Ken Longfield

Thank you for welcoming me to the site, Ken. I've played guitar and clawhammer banjo for years, so the beginner-friendly aspects of mountain dulcimer have come easily; I'm here to make sure I learn the fundamentals correctly, progress to the intermediate skill level, and learn more of the culture.

Thanks again!

Ryan

Hi Ken, 

I appreciate the welcome. 

As a beginner I am going to use the D A dd tuning. 

Good eye!  Yes it's a Keith Young.  My father has the history of the collection and we're doing knowledge transfer now.  I can ask him tomorrow.

My parents were in an old time string band from the 80s through 2010. Started a band in Bowie, MD and became the Twin Hill String Band in WI. 

I'm really looking forward to getting her teaching materials out to the public but it's a long process.  Will totally be worth the effort!!

Hi, Ken!  Thank you for the welcome.

My mother was a dulcimer teacher and collected Keith Young instruments.  She had a couple of Bill Berg's as well. I'm in the process of digitizing her lesson books and getting back into playing.  My niece is interested as well.  😊

My goal is to play this one with my niece.

Hi Ken,

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! I love that you have one of my great uncles dulcimers! That is so wonderful to hear.
It’s true… I have so many memories of Sunhearth, especially the Fourth of July festival. Since my birthday is close to the Fourth of July, when I was young, very young,I always assumed that the festival, the fireworks, everything was for me!
But first a quick quiz… Does anyone know the myth of how the first Fourth of July Sunhearth Folk festival began?

Also, please let me know the best forum for me to place these memories. I would hate to clog up the wrong space on the site!

Lara

Thanks for the welcome, Ken.

Fred

Ken,

Yeah, I'm not going for even close to hi-gloss.  Besides just hanging on the wall for a long time now [Elaine passed away yr-n-a-half ago], I think the modest amount of polymerized tung oil I put on it in '88 soaked into the porous red elm in particular, so it was downright 'dull'.  Just want to further fill the pores in the wood and make it look like it has 'some' finish to it.

Gary

Thanks Ken :) Having a look around – pleased to be here.

Todd, it depends on which model it is. If it is one of his student dulcimers, I think that is rather high since they originally sold for $125. For one of his regular instruments that would be a good price.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi Ken, I had to be away for some time. I appreciated your help here. I noted a David Lynch 4 stringer on Ebay today for around 250.00 . Is that a decent price ?

 Many warm thanks, Todd

Thank you for the lovely welcome.  I am intinated by learning the dulcimer and proper terminology.  Tuning DAA & DAD is challenging on the old used dulcimer.

Thank you for the welcome! I'm happy to be here

Thank you for the kind and warm welcome!  

I have a dulcimer with .5, 1.5, and 6.5 frets, and I'm looking to find some direction on how to get the songs I love onto my dulcimer!

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the welcome to the forum and for the tip on the TTAD zoom group.  I joined up with that forum as well and may join into the zoom group at some point but have been pretty busy during the week.  I may follow along with the song recommendations each week though as some loose guidance on songs to work on.  

~John

Thank you very much!

Thank you, Ken!  I didn't expect an answer to my query, especially not as quickly as yours.  When I joined this group, I thought I was actually joining Jessica Comeau's webpage, where there was no sign of her arrangement of Lark.  I didn't know the existence of this page, and was surprised that I had unexpectedly joined it.  (And it took awhile to figure out how to respond to your comment).

I'm grateful for the tab, and have printed it off.  It appears that it even includes two parts!

Where did you obtain it?  Is there a free tab site somewhere?  This flute player I know wants to play together and likes Celtic music, and I'm at a loss as to how to make this happen, as I don't know that genre at all.  

Thank you .

Thanks Ken, It has been a fun journey and I learned so much. The strum stick is a good place to begin as it is an easier build than the next one. It's interesting, the strum stick doesn't have the mellow tone as my Cedar Creek. Stands to reason, the sound box is so much smaller. I used David Ash's book "Fret Position Reference guide", This book took a lot of stress out of getting the frets correct. My digital caliper made it possible. This is why I became interested in this group. Not just sharing my ideas, but gathering ideas from others that have enjoyed the experience of a home build. 

Thanks, Ken. check out my post on Ben's comment. I think I will enjoy this group. I don't know anyone around here that plays the dulcimer. I'm new at it and try to practice everyday, 

I am also a fossil hunter and a fossil guide for Creation Studies Institute in Deerfield , fl. I love o travel and meet new people. My wife (of 60 years) is a homebody so I travel with my brother. We enjoy playing together, his guitar and my dulcimer.

Thank you Ken. I've gotten busy of late and have not been paying much attention to the fact that I joined the group. When I've taken some pictures and narrowed down some dates I will get back on about posting it for sale. The local string shop here in Santa Fe, NM says they will take it on consignment, but they want 35% to do that which seems a bit high to me.