Forum Activity for @strumelia

Lexie thank you for your warm tribute thread to Oliver.  I chatted with Oliver on the chat a couple of times- indeed he seemed so kind and generous towards others.  As an animal lover, I especially enjoyed some of his turtle tank photos- very impressive.  It was always good to see pix of him at the Wartz gatherings as well.

My sincere condolences to Oliver's wife Sharon.  Oliver was truly a well liked friend to many here on the site.  He'll be much missed.

Our love goes out to you John Henry. 

I hope you will continue to check in with your many friends here, as you are able.  You and your family are in my thoughts.

I think that in doing a show for seniors where they are encouraged to sing along or participate, it would be good to choose mostly familiar carols with widely known and easy to sing lyrics.  

Terry, I know you and some of your church friends sew tote bags for seniors.  Here's a thought-

You can buy crafter's big bags of 'jingle bells' pretty cheap on Ebay and Amazon.  How about sewing like 8 or 10 bells on soft fabric hand loops that can be passed around to residents to shake along during certain Christmas songs like of course Jingle Bells... but also some other 'cheery/jingly' songs like maybe Rudolf the Reindeer, Jolly old St Nick, Here Comes Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman?  
Terry your songlist has mostly slow and very beautiful carols --but might make some of the residents emotional to the point of crying (I know it would me!)- so perhaps intersperse some cheery peppy ones and make them shake their bells or some percussion eggshakers?  (good physical therapy to shake stuff, too!)

Welcome to FOTMD.  Very cool dulcimer!  

Are you considering learning to play it?  In any case I'm sure you'll get some interesting info on this instrument form other members.

I removed your other duplicate thread, and I moved this thread out of the For Sale forum since it's not a sale thread.  If you decide to sell this dulcimer later, please create a new selling thread there after first reviewing the For Sale Forum guidelines.  Thanks very much!

The relative paucity of actual oldtime musician albums (as opposed to bluegrass, pop or movie 'oldtimey' soundtracks, and country albums for example) has precluded actual oldtime recordings from becoming mainstream.  One should probably agree on the definitions of both 'mainstream' and 'oldtime' when discussing it, since diff folks include or exclude various genres when referring to 'oldtime music'.  (Most don't include the Southern harmony singing traditions such as Louvin bros/Stanley bros, or cajun, etc)   The tunes Freeman refers to as obscure were  indeed obscure...but... like 20 or 30 years ago.  Freeman founded County Records in the early '60s, and County was the very first label to focus on oldtime music.  This was before CDs and before most cassettes...only LP records played on turntables. Very few new records were pressed each year because they were a huge expense and investment.

But anyhoo... Almost all the serious OT musicians I've known have passionately dug deep into the 'roots' of the music (i.e. researching/absorbing from the older traditions and sources) while also infusing fresh life and their own personal approaches in playing the material, including creating new tunes..continuing to grow and explore as musicians as they get older.  
I do find that unfortunate when any of those people who were responsible for hunting down and saving thousands  of irreplaceable old family and field recordings that were rotting away in barns about to be lost forever (Bruce Greene's hard fought Salyer collection which he gave to Berea, Dwight Diller's Hammonds recordings..) are sometimes later portrayed as musicians  'playing the same old tunes' -as if they are stale or in a rut.  These are the same people who at great effort wrestled some of the most obscure and beautiful music from the brink of extinction not so very long ago.

Amusingly, some  of the 'source people' now mined by the newest batch of young musicians, were those very same young urban college-educated musicians in their 30s, making field trips, roughing it and getting excited by their own 'discovery' of OT music back then.  Ironically, many did not grow up in the tradition, yet helped preserve and document some of it.  They started the oldtime festivals that are frequently young musicians' first exposure to the music. Those players are now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s...recording incredible stuff of their own and teaching and passing on what they've learned from those before them.  The good ones know how to pull something fresh and exciting from a tune whether they've played it ten times or eight hundred times.  

Of course, the old must always make way for the young. Hopefully the young are insightful enough to learn from the generation before them who were certainly true music pioneers in their own right.  O ldtime musicians young and old have been 'shaking up the oldtime movement' ever since the Highwoods and the NLCR (which is about when the only thing one might conceivably call an 'oldtime movement' may have occurred).  I like to think shaking up is continuous, and ageless.    :)

Re: hog eyed man-   Interesting that Dave Freeman of County Records (of all people) would call these 'obscure' fiddle tunes.  They've been standards in oldtime sessions and festivals for over a decade now...in fact, fast approaching 'old chestnut' status if not already there.  (that might mean I'm an old chestnut myself i suppose...lol)

The 1970s style LP graphics sure had me going for a while, trying to figure out why I had never heard of these guys...but I guess this is a current band using retro styling for their 'album'?  Everything old is new again...

Photo of Bruce Greene playing banjo on stage.  (huh?)

John Henry, my heart is with you.  Please know that we send our love to you at this very difficult time.

I hope you are able to receive comfort in the coming weeks from your family, friends, and perhaps through music as well.  Mary was a very special and wonderful woman. 

I send a warm gentle hug to you, dear John Henry.

Johnny, it's even more modest than that!  If you sell a dulcimer for $450 for example, I still only ask for a $5 site donation.  

Sandy, your Wren is a small dulcimer with naturally stiffer tension.  It will be a bit tougher to play up around the 10th or 12th fret.  You may be having to press down harder to play up there, and that will definitely pull the strings up just a little out of tune.  See if you can press down as lightly as possible when going up the frets higher.  You might also try tuning one step lower on all strings and play in a lower key-like in C instead of D for example.  This works when playing solo, and will give you less tight strings to work with.  OR put on strings that are one step lighter gauge than your current strings, if you think you want to stay in the same tuning you are now but the strings feel very tight when you get above the 7th fret.

Older types of dulcimers were usually played in the traditional (non-chordal) style, and if the fretboard was in the middle of the top of the instrument, a TALL fretboard made it easier to play with a noter in hand.  Rather than a tall fretboard being of solid wood (possibly lessening resonance), making it hollow allowed for more sound vibration and resonance.  In effect, a large tall hollow fretboard with its own sound holes was like having a very narrow scheitholt sitting on top of the larger body.  In fact, there are some old examples of mtn dulcimers that very much resemble a narrow schietholt built with a larger sound chamber body underneath it.  It's one of several possible paths of evolution or 'missing links' in the history of very early dulcimers and zitters in American.  More than one of those 'dulicmer evolution' paths may have occurred long ago in different regions.

As modern times approached, people began to play dulcimers more often in chording style, fretting all strings and making chords with the fingers, adding double melody strings- this all encouraged wider fretboards and the need for a tall fretboard that accommodated a noter was much less.  Dulcimer bodies became larger and fretboards became wider and less tall...and hollow tall fretboards became less needed for resonance or for noter comfort.

And to add a PHOTO to your own photo section/Galleries, you would follow the same procedure as above:

Go to your profile page.

Click on your Photos TAB there.

Click on the large PLUS sign+ button to add a new photo gallery.  If you just want to add a new photo to an existing gallery you created, you'd go to that gallery and add another photo from there:

Hi Eileen,

That's very cool!  There's a fellow in New Zealand who makes wooden double ocarinas where opne side is a drone note, and they are made with an interval that sounds rather medieval...sounds so pretty!  -see the pure white wood one on the middle of this page, with a sound clip:  http://www.wood-n-bone.co.nz/musical_instruments.html

I didn't keep up with learning my ocarina.  However I did actually learn to play the bones in the end ok (yay), and I'm making progress on penny whistle now...which is sort of vaguely related to ocarina I suppose?...I mean, you blow into both of them at one end and cover the various holes to make music, right?  

Lol John...!

Hoosier, it could be that although your action is not too low, maybe your strings are slack enough in your particular tuning to create whisper-fine vibration noises against the frets once released.  Try putting a one-step heavier gauge string on.  That would tighten the tension a hair and keep the string from vibrating so freely when you remove your finger.  This could completely solve your problem- just a slightly heavier set of strings.

Also- are you fretting and unfretting your fingers at a fairly straight down angle?  If you fret from the 'side' (like keyboard typing) then you could be very slightly pulling the string when removing your finger, causing that unnecessary vibration.  Check the angle of your fretting fingers here .

Joe- what an awesome solution.  Big win all around!!  

I do the same.  That stuff is like gold...works so well.

It's now I think about my two month mark at learning to play...I just recorded another short tune today on my penny whistle... Pretty Saro . 

Oh, very good!  That's reassuring.  Yes, you should give a few additional details there on ED ...though no need to give publish your email address or personal info publicly. Helps to give a little background tho- if I were a potential buyer I'd be leery of an ad with zero info about the seller, espec with them being brand new to joining. 

Good luck with your sale Sheryl!  

Sheryl, are you now reselling the Presnell right away over on the EverythingDulcimer site?  

I'm just curious....  I wouldn't want some scammer over there on ED trying to rip people off while using your photos and info...that actually happens on instrument sites.  The seller there just now joined ED with no other posts and does not give any info about themselves in their profile.  It raises a red flag for me, so I just wanted to check if that's you reselling the Presnell.

Susie, your new flute is beautiful.

All these flutes are like works of art, really.

Bill!  So nice to see you drop in again!  

I have a couple of Dixon polymer (plastic) whistles and yes the tone is a little more recorder-like than the metal whistles.  But I like both types...so alas guess I just have to buy lots of whistles.   lolol   Good thing they are not the same price as banjos.  

Susie, we'd love to see a picture of your new walnut flute with turquoise.  And always good when one's spouse approves of a new instrument!  

I've learned over the years to never, ever say "This is the last ____ I'm getting".  Never paint yourself into a corner. lolol...

Last night I ordered several more pennywhistles in various keys.  

Robin, that flute is a real beauty!  

I totally relate to your excitement. I've been learning to play the pennywhistle for the past couple of months now, and the largest/lowest one I have right now is a brass low G Dixon which is two and a half steps higher than your D flute. But while learning, I'm mostly playing my higher whistles, and playing a bit with Brian on fiddle, in the kitchen.  
The low whistles and flutes require a good set of lungs, and lots of air, for sure! ..but they have such a velvety rich tone.

Both the Irish flute and the penny whistle come in various sizes/keys, and materials, and some are even sold in a set with interchangeable heads to convert them back and forth between whistle and flute....both having basically the same 6 holes. The lowest penny whistles come I think in the low key of C, a step below your D flute.

You sound wonderful already Robin!  If you love it as much as I'm loving learning my new whistles, then you'll be a hopelessly in love 'lost soul'.      This music thing is the Devil!   lol

I'm very sorry to see you go Mary.

Terry, my right foot always starts tapping to the beat when i play bones...so I'd say that would not be compatible with driving...lol!   =8-o

Terry, I hear you!  I think I can add to that list of handy take-along instruments too:  the Bones!  and...when I get a little better at it...my penny whistle!  Both are extremely portable, lightweight, and the bones can be played one-handed... but I can't do either while driving.  We're all different, too much traffic here (and deer!)...my brain is one-tracked...requires my whole concentration and both hands while driving, the most I can do is listen to music or talk to my traveling companion. 

Susie -  last flute purchase... yeah right.  

Thanks everyone!  

People still do this dance today, so cool:  

Here is a little French tune I practice with, called Branle de L'ours (Dance of the Bears).  

 I've been now playing pennywhistle for about a month... still a rank beginner with almost no 'technique' as yet, but it's waaay fun.   I have compiled a bunch of simple very old tunes to practice with.  I'm typically practicing about 30 to 40 minutes per day...that's kind of a lot for me actually.  

 Alan Ginsberg...good times... lol   

From a 1984 edition of the "CoEvolution" magazine published by the Whole Earth Catalog...an ad for Dulcimer Players News.  We just happened upon it in some of my husband's old Whole Earth items he had stashed away, i thought I'd share it:

Just a little update on my penny whistle adventure, which I started about a month ago now.

I've been progressing pretty well lately, and am actually enjoying it more and more.    I can't wait to steal some time to practice every day, and I have a few favorite simple tunes under my belt now- though I can rarely play any tune without a note mistake or two still.  Will try to make a little 'practice time' video and post it here soon.

Finding I like both the polymer whistles and the brass whistles- they have two different sounds and both are real nice.  In general, the polymer plastic ones sound more warm and breath-y a bit like a recorder (great for haunting or ethereal melodies, or for playing while alone), while the brass ones sound more clear and sweet- more useful for playing with other instruments and fiddles for sure.  

Additionally, the lower/larger the whistle, the more mellow and breathy it sounds no matter what it's made from.  I think the lowest/largest whistle is usually a low C, which is an octave plus one note below the standard high D whistle.  I don't see many whistles higher then high E - a note above the standard D whistle.  I do have a high E whistle (rather than Eflat) because it will enable me to play in A ionian on it easily. The lowest whistle I now have is a low G.  Lower than that and the finger stretches get quite difficult, even if using the "piper's grip" as they refer to it.

I can really envision playing the whistle as one of my standard go-to instruments, for several reasons:

1) It seems it's quite do-able for me to play and I'm progressing fairly quickly (when you're over 60 this is a big thing, lol)

2) Is not a huge investment, money wise  -Yay for that!

3) Like the Bones, whistles are easy to take along and carry, especially when having to haul around a large minstrel banjo.

4) The whistle is well adapted to play ALL the genres of music I happen to like playing: old-time/Appalachian music, traditional early/minstrel American, traditional European folk/dance tunes, and medieval/renaissance. This is a huge plus.

Terry, I like to think of you carrying a harmonica with you everywhere you go.  I know how you love to play music for people and spread the happiness music brings to us all.  

Jennifer- the colors you chose for that woven flute bag are just beautiful- and perfect now for the coming Autumn.  Did you make a drawstring closure? or so other closure system?

Agreed-  a very well deserved honor.  

.

Well pretty much the only time I actually hear current 'pop' music is when it's inflicted on me against my will-  while pumping gas, in an airport, waiting at the car dealership or doctor's office, in a restaurant.  So most of the time I don't have to hear any 'whoops'.  

This is so weird- YES I hear it everywhere now!  Should never have watched this video...now it'll bug me to no end...lol

http://qz.com/767812/millennial-whoop/

Fingerpick garters?....oh my, my laugh of the day!  

That's good advice from Ken.  I don't drink, so I just have to remind myself to not tense up.  Even after many years of playing on various instruments, I still catch myself tensing now and then in some area.  Being aware of it however really does help us to 'check in' on what we're doing regularly.  Like any bad habit, simply becoming more acutely aware of it is half the way towards correcting it.

I wrote about this and included some videos here on beginner strumming habits: tips, posture, shoulder pain, etc:

http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/01/video-tips-for-beginners-strumming.html

http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/01/video-tips-for-beginners-strumming_08.html