You Can Teach Yourself Dulcimer

This is a wonderful book / CD / DVD! As a complete musical idiot, I thought I would never be able to learn an instrument. I've picked up so-called beginner's books before. They usually start with the premise that you can fluently sight read musical notation. This book is truly for the beginner! The companion DVD is extremely valuable as Madeline walks you through the basics of playing the mountain dulcimer.

I bought a beautiful dulcimer and had no idea how to play it. I went to private lessons, but wasn't happy with what I was learning. I got this book along with the companion DVD (you need the DVD if you really want to learn properly) and I couldn't have been happier. The DVD showed me how to hold and strum the dulcimer properly, and how to arrange my fingers on the frets. Once begun with this set, I have never looked back. Madeline is very clear and has the songs arranged in perfect learning order. Even though I've been playing for two years now, I still play tunes from this book. If you want to learn dulcimer and do not have a capable teacher nearby, this is THE book/DVD set you want to purchase.

This is the best of three books that I purchased to learn the Dulcimer. It is well written and organized. I'm in the middle of learning, but this book appears to take you from the beginning to an intermediate stage. I would strongly encourage you to purchase the CD/DVD that goes with this book. There is nothing like hearing the music in additon to reading what you should be doing.

Last week, I bought a fretted dulcimer in Meadows of Dan, Virginia because it had a wormy chestnut top tooled from a local barn. It has a sweet voice and I was anxious to begin playing immediately. However, I didn't want to get started with any bad habits--so I looked over about 20 books on dulcimer playing and chose this for several reasons. 1. The author starts with simple songs and builds technique with them. For instance, there are four versions of Bile Them Cabbage Down at the beginning. The first explores single string melody, the second, single string harmony, the third and fourth have chordal fingerings. Most of the tunes in this book are in the public domain, but the arrangements are thoughtful and sound nice as well as build technique. 2. There are several tunes with tab and music for dulcimer duets. This is something I wanted to explore and glad I did. 3. The directions are very clear, plus there are insightful notes for fingering some of the measures. 4. A comapnion CD is available, which is great to listen to or play along with. 5. There are instructions for strumming and fingerpicking. It's been one week and I am already playing melody, harmony, and chords to three songs. By the time I've worked through this book, I expect to have solid technique for fingering and be able to play duets with another dulcimer player. I definitely would seek out a workshop with the author of this book! Thanks for such a great book Madeline! :) Mary Z. Cox

After thumbing through "Larkin's Dulcimer Book" and "The Magic Dulcimer" and "You Can Teach Yourself Dulcimer," I selected the latter. This books' lessons, excercises and songs gradually add to the student's skills. The book's discussions of (a) fingering techniques is satisfying, and (b) chords and fingerpicking are strong introductions. In an absolute rating, I'd give this book 4 stars, but others have given the other two books 5 stars, and this deserves and equal or higher rating.