Question
Dear Dan
I am quite a good player (sax) and I’m fine playing with a my band but I get nervous when it comes to solos – is this stage fright and can anything be done about it ?
Steve, Surrey     

 

Answer
Dear Steve

Stage fright, or performance anxiety, is a very common problem but it can be resolved.  Students on my performance skills class are coached to lose their nerves, excel in presentation and they also learn about the psychology of performing.
The paradox of performing is that fear holds us back in our discomfort zone, where we punish ourselves with negative thoughts and limiting beliefs.  Letting go takes us to a new place, where uncertainty rules.  Here our inner creativity takes over and we instinctively know what to do.  We focus on the music, emotion & interaction and loose our inhibitions.
I hope this helps, Dan

as well as my solo work, I also perform with violinist Sylvia Seaton in the duo Eclipse 

Elcipse are ...
Dan Evans: dulcimer, guitar & vocals
Sylvia Seaton: violin

Fingerstyle dulcimer player Dan Evans is also an original guitarist, specialising in open tunings and modal music. He has undertaken many tours in the USA and his CD albums have won critical international acclaim. 

Sylvia Seaton is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London. She works as a freelance violinist performing a wide range of material in orchestras and shows, including performing in the folk duo Carolan.

Together, Eclipse present a delightful repertoire of traditional folk songs and airs from the British Isles. All are beautifully arranged with subtle and original harmonies and are skilfully performed on the finest hand-crafted acoustic instruments.    

Eclipse ~ take a fresh look at the folk tradition  

The following article, edited for the web, was written for the American magazine Dulcimer Players News in January 2010.

Few performers sing with the mountain dulcimer today.  It’s great to hear music on the dulcimer and I delight in the virtuosity of the great players - but accompanying songs is good fun too.  The dulcimer’s sweet sound is an ideal accompaniment for many folk songs and it’s surprising what can be done in Ionian tuning with just three strings and no half-frets.

pitch and key
When I started playing dulcimer, I followed the traditional principle of tuning the dulcimer to suit my voice. Typically I’d be in (or near) the key of C.  I liked the organic nature of this approach but it had two main disadvantages:  You can’t play with other instruments and the strings were never optimised, sometimes being over-slack and limiting the tone of the instrument.  As my voice developed it became higher and I started using D and later E as typical keys to sing and play in.  As I played with other musicians more it became important to tune the instrument to a fixed key so we were in tune.

In over 15 years of teaching singing I find it common for singers to choose a lower key than is ideal for their voice.  This has much to do with confidence of hitting high notes - so comfortable keys are chosen, rather than ideal ones.  For me the key of E can sometimes feel a little high on the top notes.  Despite this, E is generally a better key for me than D.  Being in the right key requires less breath and helps to project the voice better - these help to sustain long notes and to communicate the emotion of the song.

Teaching singing has also shown me the great importance of warming up and being relaxed, which is often underrated or overlooked.  On my weekend singing course we spend a significant amount of time warming up and relaxing through Yoga, some simple voice exercises like humming and lots of laughter.  These significantly help with vocal tone and range. 

posture & breathing
We generally sing best standing up so that the diaphragm can move freely.  The diaphragm can be used in conjunction with the chest muscles to control the volume of air in the lungs.  Whilst some singers intuitively know how to use their diaphragm, all singers can be taught the technique.  Depending upon how we sit, the movement of the diaphragm can be inhibited and the lung capacity limited.  Assuming you play sitting down, holding your back straight helps, as does sitting upright - leaning forward with a curved back dramatically limits the lung capacity.  Singers with deep voices don’t just need the chest for breathing, the sound resonates there too – so a poor posture will inhibit resonance as well as limiting breathing potential.  A good posture looks attractive too.
Inevitably, even the most confident and adept players will at some point want to glance down at their fingers.  Unfortunately this tilting down of the head closes the airway and can limit or even stifle the voice.  Ideally, the singer’s head should not only be looking ahead, but up slightly too.  This opens the throat and maximises the vocal sound.

telling the story
We are all drawn to the beauty of our chosen music.  In sharing a song however, that beauty can easily be lost if we are tense and thinking about what we are playing on the dulcimer.  By the same token, it’s easy to sing a song parrot-fashion because we know it so well.  I coach singers to present their songs with warmth and passion using a drama technique called ‘method acting’.  Once the song is learned, the focus is on the words and their meaning to the singer.  When the singer relates the meaning of the words to their own experiences the quality of the vocal sound changes and the song comes to life.  In this way the singer connects emotionally with their material and communicates the feeling of the song, telling its story.  In performance, this technique not only puts feeling into the song but the effort required to do so takes the focus away from any nerves or negative feelings the performer may have.

rhythm and rubato
In much contemporary music, rhythm is king.  Traditional songs that might be played on the dulcimer however are often not like that.  Verses and stanzas can vary in length and need to be interpreted with greater rhythmic freedom.  Although there are many ways to describe these timing variations, the most common and meaningful term for this is probably rubato.  Technically, rubato (or tempo rubato) means rhythmic give-and-take when playing.  This gentle ebb and flow of the rhythm adds depth and interest to the music, making the song breath and so come to life.  I think of playing a song as a dance: During the verses the singer takes the lead and the dulcimer follows.  During the instrumental parts – intros, interludes and outros - the dulcimer leads the dance.
Intros, interludes and outros are important parts of a song.  The intro gives the singer the tempo and pitch and interludes let the singer catch their breath.  All three devices break up the song and allow the player to show off the beauty of the dulcimer.  They also allow for little complexities in the playing which would be lost and out of place during the singing verses.  A key principle of musical composition is the creation and resolution of tension.  Intros and outros are particularly good places to do this.  Hanging on a seventh chord for example, will create tension whist a major chord will resolve it.  In DAA tuning, compare the chords A7 (3-2-4) with D (2-0-3). The end of the intro, just before the singing - or at the very end of the outro are both useful places to deploy this device.

my DAA song accompaniment method
My dulcimers have three strings and a diatonic scale (there are no half-frets) and my favourite tuning is Ionian, commonly referred to as DAA.  In Ionian, the method I’ve developed to accompany folk songs is to play chord shapes with my left hand and fingerpick them with my right.  Fingerpicking allows for a certain amount of rubato but if I want to be more expressive with the timing, I’ll gently strum the chords for a specific part of the song, making the dulcimer follow the free rhythm of the voice.

The picking gives rhythm and the notes in the chord add harmony to the song – but the real strength of this approach lies in using chord inversions.  Compare these three inversions of the D major chord: 2-0-3, 4-3-5 and 7-5-7.  By choosing appropriate inversions of each chord in the song, the accompaniment takes on a distinct shape can even convey a sense of the melody.  This simple but powerful method gives harmony, rhythm and a sense of the melody – it’s a complete accompaniment.         
Although Ionian is a major scale, the DAA tuning allows minor chords also - eg Bm 2-1-3, F#m 2-0-2 and Em 3-1-4.  Without retuning to a minor mode, you can accompany a minor song.  Indeed, even without half-frets, the variety and complexity of chords available is considerable including sevenths, minor sevenths and suspended fourths.

to conclude
There’s a lot more to singing and playing the dulcimer than the specific tips in this article.  If you adopt them however, they will help you to tell the story of your song.  Happy dulsinging! 

I’m often asked about the origins of the dulcimer. I know that there are polarised views on this topic. Some see connections with early European instruments, whist many American players are proud of it’s Appalachian origins. The truth is probably somewhere in between. The following text is an extract from the cover of Roger Nicholson’s albumThe Gentle Sound of the Dulcimer, released in 1974:

Most of the European countries had an indigenous zither-like instrument in the seventeenth century, used in rural areas and at the royal courts to accompany songs. During the eighteenth century began the migration of people from Europe to the New World, where the greatest concentration of settlers was in the Appalachian mountains. Here the traditional cultures of many nations intermingled and the dulcimer in its present form emerged. By the 1850’s a dulcimer could be found in most Appalachian homes, where it would be played when the family sang the songs handed down by their fore-fathers or to provide dance music.

When I started playing the instrument over thirty years ago, it was referred to then as the Appalachian dulcimer. Nowadays it has other names including lap dulcimer and fretted dulcimer. Although some still call it the Appalachian dulcimer, the term mountain dulcimer is the most used today. 

Question
Hi Dan,
I have heard you in concert several times and you always get a big sound from your instruments – your dulcimer sounds strong and your guitar has awesome bass. I saw you plug-in – is that how it’s done ?  
Jim, Kentucky

Answer
Hi Jim
I need a reliable system for stage use that gives a clear and smooth sound, is quick to set up and allows me to move around a little with the guitar. The answer for me is transducer, saddle-type pickups. I have these fitted to all my instruments and they give a controlled, strong and smooth sound. Pickups mask squeaks and fingering noises but still convey the character of the instrument. They also allow high SPLs (sound pressure levels) before the onset of feedback – you say howl around in the states. Critically, the signal from the pickup needs to be conditioned by an acoustic pre-amp before being fed into the mixing desk - you say board in the US. The preamp ensures that the impedance of the signal is matched to the desk (board), which results in a balanced sound (EQ-wise). If there’s the facility, a little reverb doesn’t do any harm, especially on the dulcimer. The very strong bass my guitars is in part due to Open C tuning.
Best wishes, Dan

Question
Hi Dan,
You refer to DAA as the Ionian tuning for mountain – is this the same thing as AAD? please clarify.
Jo, Florida

Answer
Hi Jo,
It’s confusing I know. For many, many years I’ve referred to the Ionian tuning on dulcimer as AAD but the convention now seems to be DAA. So I’ve adopted DAA as my label for the Ionian mode on dulcimer, simply to conform.
To be clear, weather you call Ionian AAD or DAA, this is how I tune the instrument: The first /chanter string is tuned to A, the middle string is tuned to A and the third/bass string is tuned to the D below. I hope this clears things up.
Best wishes, Dan 

Question
Dear Dan
I hear that you run workshops that help singers to throw their voices. I enjoy singing and can reach the high notes but I can’t seem to make much sound as I’ve a quiet voice. Will your class help me to sing up a little ?
Margaret, Bedfordshire

Answer
Dear Margaret,
On my Everyone Can Sing class, I teach the open-throated calling technique, used by most styles of professional singers. Anyone can learn this and benefit from singing more powerfully. To project or ‘throw’ your voice using open-throated calling, you need to be relaxed, adopt the right posture and breathe correctly. Finally the shape of the mouth and the vowel you make complete the picture. I teach all of these things on my class in a fun and practical way. Most people show significant improvement in projection and this helps with dynamics and to communicate the emotion of the song. Participants generally find the open-throated calling technique energising and the new power in their voice to be liberating.
Best wishes, Dan

Question
Dear Dan, where can I buy your CDs ? I want to make a gift of one to a friend in the USA.
Sue, Bedfordshire
   
Answer
Dear Sue
you can buy my CDs directly from me
for the UK they are £10 each plus £1 for P&P
for the other countries they are (US) $15 plus (US) $2 for P&P 
simply e-mail me which one(s) you want along with your address and I’ll send you the CDs and details of how to pay 
they are also available from the Divine Art Recordings Group, who have outlets both in the UK and in the USA
you can also buy the CDs or download individual tracks from ClassicsOnline - enter my name in their search box and then click on the CDs
Best wishes, Dan

Tree-frogs, gortex strings and that cowboy hat
adventures in Kentucky in 2000

Nancy Barker is the big-hearted lady who booked me to play in Kentucky and it’s thanks to her that I was able to tour over there this year, performing and teaching with guitar and mountain dulcimer. Herself a fine singer and musician, Nancy is the brains and driving force behind the Kentucky Music Week (KMW) dulcimer camp and the Kentucky Music Weekend festival. Nancy’s e-mail address makes reference to tree-frogs so, being interested in natural history, I was looking forward to seeing or hearing some of these little creatures during my visit.

Friday 14th July
I was met at the airport by Karl & Scottie Sebree, a very kind couple who play the dulcimer and are members of the Louisville (pronounced Lou-a-vull) Dulcimer Society. Since their retirement Karl and Scottie spend much of their time supporting the local folk scene. Not having met them before, I spotted them straight away at the airport as they held a dulcimer-shaped sign with my name on it - a nice touch! Karl & Scottie were our hosts later on in the trip too and we were very well looked after during our stay with them.

The first thing you notice about Kentucky is the humidity. It’s about as hot as north Africa but as humid as the tropics. The humidity almost physically hits you as you step out of an air-conditioned environment. I thought that I would be used to this after my tour of Florida in ‘98 but Kentucky seemed even more humid than that. The second thing you notice is the warmth and friendliness of the people from Kentucky, which made the trip doubly enjoyable. 

Saturday 15th July
A folk duo from Cincinnati (pronounced Cincinnata), called Wild Carrot, gave me a lift (Americans say ride) to Bowling Green where I performed at the first concert. They took me in their Ford Econoline van south along the Interstate 65 towards Nashville, until we turned off for the town of Bowling Green. In good company, with Nancy Griffith’s song ‘Ford Econoline’ on my mind and passing signs that said ‘I-65 South Nashville’ everything felt strangely right felt somehow.

Pam from Wild Carrot has bright red hair and, with her partner Spencer Funk, they make a tight acoustic duo. They have packets of wild carrot seeds on their product stand - an original way to promote themselves! Other acts on the stage that night included a very young dulcimer duo called Next Generation who showed great promise, a slick bluegrass band called Fresh Cut Grass who use the traditional method of performing around a single microphone and Nancy’s own band The Kentucky Standard Band. The concert was in the town theatre just on the square and we played to a friendly crowd.

After the concert I took in the cooler night Kentucky air. This is a lovely thing to do - the sounds are amazing. Invisible crickets and cicadas compete in loud singing competitions that add a romantic feel to the evening. I was told that tree-frogs join in the chorus but I didn’t hear any that night.

Sunday 16th July
Nancy Barker and two of her ‘angels’ gave me a ride to the town of Bardstown, the location of the week-long dulcimer camp. Curiously Bardstown is just a few miles west of Danville and there’s an Evansville just over the Ohio river, in Indiana. The ladies I refer to as ‘Nancy’s Angels’ are Debbie Grizzell, Alice Burton and Sandy Huebel. They make sure that everything happens on time, helping Nancy’s vision become a reality. They do a great job.

Monday 17th July - Friday 21st July
Indeed, the Kentucky Music Week camp was a masterpiece of organisation, there was so much going on that my feet barely touched the ground. Dulcimers in England are few and far between so imagine my delight working at a camp of over two hundred people, most of which were mountain dulcimer players. The late night jams would include a couple of dozen mountain dulcimers, or even more.

It was a privilege for me to work with many of the top players in the dulcimer world including: Rob Brereton, Susan Trump, Maureen Sellers, Gary Gallier, Fred Meyer, Jim Miller, Molly Freibert, Steve Seifert and the man they refer to as ‘the professor himself’, David Schnaufer. David lives in Nashville and holds a university professorship. He has played with such household names as Emi-Lou Harris, Mark Knopfler, the Everly Brothers and Chet Atkin. David is a quiet and gracious man who clearly loves his work. There were instructors on other instruments who’s company I enjoyed too including: David James (hammered dulcimer), Greg Jowaisas (banjo), Lorinda Jones (harp), Neal Walters (autoharp) and the duo Cathy Barton (Banjo) & Dave Para (guitar) to mention but a few. I’m probably doing these fine musicians an injustice as they all play other instruments too. Interestingly, Neal Walters is also one of the editors of the American magazine Dulcimer Player’s News. Dave Para, brews his own ale, which I sampled. He was tickled to have his beer sampled by someone who used to be a beer taster for an English brewery.

The students at the dulcimer camp pulled out all sorts of stops and hosted a very enjoyable concert on the Tuesday evening. But if the student’s concert was good, then the Instructors concert on Thursday night was sheer magic! I had heard many of the performer’s CDs before but to hear them play live was really special. My personal favourites were Susan Trump’s beautiful singing on the song ‘Make Hay While The Sun Shines’, a highly original Mexican composition by Gary Gallier - played on one of the dulcimers he himself built, a Gershwin song superbly arranged for dulcimer by Rob Brereton, and David Schnaufer’s old-time music on a banjo-dulcimer. All of these players have expanded the boundaries of the instrument and are very fine musicians in their own right. What stole the show for me however was the virtuosity of Steve Seifert. A previous student of David’s, Steve plays a chromatic dulcimer (one with a full compliment of sharps and flats) and his skill and versatility are quite incredible.

The lessons were held during the day in an air-conditioned college, after which we would eat out in the local restaurants and then enjoy concerts followed by informal jams late in the evenings. I lead four classes each day: English Finger-Style Guitar, The Modal Dulcimer, Song Accompaniments For Dulcimer and a Performance Skills class for dulcimer players. For Copyright reasons, the pieces taught had to be either original or traditional so I used a number of my own compositions in my classes. It was a real treat for me to hear my pieces being played by the students, who I seemed to enjoy playing them. I also lead an informal session on chanting and rhythm which was attended by a large and lively group. 

that cowboy hat
The camp wasn’t all hard work - we partied a lot too. One night some of the instructors took me to a rodeo. It was quite an experience to see the massive bulls throwing their riders off in seconds. One man was picked up between the bull’s horns and tossed into the air whereupon he landed on six-foot fence. Had I not seen it myself, I might not have believed it. The instructors bought me a smart black cowboy hat which, much to my surprise, suited me very well. I wore it for my classes the next day and for my performance at the instructors’ concert, which raised a smile or two.

With my smart black cowboy hat I could pass for a local, just as long as I didn’t say anything that is. My English accent was very conspicuous and attracted a lot of interest. One evening Rob, Neil and I were eating in a restaurant and the waitress interrupted us to say to me: where y’all from, I love your accent. This tickled Neal and Rob as she herself had a broad Kentucky accent. At this point I should explain that the people from Kentucky don’t speak English as such, but a variant of American with a few grammar rules all of their own. For example: y’all doesn’t mean ‘you all’ but ‘you’ singular, the waitress was referring to me personally. It takes a bit of getting used to. Back at the instructors lodge we had quite a few laughs about the different ways we speak. The phrase ‘two countries separated by a common language’ was never more relevant.        

Saturday 22nd - Tuesday 25th July
After the KMW dulcimer camp, my wife Mary flew out from England to join me for the remainder of my stay in Kentucky. We hired a car, booked into a nice motel in Bardstown and spent an enjoyable few days getting to know the surrounding area. Like me, Mary is interested in wildlife so we visited a park called Bernheim Forest where we saw chipmunks, red winged blackbirds and a friendly turtle. We didn’t see any tree-frogs however. On the way back from Bernheim Forest we passed the Jim Beam distillery and stopped off to visit their ‘Outpost’ visitor centre. Bourbon and tobacco are two of Kentucky’s traditional exports.       

Wednesday 26th July
Nancy and I drove up to Louisville (pronounced Lou-a-vull, remember) to do an interview for the television channel Fox 41 to help to promote the Kentucky Music Weekend festival that weekend. We arrived at the Fox studios just after 8am and were quickly ushered into the newsdesk studio. Nancy answered questions about the forthcoming festival and I performed a couple of modal pieces on guitar and dulcimer. The programme was broadcast live and we complemented each other afterwards on a job well done.              

27th - 30th July
The Kentucky Music Weekend festival is based in the beautiful grounds of Iroquois (pronounced Urcoyz) Park in the southern outskirts of Lou-a-vull. There was a main stage that seated a couple of thousand in an open-air amphitheatre surrounded by a number of smaller stages under the trees, where more intimate concerts and workshops were held. For the weekend festival we stayed with our new friends Karl and Scottie again and saw more chipmunks, red cardinal and a Cooper’s Hawk in their garden (back yard). At the end of their road a friendly groundhog watched unconcerned as we drove by - but still no tree-frogs.

My work at the festival consisted of a performance on the main stage as well as a concerts and workshops on the smaller stages. Much of this work was recorded for a film of the event and I was also interviewed on camera by the film company. I met and very much enjoyed working with John McCormick, an American guitarist who has toured the UK many times. I also met a duo called Small Potatoes who’s exciting performances were loved by the crowd and a guitar composer called Paul Reisler who’s music we found enthralling. It was also a privilege to meet two legends of the American folk scene: Bill Staines and Jean Richie. 

A number of the performers at the Kentucky Music Weekend I had already met: Next Generation, Wild Carrot, Fred Myer, David Schnaufer, Jack Twombly of the Celtic band Beyond The Pale and Nancy’s own Kentucky Standard Band - so I felt among friends from the start. David and Fred lead a dulcimer workshop at which I played a couple of pieces, one of my own and one of Roger Nicholson’s compositions. Roger is the leading exponent on the dulcimer in the UK. David, Fred and several other players there had either met Roger or knew of his work. David was at pains to point out to the workshop audience how significant Roger’s contribution has been to the development of the dulcimer in the USA.

This was not only the festival’s 25th anniversary but also the amphitheatre’s last event. The whole venue is being rebuilt this year to form a covered arena. As you can imagine this was a special year for the festival. To play in the open air in a wooded park is a lovely setting for folk music and the audience that had come, year upon year, really appreciated the whole event. Nancy does a great job of getting sponsorship from local authorities and industry and the 25th celebrations started with a formal reception on the Thursday evening with speeches of congratulations and support from various local dignitaries.

gortex strings
Uncharacteristically, it rained some of the time during the week-end. I very much welcomed the cool this brought but the humidity afterwards was oppressive. My watch even steamed up. Several of the guitar players were finding it difficult to play with clammy hands and I kept putting fresh strings on my guitar to retain a crisp tone. Practical as ever, the Americans have come up with an answer to this problem - Goretex strings, or to be more accurate, strings with a Gore coating. Those who use them claim that they last much longer and play well in humid conditions. I tried a Martin 000 series guitar with Goretex strings and I found them to have a very smooth feel but with limited sustain. I have been given a set to evaluate on one of my own instruments, which I look forward to trying out.      

I don’t want you to think that this trip was ‘too good to be true’. Far from it, lots of things went wrong. To give you just a couple of examples: on my flight out my suitcase arrived on another plane about 5 hours late, the airline did the same thing a week later to Mary, one of my flights was delayed due to engine trouble, on another we couldn’t land for a long time due to bad weather, we heard of four shootings in Louisville during the short time that we stayed there and I managed to scrape the car on a high curb on the way back to hire company. But all of these things pale into insignificance when we look back on the trip as a whole. We really did have a marvellous time. 

finale
As you might imagine, I felt quite sad driving away from the amphitheatre after the last performance on the Sunday evening, but what a memory to take away… I played to a very warm crowd and then enjoyed excellent performances from Small Potatoes and Paul Reisler. To close the festival all the performers joined Bill Staines and Jean Richie on stage and sang ‘Beneath Kentucky Skies’ which had only just been written a couple of hours beforehand in the back-stage changing rooms. After singing the song once through, we all hummed the tune while Nancy attempted to read out notes from regular supporters of their memories of the last 25 years, rather like we would have telegrams read at a wedding in England. I say ‘attempted’ as poor Nancy only got half way though the first one before she broke down and had to leave the stage for a few minutes. 25 years of memories was just too much to bear. ‘Angel’ Alice stepped in to cover and after the notes had been read, we sang one more chorus of ‘Beneath Kentucky Skies’ to finish. Then suddenly, just as the lights were fading, just as the final applause was dying down, just as we were all about to leave the stage for the last time - I distinctly heard the call of a tree-frog. My trip was complete.

Question
Hi Dan
When I heard you in concert, you said you had connections with Amazing Grace.  I loved your arrangement of the song and wondered what your connections with it are.
Sally, Indiana

Answer
Hi Sally
Amazing Grace is one of the Olney hymns, written by William Cowper and John Newton, who were both ministers in the small market-town of Olney in Buckinghamshire.  My wife and I live in Olney and a short walk across the fields from our house takes you to Cowper’s Alcove, where Cowper and Newton wrote some of their poems.  As you can imagine, Cowper’s Alcove is one of our favourite paces.  2007 saw celebrations all over the UK, but especially here in Olney, marking the 200th anniversary of the Parliamentiary bill abolishing slavery.  This was because of Amazing Grace and John Newton’s involvement in the bill.  The Story goes that Newton became ill in Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa but was looked after by the local back people, which he was later to exploit.  He then worked on the slave ships, transporting African slaves, in appalling conditions, from Sierra Leone to the Caribbean to work in cotton fields and sugar plantations.  After a while Newton was promoted to captain and one wild night his ship risked being capsized in a storm.  That night he prayed and became one of the ‘storm convertites’, not only regretting his former ways, but becoming a minister and supporting William Wilberforce to get the Abolition of Slavery bill through Parliament.  Bearing this in mind, the words: ‘I once was lost but now I’m found’ seem now to have a deeper resonance.
Best wishes, Dan.   

Question
hi Dan can you please tell me where you run your voice workshops Everyone Can Sing and if you lead any classes near me
Mary, Suffolk

Answer
hi Mary
I lead open (public) Everyone Can Sing classes at two centres:

Farncombe Estate, near Broadway in the Costwolds 
beautiful modern centre with splendid views and wildlife
e-mail website
phone 01386 854100

Denman WI College, near Abingdon, south of Oxford
beautiful period building in lovely grounds - open to non-members and men 
e-mail website
phone 01865 391991

Neither of these are near to you but people do travel to attend these popular classes. I’ve had students come from Scotland, The Orkneys, Cornwall, Ireland, Northern Ireland, The Dordogne, Brussels and Greece.
Best wishes, Dan 

Question
Dear Mr Evans
I would like to be able to sing in public but I lack the confidence. I noticed on the course description for your voice class that you help singers to develop confidence. How do you do this ?
Mrs Hartshaw, Kent
  
Answer
Dear Mrs Hartshaw
For over fifteen years my popular Everyone Can Sing class has been developing confidence in singers of all levels of ability. The process that I use develops confidence by the reinforcement of existing strengths. As singers, we tend to ‘catastrophise’, thinking that the slightest mistake has totally ruined a song. In practice, probably no-one noticed or minded. By receiving positive feedback from the group on what we did well, we realise that the song isn’t ruined and that we are bringing to it an array of personal strengths and qualities. Receiving this positive feedback is key to enabling us to lose our inhibitions and sing beautifully. I believe that everyone can sing beautifully and that’s what is normally achieved on my class.
We also work in a criticism-free atmosphere – only positive feedback is allowed. This creates a safe environment where participants can ‘spread their wings’ and achieve their potential.
Best wishes, Dan

It is with a heavy heart that I write of my friend Roger’s death yesterday afternoon.  Curiously I thought of him around that time, out of the blue.  Roger was the foremost exponent of the mountain dulcimer in the UK and his original compositions and transcriptions of lute tunes have yet to be surpassed on the dulcimer.  He recorded several vinyl albums and made seven trips to the USA - the man and his music were very well respected among the leading US players. 

I first met Roger in his (then) North London home back in the 70’s when I was a University Student – his instruments, recordings and TAB notation were an inspiration to me at that time.  We met again around twenty years later and the friendship that ensued resulted in us undertaking a US tour together to Boston and the Adirondacks, in up-state New York.  Around that time Roger and I worked up a number of dulcimer duets, a couple of which were recorded on my Spirit Dancing CD in 1997.  Since then we have kept in touch and I have often been with him to Ealing Guitar Society – a friendly guitar club, local to Roger’s (later) West London home.  Roger was involved in running the club for some years and I have many memories of seeing him and playing there too.
 
A few years ago Roger had a heart attack during a trip to Damascus.  He subsequently had operations on his heart and has since been on a grueling regime of dialysis for kidney failure.  He never fully recovered from his heart condition and in recent months his health deteriorated.  I am advised that he received the best possible medical treatment.  He passed away peacefully in hospital yesterday afternoon with his family around him.  What I remember is his indomitable spirit, his keen interest in all things dulcimer & guitar and his kindness to me and interest in my own music career.  His life will be celebrated and his music will live on.

 

Question
hi Dan
I have a couple of your CDs and I really like the smooth, clear dulcimer sound you get. I will soon make my first recording and wondered if you would kindly share some tips for recording the dulcimer.
John, Texas

Answer
hi John
Being a quiet instrument, especially when played fingerstyle, there’s a risk that the mountain dulcimer will sound thin on a recording. Firstly, good microphone technique is important. When mic’ing up stringed instruments it’s best practice to position the mic at about 45 degrees to the deck. A square–on mic can pick up rough sounds from the back of the instrument. Secondly, my hour-glass dulcimer gives noticeably different tones from its upper and lower bouts – so we used two mics, one on each bout, panning them apart so that the dulcimer occupies a space (not just a point) in the mix. All my instruments have saddle-type transducer pickups fitted for stage use. A pickup on its own can sound a little unnatural in the studio as it has different attack and decay characteristics from a microphone. However, pickups are resistant to squeaks and fingering noise – the signal is very clean. So thirdly, we mix in a little of the pickup sound with the two mics to achieve a clean, rich and smooth sound. Lastly dulcimers suit quite a lot of reverb, much more than a guitar – they seem to soak it up.
Good luck, Dan 

Question
Hi Dan,
I am tone deaf and 50. Are your courses suitable for me or will I ruin the whole weekend for everybody else or waste my money?
Sue (Hertfordshire)  

Answer
Hi Sue,
In many years of leading my Everyone Can Sing voice class, many participants have attended who believed they are tone deaf or have been told they are tone deaf only to find out that they can sing perfectly well in tune, by following my process. Some have even had private voice tuition only for the tutor to have given up on them. However, in all the years I’ve been leading this class I’ve yet to meet anyone who is actually tone deaf. ‘Tone deaf’ appears to be a phrase that we use casually but it would appear to be a very rare condition and I’ve not come across it. Early on in the workshop we undertake some listening exercises, which sharpen up everyone’s awareness of sound. With the right kind of active listening, everyone can sing in tune. So, unless you have actually been diagnosed as tone deaf, then you are typical of many who attend my classes and find they get can enjoy singing.
Best wishes, Dan

Question
Hi Dan,
If you don’t use a tuner and even temperament, how do you tune your acoustic guitar to CGCGCE ?
Steve

Answer
Hi Steve,
To tune to CGCGCE, I use a G tuning fork to tune the 3rd/G string by playing the 12th fret harmonic on the string and holding the tuning fork near to my ear – I listen for the beats and when they subside, the G string is in tune.  I always tune up to the note to ensure that there is no slack at the machine head. Then the 4th/C string is tuned by matching it’s 7th fret harmonic to the 12th fret harmonic of the 3rd/G, similarly the 6th /C string and the 2nd/C string.  The 5th/G string is tuned by matching it with the 3rd string, both at the 12th fret. Lastly, the top E is tuned by fretting it at the 3rd fret and matching it with to the 12th fret harmonic of the 3rd/G.
I generally flatten the top E, as it sounds sweeter and I may make allowances for how hard the bottom C will be played by flattening a little.    
I then check for any rogue resonances by playing all the strings open but with the top E fretted at the 3rd fret and letting the chord sustain a while – it should sound rich and sparking without any pulses.
Best wishes, Dan