Bringing in the Strings!

Unique and Affordable

Bringing in the Strings is a truly unique and affordable program that allows any to bring stringed instruments into elementary schools, senior citizen centers, summer camps and similar group settings. The program is easy to integrate into the basic curriculum taught in the elementary grades Kindergarten - 6th.

Teacher Friendly

The advantage of using the dulcimer in the elementary grades is that the children can quickly become successful on the instrument. They have only 3 strings and can be played on the lap or on the floor. The numbered melody strings can be fingered with one finger or a wooden dowel noter, and the strings can be strummed with a pick, fingers, or even a feather. The children can play and sing at the same time. These Dulcimers sound great and make a terrific teaching tool. A one hour training DVD educates teachers in the various components of the program and includes all of the necessary components to carry the program successfully into the classroom. We have successfully used this system to teach dulcimer to groups of children as young as four, five, and six years old.

About the instruments

The body of the Dulcimers is formed from a recycled wood made into a resonant 200 pound test cardboard. The Mahogany fingerboards have nickel/silver frets and mechanical tuning machines. The training materials use a system of numerical tablature on the dulcimer fret board that enables even beginning students to learn how to play the instrument quickly and successfully. The songbook and instructional DVD teaches students and teachers how to tune the dulcimer and play 50 traditional songs, introduces chords, scales, and more. 

The Bringing in The Strings Program is very Affordable 

Knowing the importance of playingmusic and early childhood brain developement I continue to work on the economics for getting the Bringing in the Strings and the Dulcimer Project programs into more elementary schools to enable any school to have a viable K-6th stringed instrument program for about $1600 -without the need to hire a music teacher or specialist.

A $1600 investment would land 30  ready to play instruments, 30 books, tuning tools, picks, noters, and training DVD's into any school to create a portable Dulcimer Library that can be moved from class to class - K-6th throughout a school year so that all of the students can play musical instruments together.

If you look at this $1600 capital cost over a seven year K-6 cycle with a student population of 500 students, the cost per student is 65 cents per student per year,

this includes the yearly new string maintenance costs. 

If you have a school willing to install the program, I would be happy to explain the program and go over the economics and logistics with their parent/teacher leadership.

Call me at 707-481-6742

Bringing in the Strings – teacher training DVD  - Classroom integration instructional video chapters cover the following topics:

• What is a dulcimer
• What ages can play
• Sound box advantages
• Why is it easy to play?
• Tuning the dulcimer
• Stringing the dulcimer
• Classroom Presentation
• Sliding strumming and scales
• Playing a song – Soloing
• Dulcimer Orchestra
• Classroom logistics.