A former high school English teacher, Sue taught her first mountain dulcimer workshop in 1982 at the Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering in Binghamton, NY.  Since then, she has been leading dulcimer classes at festivals, week-long music camps, and for dulcimer clubs, in addition to private instruction at her home.  After Cranberry, Sue found herself traveling to teach at events that include: California Traditional Music Society Summer Solstice Festival, Dulcimer Playing Workshop (Boone, NC), Mountain Dulcimer Week (Cullowhee, NC), and the Swannanoa Gathering (Asheville, NC).

While fingerpicking is her forte, Sue individualizes her workshops for all playing levels and covers a variety of playing styles, techniques, and topics.  She has taught classes in arranging, composing, music theory, skills, techniques, and 4-equidistant strings.  Above all, Sue’s enthusiasm for the dulcimer, her patience with students, and her highly organized teaching methods make her workshops fun, enlightening, and educational.

For more information about instruction and workshops, email Sue.

Following is a sample list of some of Sue’s workshops.

 

ARRANGING AND COMPOSING

• Arranging Tunes for a Dulcimer Ensemble
• Playing Melody Across the Strings.
• Beginning to “D”-Compose
• Arranging and Transposing Music
• Adapting 3-String Tab for 4-Equidistant Strings

PLAYING SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES

• Beginning Dulcimer:  Getting Started
• Smoothing Out Your Strums
• Beginning Flatpicking
• Beginning Fingerpicking
• Left Hand Fingerings
• Hammer’s, Pull’s, Slide’s, and other Fancy Stuff
• Advanced Fingerpicking Techniques
• Dynamics of Fingerpicking
• Fingerpicking Styles
• Fingerpicking Ragtime
• Travis Style Picking
• Playing Back-up Chords in a Jam

REPERTOIRE

• Airs and Waltzes
• Tunes in DAA, DAC, DGD, or DAD
• Favorite American Melodies
• O’Carolan Tunes
• Tunes that Need a Capo

MUSIC THEORY

• Understanding Rhythm and Counting Time
• Chords in DAA and DAD
• Finding & Identifying Chords
• Understanding Harmonies and Countermelodies
• Reading & Writing Music Notation and Tablature
• Ionian & Mixolydian Modes and Modulations in DAD
• Aeolian & Dorian Modes and Modulations in DAD