Playing almost exclusively fingerstyle, Dan creates beautiful and intricate dulcimer and guitar music, sometimes pushing the boundaries of the instruments.
All of Dan’s acoustic instruments have pickups and the sound is subtlety treated with state-of-the-art programmable delay effects – more so on guitar, where Dan is especially innovative.
Dan arpeggiates chords to accompany songs, interprets folk melodies as instrumental airs and performs his own imaginative compositions. His acoustic dulcimers were custom-built by Martin Cole (UK) and Doug Berch (USA).
All Dan’s dulcimers have 3 strings and a true diatonic scale. They are typically tuned to Ionian mode (known as DAA). He also uses modal tunings to play atmospheric music in medieval scales and he uses Bagpipe and other drone-based tunings to create rich and resonant sounds on the dulcimer.
Geoff Reeve-Black, President, Nonsuch Dulcimer Club, UK
Playing a mixture of folk songs and instrumentals, whilst including elements of medieval music and jazz, gives Dan a unique and often melodic guitar sound. Furthermore, Dan’s guitars are normally tuned to Open C tuning (CGCGCE) and to his own temperament resulting in a powerful, resonant sound with a sweet, natural temperament.
Dan’s guitars are hand-crafted by British firm, Auden.
Dr Lucy Green, Professor Of Music, University College Of London Institute Of Education
The solid body electric dulcimer with a humbucking pickup away from the bridge gives a smooth, mellow tone. This signal is then treated with a wide variety of programmable digital effects, with each piece having its own texture. Dan has access to the same huge palette of high quality textures as does a modern professional rock guitarist.
Dan’s electric dulcimer was custom-built by Andy Viccars (UK).
Suggers review for Bishops Stortford folk club, UK