Two more free mountain dulcimer lessons for beginners will be offered in February at Clayville Historic Site in Pleasant Plains. Peter Ellertsen, who coordinates meetings for the Springfield-area dulcimer club Prairieland Strings, will lead sessions from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 2, and Saturday, Feb. 9 called "Fake It Till You Make It: Tips on Playing in a Group and Getting to Know Your Dulcimer." The new sessions build on similar lessons in January, but new participants are welcome.
Like the January workshops, they will focus on learning the fretboard on a dulcimer; learning tunes by analyzing their structure; reading tablature; finding music on line; and using the "three-chord trick" to play along with songs in a group.
A retired communications professor at Benedictine University Springfield, Ellertsen has studied folk music and dulcimer at Mike Anderson's Winter Weekend and Dickson Mounds workshops; Dulcimerville and Western Carolina University; Common Ground on the Hill; and the John C. Campbell Folk School. Admission is free. If you need a loaner dulcimer or more information, email the instructor at hogfiddle@gmail.com (telephone 217 793-2587).
