Forum Activity for @strumelia

http://www.dulcimers.co.uk/index.html

https://revelsmusic.co.uk/

I second the recommendation for Robin Clark at Bird Rock dulcimers in UK.  He is also a dealer of McSpadden dulcimers, which are certainly long scale enough for bigger hands. with a VSL scale length of 28-29" inches.  The McSpadden fretboard is also plenty wide enough for chord playing. 

Sounds like you play chord style?  If so, best to avoid dulcimers that are specifically designed for noter drone style playing, as someone with big hands playing in chord style might find the fretboard too slender for comfort.

Anne, it's heartwarming to hear of a perfect fit between homeless animal and a kindly person.
Sounds like you and Bran are very happy together and appreciate each other totally.

The newer photo of Bran shows how sleek and glossy he is... like a minky otter!  SO handsome. 

I've often wondered what it would be like to have a black cat... never actually had one of my own but who knows one day?  Right now I have a deep red tabby and a solid grey... two boys... and I never thought I'd have boy cats OR a red tabby OR a solid grey cat.  Just goes to show!  All our cats come from animal humane shelters adoptions.  Once you go there it breaks your heart and you wish you could help them all.

You could also try contacting Butch and asking him if you could buy only his tab for Blackbird from him directly at some cost he determines. No harm in asking!

It's not so much about the material the instrument is made from. Two things here: 

1) Under high heat, GLUE is going to fail under the string tension in high heat. No matter what material you use for the parts, if any glue is used the dulcimer parts will come apart as though you had stuck it in the oven.  Maybe you could investigate glue that does not fail under high heat.

2) The sudden and drastic temperature change might implode/explode a wooden instrument if you: Bring it from a freezing cold car into a heated house....OR... Bring it from a very hot car into an air conditioned house.  Remember a dulcimer is a long narrow box that's under high string tension.

That's a copyrighted tune, so if you find Tab for it, it likely won't be free. Just saying.  :)

This dulcimer would be impossible to bow, no matter how you held it.  Even if you (ridiculously) tried to bow all 4 strings of each side at the same time (each set of 4 strings is laid out FLAT on its fret board half), if you look at the closeup, you'll see that because of the slanted fret board, an angled bow trying to bow it would be bashing into the lower body bout.  It's completely impossible to bow.

So- it's also not a courting dulcimer meant for two people- firstly, the fretboards are not in opposite directions. Secondly, even if the other player was a lefty, see how it would place the bass string nearer the lefthanded player's body and the two melody strings at far side of the player.  The odds of anyone playing this way and ALSO being lefthanded are almost non-existent.

This is simply a dulcimer someone made so that they could jump back and forth when they wanted to between a chromatic and a diatonic fretboard.  They could also have it tuned to two different keys if they liked playing in jams without having to retune or bring two instruments.  Maybe one fretboard was intended for playing old traditional ballads and the other intended for modern music/blues etc.  That would all also explain the electric pickup.
The two different slants for the fret boards enable one to angle the pick so you can play on one fret board while avoiding the other one.

I adjusted the thread title for you Richard, in case anyone else does a search here for the builder.  :)  Glad you could find some info on him, to help that lady.  

Thanks Dusty for the GREAT explanations and screenshots!

Here's a bit more of a dry 'technical description' on the two ways to add pictures to your post when you are on a computer, tablet, or laptop:

There are TWO ways to add an image to your discussion post. In both cases, the image must first reside on your computer or device and you'll be pointing to it. You can't insert an image that is just sitting on the internet somewhere.

1) Attach the image or file to your post: When typing your post, use the "Attach Files" button underneath the text editor box where you are typing your post. Browse to the image on your computer that you want to attach to your post. This will insert a small thumbnail of the picture into your post.
Note: When you see the thumbnail and text link for an attached image, it's when folks have used that "Attach file" button easily seen at bottom of text editor window. Click right on the thumbnail pic itself to open it right there to SEE it full size.  OR... Clicking on the text link will simply DOWNLOAD it to your computer.

or

2) Embed the image into your post.  That will create a larger picture right within your discussion post.
To do that, when you are typing your post you click on the little icon button that looks like an arrow inside a square ("embed local media")- that icon button is to the left of the Smiley button in the text editor window. Once in that window, select the SIZE you want the image to be in the left side dropdown menu...XL or XXL usually works well. Then you click the "Select an image to upload and insert" button to the right. When you click that 'Select' button, it'll take you to where you can browse to the image on your computer that you want to embed in the post. An embedded picture will not need to be clicked on to see it, it'll already be showing in the post, at the size you've selected.

NOTE for if you are posting from a cell phone:
You will get additional options when composing a post. You'll get the initial editor view that has an "attach file" button, but you'll also see a grey box with a little 'book' icon for writing your post. Click that book and you'll be in a text editor window where you can compose your post and it has options such as bold or italic text, adding a link, and also embedding an image right into a post so it shows within the post rather than simply attaching it. Once you are done composing, you click the Back arrow and you'll get back to the grey box where you can then see your composed text, attach a file if you want, and click to publish your post.

Yep, I was going to say Albert Hoffman as well, without seeing the other replies.

Charles, I think this is between 1925-1935 judging from the collars and clothes and the photo itself.

There was no bluegrass yet, but maybe they were doing some country/hillbilly/fiddle style stringband stuff of the time- it was popular on 78 rpm records. Also Jimmy Rodgers was big- 'blue yodeler'/country railroad blues.

What a nice job you did in cleaning and stringing that, Judith!  Looks like it'd be a perfect baritone dulcimer (30"vsl!)

A handsome dulcimer!

I find it interesting that no year date was put on the label.  How did you know it was made in 1980?

My hummel is fretted similarly:

The purpose is to do normal diatonic playing, while still allowing to be able to reach over and fret an accidental note on the next string over at any time.

Brian and I generally get pushed off the edges and have to sleep on the cold hard floor. 

At our house, Wintertime means... cats creating 'impact craters' on our feather bed. Or trying to turn over in the middle of the night but your legs pinned down by a ten ton cat.

Here's what I found the other morning when the sun was shining into our bedroom.
Our two big boys nestled in like Siamese twin pork roasts.  Rufus (the red) and Teddy (the grey), who grew up together and are like close brothers even though they're not actually related. When these two are not sleeping or eating, they're tearing around the house while hollering or happily doing body slam wrestling with each other. Boys! 

Awe, what a lucky dog Hazel is!  The hat is too much!  

Yes Callie is so pretty - her colors, and she looks like a sweetheart personality.  

Irene, that's delightful!

I love that description of the Grim Reaper 'film' Bob.  

I recommended that Lisa might want to look at Feather dulcimers, which come in various smaller scale lengths and are sturdy enough to take camping etc.  Again, all this is good info that can be found in our Fotmd's Little Dulcimers Group.

Lisa, you wrote me privately for advice on this, so I gave you my personal opinions on it already.  However, I'd encourage anyone interested in shorter dulcimers to join our  Little Dulcimers Group  and read some of the threads on it... lots of good info and recommendations, also @dusty-turtle posted a great list there comparing sizes and makes of short scale dulcimers!

-remember folks you need to JOIN a group in order to read all the replies to threads in the group, and see the comments.

We can continue discussing these current thread questions here in this thread (post on!), but I'd like to suggest that if anyone has additional NEW questions, that they create a new discussion in our Beginner Group with their new question in the title... if it's not directly related to the questions we're already discussing in this thread.  I try to encourage folks to create a new thread if they have a question with entirely new subject matter.  That way other folks can find the helpful info in the future if they do a site search for those terms.  Thanks and carry on!  

@ken-hulme , if you want to "gently discourage" someone, I suggest you  try maybe using a slightly smaller sledgehammer.   

@pondoro asks: "Saw the info for the gathering in Berea, it seems DAd is not allowed? Should I learn DAa instead? How often do you all retune? Between songs in a set?"   Pondoro, I think it's not so much that DAd is 'not allowed' at Berea.  It's more that by being in DAA for noter style you'll be starting out in synch with almost all the other players there, you'll be able to follow the same TABS if tabs are used at all, and most importantly that DAA (1-5-5) tuning in noter style will give you more of the typical needed notes on your melody string to play the majority of simple traditional tunes likely to be played at that gathering.  It'll make things way easier for you to pick up playing the tunes along with the other folks there. And since you will not be chording at Berea anyway, in switching from DAd to DAA you won't need to learn a new bunch of 'chord fingerings' anyhow.  It'll be pretty easy, especially if you learn two or three super 'easy-peazy' noter style tunes in DAA before going there... like Go Tell Aunt Rhody. Try tuning to DAA and playing the TAB for Rhody HERE .  Here's another very simple beginner DAA tab for a real fun traditional song to play and sing: " Single Girl, Married Girl ". 
Working through those two tabs alone in DAA will really get you your sea legs for Berea, Pondoro.  
And HERE is a very simple explanation as to why DAA tuning may be actually easier than DAd when playing in noter style.

Lastly, don't worry nobody's going to want to retune after every other song at Berea.  That'd be too much work and nobody's getting any younger...hahahah! Seriously though- most likely they'll play a whole bunch of tunes in DAA before making a switch to perhaps DAC to play a bunch of lonesome sounding tunes for a while. Everyone there will help and encourage you, and it'll be easier and more fun than you might think!

DAd tuning Bonus :  Here's a traditional song with TAB and fun lyrics that is in mixolydian mode (so it uses the 6 fret and not the 6.5 fret), so if you want you can play it noter style in DAd tuning with the 'home' note on the open string. Here I tabbed it in a reverse tuning in the key of G, but my TAB numbers will work just exactly the same  and you'll have all the notes you need right on the melody string if played in DAd tuning: Oh My Little Darlin' . 

Hope this helps!

Looking at dowel selections at HomeDepot, Lowe's, and my local True Value hardware stores, I see of dowels made variously from oak, maple, and poplar. All those are considered hardwoods. Lots of folks don't want softwood dowels for their fine wood projects. Sometimes there are pine dowels offered too, but those are softwood and not what you'd want for a noter.  If you're not sure you can ask the sales person to make sure the dowel is from hardwood, but most decent sized hardware stores do carry some hardwood dowels. In a pinch, people sometimes even use popsicle sticks, which are made from birch (another hardwood, but it's cut thin so may not last very long).  

Hi @dtortorich ,

Since this is a discussion called "Introduce Yourself", most members don't think to read it in order to answer questions.  If you have specific questions about music and/or dulcimers, you'll greatly improve your chances of getting helpful answers if you create a new discussion in the General forum that has a title related to your question , such as maybe "Good medleys of Christmas Carols?", "Pickling Pickled Peppers song?", etc.  When members see a new discussion like that, they'll often go read it and respond in that discussion if they know answers.
When you click the top link to "Forums", you can then click on the General dulcimer/music forum.... once there, click the "+" Plus button to create a NEW discussion with your question and your own thread title. 

Thanks and welcome to FOTMD!  

Thanks for my laugh of the day, Robin!  

Irene....all i can say is wow. Wonderful and amazing little peek into your music playing life.    And.. 14? You go, girl.

Does anyone know if Randy W is still around?  Even if his book is now out of print, perhaps if he knew folks were looking for them, he'd be willing to zerox a handful of copies for people, for a reasonable price of course.

Aw, that's terrible news. A great loss for so many music loving folks. My heart goes out to Mike's family.

McSpadden would be a great and reliable choice in your price range.  It's very well regarded, sounds wonderful, and you can resell it easily later on if you want.

Mark, i'm encouraging you to join our site's Beginner Group (click on Groups link at top of page)- and read several discussions there about advice on buying a first dulcimer- lots of good info there!    Be aware to in order to read the actual discussions ib Groups, you have to JOIN that group.  You can unjoin the group eaisily at any time, btw.

Beware of that big site that has paid to come up on top when you do searches for 'best dulcimer'. I saw that site and it's really just a big paid links ad disguised as a helpful dulcimer site. it's content simply consists of stuff they've pulled from other sites, too... they have not created their own content.

Pondoro, the way to describe your various notes in the different octaves would be:

D3 (bass string), A3 (middle string), d4/d4 for the double course of melody strings.  DAdd

Joy to the World is a good example showing the difference between DAA and DAd tuning.

The song 'sits' in a different place on the fret board with each of those two tunings.

In DAA (where the home/tonic note is on the 3rd fret) you would start those first 4 notes (Joy to the world) on these frets: 10, 9, 8, 7.  The next 4 notes will be on frets :  6, 5, 4, 3.  (the 10th fret is the highest note in the whole song)  You will be able to play the entire song on the melody string alone, with accompanying open drone strings. You will be using the 6 fret but not the 6.5 fret.

In DAd tuning (the home tonic note is on the open melody string) you would start those first 4 notes (Joy to the world) on these frets: 7, 6.5, 5, 4.  The next 4 notes will be on frets :  3, 2, 1, 0.  (the 7th fret is the highest note in the whole song)  You ALSO will be able to play the entire song on the melody string alone, with accompanying open drone strings. BUT if you want to make chords, you can fret all strings.  You will be using the 6.5 fret but not the 6 fret. 

You can play by fretting the melody only on the melody string (or the double melody course) and leaving the other strings to sound open as DRONES.... OR you can fret all strings with your finger and make CHORDS that way, and maybe use flatpicking. That's called chord/melody style and it's the more modern style of playing.  If playing on only the melody string, many folks find DAA tuning more useful.  If chording, many folks find DAd more useful.  However, either tuning can be used for both styles of playing.  

A good way to start out (after you reverse those strings! haha) is to just pick a very simple tune to play, and get your tuning right and try to play it... either on the melody string with open drones, or by making simple chords by fretting all strings. Dont' try to understand everything at first-  it's too much to process mentally. Best way is to try a simple tune, maybe Jingle Bells, or I Saw Three Ships, or Good King Wencislas (did I spell that right?).  Remember what Ken said- if you're in DAA tuning, the key note/home note will be on your third fret.  If in DAd tuning, the home/key note will be on your Open melody string. (sometimes referred to as the "zero fret").

Pondoro, 99.99 % of all mtn dulcimers do not have their fattest 'bass' string in the middle position. I advise you to switch your fat bass string to the position of being farthest away from you when holding the dulcimer in your lap, with the tuning peghead on your left.  Then, you can tune it (from bass to melody) D3, A3, d4.  OR you could tune it D3, A3, A3. (the D3 being the lowest/bass string).

If you don't switch those strings, you are going to have a very confusing time of it and you will not be able to follow any Tabs written for DAd or DAA.  It's going to cause you a whole lot of headaches. Either intentionally or unintentionally, that dulcimer was strung in an 'experimental' manner that will prove to be incredibly frustrating. 

Think of it as though someone reversed two strings randomly on a guitar... imagine what a terrible time some guitar student would have trying to learn to make chords and play guitar when all teaching material and all other players had their strings normally laid out.  I strongly advise you to swap your middle and bass string so the bass/fattest string is the one furthest from your body when playing, and the medium thick string should be in the middle position.

Your dulcimer is not a tenor banjo, and my advise is to stop thinking in terms of your tenor banjo tuning. I mean, plenty of folks have experimentally tried tuning their dulcimers like guitars, or like banjos... but the problem with that is that they can't then use any of the wealth of dulcimer teaching material available, and they will have a hard time relating to anything dulcimer players are talking about with tunings, fingerings, chords, tab, etc. It all goes out the window because it can't apply to your dulcimer.

When you imitate the tuning of a different instrument, the immediate benefit of feeling you are already 'familiar' with how to play is pretty quickly outweighed by being 'stuck' in that tuning and string positioning that nobody else uses, and as a beginner dulcimer player you won't be able to get much help from others or from learning materials. 

A couple of things: 

The usual way of writing/describing the tuning on a mtn dulcimer is to name the bass string first, melody string(s) last. Thus, DAd means the bass string is in the lower octave (thus it is capitalized)... the middle string is the A above that D.... and the melody string is the d an octave higher than the bass string (thus it's usually in lower case letter d).  In DAA tuning, the bass string is low D, the middle string is the A above that note, and the melody string is the exact same A note as the middle string.

There are some links with actual tuning aids here:  https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-notes-do-i-tune-my-strings-to.html

As to your tenor banjo- do you mean your banjo lowest string when you say 4th string? If so, you may be tuning the dulcimer en entire octave too low. check the above tuning aids in the links.

When you say 'near to far'- do you mean your Bass string is tuned to a low A and middle string to the even LOWER D3 ? if so, then that tuning is not right.  If you are going for DAA, the bass string will be low D.  If you want DAd (or DAdd), the bass string is low D and the melody string(s) will be the d an octave higher.  Most folks talk in terms of bass, middle, and melody strings, rather than near to far. And tunings are usually described in the sequence of from Bass to melody. That way we can all be on the same page and avoid broken strings!  ;)

Are you holding your dulcimer flat on your lap?  Just asking, since not everyone does.

Pondoro, that is terrific!  Sounds like you and your dulcimer are going to have a grand adventure for sure.

Old time folk tunes and carols are a wonderful choice to start out playing- the dulcimer can play all kinds of music including classical, blues, jazz, etc... but its an old folk instrument that was originally mostly used in playing American folk/fiddle/dance music, ballads, and hymns, which includes many carols. Mountain dulcimers are like ducks in water when it comes to that particular playing repertoire.

You'll get lots of good advice here on FOTMD.  I'm a little biased myself, but I'll go ahead and recommend that you start with DAA tuning and playing the melody only on the melody strings (or the double melody course).  You can try out playing in the real old traditional style using a noter stick, or your finger. Once you get your bearings you can also try out chord playing and/or fingerpicking styles, and other cool tunings like chord-friendly DAd and lonesome-sounding DAC.  There are different styles of playing and each one has its own special charm and sound. 
For beginner melody-only style playing with open drone strings, may I suggest you explore my noter-drone BLOG for traditional ducimer playing style- it has many beginner tabs and videos to help with strumming patterns and other general playing tips for beginners:   https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/    Be sure to start reading from the oldest posts first, the ones from 2009.

If you find a local dulcimer club or jam to play with, you might find that they play in chord style in DAd tuning, and usually play only from TAB together.  If you like what you observe there, you can join them in learning that way of playing, but you should know that you can also play along with them in DAA or with a noter... or in fingerpicking style. The point is, as long as you are all playing in the same key, there are ways that different playing styles can play together harmoniously. Never lose sight of having FUN and never get discouraged!  The mountain dulcimer is an amazing and forgiving friend- it truly allows you to find great joy in playing music- no matter how simple or how complex your playing level or your chosen approach is, and no matter what your musical background and taste is.  

P.S. I think you needn't worry about anything beyond that 10th fret for a good while yet. You may very well encounter tunes you want to use second octave frets for, but... some folks never play up there, ever!  lolol  In other words, you don't 'have to know' how to play above the 10th fret... you could literally spend a lifetime exploring wonderful tunes that never go above it. If and when you're ready to play up there, you'll know it and it won't be a big deal.

I've always found slipping wooden pegs to be nicely cured with a minor treatment of Peg Drops liquid. You can't lose anything by trying it out before opting to completely change to geared pegs.

Wood pegs tend to slip more in the Winter dry indoor weather. The Peg Drops liquid is made with rosin and provides a nice even very thin film of 'grip'- makes tuning/moving them smoother, and pegs then will hold.  You need to unwind the string and remove each peg in turn, put 2 or 3 (no more than that!) drops and evenly turn the peg in place to spread where the peg touches against the wood. Then restring the string, tune up with a little less tension than usual, and let the drops 'cure' overnight before tuning up to normal.

People get nervous and distracted when recording themselves, and might speed up or slow down without realizing it. A metronome program can help during recording, especially if you can set it to light blinks only... so you don't wind up recording the sound of the metronome as well!  

Stephen can you elaborate on this? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'alternate strumming' and 'exceptions'... sounds intriguing!

Myself, I tend to keep my strumming motions going even when not hitting the strings.. and I don't usually like it much when players slowly speed up tunes ...maybe I'm old fashioned or something, but it feels vaguely 'disturbing' to me somehow. 

Welcome StringHopper and TwoGunBob!

(..I'm a secret HP Lovecraft fan myself)