Hello John P. John T again.

Just found your audio tunes and the Great " Copper Family " set.

Just last night sang " The Innocent Hare " Coppers version harmonizing with a friend.

Singing along with your very nice compilation.

Can't beat a Coppers song/tune!

Thanks again,John T.

Hello again John P. Haven't been here lately.

Glad to be back after hearing you playing two of my favourite tunes/songs, very nicely done.

I've been playing along in DAD with 11/2 fret, no capo.

I guess your tuning is DAA ?

Hope to see/hear some more from you.

Thanks, John T. ( Turner )

John , very nicely done, I find myself playing the slower songs with my finger as opposed to my noter. Just seems to work better for me. Now we need to work on the headless video. LOL

very nice.

Great to see and hear this again, a lesson in relaxation.

Thanks very much all.

I shall see if I can borrow the camera again sometime. I've recorded very little lately, and what with the mini heatwave we have over here and prospects for a very exciting Ashes series I can't see it beeing that immediate

Dave Kirkpatrick(spinster of this parish) has a video of Lovely Joan up, where you can see how the 6+ fret creates an alternative playing position. The tune as I play it is pure Dorian (based on the 4th fret), Dave shows how it can be played from the Aeolian position(1st fret) by using a 6+ fret.

john

Very beautiful tunes, nicely played. Thanks for sharing these John P!

I''ve enjoyed listening to many of your tunes, but its so fun to see you play. Your noting hand is very fluid!

Sorry about the recording difficulties.....it does sometimes take up an awful lot of time!

Enjoyed this very much!

Two great tunes. Love how you played them!

Hi Gayle,

DAG is a good tuning to start playing with a finger, has quite a few pros and not too many cons.

Don't neglect Scottish and Irish tunes either, they're some of the best

john

Lovey playing John P, and great tunes!

It is great to actually see your melody drone style - so fluid and relaxed. I know what you mean about the difficulties of video It takes me way too long to record and process video!!! Whereas if I have just an hour or so in the evening I can normally hone a new tune, record it on my Zoom, edit it and post the sound file. It takes me a least half a day or longer to do that with video

If folks here are interested then John P has quite a repertoire of old English folk tunes posted to the music player on his home page. They are well worth a visit as they are all lovely tunes and not ones you'll hear many dulcimer players undertaking.

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/music/playlist/popup?playlistUrl=http%3A//mountaindulcimer.ning.com/music/playlist/show%3Ffmt%3Dxspf%26id%3D3745489%253APlaylist%253A66374%26mdate%3D2012-07-11T02%253A15%253A51.309Z%26nik%3D35h4q0ls5ys3n&playlistType=user&hideShareLink=1

John;

So smooth and flowing. Makes for very easy listening. Your DAG-ish gives the music a lilting, haunting quality and your ability brings out the best in that lovely old dulcimer. Much enjoyed.

Hey John I really enjoyed that

Very nice John P I agree with Robin. I'm glad John Henry badgered you to post this. You're right about nothing being simple anymore. I've discovered that myself

John, I really enjoyed this. The two tunes go very well together, and your playing was great, in my opinion. I hope to see lots more! :)

First thanks goes to John Henry for badgering you, John P!

I love everything about this and Lovely Joan especially hooked me. It's got this wonderful hypnotic quality to it and your strumming is impeccable.

Thanks everyone, I enjoyed doing it in the end, had a listen with less critical ears this morning, I'll give it another try. Trouble is I never know what to play, any requests ?

The songs are typical English, Dorian tuning DAG(ish). The words are rather good too and easilly found on google.

The dulcimer is a bit of an old mongrel, made by Bob Christian (who I think was probably American) at a Quaker community in N. Devon. Bought in 1975, 28 1/2 inch VSL, typical large bodied hourglass, some sort of African 'mahogany', the soundboard is a nice tight piece of quater sawn spruce though, probably salvaged from a piano.
Not that well made, I've had to plane the fretboard flat and fit a new fingerboard, added a zero fret while I was at it, then the scroll broke, so that's been completely replaced, couple of nasty cracks in the ribs so I've had the lid off a couple of times to mend them ...
It should really come off the road for a good overhaul, there are at least three cracks need attention and the frets have tram lines you could park a bike in. But I keep picking it up it's just so comfortable and forgiving to play.

Let's just get this cocked pinky finger thing cleared up once and for all shall we, this has nothing to do with English gentility, it gets caught in the sound hole if I don't keep it up a bit

A couple of other points that I know are importent to sme folks :
The shirt is black linen.
The best that can be said of the chair is comfy, if somewhat tatty.

john p

Very smooth...thanks for posting this!