Forum Activity for @strumelia

Aw, I'm glad you got the snake out unharmed, @salt-springs !

Zaulden, I not only moved the thumbrest all over the place to try different methods, but I even wrapped a rubber band around the thumbrest and my finger to try to get a good hold.  I have small hands and short fingers, and the G pipe was about my limit because of the holes being further apart.  

I wound up having way more fun on my pennywhistles, so I guess one day I'll sell my G tabor pipe.

Zaulden, I played the tabor pipe and tabor drum together, but I never really got past the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" stage.  It was hard to coordinate the left and right hands... but way harder just hold the G tabor pipe so it wouldn't drop on the floor and break!

Hi Zaulden, and welcome to FOTMD!

The only tabor pipe I've ever gotten was a polymer Susato in low G as well, like the one you have.  I had listened to a lot of Youtube videos of pipe and tabor, and it struck me that the normal high D ones did indeed sound very shrill to my ears, like fifes.  I also noticed they were played outdoors most of the time to accompany outdoor celebrations or dances.  Fifes are usually played outdoors for marching.  Maybe that's a sign!  lol   Anyway, i much preferred the sound of the lower tabor pipe.  I have not played mine in a long time though- I switched to penny whistle and have enjoyed sticking with that instead... for me it was so much easier to hold and finger.

Perhaps a Bb or C tabor pipe would be easier on your ears than going all the way to the more common high D ?

Very informative post Ariane, and I love the photo!

Hey I have the same Bb Dixon!  

Terry, I love it!   A year ago I brought my tabor drum to a children's parade celebration in our village.  The kids had big paper mache carnival heads they made and wore, and various noise makers and tambourines etc.  The tabor drum fit right in!!  

Well I'm still at it.  I can't seem to get very good ...doubtless due to my very limited available practice time.    But I do love to play at it!  It's very relaxing for some reason- I think because of the pure simplicity of the instrument.

However, I must say there is nothing easier than to just grab a penny whistle from my can of them on the desk, and quickly play a simple tune whenever the mood strikes to play a tune without having to fuss or tune anything .  I don't even have to clear a space on the desk!  lol

If the tune is really simple, I can usually figure out how to play it by ear.  Hearing whether the tune is major (cheerful) or minor (mournful) helps in locating where the tonic/key note can be located on the whistle.  That's much like the mtn dulcimer, and knowing where the four common modes would lie on the diatonic fretboard... 'cheerful' (ionian, mixolydian) or 'mournful' (aeolian or dorian). 
The holes on the whistle even echo the fretboard in that way- for example to play ionian you base the key note on fret three on dulcimer...and on whistle you'd base the ionian key note with the bottom three holes uncovered.  If playing dulcimer in Aeolian, the key note is when fretting fret 1... on whistle the aeolian key note would be when the 1 hole at the bottom is left open.  That was so cool when I came to that realization!  It kind of opened up my head to be able to access a lot of simple traditional folk tunes.  

Lately there's been some renewed discussion of Just temperament on this site, so I thought I'd point to this very helpful thread.  Be sure to check out @robin-clark 's great video below!

I vividly remember being taught 2 very different songs in kindergarten by two different teachers.  One was Rock 'a My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham, and the other was singing Silent Night in German (we actually did it and I can still remember almost all the lines, almost 60 years later!)  I loved those teachers and i loved singing out boisterously the songs they taught us.  Yet another teacher taught us to do simple traditional folk dances from various countries.  It was all such a wonderful rich experience!

I've always found The Well Below the Valley to be about as dark and creepy as they come.

I can't really remember the first song I ever  played on the dulcimer, but I can remember the first song I heard anyone play/sing live on the dulcimer (about 22 years ago now)... it was a guy playing a dulcimer and singing Hang me O Hang Me (I been All Around this World) . It totally blew me away (the dulcimer instrument, not the song) and at that moment I simply HAD to get myself a dulcimer and learn to play it. I was completely in love with the mountain dulcimer from the first moment I saw and heard it played in person.     Ironically, I don't think I ever felt compelled to play that particular song, even though it sounded great when that fellow did it.

Very true Dusty! I went in to edit @linda-jo-brockinton 's post a little so the the capitalized letters each began a new line. It seems like it was meant that way. Dusty you may be right about how the site migration might have changed it.   

Welcome Helena!
How very lovely that you found your dulcimer over Christmas in Berea Kentucky!

I suggest that you JOIN our Canadian Group here on FOTMD:

https://fotmd.com/b-ross-ashley/group/15/north-of-the-lakes

and then make a new discussion asking about anyone perhaps nearby you.  That group has not had any NEW discussions in a while, and I'm sure if you post there the Canadian group members will see it and jump in to greet you!

(note that you will only see the replies to discussions in a group after you JOIN the group and are a member there.  Use the JOIN button on the group's main page)

Just keep in mind that the more you do to change the original parts, finish, the original setup, or condition of that 'mint' Ledford, the less valuable it will become if you ever sell it.

If a total beginner is told to 'count your frets' then they'd likely be including both the 6 and the 6.5 fret when counting-  thus thinking that the repeat octave is the C#.  Most beginners don't yet know that they should count EITHER the 6 OR the 6.5 fret when 'counting frets'.. but not count both.  I think it really helps to look at a picture:

It looks and sounds like your frets are fine.

I think people are making this more complicated than what you are asking and confused about.

The problem here is that on your D string the "G flat" note as you call it is more correctly called "F sharp"(F#).  And what you are calling "D flat" is actually called "C sharp"(C#).  The note half a step lower than G is usually called Fsharp, not G flat..though an F# & Gflat are both the same sounding note.   Likewise, the note a half step lower than D is more commonly called Csharp, not Dflat... yet both are the same 'sounding' note.  A glass of water which has water in it to the halfway (half fret) mark- is it called "half empty" (a 'flat' note) or called "half full"? (a 'sharp' note)- both describe the same amount of water (or the very same sounding note in this case).

It's easy to get this confused.  Also think of a clock that's at 3:30.  Is it 30 minutes past 3, OR is it 30 minutes to 4 ?  One can think of the halfway point really in two different ways.  So that note between C and D ...is it a C#, or a Dflat ?  In the key of D it's called a C#, because the key of D is defined as having two sharps in it: a C# and an F#.... and no flats.   

So, your dulcimer string when tuned to D is in fact  correctly  fretted and is playing:  D(open string), E, F#, G, A, B, C, C#, and D.

Eileen, I think that is SOOOOO wonderful that you started your OWN group of women to learn frame drumming together.  What could possibly be nicer??  I know that the tradition of women frame drummers goes back to very ancient times.

I imagine that the spirits of women from many different times and cultures are looking down on your little group with smiles and full hearts.  

I wish you would take a photo of your group and post it here!

Here's what I wrote in my blog about the Tab vs. By Ear debate nine years ago:

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/04/tabis-it-bad-or-good.html

Geckostar, the way I get these kinds of wanted items is that I set up a 'saved search' on Ebay that will send me an email alert the moment something with my key words pops up for sale.  I've gotten very lucky using this method to get particular instruments I was hoping for, a couple of times!

BTW... welcome to FOTMD!  

That sounds like a good program, @Hugssandi !

@Dusty-Turtle I remember watching some Chinese cooking show on tv long ago, and one of the secret ingredients was... ketchup!  I followed the recipes from the show and the result was pretty awesome.  

NSThoreau, I have the same exact same old Dulcimer Shoppe kit.  It has a 28" scale length, and the tuners had a hard time holding the strings. I changed the tuners years ago, but my dulcimer still has a bit of a problem holding its strings at high tension. Not exactly sure why that was, but I wasn't about to spend another amount of $ on a third set of tuners, so I left it with my replacements, which are working ok.  The instrument is made from quite thin wood. 
If you continue with the problem, I might suggest you change to .010 strings for the melody strings rather than .012, since the thinner strings will be at a lesser tension.  You also might want to try tuning to the key of C rather than D, which helps as well to reduce the pull on the strings.  

Even the most basic beginner has wonderful things to teach a highly skilled professional. Over time, expert musicians can forget the bright joys of 'newness' one experiences when playing music for the first time. They can lose freshness and objectivity and not even really be aware of it.  A beginner can remind us of why we play music to begin with. A true gift!

I've always felt that the idea of distinct levels of beginner/intermediate/advanced are very subjective and hard to separate. Also we all tend to undervalue our own abilities.

@dulcinina , if the music you make brings joy to the lives of others, then I'd say that's the only proof you need that you are indeed a 'real' musician in the truest sense.   I wish we could just agree to add the joy factor into the criteria by which we 'judge' whether people are musicians or not.  To me, that's so much more important than whether someone can read music or play in various keys.  

Good for you Sandi!!  Maybe keep it small/do-able, so you don't wind up putting it off.

Terry, I neglected to mention the large portion of potatoe chips though.  heheh Yes I grew the cukes- their seeds are a bit large tho...will try a different variety next year.

Dusty, I like mozz (and balsamic) vinegar on tomatoes sometimes too!   mmmm!

Oooh... it's later than usual in the season due to our late Spring and then that drought too for a while, but...

We're finally hitting out tomato season!!  This year is a first in that our garden tomato eating is actually overlapping our blueberry picking.  This is what we wait for all year long... the blueberries and the magnificent tomatoes.

Here was our lunch today on the new screen porch, also with cucumbers from the garden.  The yellow is a tomato called "Taxi".   Yeah I probably went a little overboard on the sour cream, but hey.  

 tomato-cucumber-lunch-July-2018.jpg - 756KB

Lisa G. brings up a very good point- a dulcimer with added 4.5 and 11.5 frets would be quite difficult to sell.  Most folks who use extra frets in addition to the common 6.5 fret would want either 1.5 and 8.5 or all the way to chromatic.

FWIW, I play only in noter style and 'usually' in DAA type tuning, but I have found it very useful in oldtime fiddle sessions to have the two extra pairs of frets;  6.5 & 13.5, and also 1.5 & 8.5.  But for relaxed playing at home I do also enjoy and can appreciate a total diatonic fretboard and retuning to different modes while playing older traditional music.

As long as there are still a few diatonic fret spacings I've not found it hard to keep my bearings visually.  Once you get to chromatic I'd recommend having a few inlaid fret markers (like guitars and fretted banjos tend to use).

I've seen that as an issue for both beginners and intermediate players.  Sometimes we get so focused on not stumbling or playing a single 'wrong' note that we forget about playing expressively and forget about the importance of the right hand as well.

This is a good and useful discussion!

In reading the Berkeley guidelines, I have to say that some of those criteria for being Intermediate seem more suited for Advanced however. I'd never meet those standards, especially the parts about " to play in and modulate to different keys with and without a capo or retuning; to flat-pick and fingerpick a tune"..... sigh... I guess I'll be an eternal beginner.     Also, is it not possible to be considered an advanced player without ever reading either Tablature or sheet music?- an intriguing question.

NSThoreau, I think you are right about the fact that there is often less info geared towards the huge segment of people who have just gone beyond the beginner stage. There must be good explanations for this but I can't think of any right now.

One would think that by the time one is an 'advanced' player they'd be at the point where they could be teaching  most of the workshops at festivals. Maybe there should only be one advanced workshop- called Teaching Advanced Playing Workshops... but then would they just be teaching each other how to teach the workshop?  hahaha
Sorry I don't mean to make light of this, but the problems and ironies of this classification system have always struck me. I've always found workshop festivals to be a mixed bag, partly because it's hard for me to know where I even fit in, and often by the time I figure that out, it's over.  

"River" by Bill Staines is truly a beautiful and emotional song Terry.  It's very easy to understand it producing tears.

Yeah this is a very tough question Terry!  

I almost picked Shady Grove. But then I had to choose a song I learned many years ago from the great Aubrey Atwater...

Wedding Dress, also sometimes called My Little Doney Gal.  I learned it at a workshop Aubrey gave, on dulcimer... but I think I actually play & sing it better on the banjo.
Anyway, I think that's the one I'd pick.  

Here's a challenging 'shipwrecked on an island' type of question for all you Friends...

If you were somehow only allowed to play ONE song or tune on your dulcimer forever more, and it could only be one that your currently have already in your list of songs you play... which piece would you choose as the dulcimer ONLY tune you could play?  

no cheating now, don't name multiple songs... just name your ONE choice.  

It was the supreme gift!

Wow, you have very wide-ranging music genre interests!  You seem to be a fairly experienced player. 
So, it seems that most of the accidentals you are running into are in the most modern types of music you play- modern film scores, which can be especially daunting since movie music tends to change moods mid-song, often not following the usual expected structure of a song. I would think a chromatic dulcimer might be your best bet in the long run if you intend to pursue playing a lot of that kind of music. And certainly the modern chording style of playing would be the way to go as well for that.

Now you've got a whole bunch of great ideas and options from the good folks here in terms of methods and tools to use to get those elusive notes when they pop up.     Go forth and create many happy accident(al)s !  lolol 

I just saw this post Terry.  GOOD STUFF!  

Hi Yep,

Folks who play mostly chord/melody style like yourself can often find the accidentals on another string- usually the middle string. Try that first.

There's also a way of slanting your noter so the tip touches the wood fingerboard in the place where your missing fret would be- giving you the half note accidental. Others could maybe point you to videos and discussions here on FOTMD that describe this technique.

Retuning into a different mode (but staying in the same key) can solve the missing accidental in most cases, but not all.

Some tunes can be altered just a bit in order to skip or avoid the accidental. Not everyone can figure out how to do that but if you can, then great!  It can make for a more 'personalized' tune version.

If you find that in your playing, if you frequently need a particular accidental or note that always seems to be on a particular 'missing' fret location, then in my opinion there's no reason not to have the new fret added there if it enables you to play more enjoyably. As to extra fret 'acceptance'-  you're not playing dulcimer in order to gain approval from others .  My mtn dulcimers have the 6.5 and the 1.5 frets added- and I've never regretted it.  I have an epinette with only the diatonic frets and I would never add extra frets to it- i love that it was built strictly traditionally, and playing it without extra frets is very enjoyable.  If you decide you want a chromatic dulcimer, you can save for it and then look for a used one to buy- you can always resell it later if you decide it's not for you.

You don't mention the KIND of music you typically play that has accidentals.  Certain genres of music have more accidentals than others.  Interestingly, I find that both Modern music and very early Renaissance/Medieval music seem to present the most accidentals to me- which is amusing since they are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of time periods.  Traditional and rural folk music from 1830-1940 or so presents me with the fewest accidentals... and (not coincidentally) the American mountain dulcimer was developed around playing that kind of music.

I enjoy several genres of simple music to play at home on a few different instruments.  The medieval type music seems to have enough accidentals in it to make it problematic for a non-professional musician to play on a non-chromatic fretted dulcimer or instrument.  I will be getting a langspil with chromatic fretting in order to have a traditional instrument that enables accidentals and mode changes easily, 'on the fly'.      

Some folks do find that adding one or two extra frets is confusing... but the confusion will fade if they stick with it. After all, most dulcimers have the 6.5 fret and nobody finds that extra fret terribly confusing.  ;)   Going from a 'normal' mtn dulcimer to a chromatic has its own learning curve as well.  My banjos are split between totally fretless banjos and chromatically fretted... if I play them all fairly regularly, the differences only take about 30 seconds to get used to when I switch from one to another.

I don't buy new instruments that often, but when I do there's usually a very specific function I'm looking for. 

Richard, what lovely instrument. I love the snowflakes and love your description.  Maybe one day we will get treated to a little demo from you playing it.   

It's a wonderful thing to own an instrument that is a joy when we strum it.  

Thanks for the great explanation, Dusty!

JP, I'm just curious- did you not look over the other threads in this Site Questions forum to see if the solution to your problem had already been asked about and answered?  I hope you now understand why you were not seeing the whole discussion.

Dusty mentions the main site links along the TOP navigation bar on every page of FOTMD (Home, Forums, Photos, Videos, etc). When one is very confused about how the site is laid out, it really does help to click those links to gain a better understanding of the areas of main function and content. Not everything is immediately accessible from the Main Page... or else it would have to be five miles long.   

I'm glad you were able to post a new thread here in the Site Questions forum in order to ask your new question, though!  I'm going to edit this thread's title to be more descriptive of the thread subject now- in order to help others in the future looking for answers to similar questions as yours.  :)

Hi Susie.  Sheba is a pretty average sized girl cat.  We got her from the local Humane Society... we get all our cats from there.  

Sally Ann has filled out very nicely. Looks like she grew a sleek new coat, too.  

and- my oh my, those are two beautiful dulcimers!

Our 3 cats seem to like it when Brian and I play tunes... as we begin to play they casually* saunter into the room (*so we won't know they actually approve of something we do) ...and they take up positions in various chairs. As though their appearance was all accidental.

However, our red cat Rufus detests my pennywhistle playing... at the very first note he races  out of the room. I can't really blame him.  

Sheba (aka Boo Boo) likes to lie on the backs of chairs and along the tops of open doors.

@dusty-turtle , is that a quart sized mason jar or a pint?

And... once you've made your jar and put it in the fridge, how long is it good for would you say?