Dulci-More:
Folk & Traditional Musicians
Updated April 9, 2009
Dulci-More Members Performing at
Dulci-More Festival 13, May 2007
Dulci-More: Folk &
Traditional Musicians is a club that started in January 1993, at the First
United Methodist Church of Salem. The purposes of the club
are to have fun with folk-style music and to share that music with others. The
club meets at 7:00 pm on the first
Tuesday and Third Tuesday (note: it was the third Wednesday until January,
2000) of each month just off the sanctuary by the Unity Classroom of the First
United Methodist Church of Salem, 244 South Broadway, Salem,
OH 44460. All levels of acoustic instrumentalists and singers are always
welcome at the meetings to jam, to learn, to listen, or to perform. Meetings are generally run as song circles with most songs or tunes
chosen from the Dulci-More Public Domain Songbook with everyone joining in, but
other choices are permitted and usually welcome as well as solo or small group
performances for an individual's selection. Most members stay until at least 9:00 pm, but many members regularly stay much
later. Some come later when they need to. People should feel free to come and
go as needed without disturbing the group. A brief update of coming events and items which may be of interest to members is done at some
point during the evening when the most people are likely to be in attendance.
Call ahead if you are coming from far away since performances or special
meetings may be scheduled a few times a year on
regular meeting nights. The group averages over two performances a month for
festivals, fairs, schools, churches, clubs, nursing homes, and others. A calendar which should be kept up to date regularly showing
Meetings, Concerts, Workshops, Festivals, Events, and More for Dulci-More is
available below or in a larger format at: Dulci-More Google Calendar for your convenience.
Dulci-More Festival
The Annual Dulci-More Festival has been held on Memorial Day Weekend since 1995. Check the link above for the most current
information. Check the Dulci-More Festival Home Page or the Dulci-More
Festival 16 Performer Bios & Photos Page for the most current
information.
Note: for best results in printing the brochures and the
program, on the print screen in Adobe Reader, change Page Scaling to Booklet Printing, and the proper formatting
for the pages should be applied.
Get Dulci-More
Festival 16 Registration Forms in Adobe PDF Format
Get
Dulci-More Festival 16 Flyer in Adobe PDF Format
Get Dulci-More Festival 16 Small Brochure in Adobe PDF Format
Get
Dulci-More Festival 16 Full Brochure in Adobe PDF Format
Get
Dulci-More Festival 16 Workshop Grid in Adobe PDF Format
Get Dulci-More
Festival 16 Program in Adobe PDF Format
Information
about performers from over the years should soon be available on a separate
page.
More information about location, schedule,
performers, activities, etc. is posted at the Dulci-More Festival Home
Page.
Dulci-More Anniversary Concerts
Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians are generally
presented in late January or early February in the Sanctuary of the First
United Methodist Church of Salem, 244 South Broadway, Salem, OH
44460 for free as a way for Dulci-More to say thanks to the community and to
let more people know what we are doing. The date and information about the next
one will be posted on the calendar as soon as we have information about it.
The concert typically features
ensemble selections by Dulci-More and solo or small group numbers by a few of
our members. Individual Dulci-More members sing and/or play mountain dulcimers,
hammered dulcimers, guitars, autoharps, mandolins, banjos, fiddles, cello,
bass, harmonicas, recorders, flutes, jug and more. About 20 members or more
generally perform during these concerts and there are sometimes audiences of
about 200 in attendance.
Since 2004, the anniversary
concerts have also featured some members of Dulci-More Little Eagles, yearly groups of United Local Elementary
students who have been playing mountain dulcimers in an after-school program
led by Dulci-More members since autumn 2003.
No tickets or reservations are
needed for these concert. There is no charge. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Cookies or cake and punch are served during intermission. For more information
or directions, contact Bill Schilling at 330-332-4420 or
bill@dulcimore.org or check on the web at www.dulcimore.org or at
www.billschilling.org for more information about the club.
Dulci-More Workshops and
Concerts Featuring Special Guests
Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians
has also decided to sponsor occasional guest artists to present their music to
our members and the community in general. These events have been held at the First
United Methodist Church of Salem, the Salem Historical
Society, the First Presbyterian Church of Salem, and the Kent Salem Campus. Performers from 2000 through 2009 (with several of them making
return trips) have included, Tina
Bergmann & Bryan Thomas from Brady Lake, OH, Bryan Bowers from Washington State, Patty Looman from West Virginia (joined
by Marilyn & Tom Lashuay
from Kent, OH and Bill Schilling in one of
her appearances), Madeline MacNeil from the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (joined by Guy
George from Concord, OH and Bill Schilling), Pete Morton from
England, Stephen Seifert from
Tennessee, Bill Staines from New
Hampshire, Pat Travis & Bill Matlack from Pittsburgh, PA, and Susan Trump from New York State, and Bob Zentz from
Norfolk, VA. Mark Alan Wade was snowed out for his April 2, 2005 appearance, and we have never managed to
reschedule that one.
Dulci-More Performances
Since forming in January of 1993, Dulci-More has
averaged over two performances per month for civic groups, nursing homes,
churches, schools, coffee houses, festivals, and others including opening for Bill
Staines at the Morley Performing Arts Pavilion in Mill Creek
Park in the summer of 1996. The club has also been involved in an autoharp recording project for the Stephen
Foster Museum
in Pittsburgh and others. There are
over 100 members in the club. Anywhere from eight to thirty members may sign up
for a given performance. Depending on which members perform, there may be singing,
mountain dulcimers, hammered dulcimers, autoharps, guitars, harmonicas,
whistles, flutes, recorders, fiddles, mandolins, banjos, bass, bowed psaltery,
cello, keyboard, percussion instruments, jug, or others. Contact us to find out
about performances for your group or event. Check the Dulci-More Google
Calendar to see if any are scheduled.
Dulci-More Potluck Jams
Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians
generally has met on a weekend afternoon twice a year for jamming throughout
the afternoon and evening with a break in the early evening to share a potluck
dinner and fun visiting time with some of our members from farther away or
those with other activities who cannot get to our regular meetings. Since 2008,
several potluck jams have been held on fifth Tuesdays
at the home of Bill Schilling rather than on a weekend afternoon. Check the
Dulci-More Google Calendar to see if there is one scheduled.
Dulci-More
Public Domain Songbooks
The Dulci-More Public Domain Songbooks are
designed to allow people a chance to learn and to play some of the songs that
Dulci-More plays regularly at meetings and events. The arrangements give lyrics
and melody lines in standard musical notation. Accompaniment chords are
included. Numbers for the melody string(s) for fretted dulcimers are also shown
(usually for dulcimers tuned in a DAA tuning). Click here to find
out more about the general songbooks or here to find out more
about the autoharp songbooks. Use
this link to open a printable Order
Form (in a new window) to send along with your order.
Dulci-More Little Eagles After
School Program
This program is continuing during the 2009-2010
school year. Norma Firth and Bill Schilling
are working with the program this year.
In October 2003, Dulci-More started working on an
after school program at United Local
Elementary School with students
from grades 4, 5, & 6. In January 2004, students
in those grades and grade 3 were again invited to join the program, and over 15
had taken part by early February 2004. The program was made
possible when Dulci-More Executive Committee member Lois Mountz heard that
Principal Ruth Ann Rinto was looking for new
after school programs and contacted her about this. Members of Dulci-More were
aware that one of the teachers at United Local had obtained a grant enabling
her to buy and build cardboard dulcimer kits and then to work with all the
third grade students on playing them in 2003. Permission was
obtained to use those dulcimers. Dulci-More members Norma Firth, Doris
Tolley, Bonnie Lutz, and Bill Schilling
quickly agreed to join Lois Mountz in leading the group. The
group was asked if they would like to make their first public performance at
the Dulci-More Eleventh Anniversary Concert on February 5, 2004, and at least
12 of the students were there to open each half of the concert (with Boil
Them Cabbage Down and with Rainbow Waltz with Dulci-More members
joining them on Rainbow Waltz after they had played it through a couple
of times), and they did great. Once again, Lois Mountz had been thinking
ahead, and she had asked for funding from Dulci-More to get T-shirts for the
students. A quick discussion let us know that sports teams and others at United
Local Elementary are known as the Little Eagles, and our group then became the
Dulci-More Little Eagles with the great drawing and lettering and design done
by three generations of the Mountz family including Paige (one of the Little
Eagles), her father Steve, and her grandmother Lois. The program continued
through the school year, and we heard the Dulci-More Little Eagles in
performance again at Dulci-More Festival 10. The program has continued each
school year since then to the present. Members of the club would probably be
available to join in partnership with other local schools for similar programs.
Dulci-More member Sue Sabatino helped lead the
program for several years with Norma Firth and Bill Schilling.
Dulci-More Leader Led Harmonica
Play Along for Guinness World Record in 2007
On Sunday,
September 23, 2007, 1882 people gathered at the Rocky River
Reservation and Frostville Museum part of Cleveland Metroparks
for the Cedar Valley Settler’s Celebration. One of the highlights of the
festival was the second attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most
people playing harmonica together with Bill Schilling (that’s I) leading everyone. When the first
attempt was made at the same festival in 2006, we were impressed to have 684
participants, but knew it was far too few to break the record of 1706 in
Seattle in 2005 (I think those are the correct facts, but I am relying on
memory for them, and I may have forgotten some of that). Rather than being
discouraged, the people at Cleveland Metroparks,
started planning earlier for the second attempt, changed the way that several
things including my workshop would be done, and ordered more
harmonicas than they had ever ordered before.
I
determined that we would once again use Frere Jacques
(Are You Sleeping) as the song for everyone to play together. I chose the song
for several reasons. I wanted something that almost everyone would recognize so
that I would be teaching how to play the song rather than teaching the song and
how to play it. I wanted something short enough and with enough repetition that
I would have time to break it apart and teach it in very recognizable segments.
I wanted something that I could create some arrangement for (thought about
ahead of time, but done on the fly once I heard how well people were picking it
up). I wanted something that I could play and lead without thinking much about
it (very necessary since I am not really a harmonica player, but I understand
the instrument well enough that I have taught thousands of people the basics of
playing one).
Longtime
Dulci-More member and harmonica player Don Blair (also the most recent leader
of the Steel Valley Harmonica Players and leader of the Grooving Grandpas
Harmonica Group), went along and organized a few other excellent harmonica
players from around the area to join us at the microphones on the stage to help
keep everyone together and sounding good. During the five minutes that we
needed to play the song to establish the record, everyone played together a few
times, just the men, just the women, just the children all played on their own, and the whole group
did the song as a round as well. Photos, a description of the event, and a link
to a YouTube video taken from a crane looking down on
the event are available at http://www.clemetparks.com/events/guiness.asp.
It was a fun event, and I was very pleased to continue a long association with
that festival and its predecessor and to be a part in establishing the official
Guinness World Record for the
Largest Harmonica Play-Along up to that time.
Directions to the First
United Methodist
Church
of Salem
The First
United Methodist Church of Salem is located at 244 South
Broadway in Salem. The main parking
lot for the church is most easily reached by taking
East Alley from Pershing Street
between Broadway and Lundy. 1) Those coming into town from the west on State
Street (State Route 14) can stay on State
Street to Broadway in the center of downtown Salem.
Turn south (left) at the traffic light on Broadway for one block to a four way
stop at Pershing (the black stone church visible ahead on the left is it). Turn
east (left) on Pershing for half a block to a south (right) turn on East Alley
(with a sign for the Salem Historical Society and a smaller one below it for
the First United
Methodist Church)
and from there into the church parking lot. There is also on street parking on
Broadway and in other parking lots nearby. 2) Those coming into town from the
east on State Street (State Route 14) are not permitted to turn south (left)
onto Broadway in the center of downtown Salem. Thus, they should turn south
(left) at the traffic light on South Lincoln for one
block to a traffic light at Pershing. Turn west (right) on
Pershing and continue for two and one half blocks (past the four way stop at
Lundy, but before the four way stop at Broadway) to a south (left) turn on East
Alley (with a sign for the Salem Historical Society and a smaller one below it
for the First United Methodist Church) and from there into the church parking
lot. There is also on street parking on Broadway and in other parking
lots nearby. 3) If coming from the north on US 62, do not take the bypass.
Instead continue straight and that will be North Lincoln.
Continue straight south on Lincoln through the traffic light at State Street
(State Route 14) onto South Lincoln for one block to a traffic light at
Pershing. Turn west (right) on Pershing and continue for two
and one half blocks (past the four way stop at Lundy, but before the four way
stop at Broadway) to a south (left) turn on East Alley (with a sign for the
Salem Historical Society and a smaller one below it for the First United
Methodist Church) and from there into the church parking lot. There is
also on street parking on Broadway and in other parking lots nearby. 4) If
coming from the north on State Route 45 continue straight rather than taking
the bypass and that will be North Ellsworth. Continue on Ellsworth through the
traffic light at State Street
(State Route 14) onto South Ellsworth for one block to a four way stop at
Pershing. Turn east (left) on Pershing and continue for one
and one half blocks (past the four way stop at Broadwy,
but before the four way stop at Lundy) to a south (right) turn on East Alley
(with a sign for the Salem Historical Society and a smaller one below it for
the First United Methodist Church) and from there into the church parking lot.
There is also on street parking on Broadway and in other parking lots nearby.
5) If coming from the south on State Route 45, do not take the bypass, but
continue straight and that will be South Lincoln.
Continue on South Lincoln to a traffic light at
Pershing. Turn west (left) on Pershing and continue for two
and one half blocks (past the four way stop at Lundy, but before the four way
stop at Broadway) to a south (left) turn on East Alley (with a sign for the
Salem Historical Society and a smaller one below it for the First United
Methodist Church) and from there into the church parking lot. There is
also on street parking on Broadway and in other parking lots nearby.
Links
A Dulci-More member with her own home page which
describes her dulcimer playing, books, recordings, and the Fort New Salem
Dulcimer Festival which she directs is Linda Sigismondi. Her home page is at http://lindasigismondi.com for those who
want to know more.
Dulci-More members Marcy and Dale Tudor have a great
farm vacation bed and breakfast called Weatherbury Farm in Avella,
PA. Find information about it at www.weatherburyfarm.com to plan your
stay southwest of Pittsburgh. Sheep
Fest started there in 2002. Plans are being made to have Folk Arts on the Farm
there, which started a concert series and jam sessions in 2004 with Bill
Schilling and will continue in 2005 with long term
workshops on various instruments. Nigel Tudor also has his forge on the farm.
His web page is at www.tudorironworks.com/.
Dulci-More shares a link with the community which is our home base. Click here to find out
more about Salem, OH.
Dulci-More has been an organizational member of Folknet: the Northeast Ohio Folk & Traditional Music
and Dance Society, We have cosponsored events with Folknet,
and our members have helped at Folknet events. Go to www.folknet.org to find out more about Folknet. Its monthly newsletter, Continuum, lists hundreds
of acoustic events in the northeast Ohio area and beyond each month. Folknet regularly sponsors concerts, house concerts,
educational events, dances, and other activities. Membership forms can be
printed out from the web site.
We also share a link with the Mountain Rose Concert Series
centered at the Roy Smith Shelter in Fred
Fuller Park
in Kent, Ohio.
They offer second Sunday concerts most months by folk artists from our area and
beyond in a wonderful small room setting as well as running or supporting
festivals in the area. Find out what's on the schedule
by checking their home page. They also are responsible for the weekly radio
program, Just Plain Folk on WAPS-FM, 91.3, The Summit in Akron.
They have been generous in their support of Dulci-More by
having Bill Schilling in 2000; Michael Johnathon and Bill Schilling in 2001;
Guy George, Demetrius Steinmetz, and Bill
Schilling in 2002; Bill Schilling and Linda
Sigismondi in 2003, Bill Schilling in 2004, Susie Large and Bill
Schilling in 2005, Leanna Mathes and Bill Schilling in 2006, Bing Futch and Bill Schilling in 2007,
and Bill Schilling in 2008 and 2009 on the program the weekend of Dulci-More Festival
to help us let more people know about the festival. Since 2003, they
also later broadcast the interviews they have done at our Festivals. They also
regularly have as guests on the radio program and in the concert series many of the same artists featured at Dulci-More
Festivals. Check www.wapsfm.com for the
broadcast times for Just Plain Folk. The webcast can be heard live on www.wapsfm.com anywhere.
Contact
Bill Schilling by e-mail.
Return to Bill Schilling's
Home Page.
Links to Other Home Pages Developed by Bill
Schilling
Contact Information
Bill
Schilling
984 Homewood Avenue
Salem, Ohio 44460-3816
330-332-4420
bill@billschilling.org
bill@dulcimore.org