Learn to play dulcimers at Garfield Farm Museum April 22
Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills will host a basic mountain and hammered dulcimer workshops on Sunday, April 22.
Musician Dona Benkert will provide the instruction on these stringed instruments.
She will have some instruments on hand for individuals that do not have their own. There will be a 1 p.m. mountain dulcimer session and a 3 p.m. hammered dulcimer session.
There is a $25 donation per session. Reservations are required and can be made by contacting the museum at (630) 584-8485 or info@garfieldfarm.org.
The Mountain Dulcimer is often considered the only real American instrument.
The Hammered Dulcimer is among the most beautiful sounding and oldest instruments.
The forerunner to the piano, it is a trapezoidal instrument played by striking the strings with hammers, much like climbing inside a piano to play.
Participants can discover the origins and evolution of these easy to play instruments.
After learning the basic right and left hand techniques, participants will try playing some easy traditional melodies. No experience is needed.
Benkert is the owner of Folk-Lore Center music school at 1801 N. Mill St., Suite P in Naperville. She is the founder of Warrenville Folk Music Society.
She is an accomplished hammered and mountain dulcimer artist and winner of the 2003 Studs Terkel Humanities Award. She is on staff at the renowned Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago as well as DuPage Girl Scouts as a music and dance badge program facilitator.
Her arrangements are rooted in the traditions of the British Isles, New England Country dance music, Appalachian fiddle tunes, and the music Irish harpist Turloch O'Carolan. She enjoys sharing her love for traditional music and helping to preserve our musical heritage.
Visit www.garfieldfarm.org or www.facebook.com/GarfieldFarmMuseum/.
Garfield Farm Museum is a 375-acre historically intact former 1840s prairie farmstead and teamster inn that volunteers and donors are preserving as an 1840s living history museum. The museum is five miles west of Geneva, off Route 38 on Garfield Road.