25 from our website.

--from the guest blogger, Mary

Refreshing My Blog - Hooking Up Everything

Well, slowly but surely I seem to be making some progress in getting all of my online profiles and presences hooked up and working. With any luck, you should be seeing my new ReverbNation "store widget" where you can buy downloads directly from me.

I'm also slowly but surely updating my old, dusty web site. Mary and I first got that site working in 1997, and some of the pages are exactly the same as they were then! Some of the articles have been very popular over the years, and I'd like to write some more like these to keep things fresh. If you have any specific questions, please let me know so I can blog about them and consider them for the web site.