Ken Longfield

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. 

Thanks, Ken - glad to be here.

We are just strictly speculating on our ancestors and dulcimers, but hope to find direct evidence and will share if/when we do. Our family tree has recently grown to over 30,000 as we work on it pretty religiously, but we don't just "fill in the boxes", we love to learn about who they were, what they did, and how they lived. It's a really fascinating way to learn about our shared history as a country and a people and we love it. 

We often come across more detailed information in that regard through newspaper clippings, old family letters and even in photographs. Censuses are helpful, too, giving occupational information. Our mother's granduncle was a composer, publishing works from about 1911-1935 or so, Ragtime and Jazz, playing piano, and his family was pretty musical.

At any rate, the moment I saw the dulcimer that I picked up at the estate sale I could well imagine our old-time relatives enjoying them back in the day. I might even have to learn how to play it!

Thank you, Ken. Are you in the Tulsa area? I noticed the reference to the Woody Guthrie gig. 

Hi! Thank you. Just poking around to start.

Thank you Ken! I have been taking it slow, but I am learning.  I know I can't expect much in the beginning, but with patience and persistence, I should eventually get there!

Thank you, Ken,

Thank you, Lisa. I needed a photo for the Hindman dulcimer homecoming since I did a presentation on the restoration of my 1931 James Edward Thomas dulcimer. My wife snapped a few photos and I liked this one. I'm holding that Thomas dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

@ken-longfield , I like your new profile picture!

@Old-Dawg , I went in and downsized these particular photos for you that are on Ken's profile Comment Wall.
I'm sure you will soon figure out what program on your device (laptop, phone?) can downsize images easily for you. Every device i've ever known has an image editing ability in one app or another that will save as a smaller file. Sometimes I find out just by googling it, like "how to downsize images on a Galaxy phone" (or on an iPad, etc etc) 

Sorry about the photos. They came through enlarged for some reason. I'll work on that.

Thanks for the warm welcome, Ken. I am hoping to get some feedback on my dulcimer: value, comments from those that may have one by the same builder, etc. Being new to the site I am not sure if this is where I should be posting a description and photos, but I will give it a try.

Many years ago I contacted John Stoddard about building me a dulcimer. He told me he was no longer building but he would be willing to sell me one of his personal instruments. I bought it. It came in a "well traveled; soft case. The dulcimer was in excellent condition with minor wear. If I remember correctly, he called it his concert model. It has a beautiful, full round sound with excellent sustain. It is 38" long. The bouts are 8 1/4" and 6 3/4". It has gold Gotoh tuners. Attached are some photos I took this morning. Thanks in advance for any responses.