A Mel Bay Publications, Inc. Webzine
December 2007 · Bimonthly
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In this issue: Hammered Dulcimer: Winter's Run and Troika | Mountain Dulcimer: The Cherry Tree Carol | Mountain & Hammered Dulcimer: Il Est Né, le Divin Enfant | Mountain Dulcimer: Breakin' up Christmas
Print this Article (PDF) Email Article to a Friend  Fred Cockerham and Galax, VA player Raymond Melton, 1974 Breakin' up Christmas - an Old-Time Tradition!Article & mountain dulcimer arrangement by Lois Hornbostel This traditional North Carolina string band tune commemorates a musical custom in the Round Peak area along the North Carolina/Virginia border. Round Peak is located in northern Surry County, NC. Some of the legendary musicians from that area were Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. In the two weeks after Christmas, neighbors would visit each others' homes for festive house parties with lots music, dancing and food. This tradition was called "Breaking up Christmas." The melody is very simple and is one of the most rhythmically-fun old-time tunes. Try changing strumming patterns or add a few notes here and there. There are a lot of different words sung to the first part. Like the words to a lot of fiddle tunes, they are usually sung in no particular order and can vary from singer to singer. Hooray Jake, hooray John This tune is played in the Key of A. A Note about Mountain Dulcimer Tunings: My favorite tuning for "Breakin' up Christmas" is EAA mountain dulcimer tuning - because it puts me in the Key of A, the fingerings are similar to what you would play on a fiddle, and the bass-ier EAA tuning seems to bring out the rhythm better. You can play the following tablature in the common DAD tuning (Key of D) simply by playing on the middle string the notes shown for the bass string below. Notes shown on the middle string are played on the bass string. This is a good opportunity to study the relationship between DAD (which is sometimes called ‘Mixolydian' tuning) and EAA (sometimes called ‘reverse Mixolydian tuning'). If you want to play this with most other musicians you'll have to be in the Key of A. A common way to play in the Key of A I've written about in my books is to capo at the 4th fret in DAD. That's easy and quick, but I really love the sound of it in EAA tuning. Listen to Lois Hornbostel play "Breakin' up Christmas" 
About the Author Lois Hornbostel, editor of www.DulcimerSessions.com, plays mountain dulcimer, clawhammer banjo and fiddle. She has been fortunate to meet and learn from some of the old-time music masters at fiddle conventions in the area from which this tune came. Lois has won the Galax, VA fiddle convention dulcimer competition and more recently that at Mt. Airy, NC Ralph Epperson fiddle Convention in Sept. ‘07. Her Dulcimer Fiddle Tune Book (93713D) is available for download at: http://downloads.melbay.com/search.asp?q=hornbostel Lois can be reached through her website, http://www.LoisHornbostel.com [ top ]
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