Thanks, Brian and Marc. It's nice to get encouragement from such fine musicians as you guys.

Dusty - nice job on a great tune! :)

Thanks, Val. And thank you, Karen. You tell old lies, but you tell them well.

I do use my thumb, but not all the time and not regularly. As a general rule, my thumb plays the melody string, my index plays the middle string, and my middle finger plays the bass string. But if the speed of the song allows for it, I prefer to brush the strings with my index finger rather than pick them with my thumb. And sometimes I even use my thumb on the bass string. I'm still figuring this stuff out, so I don't think I follow any hard and fast rules.

You sound like a "real musician" to me. I don't know this tune, but liked it a lot, and the slides sounded cool. I noticed that you aren't a big thumb user on the right hand, me either. Yeah!!! Good job!

Thanks, Carrie. I love the big bassy sound of this dulcimer, especialy for fingerpicking.

Thank you, Judy.

Mandy, Dana, and Daniel, Thanks so much for your encouragement. And Dana, if I could sing this song as well asyou I'dbe content strumming chords and singing and wouldn't be learning how to fingerpick to begin with.

Dusty that was beautiful I play this song but I love the way you finger pick it.

Real nice job!

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.

RN & Wayne, the Blue Lion is clearly more comfortable being played ina fingerpicking style. I wish I had a better way to record it to really capture the round but powerful bass response.

Barbara and John, I used to play guitar and mandolin, and both of those instruments can encourage an obsession with speed. I made a vow whenI began playing the dulcimer that I would consciously work at playing slowly and allowing the beauty of the instrument to shine through. Now I just try to find a simple arrangement of something and stay out of the way.

Patty, I'm sure you could play something like this in your own way. I have not been fingerpicking for that long and only in the last few months have I been able to fingerpick a variation on a tune out of my own imagination. I am still new enough at this so that I think of a melody, slowly find the notes on the dulcimer, and then have to work at a way to finger it so that I can still hit the occasional bass note or chord. Maybe someday I'll be able to play on the fly like the "real" musicians, but I'm not there yet.

Thanks again, everyone. It's nice to have friends to share music with.

This is pretty. I wish I could play like that. Thanks for posting.

Very nice! I love the way that it ambles along...you styled it wonderfully.

Dusty, That was beautiful. That Blue Lion is a fingerpicker's delight judging from the sound on this video. You played it very well, too. Maybe you even gave me some ideas for various in my own playing of it.

Rob