Dulcimer

Heidi plays mountain dulcimer in every performance and is known around the US for her playing and teaching. She loves to take the dulcimer to new audiences as well as try out all sorts of new music, using the dulcimer for songwriting, song accompaniment and instrumental tunes. She's played her dulcimer onstage for audiences from 6 to 6000 -- from mainstage appearances at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival and appearing with Nanci Griffith at Seattle's Opera House, to opening for Richie Havens at Northwest Folklife and playing solo dulcimer at Seattle's Benaroya Symphony Hall on Christmas Eve.

For over 15 years Heidi has taught lessons and workshops in Seattle as well as at folk festivals, dulcimer festivals and dulcimer club gatherings across the country. The Northeast Dulcimer Symposium, Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering, Vermont Dulcimer Daze, South Florida Folk Festival, Davy Crockett Dulcimer Society and Harvest Festival of Dulcimers are just a few places where she has been invited to teach and perform. Concert travels have opened the door to give lessons and workshops in more remote areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and British Columbia. Heidi is always willing to help new players who live far from the centers of folk music.

Heidi first encountered the dulcimer in 1978 in Hope, New Jersey, when her housemate Bill Vanheteren tried his hand at making some instruments. Her old singing buddy and college roommate Gail Rundlett bought one and learned to play from Lorraine Lee. It wasn't long till Heidi was smitten with its range and sound and decided to get one herself. Her first instrument was a Jay Leibowitz cherry dulcimer made in the 70's. But with no teachers in Seattle, she turned to percussionist and dulcimer player Mark Filler for some beginning guidance and then went on to teach herself. She started out in DAD tuning and felt most at home singing with four equidistant strings as accompaniment. Upon discovering the Seattle contradance scene, old-time tunes kept her up late at night, and before long she went back to three-string playing for traditional fiddle tunes. By the late 80's she acquired a Sunhearth dulcimer which she still uses mostly for songs and fingerpicking with four equidistant strings. A number of other dulcimers came to live with her after she left her Leibowitz dulcimer with musical relatives in East Germany. But it was love at first hearing with a red maple instrument made by Bill Van Dusen of Hale, Missouri. That has become her main choice for three-string old-timey tunes.


Growing up with a German uncle who played Erzgebirge folk tunes every night on zither had some interesting effects. These old folk tunes kept company in Heidi's mind with top-40 radio and her mother's classic '20's and '30's piano tunes. Hearing music played every evening for fun was a great alternative to nightly TV -- Heidi still doesn't own one. It was natural that she would be attracted years later to the sound of the dulcimer -- actually an American fretted zither. Finding the dulcimer brought her full circle as she discovered its roots in the German scheitholt. The scheitholt is the original instrument in the German zither family. The long rectangular box-shaped scheitholt was catalogued by Praetorius and is said to have been played by Bach's grandfather. It is considered the forerunner of dulcimer-like instruments developed across Europe as well as our own American dulcimer.

In the last few years Heidi has combined her German heritage with dulcimer heritage, visiting German museums to see old scheitholts and related instruments. (For more information on dulcimer history and scheitholts, see books and articles by Ralph Lee Smith who writes for Dulcimer Players News.)

Heidi's dulcimer music reflects both the East and West Coast influences of Lorraine Lee Hammond, Leo Kretzner, Joni Mitchell, Robert Force and Mark Nelson. She likes to use syncopated rhythms, delicate fingerpicking and uncommon chords to create innovative arrangements. Her eclectic tastes combine many genres of music -- from contemporary songwriting to Moravian hymns, American old-timey to European folk tunes, and early classical to Texas and gypsy swing. Heidi encourages players to follow their own Muse and expand the boundaries of dulcimer music to suit themselves: "Play whatever music you like the best you can, and don't let your fears get in the way!"

I wake up most days
in a changeable mood
one for each fret
and grain of wood
ten fingers, two hands
a world full of tunes
who's to say what is
and isn't good?
offbeat, whimsical
dripping of beauty
some part of me craves
all this food
experimentation
jubilation
one fine dulcimer
attitude

7.7.01
© Heidi Muller

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Heidi has taught and performed at:

Dulcimer Festivals

Kentucky Music Week
Buckeye Dulcimer Festival, OH
Great River Road Dulcimer Festival, IL
Chestnut Ridge Dulcimer Festival, PA
Ohio Valley Gathering, KY
Mountain Dulcimer Music Festival, NY
Pocono Winter Dulcimer Fest, PA
Fort New Salem Dulcimer Weekend, WV
Heritage Dulcimer Camp, MO
Shady Grove Dulcimer Camp, OH
Vermont Dulcimer Daze, VT
Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering, NY
Northeast Dulcimer Symposium, NY
Cambridge Spring Dulcimer Festival, MA
Autumn Dulcimer Daye, MA
French Creek Dulcimer Gathering, PA
Housatonic Dulcimer Celebration, CT
Winter Festival of Acoustic Music, TX
Harvest Festival of Dulcimers, CA
Kindred Gathering, WA-OR
Flower Carol Dulcimer Festival, MA

Workshops

Dusty Strings Dulcimer Co., Seattle, WA
3 Rivers Folklife Society, Kennewick, WA
Palouse Folklore Society, Moscow, ID
Oregon Folklife Festival, Corvallis, OR
Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle, WA
Clayville Music & Storytelling Festival, IL
Tumbleweed Music Festival, Richland, WA
South Florida Folk Festival, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Brazos Friends of Dulcimer, Weatherford, TX
Davy Crockett Dulcimer Society, Crockett, TX
San Diego Dulcimer Heritage, CA
DF#A Dulcimer Club, Winsted, CT
DAA Dulcimer Club, Albany, NY
Pocono Dulcimer Club, Stroudsburg, PA

Miscellaneous credits

Dulcimer Players News, August 2001 cover feature
" Jackalope Jig" recorded by John Blosser
" Cucaran's Cross" tab published in DAA newsletter
" My Old Cat" tab published in DF#A newsletter
" Cassiopeia" recorded by Marsha Webb
" Jesse's Carol" published in Broadside magazine
" Idioglossia" dulcimer soundtrack composed and recorded for Seattle Group Theatre

Dulcimer on Heidi's Recordings

Gypsy Wind(2001) - Lie Easy, Acres of Clams, The Methow Suite (Twisp River Jig, Ray's Good Garlic, Leaving the Methow), Love Has a Life of Its Own, Winter's Turning
Giving Back (1996) - Arrowhead, My Old Cat, Groundhog, Whiskey Before Breakfast/Over the Waterfall, You're the Sun, Lowlands of Holland
Cassiopeia (1992) - Cassiopeia, Ketchikan, All That is Gold
Matters of the Heart (1989) - Jesse's Carol, Whitebark, Where the Coho Flash Silver, Good Road