WHAT IT IS:
A lightweight felt board (18"x18") with moveable “notes.” It is the size of a 15/16 hammered dulcimer and fits on top (or in your lap while sitting in a comfy chair with snacks - go ahead, we won't judge).
WHY DO I WANT ONE?
It will speed up learning melodies, arrangements and backups by visualizing chords, hammering options and chord progressions. (Plus, it's cool!) Get yours here.
HOW IT WORKS:
The Sloth Board (Simon is particularly proud that we nicknamed this board after him) is helpful for all learning styles-combining tactile and visual learning to reinforce your ear. Unlike a hammer strike, the dots will stay as long as you want to study them.
No matter how good your ear is, you will become a better musician by learning to see the shapes and the chords before you play them.
The custom printed board emphasizes the bridges on the dulcimer by flattening the string pattern, making it easier to see chords.
Use your board to:
No matter how good your ear is, you will become a better musician by learning to see the shapes and the chords before you play them.
The custom printed board emphasizes the bridges on the dulcimer by flattening the string pattern, making it easier to see chords.
Use your board to:
- See a chord, and then take out or add notes for fills, runs, and arpeggios.
- See your melody while learning a backup.
- Map out how both the backup and melody notes relate to and are contained in the larger arpeggio shape of the chord.
- Find 3 Note Chords to roll into a melody note
STUDENTS HAVE SAID:
...this board is magic"
The [sloth] board, as promised, makes it much easier to see the patterns and connect them to the chord."
Map out notes in a chord to explore arranging ideas.
In this example, B and F# (green) are the melody notes in a tune. Adding more notes for a Bm chord (yellow) will help you decide how to embellish the Main Melody—rolled chords, Valley Rolls, etc. |
Explore Duplicate Notes on your dulcimer and see how they relate to chord shapes.
In this example, we've placed the notes of a G Chord in the Shed pattern. When we find the duplicate "D" we see that the Stepladder pattern is also available. |
Find 3 Note Chords to roll into a melody note.
In this example, we want to find the notes of a D chord to roll into the melody note F# (purple on the right Treble Bridge). We take that F# down an octave to the Bass Bridge, and look for the root of the D chord. If it is up a 4th (see the right treble bridge), we can roll the top of a parallelogram (First Inversion) RLR. If we choose the duplicate D (on the bass bridge), you'll see that we roll the bottom of the Nevada shape (Second Inversion) LRL |