I seem to recall that for a couple of years before the pandemic hit, there were various in-person dulcimer festivals that folded due to not enough attendees. Knowing the reason for that might give a clue as to how to turn that trend around. What was causing this slow decline of dulcimer festivals before the pandemic?
The tropical plant in my office is unfurling a new leaf. It looks so fresh and full of promise, especially now in front of the window pane with freezing snow and sleet falling on the other side only inches away... I love in the morning when the sun comes through the green leaves. The unfurling leaf reminds me of when a butterfly emerges from its cocoon and opens its wings.
Wonderful news about how you are healing well, Ken L!
I'm glad to have it clarified about the two different giant dulcimers- the Mawhee-ish by Dan Cox, and the Thomas-ish by John Knopf. Yes a boxing match between the giants... how fun! 
Dusty that's great! That huge black dulcimer is a sort of Thomas model, isn't it?
@ken-longfield that's a shame about your vaccine delay. It must be frustrating. On the bright side, the delay is 'only' 12 days, so I'll keep my fingers crossed your new appt goes as planned!
Around our area the snowstorm turned out to be almost all rain (there was ice last night) and was in the mid 30s today. Our 45 min drive was no problem at all, just wet. We were just plain lucky here, when so many are suffering from the current huge winter storm(s).
I got my first covid Moderna shot today - was so excited! 
It was ultra quick and easy. I had filled out the vaccine forms ahead of time at home, no crowds or lines at all -only took 7 minutes total from when i walked into Walgreen's til when i walked out... and i got to wait the 15 minutes observation time afterwards out in our car with my husband instead of sitting inside the drugstore.
My only reaction was my cheeks got noticeably pink and flushed for several hours afterwards 
but i felt just fine and had no fever. Arm site is getting a little sore now hours later but that's really common with vaccines.
Unfortunately my husband does not turn 65 until July, so he still does not qualify in NY state yet. I wish we could get the shots at the same time! But he's always home while I do all the shopping trips, so it's good I get the shots started now. My second shot is in 1 month, same place.
Great answers to a great question!
The calculator will help you avoid putting on strings that would be either too slack or so tight that they might break. It's so useful when you want to try out a new tuning or key for a particular sized dulcimer. (btw, it works well for other stringed instruments as well, not just dulcimers!)
@kusani I'm very sorry to hear about your brother in law passing away from covid. How awful this virus is.
We'll be doing some snow blowing and shoveling here tomorrow too, Bill!
I'm pretty excited- tomorrow I am getting my first covid vaccine! Will be driving to a Walgreens about 45 minutes away, but well worth the trip i think! 
@peter-w I still cannot find a way to get to the tabs you are referring to here in this thread. Can you please give us a link to where/how to find them? I suspect the pdf attachments were lost when this site transitioned to a new platform.
It does my heart good to hear that Dusty. Get her access to Joni's album Ladies of the Canyon as well. Arguably as good as the Blue album. Joni is a national treasure.
It is not uncommon for the Norwegian langeleik to have wooden frets. Langeleiks are considered to be one of several traditional instruments that may be antecedents of the American mountain dulcimer.
Great idea about mailing and then sharing the cup of tea together, Cynthia! Like a little tea club.
There will be some roof raking going on here today as well.
We too 'embrace the hyggelig'. I draped strings of various little lights like a canopy over our little kitchen table where we eat... feels like eating under the stars, but of many colors... sooo cozy we decided we'll be leaving them up for the coming months. We always line up several candles on the table as well when we eat meals.
Jan you're right I forgot about the organizing/purging pandemic fad. I did some of that too and successfully sold off a substantial bunch of stuff on ebay. Didn't purge as many things as I was hoping to, but I did make a nice chunk of change while I was enthused. :)
In terms of cleaning/organizing projects- Last month I went through every bed pillow in the house (16 of them!) and threw out 6 of the oldest ones and bought 2 new ones. Some of those 'heirloom' feather pillows were decades old. (yuk) I also tossed the old inner zipper pillow protectors and bought new ones for every pillow. (got a couple 8-packs of cotton zipper pillow protectors on am*z*n.) Nice to have that fresh pillow feeling!
We also decided to get rid of the 30 yr old high quality LLBean real down comforter on our bed- it just didn't seem to fluff up much anymore and I suspected the feathers inside were slowly breaking down over time. It was time. I took a chance on ordering a down-substitute duvet insert this time instead of real down (which is SO expensive now anyway). Also got new duvet zipper covers for it. It was so lightweight that we had doubts, but the first few nights I was so overheated i kept asking Brian to turn the night thermostat lower. This duvet is way warmer than our ancient real down one, and we wound up reducing the heat at night by 4 degrees... which will save money.
We spend so much time at home waiting out the covid blues. Doing things that give us a sense of positivity, connection, and renewal is helpful. :)
I also find it interesting that in the old video he has a 6.5, an 8.5, and a 13.5 fret... but not the 1.5 fret which is the lower mate to the 8.5. Then in the 2012 photo you can see he's included the 1.5. I too have both the 1.5 and the 6.5 (and their matching octave higher mates) on my dulcimers that i used a lot for oldtime jamming. There are many accidental notes in oldtime tunes, notes that pop up but don't necessarily change the mode or the key, so those extra frets come in handy for that kind of fast oldtime jamming. If playing simple tunes at home I might opt for a purely diatonic dulcimer and retuning more to match modes as I like. In festival jams you have little control of what everyone's doing and you have to be able to get into a key and mode fast or else drop out... so I find the extra frets solve that problem neatly.
Ok, so it looks and sounds as though he's tuned (from bass to melody) Aee. His tonic note A in on the third fret, which means in this case he is definitely playing in ionian mode. His bass string is not very heavy, but still looks heavier than the melody string, which is in keeping with his tuning it to the same A note as most DAd players use for their middle string. So, he likely had a string gauge for his bass string which was similar to the middle string of DAA or DAd players. Then, I'm thinking he had thin gauge (.010) for both his middle and melody strings, the enable him to tune them both up to high e. I imagine he had a dulcimer for playing in the keys of A and G (Aee and Gdd), and another dulcimer for playing in the keys of D and C. That's what i typically do in oldtime jams myself.
I notice he has wooden tuning pegs on this dulcimer but had installed some of those cheap freestanding in-line fine tuners to get perfectly in tune. I tried those out once but found they tend to wobble all over and also ate into the strings, making them break more often. I am guessing he's moved more to geared tuners since this 1994 video, especially for festival jamming. Here's a photo of a dulcimer he used in 2012 for a house concert jam, showing geared tuners.
I'll try to figure the tuning later, but they're playing in the key of A in this session. (Brian tells me the fiddler is Ross Mohn.)
Dave Goldberg on banjo (with his head down most of the time), our good friend Deb Tankard on bass (she lives in Woodstock). Linda Baker on guitar in purple shirt (r.i.p. Linda). I'm not sure who the main fiddler is.
So the pandemic is now going on 1 year, and folks will be hanging close to home/social distancing for a while to come yet.
Let's see... what pandemic fads have we all gone through, while trying to do something that feels comforting or productive?
First there was the baking craze... lots of sourdough and other breads! Me, i was baking apple crumb muffins and choc chip cookies a whole lot. Then i also started making yogurt since we love yogurt at home. Both those things I'm still enjoying doing.
Some people started knitting, or sewing masks. I used to knit a lot but did not take it back up during quarantine. I did however sew a couple dozen masks for us and our grown children. I sewed a new batch of masks a month ago to freshen our home supply.
Some people adopted dogs or other pets bring them cheer. 
There was a lot of fitness walking during the warm months, and also people roller skating, and buying regular or indoor Peloton bikes, elipticals, mini trampolines, doing yoga online. I got a little trampoline, my husband got a trainer to put his bike on- to ride in the livingroom. I sold my two old pairs of roller skates and roller gear on ebay for a good price! :)
People got into gardening with a passion this year. I did my usual vegetable garden, but that's not new for me.
Now people have been diving into collecting houseplants in a big way. I think it's a way of bringing the promise of Spring and new change and growth to alleviate this dark pandemic winter. Plants in the house are a tonic and a comfort! I've always had about a dozen nice cactus and succulents in various windows of our house. Years ago i opted for cactus because I knew our cats would leave them alone. heheh. One of my older cacti died last month after many years.
In the Fall I got a new snake plant for my office, which has been doing well and brings me joy. But today while buying some groceries at our local farm store, I really succumbed to temptation and bought two large new houseplants- a dark burgundy leaved rubber tree plant, and one of those trendy Monstera Deliciosa- those big green jungle-y plants with the splits and holes in their leaves. Luckily I had a couple of locations for them next to windows where they might do well. So nice to have green living things in the house during the dead of winter!
What pandemic fads have you guys tried out this past weird year? Have i forgotten some of the hobbies and trends that have been popular during this endless pandemic?
Ken, so happy to see your post and know you are 'fixed' and back home again for recovery. We missed you and we worried! 
Yaaaaay Ken is back. 
Be sure to pop into fotmd's chat room now and then- you may run into a new friend! 
Betty, your vaccine reaction sounds just like what I went through with my second shingles vaccine last year. I woke up with a high fever and my teeth were chattering for several hours even though I was covered with heavy blankets. It was no fun, but like you I felt better the next day pretty quickly. It's good that we all know what to expect when we do get the covid vaccine- particularly the second shot which is the one that really kicks your immune cells into high gear so that they will be prepared for combat if you're later exposed to the real virus. BTW there is no covid virus in any of these vaccines, so folks needn't worry at all about 'getting covid' from a vaccine. :)
@ocean-daughter I enjoyed reading your post about your story in building your Cripple Creek kit dulcimer. :)
We got a nice gift card to our local pizza place today, from a friend that Brian helped with computer issues. And they deliver! 
What are you all doing to stay healthy at home, or to keep from going stir crazy?
We have a set of stairs in our house that I normally make about 9 or 10 trips a day on, since my office is upstairs. I'm trying to double up lots of those trips now so that Im doing 15 or 20 sets of stairs in a day.
I'm also doing various yoga-like stretches whenever I can, to help counteract all the desk sitting I do.
My husband and i occasionally pull out a board game (bored game? lol) to break up the routine. Our favorites are Qwirkle, Bananagrams, and Pente.
I read that most states have only managed to vaccinate between 1-2% of their population so far, so obviously we have a looong ways to go. Vaccine supplies and outreach are improving every week though.
I managed to get an appt for my first vaccine for April 15, but still, I'll have to drive to Albany almost an hour away- that's my nearest state run vaccine site. It's possible I may be able to get vaccinated earlier in some more local pharmacy or health center... if I get lucky. (I do currently qualify in NY since I'm over 65.)
But so many folks can't drive, or don't have any computer savvy to make appointments online. Here's to vaccines becoming as easily accessible as getting a flu shot by summer!
A word of caution- if you are using ANY kind of liquid (alcohol, oil, GooGone, etc) for this job, be very careful to not get it near the frets. If such products seep into the fret slots it can compromise the wood-to-fret grip by swelling the raw wood in the slot, and the fret may rise a bit or become loose with playing.
For any product you use to remove stickers, use a Qtip or just the tip of a rag and do not pour/drip any substance on the fretboard. Keep the substance away from the frets and don't use so much that it seeps over to the frets.
Oh my goodness Kusani, that must be so hard on your family. My condolences to you all.
I'm sure it was a comfort to the family to know of those of you who were watching the service- and to read your messages. These are such sad and difficult times.
There are various great ways to promote your event or music items on FOTMD!
I admit to having my doubts about that conclusion, John. Are you saying one could tune a low wound D bass string up to the d note an octave higher without it breaking? Not going to try that one myself. 
Good experiment to try with a wound string you want to change out anyway though.
Ok, now let's see what string gauges you might need on a 26" vsl dulcimer , for a 1-5-5 tuning for playing in the keys of A and G . (btw a 26" scale is very versatile length for various tunings, but we're sticking with 1-5-5 here)
TrailDad, we know you want a 1-5-5 tuning for the key of A, which would be Aee. On the piano chart I linked to in the last post, you'll see that those two high E notes are one step higher than the standard melody string (d) of the most common dulcimer tuning, DAd. On the piano chart, that high d is the very next key higher than middle C4, and it's shown as the 4th octave on the piano chart, D4. So, for your AEE tuning (or Aee if you want to be perfectly correct), those two strings would be tuned to E4. You always go LOWER for the bass string, so the A note lower than E4 is A3. Thus, your 1-5-5 tuning for key of A will be A3-E4-E4.
Let's see what the Strothers calculator suggests for those notes on a 26" scale.
It suggests a .014 string for the Bass/A string, and a .009 string for the two high e strings.
However, you also know that you'll be wanting to retune all those strings DOWN ONE STEP to play in the key of G, 1-5-5, which is Gdd (G3-D4-D4). For GDD on a 26" dulcimer, the calculator recommends strings of .015, .010 and .010.
I would recommend the more robust set of .015, .010, and .010 for retuning between AEE and GDD in this situation. I've used .009 for high melody strings and have not liked them- I find them so thin they are both unpleasant to play on and they kink and break too easily. Using .010 gives a good feel and the strings will last longer. As to the .015 bass string for the tonic notes A or G, yes that seems pretty thin and indeed it may be a plain unwound steel string, but remember you are tuning to A3 not A2. You are tuning your bass string to the A3 note that is the SAME note as the middle string in the standard DAd tuning. So yes, it's going to need to be thinner than the average bass string.
Now if you wanted to experiment and use the A2 in the octave BELOW the usual D3 bass string in DAd, then you'd need quite a heavy bass string to avoid floppiness on a 26" dulcimer. The calculator calls for a .027 wound string for that A2 note (which they label as A'). That would make it so your two e strings were a 12th up from the tonic A rather than the usual 5th up. Could sound cool, but a bit less traditional. You might also need to widen your slots for a .027 wound string.
Incidentally here's where a "false nut" capo would enable you to put a more normal gauge bass string and work around this. Avoiding odd gauge strings is why people use various tunings and also capos.
So, on a 26" dulcimer vsl, using tunings of 1-5-5 only:
Key of A: A3-E4-E4
Key of G: G3-D4-D4
Both tunings could be achieved by using strings: .015, .010, and .010
I'd like to backtrack a bit and try a different approach. TrailDad, I do understand your question. You want to use two different sized just-tempered dulcimers to tune to the four common keys while sticking to only 1-5-5 tuning. I suspect the reason you want to stay with 1-5-5 is because that's the one tuning that your just-tempered instruments will sound 'sweet' in. Switch them to a 1-5-8 tuning for example will sound a bit sour, unless it's an equal tempered instrument. But rather than suggesting you explore a different temperament or vsl or different tuning or gauges, let's try to respond to your exact question and see where we get. :)
Ok, so let's start with assuming you are going to use the standard string setup of having a lower tonic-tuned bass string (that's what 1-5-5 indicates, after all). For ease of understanding, let's also start with the most often used 1-5-5 tuning: DAA, for the key of D .
Let's look at a visual chart of the numbered octaves on the piano, which will help us all stay on the same page:
There, we see that the heavy wound bass string tuned to D would be D3 on the chart.. the D below middle C. The A of the two other strings that are tuned just a 5th above that low D is A3 (still below middle C). So the typical 1-5-5 tuning for key of D is D3-A3-A3 on the piano.
========================
What gauge strings to use for that D3-A3-A3 tuning on a 30" vsl dulcimer? The Strothers calculator tends very slightly towards light gauge recommendations, so if the note you want is between two, choose the heavier option. (Don't just automatically choose a heavier string than the Calculator says.) The Strothers calculator for that DAA tuning on a 30" scale suggests .018 for the bass string and .012 for the other two strings. Now, .018 normally seems pretty light for a wound bass string, but then 30" is a pretty long vsl, so let's continue for a moment...
Now, let's assume you will use the SAME dulcimer to play in C which is only one step down on all strings and is easy to retune to... from DAA to CGG. Looking at the piano chart, you know you will be going DOWN just one step on all strings from D3-A3-A3 to --> C3-G3-G3, and you don't want the strings to feel too floppy. That C3-G3-G3/key of C tuning on the Strothers suggests: a .020 for the bass/C string, and .013 for the other two G strings. Keeping in mind that the Calculator may run a little too light with its suggestions, in this instance between the key of D and the key of C suggestions, we'd choose the slightly heavier option- the key of C suggestions for gauges, to ensure no slack strings. They'd certainly not be so heavy as to break when tuning up one step from CGG to to DAA.
So, for the 30" dulcimer, we'd choose the bass string to be a .020 wound string, and the other two strings to be .013 plain (unwound). That should enable you to tune 1-5-5 on a 30"vsl dulcimer for the keys of both D and C .
I'll examine the same issue but for a slightly shorter dulcimer instead, for the keys of G and A, in my next post but I have some work to do on a job right now and will try to get to it within a few hours. Hope that helps a little?
Trapezoid shaped dulcimers dulcimers have been made for decades, though they're not as commonly produced as curve sided dulcimers. If I had to guess, Mick's used homemade dulcimer looks to be maybe from the 1970s or 80s. Yes Robin Clark made a few box dulcimers, but only within the past several years.
One of the defining features of a mountain dulcimer is that it has a raised fret board that runs down the middle of the body. Epinettes, scheitholts, langeliks, langspils, and hummels (all of which are considered to be more or less ancestors of the American mtn dulcimer) all have frets and/or raised fret boards that run along one side/edge of the instrument, the side nearest the player.
I agree with Ken L that this is technically an Appalachian dulcimer. This trapezoidal shape has been used on other mtn dulcimers, btw.
Since we are talking also about avoiding breaking strings...
One other point I'd like to make is that although I might be able to use just one dulcimer to retune into four different keys, especially if it's a middling scale length and using correct string gauge to do that... even though I 'could' tune to all four keys with the same strings without breaking them, the mere strain of tuning up and down frequently between tunings for the keys of G and D (a whole three and a half steps between G and D) can be enough to very much shorten the normal life of a string.
I remember walking around oldtime music festivals with one dulcimer, joining in on one jam session after another, and retuning back and forth between the keys of G, A, C, and D every hour or two depending on what folks were playing. A whole day and evening of doing this often was too much for my strings and one or even two of them would snap at some point. Not because I was tuning the string too high (because i had no problems while at home where I changed tunings much less often), but because I was going back and forth 3.5 steps too many times and creating metal fatigue.
People who play dulcimer in jam sessions with players of other instruments need to be able to change key fairly often. So this is another reason for a noter player to use two dulcimers in jamming situations.. at least it was for me. Chord players who use capos or fingering notes on various strings can avoid some of these issues- they are able to utilize more ways to play in different keys without so much retuning.
Again, for active festival or gathering jamming scenes where I want to play only dulcimer, i use one dulcimer for the keys of G and A, and the other dulcimer for the keys of C and D. Other folks have cool ways of avoiding snapping strings by using 'reverse' tunings or capos and under-string capos (sometimes called false nuts).
Robin's mentioned EAA tuning is an example of such a reverse tuning for playing in the key of A, in mixolydian mode. It's a 5-1-1 tuning, and can be great for playing in mixolydian mode rather than ionian. Her tuning neatly avoids breaking strings because she can simply tune DAA and put a false nut capo under the bass string at fret 1 and then play in A. (her middle string then becomes the tonic drone, and the bass string capoed becomes the "5th", and the melody string is tuned to the tonic note).
There are lots of cool ways to be able to play in various keys- using string gauges, capos and false nuts, reverse tunings, tuning to a different mode, using extra frets, or using more than one instrument and/or different VSL lengths. Understanding all of these different methods is a process that usually involves years of playing and endless 'lightbulb moments'. 
I'm certainly still in that process myself. (may we never stop learning!)
Believe me it's an awful sinking feeling when you are having great fun playing at a campsite jam at 1am and suddenly a string snaps and you have to trudge off somewhere far away to find a place with enough light to be able to change a string because the night is still young! Not easy to change a string at night by flashlight, not having three hands. ;) BTW other times I sometimes opted to bring one dulcimer for the keys of C and D jamming, and a banjo for the keys of A and G. The banjo is always heavier to haul around at a festival, though. 
I see where the confusion is coming from. TrailDad, you've been quoting from this 2009 blog post I wrote in my noter drone blog:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/03/tunings-i-mostly-use.html
If everyone reads the entire blog post I wrote, and also the various comments between TrailDad and myself at the end of that blog post, it will be clear that some of this confusion (again) is coming from the fact that I typically use all .010 gauge strings on my oldtime session dulcimers, and thus the AEE and the GDD tunings I am describing there are all in the high octave (like with my Galax dulcimer)- with no heavy bass string and no middle gauge middle string. If one reads my entire noter blog post linked above (plus the Comments at the end of it from a month ago, where TrailDad asks these very questions and I answered them), most of the confusion in this thread could be avoided.
Personally, I would not recommend a 30" scale dulcimer in order to use these tunings, even with all .010 strings. It could well work just fine, but it's pretty long IMHO and the strings might be real tight. A different approach might be called for at 30". In my blog post I describe my 28.5" and my 26.5" dulcimers I use for these tunings. The tunings TrailDad has laid out in his previous post are the tunings from my blog post but they are tunings I use with all .010 strings tuned in the higher octave , on the two VSLs I've given. (btw if i had a 30" dulcimer I would probably just lower whatever tuning i was using by one whole step to the next lower key, if I was just playing alone at home).
In my blog I've written extensively about having ditched my bass string for oldtime fiddle session playing and gone with all high octave light gauge strings, but when my specifics are taken out of their blog context, people naturally assume the tunings I wrote about are to be used with the usual heavy wound bass string and a medium thick middle string most dulcimers use. Then they start using the string gauge calculator based on that assumption... and up come various dilemmas concerning the tunings and the vsl and and the gauges. This is a good example of why it's problematic to quote 'articles' (i.e. blog posts) out of context without identifying where the information is coming from. It's also one of the problems with blogs- because they are a continuous string of related posts, and in many blogs each post builds upon what has come before it.
If one goes back to read my blog post from 2009 , there are no tuning challenges such as those we are trying to solve here. The confusion comes simply by trying to apply my "all high octave gauge strings" tunings to dulcimers with typical low/middle/high gauge string setups. It's like trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. Hence the subsequent talk of baritone dulcimers (tuned a whole octave down from what I described in my blog) by folks trying to be helpful, to solve this 'tuning dilemma'.
My advice is that if one is going to use the typical string setup of a heavy wound bass string, a middle gauge middle string, and a thin gauge melody string(s)... and i think it's a great standard system... then don't try to apply the same tunings i suggested for using with all .010 strings- it won't work well. Probably better to use tunings and/or gauges that are more normally used for the keys of A and G. It's better to figure out WHY you want or need to play in particular key or tuning rather than assuming you need to play in it. My advice: pick a few tunes, figure out what key you want to play them in, then figure out the tuning method you want to use to tune for those tunes. Trying to understand and anticipate all situations before one encounters them is a difficult and frustrating path.
All this said, several good players have now mentioned that having only two dulcimers in slightly different vsl length can enable you to playing in the four most common keys pretty easily without lots of retuning (and without constantly changing strings). Others can do it with just one dulcimer, especially if they use either a 'reverse' tuning, OR a capo or under-string "false nut" capo to raise the bass string without breaking it, like Robin Thompson does- watch her videos for tips on that- and she's a very creative and expressive player. :) Hope this helps.
p.s. TrailDad thank you for pointing out that typo in my blog post- I went back and corrected it- you were right about that!
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