Links, Etc.
Here are some of my favorite links, listed alphabetically:
Autoharp Quarterly: For the autoharp enthusiast. (For a list of recent articles published in my column, “The Diatonic Corner,” click here.)
Body Mapping: When your body map is in synch with how your physical anatomy really works, you’ll get more musicality for less physical work. Body mapping is an enlightening concept that players of all instruments, regardless of level or purpose, will do well to apply for years of efficient, pain-free music-making. The information on the Ouch page is based on Body Mapping and is geared specifically for those who play hammered dulcimer and autoharp.
The Choral Journal: Choral conductors who missed my article, “Accompanying Your Choir with the Hammered Dulcimer” in the September 2002 issue, can catch up with it here.
Melodious Accord: For the most fabulous choral singing and arranging experiences you can have, go and study with the gifted choral arranger and musician, Alice Parker. (Four-part harmony proved challenging to write until I studied with Alice at her Melodious Accord Fellowship I & III programs. Now, writing four parts is easier–still with quirks!–and my ear hears the “layers” in music more readily.)
Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering: The premier autoharp festival. Home of the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Championship.
Music Publisher: Home of the music software I use (it took me a long time to find something that would do everything easily, and this is it). Music Publisher 5 is very much “off the mouse” when it comes to entering clefs, keys, notes, beams, accents, etc., as it is for many other operations when working with keystroke commands. Free demo available at this site, and the developer (in Scotland, lads and lassies) also hosts a discussion group where users ask how-to questions and exchange information about music and notational issues.
Original Dulcimer Players Club: Hosts the annual Funfest the third weekend in July in Evart, MI (it’s the dulcimer festival to end all dulcimer festivals, so if you play, go!).
Walnut Valley Festival: The National Hammered Dulcimer Championship and International Autoharp Championship both occur here, among other national and international championships in guitar, mandolin, banjo, mountain dulcimer, along with a regional fiddle championship.
Westminster Choir College: My alma mater, and home to (as you can imagine) great choral singing. Summer week-long workshops, as well as Saturday Seminars during the year, cover a variety of topics for music educators, church musicians, and performers.