Thanks Mark! I appreciate your comments and look forward to hearing that CD once it's out. Dusty - yeah, I'm surprised too. :)

Wow, a tune Mark Gilston does not know? That is a true rarity!

Nice tune Brian, and not one I was familiar with. I've always liked the French country repertoire, and I've been doing a lot of French material on dulcimer lately (it's in my "monthly" video rotation as you may have noticed). I'm planning to put out a French CD in the not too distant future, and I've been gathering tunes to fill it out.

Bob, I'm happy to read you liked the tune so much you decided to learn it yourself. I hope you have lots of fun playing it. :) Thank you for commenting.

Thanks for the tune. I learned it this morning and will add it to my list of daily playing favorites... Bob.

Whoops. Two things - Erin, I apologize for spelling your name incorrectly. folkfan - I somehow missed your comment. Thank you very much for your kind words, and thanks also for that website. It looks like there are many fun tunes to be found here. I will have to spend some time poking around to see what I can find. Thank you all again for your comments.

:) You guys are too funny. I don't mind the "intrusion" at all, and I find it all very amusing and fun to be a part of. And thank you for the comments on my playing and the tune. I am glad you enjoyed the video.

Airin - I like to refer to these dulcimers as fretted dulcimers for two main reasons. The first is that I like to qualify what kind of dulcimer; I also play the hammered dulcimer (a completely different instrument), so if I just say "dulcimer" to my friends, they don't always know what I mean. The second reason is that, of all the qualifiers we could use, I think "fretted" is the most accurate. Not everyone plays a fretted dulcimer on his/her lap, for example, and not everyone is from Applalacia or the mountains. Therefore, I just think "fretted dulcimer" is the most accurate way to describe the instrument and distinguish it from hammered dulcimers.

And now, Judge G., you have heard the case. My respected colleague John Henry has made his defense in this matter. If you choose to believe his noble argument...well... Nice video nonetheless!

Whoa!, hold on there JohnK. I am just a simple man, and may sometimes get things wrong (well, a lot of the time actually), but for you to say my use of the word 'well' is in some way 'making fun' is surely just an assumption on your part! Could mean all sorts of things! ie. "Salinger could use words, but Shakespear, well....................... !"

Brian, I still admire your playing, and in no way would I wish to see remarks from a third party detract from it in any way, sorry for this intrusion !!!

JohnH

Airin, mountain dulcimer, lap dulcimer, fretted dulcimer, Appalachian dulcimer, etc. are among the more tame of the varied names for our beloved instrument. A while back over at Everything Dulcimer I started a working list of the many colorful names given this most humble of instruments; you can see it here .

Thanks for the lovely tune. The title reminded me of my French lesson and I went searching for "Sur Le Pont D'Avignon" and found this site for children's songs. Several of the songs that I learned in class.

http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=eh

MP3's, midis, and sheet music. What more could I ask for except another song or two from you and your inspiration, Dusty.

Thanks for the kind words guys. (And John - glad you liked the shirt!) :) Dusty - I know of the tune only with as I spelled it, and I've seen other performances of it spelled the same way, but perhaps it can be spelled either way. Dusty -I get my tunes from a variety of places, but mostly books, the internet and my reasonably large music collection. But the internet is the greatest resource. There are so many tunes available as abc notation, or midi files...one could spend a lifetime trying to learn them all. :)

Yep...just as I suspected. Here is the quote from John Henry:

Okay...love the playing AND the shirt! Now, the FACT of the matter is that JOHN HENRY himself started the shirt deal while making fun of my Iron Man shirt several months ago (Crawdad Song maybe???) I may have gotten around to starting it later, but I cannot possibly take credit for the deeds of John Henry.

I am surprised my playing inspires anyone to do anything other than put their fingers in their ears !

Very nice playing, as always. Your right hand is remarkably precise and smooth. Your playing seems effortless.

Where do you get your material from? You seem to have an endless supply of pretty and interesting pieces that are not part of the normal dulcimer repertoire. (Are you sure this piece is not simply called Pont Aven? It would be pronounced the same in French and is the name of a town on the the Atlantic coast of Brittany.)

Sounds like a good plan Brian,

John

:) Thanks John. To be honest, I don't really remember how the shirt thing started. For me it's just a joke. I'll blame John K. I get the feeling that things are usually his fault. ;)

For those so inclined, please note the happy flowered Hawaiian-esque shirt. ;)