Finally, I can relax a bit after hours of practice over the recent months preparing for my first solo gigs focused solely on my music. It all started when I was asked to give a workshop for a group of Belgian and Dutch hakkebord (hammered dulcimer) players and end the day with an hour long concert at the Muziekclub ‘t Ey. Honored to be asked in the first place, I truly wanted to provide some good tips and instruction in the morning, but also a good look at my original music and dulcimer interpretations of cover and traditional tunes. Hard to say how many hours of preparation, planning, and practicing what I was going to cover in the workshop, but suffice it to say it was many multiples of the two hours I would be teaching.
The concert was another challenge where I wanted to focus primarily on my original tunes that I think highlight the range of the hammered dulcimer and can feature my specific style and skills. I know that an hour of solo hammered dulcimer without any support is beyond my ability to keep engaging, so I knew that I needed some backup, accompaniment, and support to make the concert complete. That lead me to asking our good Dutch friend Rene Slieker on guitar and mandolin to join me. The added challenge was not only was this music a completely new and different style for him, but with mostly my original tunes, he had to learn everything! He quickly agreed to the challenge and jumped right in to learning each piece from recordings that I could provide.
Our schedule provided yet another challenge to getting a show together with Carla and I traveling back and forth from the States. This gave us only two practices together at the end of April followed by a month apart and us arriving back in the Netherlands just a few days before the big day. We knew we needed another practice before the trip to Belgium, so Rene and I invited about 30 of our friends to his music room at his company on Friday afternoon and did a dry run of the concert for them. Only a few people in attendance had any idea what a hammered dulcimer was, let alone see me play it. I was curious as to whether an all Dutch audience would be interested enough to stick it out with us for over an hour. Turns out, they were hooked! Everyone seemed to enjoy it and learned a little bit about this unusual instrument. (I’m sure the free beer didn’t hurt) Rene and I took a few points from our experience and fine tuned our set for the concert on the following Sunday.
Sunday, June 1 arrived and we hit the road at 7:30 am for the 2+ hour drive to Sint Niklaas, Belgium. I hardly slept the night before with my mind going back and forth between thoughts of what I would teach during the workshop and things to not forget during the concert, both what I would say and how I would play. We arrived for the workshop with plenty of time to say my greetings and get set up. I had 14 students for the two hour workshop. The first hour I covered all the tips that I had regarding using and finding chords on the dulcimer, basically squeezing two past workshops into one hour. Maybe it was a good idea to cover so much content quickly, but I did receive feedback that it was too much talking and not enough hands on. Something I hadn’t thought of. The second hour was all hands on with walking through the chording that I play along with Mr. Bojangles. It took the full hour and was well received. All in all, the workshop went well. We agreed that next time I come to do a workshop, we would talk about more specific objectives of the group. I do hope they will have me back and that I can help them all learn a little more.
Next up, preparing for and giving a concert. Again the set list running through my head all afternoon, tunes jumping in and out of my consciousness. I’m sure I wasn’t good company as I was so preoccupied. I have to say, the Muziekclub ‘t Ey (
Concert time! It was 4:00 pm and our names called as we entered the stage. Strange thing was, after months of worry and nervousness, I walked out there with full confidence that it would go well. Sure, it is always difficult to perform for fellow dulcimer players, but I was playing mostly tunes I had written so they were deeply ingrained in my musical soul. Each tune reflects a different moment, experience, or feeling from my own life and I had a few words to introduce each. Rene and I immediately ripped into my tune Thumper, and never looked back! Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but I was very happy with the music made and shared that afternoon. The hour long concert seemed to fly by with the audience engaged throughout and showing appreciation at the variety of music played before them. We ended our set to a standing ovation (hard to see in the bright lights) and were happy to share one more fiddle tune to end the program. You can hear some snippets of our set on YouTube here:
Again, I am so grateful for the opportunity to share both my knowledge and experience during the workshop and also to share my music with an appreciative audience. That night, with spouses, we celebrated a successful day with dinner, drinks, and more music in Ghent, Belgium. After a cozy breakfast together the following morning, I was still riding high during the drive back home.