Forum Activity for @strumelia

Hi Linda, thanks for your inquiry!

It's surprising how most of the Groups associated with particular states tend to languish.  Some I have actually deleted because of no interest for years, after an initial enthusiasm by a handful of members. Your suggestion was considered by several of the site moderators.

Rather than having a new group created, I suggest that you make a new discussion in the General mtn dulcimer forum, here:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/general-mountain-dulcimer-or-music-discussions

(click the plus+ button to start a new thread)

Put 'Maryland' in the title, and ask for others to chime in if they live near you.  You might get a good response, and you can always continue the discussion there as long as you like, if others join in.

Thanks!

You fellas planning on taking sponge baths and sleeping in your cars?  

Yes, that is indeed a Youtube setting in your YT preferences... I have no idea where to find it now but I remember setting my prefs for that in my Youtube settings.

I was just curious- does the Sweet Music Index (dulcimer listserve on majordomo Clearspring) still exist?  Is it still running?
I know Dwain still has some pages about it on his Bearmeadow site, but is the list still alive and running?

Is the Hindman gathering really cancelled?  Have they given a reason?

Sounds like lots of fun Robin.  I hope you inspire some folks to make local music!  

There were many wonderful home musicians, and musical families, in the Appalachias before the time of radio.  Regular people sang while they worked, they sang at the end of the day to unwind, they sang during worship, and in play. Jean was considered unique for sure when she 'burst upon the folk scene' in NYC in the 1940s!  However, there were many others in her time and place who were formidable musicians, particularly traditional singers.  Her own sister Edna came a few years before Jean and was a great singer/dulcimer-accompanist in her own right. These ballad singers were much respected in their communities. As Jean said, it was the songs that led the way among the music she grew up with- she considered herself first and foremost a singer, not a dulcimer player. Jean also played guitar, banjo, and recorder and I don't know what else.. likely some piano because she did some school teaching as well.

Jean described how she was disappointed to later discover that she did not 'invent' her method of singing the melody while playing the harmony... she came to realize it was something other creative music makers did as well.  As a young person she thought she had invented the method for the first time... because she invented it for herself to solve the problem of not hearing the dulcimer when she played and sang the same notes in unison.  Don't we all 'invent' things and marvel at our own genius, only to discover others invented the same thing long ago? 

I strongly believe that some of the more creative music makers within any broader population, no matter what their education or background, will experiment with playing, instrument construction, tunings, songs, strumming patterns, etc.  After all, that's how the 6.5 fret came into favor. Yes for sure musicians can settle into a favored way of doing things, but just because people described them as doing things one way, I always allow that they tried out a few variations at some point...even if it's as minor as trying a different material for a pick.  I know I do such experimenting all the time!  When i stumble into a tune on the banjo where the notes are not easily accessible.. the first thing I do is fool around with the tuning to make it more playable. 
Despite the scarcity of documented writings and recordings of very early dulcimer, I maintain my conviction that inquiring-minded musicians of any time and place will twist pegs and have their own 'eureka! moments'.   Thus, you'll never see me saying that people didn't do this or didn't do that.  I may say a tuning was 'the most common' (and ionian certainly was the most common, likely followed by unison such as used in Galax...one can play 90% of American folk repertoire in them), but I never will say something was 'not done' or never done'.   :) 

I have two epinettes des Vosges.  Their fretting patterns and stringing are almost identical. Yet I keep one in major ionian and one in aeolian or dorian mode to play the simple minor folk tunes I love.  I keep a Hummel in major tuning to play cheerful dance tunes, and I am having a bowed langspil made now that I'll be playing probably only in minor tuning.  Interestingly, the oldest surviving Icelandic langspils in museums had variations in fretting patterns, indicating variations in tunings.  And some are pure diatonic as we know it, and others are chromatically fretted.  They were strummed, plucked, and bowed.  According to what I've read, there is no documented 'original' traditional tuning that survived in descriptions, so people during a later langspil revival simply adopted the tunings that worked for them.  Those revival tunings are now generally accepted as 'standard', but we don't really know how players may have tuned the earliest langpils.  
I know there are many, many folks who only play major tunes, or who play only in one tuning.  But i can't imagine not playing the soulful minor tunes of Jean's time!  Ah, but I digress...(and blab...)

In any case, here's to our each having enough Eureka moments in our playing journey to keep us inspired!

It feels similar for some notes, and of course notes go up as you uncover more holes from the bottom.  But there are numerous fingering differences- enough to mean you have to learn a new fingering scale.  BUT I think the PW is a little simpler than the recorder in terms of fingering.  Googling fingering picture charts for both, and you'll see what I mean.  

Richard, your FOTMD pinback buttons are in the mail!   

heheh... Robin I think we'll just have to remain in disagreement concerning this groaning board of specifics and conclusions.      

Richard, the one thing I think we can all reliably agree on is that there is no 'one only' for mountain dulcimers-  no one only tuning, no one only playing style, no 'one only' size, or shape, or kind of music...  And that doesn't even take in to account the whole decades-long debate about what 'traditional' means in the first place!   

Blondie I get them directly from Susato.  They offer a couple of cheaper models in their whistle lineup, but I get their best model which is the Kildare, which comes in various keys:

http://www.susato.com/konakart/Pennywhistles/Kildare/1_144_-1_73.do

If you like the low tone but not too terribly long that it becomes difficult to play and reach, then I'd suggest their Kildare Bb (with no keys), and the Kildare in A (with one key).  Those are the two middle whistles in my photo there.  The low G is the longest in my photo, and for a beginner it begins to get a little hard to play even with the helpful key.  I find it way easier to play the other three in my picture.  

If you order, be sure to clarify that you want complete whistles... not one whistle head and the various bodies that will fit it.  Why?- because tho it's cheaper to keep swapping the one head onto two different bodies, I find it annoying to have to keep doing.  On their "M" series Kildares, it's one size head that can be swapped among all four sized Kildare bodies.  But maybe that wouldn't bother you, in which case you could save a few dollars.
Whatever you decide, be sure you order clearly- they automatically sent me one head and three bodies on my last order, when I had ordered three separate complete whistles.  They had to send me two more heads afterwards. 

That's great John!  

Robin, Jean Ritchie is an example of a player experimenting with various tunings before 1940.  I highly recommend anyone interested in dul;cimer history to read her very entertaining account of growing up in her book "Singing Family of the Cumberlands".  In it, she describes being a little girl who snuck her father's dulcimer off the wall when no one was around, and sitting on the floor behind the couch, picking out her favorite tunes from her family's huge traditional repertoire.  She describes figuring out that she had to retune the melody string in order to play some of the tunes on the melody string... to have all the notes she needed.  She then tells of her father Balis coming home and taking the dulcimer off the wall and commenting that "The wind must have gotten to these strings again."  (he knew)  

Anyway, Jean was born in 1922, so if she were 8 or 10 at that time, that would have been 1930-32.  But aside from Jean, I find it impossible to believe that other traditional mountain musicians had not also done such obvious experimenting.  They did so abundantly with banjos, after all.  And it seems highly unlikely to me that they would have given up on playing all the wonderful spooky ballads and hymns popular at the time simply because they didn't realize they could turn a peg and get all the notes needed.  They turned their pegs all the time, just to get in tune after all.  I experiment with tunings on various instruments myself, and I'm no music scholar or professional.  I just think there is precious little written documentation from those times and remote areas.  These were pretty isolated mountain areas, with not so much formal education available pre-1930.

Keep in mind too, that Galax dulcimers have the opposite of shallow narrow bodies... yet because of their repertoire and playing style, most folks seem to regard them as very 'traditional sounding' as well.  

and.. One can play many old tunes in DAd tuning in noter drone style and sound 'traditional'.  But it's not 'because' they are in DAd tuning. Likewise, one can play Shady Grove on a traditional-replica dulcimer in DAG tuning, in modern chord style, ...and NOT sound very traditional.  The many variables come into play, but I would consider the least influential of those to be the tuning.

Lots of great replies already!  

Personally I find that the concept of 'traditional sounding' (meaning I suppose 'old' sounding when it comes to dulcimers) has less to do with a specific tuning than with other factors.  Such other factors can include style of playing, physical characteristics of the instrument, and the repertoire of music being played.  

It is perhaps splitting hairs, but the practice of retuning to the various modes can facilitate playing in a drone style (thus DAA or DAG are quite useful, for example).  But I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the tuning that sounds traditional there...  I'd simply say the tuning might make it easier to play in the drone style... and most people feel the drone style definitely has an 'old' sound to it... you can describe the dronal sound as old, archaic, traditional, ...or whatever word you'd use there.

Don't forget to wear your FOTMD buttons if you have them!  

That's a lovely instrument Dave!

Don't forget you can use Google to translate Hungarian webpages to English.  It won't be a perfect translation bu tenables you to understand most of the info.

You may benefit greatly from watching Youtube videos of Hungarian citera players in action.  It'll show how they utilize all those strings when they strum.  Remember also that Youtube has a setting where you can slow the video down to half speed while staying in the same pitch.  That way you can watch their hands better.

I transferred this thread into our 'other instruments' forum, btw.

When you have more than 3 or 4 of a kind of instrument (like dulcimers, banjos, drums, etc) it helps to have names to refer to them, even if the 'name' is only the maker's name. 
When I check in with my fiddler husband about what instruments we'll be taking to a party or gig, or simply when we're going to practice at home, it helps us to be on the same page when I refer to a specific banjo by name... the Ramsey, Blondie, Stichter, Hog Sisters, Cockerham, PigHead, Man in the Moon...  thus my husband knows immediately which banjo I'm talking about and thus what kind of repertoire/style I'm thinking we might be playing in, and what keys.  Plus, it's just more fun!
Since I never eat my instruments, I've never found naming them to have any effect on my ability to sell them.     heheheh

Terry that's so great!  That large 2-sided tabor drum of yours is quite impressive and 'primitive' looking with its lacing.  I bet that lady feels like a Wild Thang playing it.          So nice that your tabor drum has found a new honorable life of service!

Btw, I put up my five old harmonicas in the For Sale forum.  Figured I would start trying to move along instruments I will never play anymore.  Part of my Spring cleaning goals to myself.  I also went through my spice cabinet like a tornado yesterday!  

Ah, those tabor drums we conspired on and purchased... co-enablers!   lolol... I do still like my drum and it was perfect for a children's parade I participated in last year.  I think they have great tone and yes I too am glad to still have my tabor drum!

I have NOT been playing the tabor pipe though... once I found out I had all the notes more quickly available on my penny whistles.  But I've kept up with the penny whistle and I really love playing.  I'm not a great player but that doesn't bother me- might take years to become proficient, but it's a happy pastime.  I have a small collection of mid-level pennywhistles now...Terry you know how we get tempted.     Happily, the whistles don't cost all that much compared to most stringed instruments.     

I don't have to tell you to keep playing and having fun with your music... cuz I know you will.

It's funny how that works.  I usually find that making a little progress in one instrument leads to progress or insight on another instrument.  I love when that happens.   :)   I think Edelweiss would be a perfect tune for the tremolo harmonica. I actually had one of those big tremolo harps waaay back when i was a teenager (!) and I enjoyed playing it in my amateur way.

Terry, it's great to see you back on FOTMD again, and I'm so glad to learn of your wife's health outcome, and to know that you've had help for all the hand pain that was preventing you from playing almost everything.  I'm happy to hear you are still playing for the senior home... I remember how you described their joy (and yours) in your musical visits there. 

Bob, that's so cool!  You are multi talented for sure.

Hewalker- beautiful recorders!  BTW did you know we have a thread here in this forum specifically about recorders:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/adventures-with-other-instruments/6926/recorder

Bob, I wish you'd post a clip of you playing one of your pipes!

HeWalker, what brand are your 'serious' recorders?  Can you post a photo of them here?  

I have a whole playlist on my itunes of medieval and renaissance recorder music. It's so beautiful to listen to!  I stick with penny whistles because recorders are simply too much of a learning curve for me at this point... and I had a much easier time learning the PW.  But I do think recorders sound the most heavenly.  

Here is my collection of lower key Susato 'Kildare' polymer penny whistles.  I have them in C, Bb, A, and G.  The A and the G each have one key on the lowest hole to make it easier for those of us with smaller hands to reach that bottom hole.  I'm really enjoying the mellow sound of these lower whistles.  :)

Very nice Ken!  I really like the pic of you proudly holding it.  :)

Hi Dave, you posted this thread in the For Sale forum, so I moved it here instead.

I hope someone will help you with your buzz issue!

Good one, Ken.  

To whoever submits the notice in our site's "Events/Festivals" list....some info bits you should know:

1) it's free

2) you can add an image to the listing, which makes it way more eye catching interesting to look at.

3) It won't actually show up for the general membership until I approve it- but I'll be watching for it and will approve it right away once it's submitted by someone.

4) make sure just 'one' person is going to submit it to the fotmd calendar, so there are not 'dueling submissions'.   ;)

5) to create the calendar listing, you need to do it from your own profile page.

Hi everyone,

I'ts recently come to my attention the lots of members don't realize that they have Followers waiting to be approved by them.. sometimes for many months.  Members cannot exchange private messages or keep track of great new items posted by people they admire if their 'follow' has remained PENDING.  Some members have turned OFF their site notifications for when a new Follower has requested approval of them, so the poor pending follower remains in limbo.

I'd like to ask all members to please CHECK your Followers list to see if you have PENDING followers that require that you either Approve them or Delete their request.

There are TWO ways to check for PENDING followers:

1) Simply go to your Profile Page (by clicking on your name at top right of any FOTMD page...if you see your name then you know you are logged IN)... and on your profile page you should click the Followers TAB.  That's where you can approve or delete Followers as you like. (btw, deleting them will not send them a notice, it will simply quietly remove them from your follower list).  See this image for what you'll see to approve Followers that may be Pending in your profile:

2) The other easy way to check for any Pending followers is to HOVER your mouse over your NAME at the top right corner of the site (when you are logged in) and you'll see a dropdown menu appear.  In the menu is a link to "Pending Followers", with a number after it indicating if you have any.  Click there to approve any pending ones.

Ok, so....

Once you've updated your Followers list so no Followers have been left hanging, you can check how you have your site notifications set for you account.  For example, you can set your account to just automatically approve any new follower!

To check your settings for this, click on the Gear picture icon in your profile page ...there you will see three TABS:  Profile, Account, and Notifications.  --> Under the Profile TAb, there's a little checkbox that says: " Keep Followers Pending Until My Approval" .  Make sure that checkbox is UNCHECKED if you want people to be able to freely become a follower of yours without needing or waiting for your approval.

  --> While you are there in your Settings... under your Notifications TAB, you can use the drop down menu to set it to send you a notification for various site events... like when you get someone requesting that their Follow of you be approved... or when someone makes a comment on one of your videos or photos, etc.

Please take a couple minutes to go over your profile/account settings.. it greatly effects how you experience the site, and makes things easier for everyone!

Thanks so much!   

Oh my, what a great find, Rocks!  Whatever you do, don't change this perfect and wonderful old dulcimer- that's a collector's instrument and is in mint condition!  I see the frets are only under the melody string..so enjoy playing it in drone style, as it was intended to be played.  (you can always later get a nice second dulcimer for chord style playing, with extra frets too if you want to explore that style)      You're a lucky lady to now be the Amburgey's new player!

We don't host a comprehensive list of dulcimer makers here on FOTMD.  However, over on Everythingdulcimer's site there are a couple of things that might help you:

http://everythingdulcimer.com/builders_display.php

http://everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=23533

I always find your videos so enjoyable and helpful Robin. You have such a practical way of solving playing problems and explaining them in a simple hands-on way.  Please don't ever delete them- they help a whole lot of people!  

P.S. nice that Candy makes a little appearance in this one.  

Any members who would like to tell us a little something about themselves?  We love to welcome new FOTMD family members, especially during the holiday season!    

I use all those extra frets fairly regularly, in (DAA type) ionian tuning.  I like to play lots of renaissance and medieval music, and those tunes seem to have many accidentals in them which call for those odd sharps and flats in the middle an otherwise major/normal tune.

I also used those extra frets a whole lot when playing minor sounding archaic oldtime fiddle tunes.  I can't explain why, but I just needed them to get through the tunes.

Did you look in your browser's History to try to relocate the link where you had seen it?

Oh man, once tomato season winds down, I lose all interest in working in my veggie garden, and the weeds always get the best of me.  Dang!  I love gardening digging/planting/weeding/picking in the Spring and all Summer.... but by Fall my spare time energy usually turns to sewing, knitting, cooking, and playing music (aside from my regular day job, I mean...I'm not retired yet).

This Fall the weeds got especially out of control since I was sick for a couple of months at the end of Summer.  What a mess the garden became...difficult to even walk through it.      And the perennial flowerbed, and the overgrown thorny raspberry patch and the masses of 7 feet tall decorative grasses...  I really needed someone strong to come in and help clean up before Winter.  But I had a heck of a time finding someone who either wasn't all booked up or didn't cost a fortune.  The fellow who has helped me in the past had moved away.  I kept making phone calls, following leads...and the days were ticking by and it was getting colder.    The forecast is predicting some snow and sub-freezing after this next week, so I was really getting nervous that I'd have a horrendous mess on my hands next Spring if I couldn't get someone in time.

The good news is I found a fellow who was available, happy to work for a decent rate, and who knew what he was doing.  

Yay!- this swell feller came today with his pickup truck and wheelbarrow and hedge trimmer and clipper....and he was like a tornado going through the beds and paths pulling weeds and raking and clearing.  I bought a ton of mulch at Agway and he went to pick it all up with his truck, and he'll rototill my veggie beds, then spread the mulch for me... 40 big bags of wood chips/a whole pallet, and 8 bales of straw.  He's going to save my lower back for sure, and i won't spend the winter dreading Spring!      

I have a Dixon Trad brass in D too, Jennifer.  I really like the 'temple bell'-like tone it has, don't you?  It sounds prettier to me than for example the Generation brass whistles I have.

Any sales transaction should have return terms made clear before the purchase.  That's true for online purchases, retail stores, and yes even between friends.

Always find out seller's return policy before buying or commissioning any instrument, new or used!

Why?  Because 'etiquette' is not legally binding in any way.. and it also varies tremendously.  There is no standard policy for returns- different people/sellers all have different return policies... or no returns at all sometimes.
Paypal will usually help you if the item was damaged or misrepresented.  But if it's a just matter of you changing your mind and the seller doesn't want it shipped back and had not stipulated a return policy, then paypal might not get involved.  If the seller did not mention any return policy at all, then they have a right to say 'no returns' after the sale is complete. Unless they misrepresented the item or its condition.

As a buyer, you should ask for the return policy to be spelled out in writing if it's not already.  Before money changes hands.  We are talking about significant amounts of money here!

Jennifer, maybe you're like me? ...and find that the two instruments feel so different to play that it's almost impossible to compare the dulcimer and the whistle against each other.   
What kind of Dixon did you get?  I like my Dixon whistles very much.  

Some whistles don't play in tune on some notes, and that can be infuriating.  But some cheaper whistles are quite nice too. Then there are the odd duds as well, even with higher priced whistles. 

Yikes Sheryl... those Carbonys are like over $400...?!  Out of my league... at least when it comes to whistles.  lolol

I like being able to reach for a whistle based on my mood that day.  I keep my whistles handy, standing in a metal cannister on my desk... like a bouquet of flowers!