Thank you for your rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.  I enjoyed it.

Thank YOU for listening Dusty. I also enjoy those extra little bits of info which help the learning process, tuning, string gauge etc.

John

http://fotmd.com/data/media/0/0/Ning_Media/videos/0/106_videos.jpg

Hi Glyda, I hope that I have managed to give you a link one of my photos showing the infilled fret. If I have'nt, it should be easy to find, ?

John

John, I recently received a custom dulcimer that has a fret at 8 1/2 and I REALLY don't like that there isn't enough space between the 8-9 frets so would consider having it removed,if yours looks acceptable. That being said, I really hate to ask my luthier to do more than he's already done for me, but again, I did not ask for the 8 1/2 fret. He just added it thinking that a lot of players (like Bing Futch) use it and obviously I am NOT nearly advanced enough to do so. I would really be interested in a close up of your re-engineered fretboard.

really nice - played it twice! thanks john. is that a raised sound board i see? getting Robin to makeone eachfor my two dulcimers this christmas hols cos your always moaning i dont play loud enough........proper french polish and all he says. will post a photo when they are done.

marion

Chuckle ! thanks Ronnie, I play alone at home most of the time, and guess I manage to carry over 'bad habits' when I post tunes here !

JohnH

Hello Glenda, thank you for listening. Yes indeed, after removing the fret it's original saw cut was 'exposed', I could have left it as such, but filled it with a piece of matching veneer, not perfect, but acceptable by me at least ,lol. Will try for a pic ?

John

Sounds good. When you removed that fret, didn't it leave an indented line? Did you fill it with something? I'd like to see a picture of your remodeled fretboard.

Now Val, that's not an excuse to open that Christmas bottle of Tullamore Dew ! thanks

John

Thank you Steph! And Bob, I agree with you entirely, thanks for listening

John

Nice work. I always play this song when I tune to a minor. I don't think of it as a Christmas song just a great sounding melody to play anytime of the year... Bob.

Well...thanks then! It was awesome.

JohnK, it was just for you !

JohnH

Carrie, good to hear from you, if you and I (and anybody else so minded) can do just a little toward a less commercial Christmas and just share a bit more, it can only be for the good?

JohnH

joaquin, and Brian, thank you for watching, and please post your version/s as you intended, I for one would love to hear them. That is what this site is about, sharing!, and thus, learning and improving?

John

Wayne!!! You may have noticed that I rarely involve myself in discussions about the 'rights and wrongs' concerning our instrument, and do not intend to now, I'll leave that to those who have more knowledge than I.

To answer your question tho' in a very simplistic manner, dulcimers may be tuned to a 'natural scale' whose intervals seem pleasing and harmonious to the human ear (older instruments are often found as thus, and some singers will sing to a natural scale when not influenced by instruments), but this is not what pianos and other fixed pitch instruments are tuned to,they use an 'equal temperament scale, more or less standard since the time of Bach (and the music for his 'well tempered clavier') Mean tone scale could be said to fall between natural and equal temperaments, and offers, at least in my opinion, a 'sweet' sounding dulcimer, which is good for singing with.

It might be argued that that such an instrument will be out of tune with some fixed pitch instruments, again, in my opinion, not enough to make a difference. I am sure that someone else will offer a better explaination, lol ! Thank you for your comment, (I do believe the Christmas 'happenings' did take place in the 'mid-east?)

John

My absolute FAVORITE Christmas tune! You did a remarkable job with this and the lighting of the video is SO appropriate for the tune. I can't even tease you with this one...it's just too beautiful!