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Location: Clinton, TN
Country: US
Country: US
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Thanks Mike
Aura Lee in DAA tuning is a little bit low for my voice. When my friend and I are playing and singing it at one of our play-outs, I sing the harmony and he has a beautiful low voice for the melody.
Dave
Thanks WS
Thanks EleThis might be close to the second song I learned on the dulcimer after 'Cabbage. My motivation at that time was probably closer to the Elvis connection, but over the years I've become more attached to the Aura Lee lyrics.Dave
Thanks JayI play this dulcimer more with a noter in DAA and it seems that is where it sounds the best so far.Dave
Thanks SuzanneI started building this dulcimer last autumn but had many distractions with being able to concentrate on finishing it. It has been a great accomplishment for me to see it finished and it is great fun to play.Dave
Thanks RobinThe microphone on my camera is okay but I have a good Shure microphone on my cassette recorder, so I put my sound on tape and then bring it over to attach to the video. Gee, there are three extra tracks, so temptation sets in and I overdub some additional tracks. It's a lot of fun and it's almost like having a group of musicians.Dave
Wonderful, Dave! (Both your song and the instrument.)I didn't read the comments below before watching the video so was scratching my head over how you got the harmony part when noting and tuned to DAA. Your comments cleared that up!:-)I look forward to more videos!
JohnThe metal on my dulcimer is symbolic of the metal found on the box dulcimers in Tennessee. I originally was going to land the strings farther down on the ends of the dulcimer (not on the fret board), then I reviewed the pictures on the web and changed plans. I angle-cut the ends of the fret board and shaped brass to fit over just the angle-cut area. The bridge is bone and the nut is Delrin. I wanted to keep the nut and bridge over a hollow part of the body and not over a solid block of wood. The metal-work on the dulcimer that inspired my dulcimer extended through the bridge and over to the stum hollow (which was flat and not scooped). The bridge position was near the end of the instrument and the metal was fabricated to make the bridge supposedly from a Snuff can (maybe all one piece). I think the metal on the old dulcimer was intended to provide strength in the area where the screws (tuners) were located along with create the bridge. I decided creating a metal bridge like that would be beyond what I might want to try. If the bone bridge on my instrument is too high, I can easily make it shorter. I didn't see a method for height adjustment on the old dulcimer, but a metal bridge made of brass might be something I try if I build another box dulcimer.I used the fret spacing from my McSpadden dulcimer, which has a VSL of 28.5 inches and a 0 fret. I like the 0-fret idea since I hope it makes the strings sound the same whether the string is fretted or played open from the 0-fret. The 0-fret also puts the playing position of the strings under the hollow part of the body. The fret board is hollow throughout and also hollow under the bridge, the 0-fret, and the nut. I have played dulcimers that have solid fret boards where the bridge and nut were over solid wood (head piece and tail piece) and they sounded very different from dulcimers with hollow fret boards.Right now I'm using .012 strings for melody and middle strings and .022 for the base string. I finished the instrument with Teak Oil, which I prefer now over laquer or other paint. The oil brings out more of the natural wood and hopefully doesn't deaden the sound as much as paint. I'm still looking for the voice of this instrument and have settled on DAA for now. I might try DAD someday but I think I'm leaning toward DAA or CGG and probably mostly noter-style playing. On my other dulcimers I'm using .012 for melody strings, .016 for middle, and .022 for base and I may go to .016 for middle if I get into lots of songs that need a melody note on the middle string.Listed below are the links to David's Youtube video playing a box dulcimer, a site that has more pictures and documentation on the same instrument, and the Appalachian Museum which if you search for dulcimers on the site you'll find some pictures of box dulcimers.ThanksDave http://home.usit.net/~sandyc/mb.html http://www.museumofappalachia.org/
LisaI'm still learning the controls on this sight and you can let me know if replying to comments on videos is done by adding a comment or if another method exists for replies.Actually, it would have been very clever if I had slid over to the middle string to find a harmony but I didn't. I recorded the song on a 4-track cassette recorder and added a second dulcimer playing melody and a third dulcimer to play harmony.Yes, I built this dulcimer myself. I have built 5 dulcimers from kits over time and this is my first instrument I built from scratch (no kit). If you search the internet for David Schnaufer and Tennessee Box dulcimers, you'll find a web site where he contributed pictures and stories for box dulcimers he found in Tennessee. He can also be found playing a box dulcimer on YouTube. My box dulcimer was inspired by David's information along with information from the Appalachian Museum in Norris, Tennessee.I searched and searched for the first song I wanted to play for this instrument on a video. I love all of the old tunes from the 1800's and wanted to play something true to the old style. I have played Aura Lee for years and I imagine it may have been a song that was played on a box dulcimer somewhere in Tennessee.ThanksDave
Hello Dave, just watched your vid. and really enjoyed it,having just made a box dulc myself, tho' I am envious , you appear to have managed to get a more authentic instrument than I. Did I see metal for the bridge and nut? Having never seen one in the flesh ,as it were, I stayed with convention and used timber. What VSL did you settle for, and what string gauges did you use? For my box I've got a 26 1/2 VSL, with 12, 14,and 22 wound. Not sure it will stay as that, it sounds OK, (but I tend to play slow stuff, so don't know how it measures up against a good fiddle!) Unfortunatly I am not sufficently 'up to speed' with modern technology to be able to show/play yet, might get there one day! Do us another tune some time,Regards, John H
Hello Dave, just watched your vid. and really enjoyed it,having just made a box dulc myself, tho' I am envious , you appear to have managed to get a more authentic instrument than I. Did I see metal for the bridge and nut? Having never seen one in the flesh ,as it were, I stayed with convention and used timber. What VSL did you settle for, and what string gauges did you use? For my box I've got a 26 1/2 VSL, with 12, 14,and 22 wound. Not sure it will stay as that, it sounds OK, (but I tend to play slow stuff, so don't know how it measure up against a good fiddle!) Unfortunatly I am not sufficently 'up to speed' modern
Dave, that is just lovely! I adore those old simple songs the most.Clever use of the noter over the middle string as well to create harmony during just part of the song for variation. Sweet picking.Did you make that nice box dulcimer?