IUMA is back up!!

I was just reading in Hypebot that the pioneering internet audio site called the Internet Underground Music Archive is now back in operation. That's really cool!

I even found some stuff of mine that I put up there in 2000 or so:

http://archive.org/details/iuma-jerry_rockwell

This is mostly some pretty crazy electronic stuff (crazy for me anyway!) but there is also a little bit of dulcimer stuff here and there.

Fingerpicking the dulcimer with lots of open strings

This year at Kentucky Music Week I'll be teaching a class in what I call "Dronal Fingerpicking." Since many people associate drone and "dronal" with traditional strumming styles, I have always used these terms to refer to the use of open or unfretted strings -- whether you are strumming, playing single strings fingerpicking-style, or playing single strings with a flatpick.

I have simplified most of my playing greatly over the past couple of years, trying to get to some of the essence of the mountain dulcimer. Sometimes, a melody sounds best when it is allowed to be almost totally alone: stark and plaintive. Then, with the occasional addition of a supporting open string, you get a sense of fullness and richness.

This alternation between the single string melody starkness and the fuller melody supported by open string --- makes for a nice diversity in texture. Make sure to add some expressive dynamics (playing very soft sometimes, sometimes building in intensity, and sometimes playing as loud as you can), and this will make your performance really come alive.

New YAMs in Stock

I have a few new YAMs in stock now -- this one is walnut sides and back, sassafras top, and cherry fingerboard. It has a 24" VSL (nut to bridge open string length).

10th Annual SouthEast Ohio Dulcimer Festival

We'll be having our tiny dulcimer festival again in Stewart, Ohio, at the Federal Valley Resource Center, on Saturday, October 22nd. Last year we had some very intimate workshops and an incredible staff concert in the evening. This year we have most of the same folks teaching, along with a few new teachers, so it should be another great year.

This year everything is a benefit for the FVRC, so it is a great, big team effort!

web site down for a while

I guess every once in a while you need to make a major change: in our case we've had pretty good luck for well over a decade (a VERY long stretch in web-time!) with a small hosting service and ISP in SE Ohio. About a week ago they were moving some of their web hosting customers to a new server, and something catastrophic must have happened, because now they won't return phone calls, and there is a constant busy signal on their main local phone line.

We've got a new hosting service all lined up, but it will probably be a few weeks before everything is back up and running. Thanks for your patience on this - we are doing everything we can to restore the site. With any luck (and, of course, a certain measure of skill!) we might even have a simpler, cleaner design and user interface. We've put off a major redesign for too long.

Thanks,

Jerry Rockwell

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.