I’ve been doing this kind of chord reference chart for the mountain dulcimer since about 1975, and I’m still trying to figure out the best way to render them on the web: Light_Into_Darkness_Charts_3 These charts go along with a little composition project we’re doing currently. I asked my newsletter subscribers if anyone wanted to do their own version of my Light Into Darkness and Tapping at the Edge of Paradise compositions, and there was a…
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Axis of Awesome!
Four Chords for a mess of pop songs! This Aussie comedy act is really amazing. Butch Ross told me about them in 2007 or 2008, when I was obsessed with my little four chord circular progression D – A – Bm – G… that I used for Light Into Darkness, Tapping at the Edge of Paradise, and Tapping Into The Light on electric dulcimer. I just found more and more melodies that went with these…
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E minor Hexatonic Jam-A-Round
I think this 6-tone or hexatonic Em – D Jam-A-Round is the most fun of all so far!! The Jam-A-Round idea is very simple: over a repeating chord progression, often using a descending scale, we just plug in parts where the 8-bar progressions begin. You never know how parts interact until you try, so if you have a playing partner with another dulcimer, you are in for a fun time! With a room full of…
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The Dulcimer Capo and How It Works
Dulcimer capos are interesting devices, because they work very closely with the modal nature of the mountain dulcimer’s mostly diatonic fretboard. I had an GREAT question from one of my email newsletter subscribers recently: “I am intrigued by the notion of using a capo on my dulcimer as you mention in your recent post. As far as I can make out, this enables you to achieve the melody scale for Dorian mode without retuning?…
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Jerry Rockwell Mountain Dulcimer Newsletter 4/1/15
One Life 4/4 Study Here is a great chord progression I’ve been working with for almost a decade: Bm / / / | / / / / |D / / / | / / / / |G / / / |D / / / |A / / / | / / / / :|| I call it the “One Life” progression, but you can call it Fred or Marjorie if you want!! It is one…
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Interview with BT Fasmer
This was a real joy for me – being able to tell my story easily and freely, with just the right questions. The interviewer here is BT Fasmer, who has a GREAT New Age Music portal he runs in Bergen, Norway: Interview with Jerry Rockwell Enjoy! Jerry
Modal Chord Progressions!
I have always been a fan of Gary Ewer’s online resources for learning basic music theory and improving your songwriting skills, but when the subject is very close to my heart, like Modal Chord Progressions, all of my lights and buzzers start to go off simultaneously!! Here is a new post about how to get Lydian Mode progressions to work. I’ve tried some of these ideas over the years with limited success, but Gary goes…
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