Well, here is a website for it, hope that helps: http://www.autumnleavesfestival.com/
Looks like a fun event! Seems like it may be largely about crafts but with music entertainment as well.
Hi Ron, go here and you'll find it:
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/forum/topics/roanoke-valley-dulcimers-inaugural-meeting-and-workshop
Yes, Everythingdulcimer.com is a great site altogether, for both mountain dulcimers and hammered dulcimers!... They've had a terrific members Forum since long before our site here ever existed, and they also have a wonderful free collection of dulcimer tab!:
http://everythingdulcimer.com/tab/index.php
Good for you Folkfan! It's not easy to stick with it, but you must feel great about it. 
No, the bicycling to the gym part is not boring, it's the 'stationary' treadmill at the gym that's boring. I'm never bored riding my bike. But it's very hilly here and it can get terribly hot and wipe me out. I need the gym to get more of a whole body workout.
I rode to the gym today again on my bicycle. The gym is boring as all heck...but it felt real good after i got home. Did lots of spinal bends and twists today too.
I haven't lost any weight yet (nor eating less)....but I have joined back up at the gym with Brian and we do go 3 x a week now. about 45 minutes each time. That's something at least! You guys are impressive!!
Tell us about your healthy goals and activities!
Share with us what music and/or instrument you are currently working on!
Say howdy here to us all, and tell us a little about yourself!
Sounds like a good plan Ken. I admire you for being brave enough to enter a competition...I wouldn't have the guts!
Babs, I might humbly suggest that if you already are liking some of the tunes from Bonnie's book, then by purchasing it you'd not only get more tunes you'll probably like, but you'd get the benefit of all of her teaching explanations...AND you'd be supporting her efforts in writing all those arrangements you enjoy playing. I have an old copy of Bonnie's Dust off that Dulcimer and Dance!...it's a great book as well!Bonnie is a talented and creative teacher and player.
Vicki, I find what happens for me is first I learn a simple version of a melody of a song, then I learn to play some other songs and I get a little better on those....then when i go back to the first simply song melody i seem better able to add a little flourish or variety to it that I couldn't do before. It's a part of the slow learning process process that brings me delight in my own playing, however simply i might play something. Sometimes all it takes is an extra note or two, a full brush across the strings to fill out key moments, or just playing with a touch more expressiveness ...such do-able things will often turn a plain bare bones version into a lovely version. You might be surprised at your own ability to add easy but pretty touches and make your own unique version. Do try playing around with it!
Just a note that this is a copyrighted song, so you may have to purchase a published arrangement (if there is one) Vicki...and to caution folks from distributing arrangements or tabs of it here on this site without permission. Thanks!
How wonderful that you played for the folks in the waiting room Dana. Music is such good medicine, a real tonic.
Your new report sounds very encouraging- you must be a real strong woman...that cancer didn't know who it was messing with. BIIIG hug to you and warmest wishes for a strong recovery.
That's way too much to have to bear- may you forge ahead with gentle strength.
Sending you my haertfelt wishes for a strong recovery and hugs hugs to you, Dana.
Awesome and useful explanation, Cynthia!
There are so many amazing and wonderful things to discover when experimenting with dulcimers- it's good to try out various things. I find for myself that one year I'll be in love with doing something musical one way, and then 3 years later I'm really into a slightly different thing, then I may go back or try something different yet. I definitely have my personal favorite musical things, but variety is fun and helps me learn more when i explore.
If you mean that on a 28" scale length, you are tuning your .012 gauge melody strings to "high high g" meaning the g above the usual high d that people often tune their melody strings to, then I honestly don't see how that's possible with breaking the string. But you say you are tuning in ionian mode, so a melody string tuned to g would have you playing in ionian key of C, not A or G. Unless you mean that your melody string is tuned to the usual high d, and you are playing in ionian key of G. In that case, your bass and melody strings would be tuned to either D and G (reverse ionian), OR to G and D. Either way, that's a pretty normal pitch level.
I'm still not sure what you mean by "low, low key of A". What notes are you actually tuning to for all three strings here? I think we are using different terminology and hence some confusion.
Noah Aikens said:
I am talking about ionian, but my dulcimer can do it in different modes. The g I am talking about is the g above middle c, and the a is the a below the a below middle c. I normally play drone but do cross handoccasionally.
but my dulcimers-both 28 1/2 in vsl, tune and play very well from the low,low key of A and the high, high key of g.
I'm not clear what you mean by this- what tunings are you talking about exactly?
Great that you got all inspired!
Looks like someone took the fretboard off one newer crappy dulcimer, cut it to fit (without regard to losing half the space from the nut to the 1st fret ) and then glued it on this older dulcimer after pulling or sanding down the original fretboard.
IMHO it's completely unplayable. It's even rather hideous as a wall decoration. It should just be put out of its misery. 
Maybe save the peghead for some other project.
Ok, I see it is offered free on Bob McNally's website, here:
http://www.strumstick.com/index.html
There was no name or author listed on the pdf.
...I like to make sure the author's name is made clear, and that they are giving their work out for free if we link to it here.
Hi all,
You know, I hadn't been aware of this thread until just now, and I did not realize that we have over 50 members on FOTMD from Australia- but I saw that after reading this thread just now and doing an 'advanced' search by country as Mark suggested above. I now see that there are many more Aussie members than I thought, and that you are indeed having a hard time connecting effectively.
Anne did ask me yesterday about having a new Aussie group, and I decided against it, since I am very reluctant to add more new Groups over time.
But you know what? I now think that wasn't the best decision and I can see a real need for this here. I'm changing my mind.
Let me go ahead now and create the new Australia Group for you all, and you can all join up there and dive in.
At the moment I don't even no where to begin with finger picking. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Monica, do join the Finger Picking Group on this site, and get all kinds of awesome help in beginning finger picking!
James, you are 'calling the tune', so please do it by starting a new thread for each tune in our "Call The Tune Group" located here for that very purpose: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/group/callthetune
This will keep the tune discussions organized and easy to find for folks in the future.
Thanks!
Tom, you may also find some helpful tips in my noter-drone blog for beginners: http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/
Just be sure to start reading from the earlier posts and work your way towards the more recent ones- if you want the easier and information material first.
Hi Ann,
That song is copywrited, so you'd either have to buy a dulcimer book with the tab in it (and I don't know of any), or get help with tabbing the song privately. Due to copyright laws and ethics that protect musician's created works, I can't encourage the sharing of tab of copyrighted material here on FOTMD. Thanks for understanding, and I'll be closing this thread to replies.
If anyone is in doubt about whether certain holiday songs are public doamin or copyrighted, there are some handy lists to check over on our "Public Domain...or Not?" Group here on the site- see the Groups section, thanks!
I find that dulcimers with larger bodies and TALLER bodies (not shallow) tend to have bigger rounder voices. Tops made of softwood like spruce or redwood seem to have lots of resonance, like guitars do. Walnut is known for sounding 'warmer' than say maple or cherry, which is a bit brighter and crisper. I've had one of each and found that true in my case. If you are plugging in, you can control the volume pretty easily.
I would strongly recommend against gluing a shim underneath the nut. Shims are usually considered to be temporary fixes, even if they are left in for many years. Personally, I prefer no glue at all under a nut even when it doesn't have a shim. String tension holds it in place nicely, and nuts are something that people change or adjust fairly frequently, so having it easily removable is convenient.
(Marg, you seem to have started several threads on the same subject in various locations- next time it would be less confusing if you only post one thread per subject or per question... thanks much!)
Rod "Deputy Mo" Westerfield will always be missed and remembered.
Here is his FOTMD profile page, still up:
mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profile/RodWesterfield
While you are visiting his page, do have a listen to his sweet music player clips in the left hand column.
P.S. I was wondering just the other day about YOU, CD, and why we hadn't heard from you in a while. ;) Glad to see you post today.
Hi Mark, glad you joined our friendly site!
If you join our Beginner Players Group, and look at the discussion forum there, you will see several very helpful threads with suggestions about various instruments that can be great for beginner players. really any well made dulcimer will be fine for a beginner, and the folks you mentioned would be reliable as well. Much depends on your budget. But you may find some helpful advice in those discussions, and you can ask a zillion beginner questions in our Beginner's Group! 
You sound just like me Eileen...we both can't resist all kinds of activities and learning processes....
Hi Eileen- great to hear of your latest research and explorations!
Time, yes more TIME is what I wish I had so I could learn to play and the instruments I would LIKE to learn to play!
I have not had enough time to work on my frame drum as I would like, BUT I did get a rebec-like antique Cretan Lyra with a fiddle fingerboard- that I got on ebay and had it fixed by a luthier to be made playable again...and I actually HAVE been practicing that and enjoyng it a great deal. So that is GOOD. It's much like our little rebecs, with a bowl back too...but with steel violin strings. I play it in my lap like a little baby cello. Still not up to doing a little video yet- it takes a long while to play in tune, like most violin/fiddle thingys do. Glad to hear you got your rebec pegs improved- it really does have a lovely sound I think, with the gut strings.
