Forum Activity for @strumelia

Good luck with your hospital stuff, Andreas. 

Our backyard blueberry bushes are in season now, so all self control is turned OFF.  My husband and I are plowing through an entire home made blueberry cobbler every day or two now, because fresh blueberries are way better than frozen.  Cobblers (and pies) are the only thing that enables us to eat up our blueberries as fast as I'm picking them. Each cobbler uses 3 or 4 cups of fresh berries. Yesterday I made two cobblers.  Picking about a quart of blueberries a day right now, and that will continue for a couple more weeks, then taper off.  And then there's our raspberry bushes...

Exercise-   During the Summer, half of the contra dances I usually go to are usually off for July and August due to the heat.  I don't want to just sit around eating ice cream and getting fat all Summer, so this week I forced myself to attend a Zumba class for the very first time.  I went to a "Zumba Gold" class which I guess is for more senior types, though some people there were under 60- zumba Gold is a little less intense and less complex steps than 'regular' zumba.  Yikes I felt like a total klutz, not knowing  any of the dance moves and I stumbled my way through the 50 minutes.  Good thing it was less complex!

Oh well, as the teacher said it's not a performance and doesn't matter as long as you're moving and having fun.  I don't know about the 'fun' part- it was Godawful HOT and sweaty and I felt soooo lame.  But because of my contra dancing at least i did not get out of breath...yay!   I did get a decent workout -the next day felt a little sore in places i didn't know I had...lol that's always a good test to see if a new exercise is 'doing anything'. 

Though it's not nearly as much fun for me as contra dancing and I'm not a big fan of the zumba music (hahah, I wore earplugs ), i did find it way less boring than going to a gym, which i did years ago and couldn't bear.  So, I bought a 6 class card and will at least go to 5 more classes.  My pedometer said it used about 5,000 steps for the class (though many were probably more like little hops than 'steps').  I need to do something active once or twice twice a week when there are periods of time without contra dances.

I remember 10 years ago when I first started contra dancing.  For the first few months, I'd have to sit out every other dance, it was such an intense workout. I thought I might have a heart attack otherwise!  Nowadays I have no problem dancing every single dance even for like 5 hours at a festival type dance event... yet I'm ten years older. 

Ya gotta keep drinking lots of water though.  Dehydration can really sneak up on you when you're dancing, especially if you get hot.   I also like to put some electrolytes powder in my BIG cold thermos of water. 

There are so many nice things about contra dancing.  Since you typically dance with a different person there for every dance, you don't need to come to the dance with a partner.  Since every dance is taught beforehand, you don't need to memorize any dances, ever.  You just learn various short moves (do-si-do, circle left, swing, lines forward and back, allemande,) and once you know about 8 or 10 moves you see that the dances are simply combining the moves in various sequences that are so cool.  Then you can forget the dance you just learned and try a new one, using the same moves.  And the caller helps with verbal prompts through the whole first half of each dance until people can remember what comes next.   :)

Yeah I'm not sure why it's taking so long.

@magictime, welcome 'back' !   Music skills can be a little like riding a bicycle, in that when you restart playing music after a long hiatus, you're not really starting from Square One all over again... you do retain some of the skills, maybe even as 'weird reptilian brain memories'.   

@phroedrick, of course! 

@fiddle, you can always feel free to start a violin thread in our "Adventures with Other Instruments forum, here:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/adventures-with-other-instruments

Welcome Cornfield, I hope you'll enjoy the site and your new dulcimer!

The site is supposed to go visible/public again in another week or two, as Dusty said.

Rick Long makes the most elegant psaltery bows!  I still have two beautiful walnut bows he made for me years ago when I had a redwood psaltery of his.

Bobby, you might want to reduce your rate of increase a little- adding 1 mile per week, or 1.5 mi per week gives your body a chance to build the muscles and gain the aerobic strength it needs for the increases.    :) 

It's a beauty, have fun playing it!  :D

But Sandi, think instead of where you'd be now if had not started so many times!

SaltSprings, thanks for my laugh of the day. I can relate. 

I just looked up that Moog album on google out of curiosity, and discovered that it is indeed 50 (really 51) years ago when it came out, here's a post from last year's 50th anniversary:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2018/10/06/the-50th-anniversary-of-switched-on-bach/

Makes me wish I could celebrate it with my mother. 

Hey thanks so much for bringing us up to date on this Greg!

I remember my mother (a huge classical music fan) about 50 years ago getting all excited telling the teenage me about some fellow inventing and playing the Moog Synthesizer.  She bought a vinyl record called "Switched On Bach" that was played on the Moog.  She thought it was all so 'happening', but I was rolling my eyes, being more into The Doors, the Airplane, Tull (Jethro, not Glazner, lolol) and Hendrix at the time.  I bet you can relate.

Just bumping this OLD thread in case there are new members who love contra dancing like I do.

I'm excited because in two weeks there'll be a DOUBLE contra dance at my favorite venue I regularly dance at in Lenox MA.  They'll have a 2 hour dance, then a 1 hour potluck, followed by another 3 hour dance.  Woo-HOOO! 
I'll have to change shoes halfway through, because using the same shoes (even if they're normally comfortable) for more than 4 straight hours of dancing has never been a good idea for me.

I can't wait! Meanwhile, there's a normal 3 hour dance this weekend in a lovely barn 40 minutes from me, and I'll be going to that one. That barn series is usually only during the warm months.

It'll be interesting to wear my new step counting wrist fitness tracker for this upcoming double dance. 

Make sure you wear shoes that have semi-hard soles, so that all the pedal pressure does not concentrate just on the ball of your foot... that creates hotspots that might really hurt you if you have gout.  A hard sole will help distribute the pressure more evenly over the entire bottom of the foot. 

Andreas, I hope your derriere is not in terrible pain today.  Mine would be if I did what you did on a new bike.

About 10 yrs ago I did my longest bike ride ever... 70 miles round trip, and pretty hilly here in rural New York.  Thought I would die but I didn't.  That was when I was in top biking form though.  I think I'd have trouble with a ten mile ride today.

My husband and I have good bikes... he has 3 and I have two.  They are all steel bikes designed for touring.  I do way more dancing than biking these past few years though.  At least I;m moving around briskly for several hours once a week. 

@eaglenest61 ,  I love your story about your whole family now learning to play dulcimer together.. all due to you!

I hope you will enjoy this site and find support and inspiration when you see others learning as well in their home music journeys. 

@riksgewijs ...I'm impressed that you have made a Trossinger lyre replica.  Did you use Michael King's plans? Or did you just design it on your own?  The kolrosing is so complex and beautiful, would love to see a picture.

Those fresh peas sound really good Dusty.  I've tried growing peas several times in my garden... to no avail.  Sometimes you just have to figure out what grows well for you..and grow lots of it.  I do that especially with tomatoes, which I seem to always have great luck with.

I picked some French radishes from the garden this morning, got about 8 nice big ones.  Brian likes the radishes so much, but I also like to eat the tops, which are super nutritious!
The leaves are a bit prickly so not great for salads...better to cook a bit. After washing and cutting off the thicker stems, I like to make a cup of chicken bouillion (made with 1 cube) and simmer the greens in it for about 1.5 minutes.  This makes them soft like spinach, eliminates the prickles and easier to chew and digest.  My evil secret is to also add a half pat of butter.

I just had that for breakfast.. mmmm....it's something I can only have on rare occasions when I have radishes in the garden.  As soon as the weather warms, radishes won't grow well anymore for me- they seem to only like chilly Spring growing.
I do this same thing whenever I find young stinging nettle in the Spring.  These spring greens things are like a Spring tonic!

I don't eat super healthy all the time, but I do enjoy these rare fresh garden treats.

Here's a pic I took a few years ago of my garden radish greens in broth:

@salt-springs, what an inspiring and upbeat post.  Good thoughts in there to live by no matter what your situation. 

I haven't lost any more weight lately, but at least I've been dancing more often (my main exercise) so I feel ok for the most part.

Today I got inspired and bought one of those popular fitness trackers you wear on the wrist, on Amazon.  It's not a Fitbit brand which is beyond my budget, but a $35 one that does most of those things and is well rated by customer reviews. It's supposed to work ok with my Android v.5 phone... we'll see, I hope it works well enough to be useful.
I don't have any big goals in mind for using it, but I know it'll be fun to try out because I used to love playing around with my old style pedometers. In any case it will definitely make me more aware of how much i move (or don't move) each day.  Hopefully it will shame me out of my desk chair a little more often on days i don't go to a dance..which are most days. 

Andreas I wish you luck in this major weight loss goal you have.  We all want you to be around and happily playing music for many years to come! 

Hi Fatcat, we're happy you found us too!! 

I hope your health improves to allow you to enjoy playing your music at home. 

Hi again Andreas, and welcome 'back' to the site again!  It's good to see you check in here.  I hope your health improves and that you continue to enjoy playing music on whatever instruments inspire you. 

I do need to mention that the email address you have set in your account settings here does not function and you need to go into your account settings and change it to a different, working email address, and then hit the 'save' button.  As it stands now with that nonworking email, you will not be receiving any emails or notifications from fotmd that would normally let you know about any private messages, comments on your profile page, friend requests, likes, or replies to your posts.  It'd be great if you can change to a working email address in your fotmd account- thanks!

I'm happy to hear you wound up getting something you like!  We look forward to getting a peek at what you are up to when you can.  Don't worry about not being an expert player- almost no one is anyway, we mostly play for enjoyment.   :)

With both dulcimers and banjos, I don't necessarily see it as all about the number of frets or non-frets, but more a matter of the style the instrument is played in, which is usually closely connected to the repertoire (but doesn't always have to be).

I have diatonic epinettes, mtn dulcimers with one or a few extra frets, a chromatic langspil, and both (chromatic) fretted banjos and fretless banjos.  They're ALL great for doing various things- playing in various playing styles, playing repertoire from different time periods or different music cultures and genres.  Each one has its own wonderful charms.  If you have diverse taste in music, it's great to have a selection of instruments/tools to get the effect you're after!

That can sometimes be attributed to a string that is not tight enough for the note it's being tuned to. With a slightly too slack string, your finger pushes the string right down to the wood much more easily, bending/pulling it to sound a bit sharp.  Also a slightly slack string will much more likely hit the frets when it's vibrating.  Again, for both these issues, I suggest you put on a wound bass string that is not so thin as your current .022.    Try a .024 wound.

I suggest you try a new bass string, and try one that is just one size thicker-  like a wound .23 or .24 instead of your .22 . That will increase the tension a bit so it won't buzz against any frets while vibrating. 
Also, the windings on an old string may have flattened out a bit at the nut or bridge area, slowly lowering the string by just enough to start creating buzzes.... a new string would solve that as well.  

Wound bass strings tend to be the first string to age and start sounding 'dead' anyway- so it's a good thing to replace the wound thick string on your instrument if it's getting old.

Well I know most folks here live in garden zones that ahead of me here in new york. 

But yesterday I was able to pick enough lettuce leaves for us to have a nice salad for dinner.  I also put on a generous handful of fresh alfalfa sprouts that I grow in jars in our kitchen all winter. Then added grated carrot and zucchini, sliced radishes, and a few little sardines on the side (yeah I know some of you would hate that, but hey it's healthy and we like it!)  We think of canned whole sardines as our own cheap version of English kippers or Norwegian or Danish herring side dishes.   

Anyway, it was a good fresh salad!

So true Sandi!   I try to make it a habit whenever I get up from my desk to do a standing stretch on each side- holding onto the chair arm with one hand while twisting at the waist and reaching the other hand up real high. So simple and quick to do that on both sides, it feels real good and I think it helps counteract the damage of sitting for long periods.
You're right that incorporating a little 'mini-action' whenever you have a moment, or in between doing routine things... it all adds up.

Love the rosy blonde color of that dulcimer, Jack!

Welcome to the site. 

Ah, the scene where they part after their wedding night! 

Juliet hates that the cursed lark is singing- because it means the break of dawn and Romeo must leave before he is discovered with her...

Sharon that's a great question. I guess it's hard to know for sure unless you have little kids or grandkids around to ask!

It's reassuring to read Dusty's reply, that many of the same songs are still taught today in school. 

If that's so, then you might find some good ideas in this old forum thread:

music-discussions/what-songs-were-you-taught-in-kindergarten-grade-school

Thanks Patty.  

I met Ruth over 20 yrs ago, she let me come and look at her Keith Young dulcimers before I ordered one from Keith.  She was very gracious.

Sad to know she's passed on.

The shorter you go, if you want to stay tuned to DAd you'll have to put on heavier strings so it won't start feeling floppy.  Personally, if I wanted to have relatively 'normal' gauge strings for DAd tuning, I wouldn't go shorter than around a 23" scale.

One way to break up any boredom is to take just one or two tunes you want to work on or want to 'refresh'- then play the tune much slower than usual, while trying to keep it sounding good.  Then play it just a little faster than usual, keeping it sounding ok.  Lastly, play it as your usual speed, but try to purposely put a lot of feeling into your playing.  I think this is a good thing to try out when playing/practicing at home, and will benefit all your tunes.  Particularly helpful is putting in the conscious effort to play with emotion and feeling... something a lot of people ignore even when playing for others.

Hey @kjb , you should talk with fotmd member @terry-wilson .... he is a big fan of playing harmonica for fun!  He plays all kinds of music on his harps, I think just about every day. 

Hi Bill!

There's a great discussion thread here on penny whistles, you might like to post there instead:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/adventures-with-other-instruments/3827/tinwhistle-penny-whistles