Forum Activity for @strumelia

Though I've never actually owned a vintage or antique dulcimer myself, when I first saw one of these beautiful old single peg tail ends, I thought to myself:  

Wow, that's cool, but....it would be such a huge PAIN to change a string-  if you needed to change the string at the bottom of the stack there, you'd have to loosen and remove all the other strings on top of it first, to take it off the peg...then replace the string and pile them all back on again.

It didn't occur to me that I was being really, really dense.   

Suddenly the light went on in my head and I realized that if I had to change one of the strings that wasn't 'on top' of the loops stacked on the peg, all i'd need to do was take a little wire snipper and CUT that particular string loop where it looped around the peg, and then just pull it out to extract it from the pile without disturbing the other string loops on the peg.  Then I just put a new string on and its loop will then be on the top of the stack.

D U H .    

Yeah, seems like a no brainer in retrospect, but as a beginner it honestly didn't occur to me at first.  Who knows, maybe I'll save somebody from actually taking off all their strings in order to replace just one string!   

This may seem like an obvious tip to some folks, but honestly I had an "aha! moment" years ago when I figured it out.  So I thought I'd share it in case it saves someone else some effort some day.

You know how most modern dulcimers have a separate little pin or hole- one for each string to end on at their tail piece area?  Sort of like this or a similar arrangement:

Well, many older or vintage dulcimers ( and some of today's wonderful reproductions of old dulcimers) have instead a single peg, knob, or dowel at the tail end where all the strings loop over, one on top of the other, something like this arrangement:

Kandee,  I'm the one with the buttons, here at home.  If anyone wants to order FOTMD pin buttons in time for Kentucky music week, they need to order them right NOW , via Paypal, in order for me to get them to you in time through the mail 1st class.   Order them HERE .   If you wait past June 15 to order them, they may not get to you by the weekend of June 24th in time for Kentucky music week.

Or you might view it as the guitar was what sounded 'off', not your dulcimer.   

Oh man, what a turn on!   

Roots/Americana is generally recognized description nowadays, which is good.  Some reference with "Frontier" or "Mountain", "mountain man ballads" or "mountain dulcimer man" perhaps?   Those words will pop up for many 'uninitiated' folks when they first see you or your picture. 

Yeah, you are your own best logo!   

I too like the feeling of sitting and playing a dulcimer on a little narrow wooden table positioned in front of me.  There's an old fashioned formal feel to it that is very appealing to me, plus it boosts the sound.  

If you're anything like me, then your music and 'what it is you do' is constantly evolving, just like my life.  If I determined a definition of what I do musically, I'd have to keep changing and adjusting it every year or two.    

Irene-  

Hi Linda, welcome!

Hey you might want to re-evaluate that Tignor- some folks collect them and if it's in decent shape it could be a good player!

I hear you about the too-many-hobbies/interests thing.  

If you think you'll be tuning mostly to DAA or CGG, then it makes sense to get melody and middle strings that are all the same gauges.  However if you will mostly be tuning in DAd or CGc, then get the set with the middle string slightly heavier than the melody string (since it will be tuned lower than the middle string, not the same).

That a creative work is over 50 years old does not mean it is public domain material.  Further research and confirmation is necessary for each author and even for each work.  Many deceased writers and musicians have some of their work in public domain and other work still under copyright because the rights were acquired or maintained by others.

Definitions can be tricky.  When i think of a "tune" that means a melody or piece of music without words/lyrics, written by a composer/musician.  When I hear the term "song" I think of words set to music, written by a songwriter.  Thus, if someone says they 'wrote a song', most folks take that to mean they wrote/composed the lyrics and the melody.  When using work from literary authors, one should be careful in defining or describing the resulting product, and of course copyright status of the authors' work must be researched as well.

Thank you Jan for making us aware of John's passing.  John Wood was a volunteer 'greeter' of new members here on FOTMD for several years, making hundreds of new members feel welcome.  I'm glad he was able to enjoy his music and being here with us in this dulcimer community.  He will be missed.

The Room reminds me of Myst.  Which my whole family was hooked on about 18 years ago.  But I suspect the Room is a shortened experience....solve puzzles in mysterious 'worlds', houses, ruins, and environments on your own...explore odd things and put together clues from various locations to eventually unlock the secrets.  I used to love Myst, but I just have less patience nowadays i think.  lol

It might help a bit to put on a slightly thinner gauge of strings.  Heavy strings will be at higher tension/stiffer and will tend to 'bend' the sound just a bit when fretted down, even if the string is perfectly in tune when played open.

What gauge of strings are you using now and what is your instrument's scale length (from nut to bridge)?  Is the action high?

Can you use an electronic tuner to test each string?- make sure the open string is in tune, then test each fretted note on that string, trying to use the same light pressure to fret it.  If all strings are sharp or flat on the same frets, then the fret placement may be off.  If however there is one or more strings that are perfectly in tune on every fret, then it points to a string issue that likely can be lessened by changing string gauge or playing action.

Rob, that's so cool !!

Welcome Claud!

If you click on the "Forums" link along the top of any page, you'll see we have forums that focus on various subjects.  I'd suggest you make a new discussion in this forum:  http://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discussing-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions  and put Pyle's name in the thread subject line.  That way, more folks will see it and possibly someone will have more info for you about it.  

Did you look on the INSIDE of the dulcimer for any labels with maker info?  I ask that because it's possible the taped on label in your photo was the name of the dulcimer's owner, not the person who actually made it.

Lisa...cool beans on the 3 black cats!   We have our big greyboy Teddy, our big redboy Rufus, and our graceful modest brown tabby girl Sheba.  (all three from the local shelter)  

Rock star, hahah... well I'm getting a bit long in the tooth to be in that category. But I'm sorry to have caused that you to need to explain it to folks repeatedly.        
Funny thing is, last few times i was at a dulcimer festival and a couple other music fests, nobody asked me nothin'.  Go figure.   lol

Cecil Sharp's book of Appalachian ballads collected around 1910 contain many many regional versions of Barbara Allen- more versions in fact than of  any other ballad he and his assistant collected.  The ballad was very popular and the versions can sound very different from each other, even back then.  I'd wager that multiple versions came over here from Europe and were different regionally there as well even before they got here.  We're talking 1600s and 1700s now.

"Every so often I have to explain to people that yes, I  am  a dulcimer-playing Lisa on the internet, but not the one you had in mind "  :) 

Lisa, is that really true?   

I do remember some years back when a new member was applying to join FOTMD and had picked the username "Strumella".   It surprised me, and I felt it would be way too confusing for everyone.  I asked her if she wouldn't mind terribly picking some other name instead, which she graciously did.  Now I can't remember what else she picked or if she's still here.  I felt a little embarrassed at the time because it sounded kinda like I had a big ego, but I really just thought it would lead to people asking her for site help and endlessly getting all confused.   lol

Lisa, is Nick a grey cat or a black one?  -I've sometimes wondered.  Hard to tell from the vintage-y photo.  I have a beautiful grey boy cat named Teddy.   :)

Wow Gwen, were we separated at birth or something?  I could echo your post word for word.  Thanks for the great information so well laid out.  Pretty good update to a seven year old thread!   

Mary, just to clarify- you are perhaps thinking LisaGolladay's post was written by me? ...but 'tis not so.

Speaking of slip jigs...here is a friend of mine Mark Weems on his gourd banjer playing a lovely slip jig published in 1782 from Virginia....  

Personally, I believe that yes, instruments with wooden sound boxes will tend to sound better, more resonant if they are played a lot, as opposed to new or long stored instruments.  The amount of change would naturally be quite varied....from almost nothing to something pretty noticeable...and depending on the listeners sensitivity as well.

I think the term myth implies that it is incorrect, whereas theory implies it's something that has yet to be proved right or wrong. So in this case I'd refer to it as a theory rather than a myth. 

Mary, the genre of old ballads referred to were largely either brought to America from England..Ireland..Scotland, or derived from those ballads, back in the 1800s, 1700s and earlier. They were traditionally sung without instrumental accompaniment, and the singer sang in a storytelling manner that often had irregular timing, gapped scales, and other very individualized and archaic characteristics typical of that style of singing.

When guitars were introduced into general use around the turn of the century and popular music began to be produced and more available later via radio and 78s, there was a new commercial and popular market for this 'mountain folks' music. But people wanted it to have chord or guitar accompaniment, and to generally be more 'accessible' to listen to as MUSIC...not simply as a sung story.  A Capella sounded to raw and unfinished to most people after 1900. Guitars were generally used to 'fill in the music'. Singer guitar players who were not familiar with a Capella trad ballads almost universally straightened out the timing, unified any odd mode changes, eliminated accidentals and 'in between' notes, and generally made the ballads conform to modern music listener expectations.  They made the ballads sound 'prettier' because that's what people wanted...not some odd sounding archaic piece you couldn't tap your foot to.

People like Joan Baez and Jean Ritchie either grew up in the old ballad tradition or else made a study of it...they found the old stylings to be beautiful and compelling, and kept them in their personal interpretations of the ballads, even in their instrumental treatment and timings. Other singers and or musicians embrace the more modern treatment of the old ballads, whether intentionally or by just following their usual approach.

As Rob said, you should do what inspires you personally....there is no 'right' way to play a tune or sing a song...there is just each our own way.

Yeah many of them are missing Jan...but they're not even in the source code so there's nothing I can do to dig them up.  (Update:  I've deleted a few posts and responses that made no sense since the photos were no longer there)   Onward and upward!  (or should I say under and backward?)  

Here's me in 1997....about 19 years ago....possum on a stump?  with my Keith Young curly maple dulcimer that's seen in the fotmd logo.  Ah, would that I were still that spry and willowy!    

I think of Rod often and fondly, and I truly miss him.  Such a kind and thoughtful man... he was deeply dedicated to his family, his music, and to all his many dulcimer friends both old and new.  Thanks for the reminder CD, ....and good to see YOU back here again.  

Rod's music is still very much worth a listen:  http://fotmd.com/rod-westerfield

David, the mostest simple of the simplest tunes for noter playing beginners:

http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-player.html

After that, move on to Go Tell Aunt Rhody, and then Amazing Grace...ionian DAA tabs are there in my blog as well for those tunes.

Yes, definitely!         lol

Hi all,

This is a great subject! - but I feel strongly that it will be more accessible and will  benefit everyone in the future as well if it's located in our Dulcimer Therapy Group here: http://fotmd.com/strumelia/group/57/dulcimer-therapy

Unfortunately, I cannot move a discussion from a Forum to a Group, so I'm going to close this discussion to new replies and I'd like to ask SaltSprings to please create the discussion anew in the Dulcimer Therapy Group.  That way it won't just sink down into oblivion on the General Forum..instead it will be very easily found in the Therapy Group discussions, and will be very helpful to members in the future who are looking for this specific information!   

John Henry has posted a beautiful tune tribute, played for John P ....

Lament for John P

Update, seven years later (!):

We no longer play at that farmer's market.  Right now I gotta say that my favorite place to play is with my husband in our living room in front of the fireplace, whether there's a fire or not.  Though we do still enjoy going down to town and occasionally playing under a tree on Main street somewhere...for no particular occasion.  We don't put out a hat or case for money -simply to avoid anyone possibly complaining about 'busking'...ha ha!  

I just listened to this again Kevin- it's awesome powerful.

As I recall you made this zither for yourself...do you still have it?  What was the scale length?

Thought I'd revive this old thread in case some of our newer members wanted to add their own stories of how they first discovered the mountain dulcimer!  

You're right Joe- there seems to be a little glitch in moving discussions.  I'll look into it!

UPDATE: this has been fixed.  This discussion is now in the General forum.  

- I moved this discussion from the For Sale forum to the General music forum.

Thanks Dusty, these instructions are very helpful!

First, click the main links to FORUMS, and then choose the Forum that seems most appropriate to your intended subject. 

Here's another image showing to click the "+" PLUS button to ADD a NEW discussion when you are in the Forum category of your choice:

Excellent point Ken.  Even professional players never seem to be completely satisfied with their skill level- and that tells us something.  To me, it's the ongoing learning and little steps in playing music that both keep my interest and give me a sense of accomplishment.  The journey.  The rest is simply the joy of making lovely sounds, no matter how simple they are.  

It's a little confusing that we have both a Profile page picture and an avatar picture...and they can either be the same or different.  On the other hand, it adds variety.   :)

 Dan, could be you changed the image on your Profile page, but not your actual user avatar.

Go to your profile page Settings and check the avatar image that shows when you go to your "Account" TAB in your settings.  Then once that's changed too, SAVE your settings and also clear your browser cache to see the new results.

Every member has both an Account picture and a Profile picture.  Oe shows up only on your profile page, and the other shows up next to every post you make. When in your Settings, be sure to go to both TABS and upload your chosen avatar picture: your Account TAB, and your Profile TAB.  Also remember to SAVE your changes at the bottom of each page before leaving the page, after uploading your new picture.

Ah!  Thank you Randy!  I was a bit confused since Robin posted it.

How beautiful!    We will all miss John...and as Robin said-  Fare Thee Well.