I have two red Snarks. I like them very much! Plus they are inexpensive. Good grippers on the clamp.
I like that you can pluck a new note and the tuner picks up on it right away- you dont have to wait for the old note to fade out.
A friend bought one and his broke after a day, but he was carrying it in his pants pocket, so I dont know what might have happened.
Don't be afraid to be frank with him though- banjo players are used to being told to 'stuff a sock in it'.
LOL!
How can you tell if the stage is level at a bluegrass concert?
....the banjo player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth. 
Speaking from my own personal experience... I honestly do not find my Galax dulcimer to be particularly louder than the non-Galax dulcimers I have played. It has a deep large box which makes it sound a bit deeper, so the tone is not 'brighter' either, which Melissa says she wants.
Melissa has no dulcimers right now, and she's looking for ONE that will do it all. Since she says she wants to do some chording as well, I'd recommend against a Galax dulcimer, unless she is going to string it in standard form with a heavy bass string....but why choose a Galax anyway if not stringing it in high octave?
Modern Mountain Dulcimers have the volume and the double back, and probably the brightness if you ask for it...but I doubt they'd fall under the $400 range.
McSpaddens would fit the bill- but Melissa didn't like the looks of the one she had.
Lots of things to consider!
Hi Melissa,
Though there are some good quality dulcimers made for $400 or less, that price will be a somewhat limiting factor, in terms of false-backs, custom wood choices, etc. Some McSpaddens will fall within that price range, but may go over w/case, shipping, etc. You might want to look in the beginner GROUP here at the several threads about choosing your first dulcimer- since you have a lot in common with them in terms of buying only one instrument to 'do it all' plus the modest price range. There is a long and excellent thread there discussing the good luthiers who produce modestly priced new dulcimers.
One more point- chording does not require a 26-27" VSL. Any VSL/scale from 26"-28" will be just great for doing anything. 
I'm not talking about what playing styles people use, but rather what kinds of tunes and songs you like to play most on your mountain dulcimer....?
What do you like to play most often?-
jazz, old English/Appalachian ballads, countrywestern, blues, traditional hymns, modern popular music, American folk songs from the 1940's-60's, original compositions, fiddle tunes, childrens songs, classical music, rock music, trad Irish/Celtic music, medieval, or some other kind of tunes....?
Tell us what kind of music you mostly like to play! I'd love to hear what people are most into on their dulcimers these days.
You can list your several favorite types, too. But if you say you like to play them ALL, ...then that's not really listing your 'favorites', is it?- so please, tell us your favorite types of music to play- maybe pick between 1-4 types maximum if possible.
Carol I'm very happy to hear that. Every time i have wooden pegs on an instrument and they refuse to work well for me, I have found that Peg Drops makes the pegs behave very nicely- just one drop does the trick every time for me! 
If only more folks would try that rather than immediately changing the wooden pegs out for mechanical at the first sign of trouble.
Paul- all the old-time fiddlers I know have fine tuners on their fiddles...and I do know many fiddlers.
Lois, their seems to be a group for beginners over there, called Pstudents:
http://psalterystrings.ning.com/groups
Maybe that's the group for beginner psaltery players that Grace referred to.
...and here is a link to the online community just for bowed psaltery players!:
http://psalterystrings.ning.com/
Here is what I was doing all this past Saturday, at the Dance Flurry in Saratoga NY, 2011.
(I actually was amongst the dancers in both these two videos, but I'm not really visible.)
I had a heck of a good time, but as expected, I was sore for 3 days after arriving there at 10am and leaving after midnight, dancing most of that time. I must have danced for about 10-12 hours Saturday. 
I took classes in Norwegian, Swedish, and Italian village dances, but mostly did contra dancing in between, like the two contra dances shown here. The second clip shows a really cool two-person band with digiridoo, the first band is more typical.
talk about your major exercise ! 
My poor feet the next day...
Well I guess dancing falls within percussion instruments in this 'other instruments' forum.
I thought this was really funny.
(Warning: lyrics contain the 'sh' word, but nothing worse.)
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/5f0cf25368/how-to-write-a-love-songWell I add that FOTMD needs almost nothing in terms of 'censorship'. FOTMD members (and dulcimer players in general) seem to be unusually kind and thoughtful.
I like a good spicy debate once in a while, and I am not particularly prudish either.
The moderators' job is really mostly to be there in case a spammer gets through the usual defenses that have been put in place. I might be sleeping late or off somewhere else for the day, and if a spammer gets in and starts posting their annoying posts here, any of the 3 mods who sees them has the ability to kick them off the site and delete all their content. This gives me great peace of mind!
We have had a very few spammers making trouble here in the past, and I've since further tightened up the joinup process to prevent them from joining in the first place. But it's inevitable that one may slip by at some point in time. The good news is that now there are seven of us who can notice them and kick them out. (And keep in mind that even if they do get on FOTMD and post junk, they would never have access to any members' account info or email address.)
Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer is a pretty friendly community. We don't see much bickering in general. But like everywhere else on the internet, you never know what might happen.
It's good to have a few extra pairs of eyes watching over FOTMD in case disaster strikes, a spammer gets by the barriers, or some member suddenly decides to go berserk.
In addition to the site creator (Strumelia), FOTMD has FIVE great moderators. They can eject spammers, watch for any flame battles, are around when I go off somewhere on short trips (or sleep late, as I am known to do on occasion), and generally help make sure things stay on course. I am very grateful for their level-headed presence and generosity!
Visit their pages and get to know who they are. Feel free to ask any of our moderators questions about how things are organized here on FOTMD- they are very friendly and helpful folk.
Meet your Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer Moderators!...
Jim Fawcett
(visit Jim's FOTMD Page, click here)
================================================================================
DUSTY TURTLE
(visit Dusty's FOTMD Page, click here)
Dusty as a wee babe....
==================================================================
Jan Potts
(visit Jan Pott's FOTMD page, click here)
================================================================================
Sam
(visit Sam's FOTMD page, click here)
================================================================================
Bob Reinsel
(visit Bob's FOTMD page, click here)
About 12 years ago, I convinced my good friend Lauren to play music together for a casual party as a gig. Lauren had never played as a performer for an audience before, but she nervously agreed to.
We played simple sing-along stuff like My Darling Clementine, You are my Sunshine, etc. We made some mistakes but everyone had a great time and the audience loved it and sang along.
After it was over, as Lauren and I were walking back to our car carrying our instruments, I asked her "So how do you feel?"
She said "I'm so nervous and rattled I feel like I'm about to throw up."
After a moment she added "So when do we do it again?"
I have thin base layers of very soft merino wool which really keep me warm and cozy all winter, without the itching associated with wool from years ago.
Reading FOTMD also makes me feel warm. 
When glancing at this thread while passing by, I didn't realize that Kathy doesn't live in the US. We Americans are rather clueless about making such assumptions. My apologies!!
Blue Lion dulcimers have an excellent reputation here in the US. Whatever dulcimer you might get from them Kathy is sure to be very well made, will have a good sound and be smooth to play, and will retain its value for resale as well.
I'm not really sure what makes the jean Ritchie model different from Blue Lion's other models though.
Are you choosing the Jean R. model for a particular reason?- to fill a particular playing need, or just because you like the looks of it? (either are good reasons of course).
Is there anything unusual about your playing style or your situation that effects your playing choices? things like arthritis, tiny hands, wanting to play chords or not, whether you play with a noter, etc?
Do you know how long a scale (VSL) the Jean Ritchie model has? That could be an important thing, depending.
I often think about things I might have done differently over the years if I could start to learn to play music all over again from the beginning.
I don't mean the most obvious thing of "I wish i had started playing music earlier in my life"- that's too easy.
I mean something like "I wish I had gotten a guitar instead of that flute I started on", or "I wish I had joined that choir in school like I had wanted to", or "I wish I hadn't listened to that teacher", or "I should have bought that accordion!" (ok maybe not that one...lol!)
There are doubtless also some of us who would not wish to have done anything differently at all!
What would you do differently now if you could go back in time to when you started playing music?
Thanks. Are you able to play everything in CGC that you could play in DAD?
Yes. Just tune down to CGC and pretend you are still in DAd. (Just remember you are now playing in the key of C- in case you ever want to play with others this will make a difference.)
Sam says:
I too know more less.
Well Sam, you know what the definition of an expert is:
Someone who knows more and more about less and less until finally they know everything about nothing. 
HI Charles,
As per you being the village idiot, may I point out the old Japanese proverb:
We are fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance!
I always liked that one.
you are not the only person to find it difficult to sing in the key of D.
My first recommendation is to simply tune your dulcimer down one whole step on every string, from DAd to CGC. That way you will be in the key of C instead of D. See if this solves those few highest singing notes for you. A lot of people play and tune their dulcimers in the key of C. It will not present any problem at all unless you are trying to play with others who are in the key of D.
If that's still too high for your voice, we can get you into the key of G instead and have you sing in the lower octave. This would be 3 whole steps lower than D. But try simply tuning down to the key of C for now- that might be all you need. It's easy to tune one step DOWN on every string to CGC from DAd!
Today I had lots of fun buying a new bow for my two tagelharpas. Yes, I've decided to call them by their Swedish name, tagelharpa (which means tail-harp) rather than their Finnish name jouhikko, because I found that NOBODY could remember the name jouhikko. So now I'm calling them 'tagelharpas' which my friends seem much better able to pronounce and remember. I also like that it means 'tail harp', after the strings made from twisted horse hair.
Anyway, the two bows that came with my tagelharpas were becoming a little problematic for me- one was too small and lightweight ...skittered around and didn't give me a hearty tone. The other, which looked cool because it was made from a bent stick bark and all...gave a good tone but was a little too heavy- difficult to be agile with it when playing.
I went to my local music store and was able to try out about 7 bows for cellos and for violas- full sized ones and half sized ones, etc. None of them were very high quality or expensive, but that was fine- I was just looking for a good weight bow I could work with better than my current ones. I had also been borrowing an old cheap fiddle bow from Brian, but that was too light and a little too long again. that told me I should maybe look at the viola and cello bows.
After spending 45 minutes rosining and trying the bows back and forth in the music store, trying them on my tagelharpa (much to the amusement of the various teenage electric guitar customers coming and going).... I found the nicest feeling one with the best tone of the bunch was a full sized viola bow. There were two of them for sale- for $80 and $40, and oddly i liked the feel and tone of the $40 one better. It was made in China. I know it's not a very good bow, but it's a step up from what i've been using!
So I went home with a new bow to practice with, it was quite exciting for me!
I had been shamefully neglecting my tagelharpas over the past 2 months, but for the past two weeks I've plunged back into practicing them again. I found that changing my practice time from evening to morning really helped me, as too often in the evening I was simply too tired mentally to want to get practicing. It seems more inspiring and fresh somehow in the morning, so that change is helping me to better stick with it and progress.
I also ordered a book and CD of simple Finnish kantele tunes which are specifically for the 5 string kantele and will likely be perfectly suited to the tagelharpa which is based upon a 5 or 6 note note scale.
I am very slowly making progress. But more importantly, I am still really loving playing this instrument even though it's a great deal of work and a huge challenge for me.
Thanks guys! Yes randy, I shouldn't apologize so much- after all it does sound not so bad for only playing a month. I'll try to stop groveling!
robin, this instrument is really designed to play a drone constantly. I'm not so sure bowed dulcimer is, so it's possible you may well have to work harder than me to get the same drone effect.
Randy Adams said:
....what's Brian think of it? Does he offer a few pointers?....or disappear with the cats?... : ).....
Ok, here is my very first (rather embarrassing) recording attempt on my Michael King jouhikko. It's quite rough, and the intonation leaves a LOT to be desired...but hey there isn't even a fretboard! lol! It's a start!
This is a tune Michael played for me but he doesn't know what it is, neither do I.
So listen: here I am scratching away on it and scaring off the cats.
Robin, I am enjoying 'trying' to play just very old and very simple folk melodies. I have a few Finnish and Scandinavian type ones. They have to be really simple for me to even attempt them.
I plan to stick with mostly old European/Scandi folk tunes, and maybe find a friend with a (subtle) drum to get a medieval feel to it eventually once I can actually play the thing. :)
Hey Randy thanks!
You are right on all counts except... right now it's anything BUT relaxing!!! 
These things are pretty wild and uncontrollable at the moment- screeching whiney sounds aren't too relaxing. YIKES! lol!
But i am having fun making a mess of it all and trying hard. It'll take me weeks to be able to do a little ditty like michael whips off. Meaning he's busy apologizing for his playing.... 
Randy Adams said:
I love the sound of it in the video. It has to be such a relaxing instrument to play....ya know....you don't have to be Perlman or Paginini right?....just play some nice little melodies.....fun!
And it looks to be a very well made instrument...horsehair strings!....curly maple!....2 piece back!
In the YouTube video on Michael's website, it looks to be your new jouhikko & case that are showcased!?
OK, I got my other jouhikko today! (Remember I sold a banjo and was able to buy TWO jouhikkos with the money...wooHOOO!)
This one is SO DIFFERENT from my other one- and that's what I wanted- to try two completely different setups, tunings, and modes of playing. They are both very very cool.
Here is an album of pix of my new beauty.
They are both challenging to play in their own ways...but I got a head start of 3 weeks on the other one so now I have to work at this new one. The case is almost as wonderful as the instrument!
This jouhikko (bowed lyre/Talharpa) was made by FOTMD member Michael King of the UK. What a great guy and artistic craftsman! Here is his website: http://www.michaeljking.com/
I'm so excited! I have lots of new stuff to work on all winter now! 
I have taken a little time off of doing patent drawings for a type of spray gun today, to work on getting a couple of interesting new tunes to try to play on my new jouhikko (Finnish/Swedish/Estonian folk fiddle-thingy).
I bought a CD of old recordings of Finnish folk songs and have been picking out a couple of tunes to transcribe and play. Wow, talk about non-chord based archaic music!
This will now give me a total of 6 old simple traditional Finnish folk tunes to work on. I can look into Swedish tunes as well (my Swedish grandfather would have loved that, maybe even my Swedish ancestors played the jouhikko/tagelharpa!)
Now if only I could fret the thing in tune...no fingerboard makes it pretty interesting.
The good news is that after about 2 weeks of playing now i do sound a little bit better- less squeaking and scratching with the bow, and a little less horribly out of tune. Just needs few more years of playing now!
But if you ask me if I'm having any fun...YES, a TON !Well I've spent about 45 minutes to an hour each day so far for 4 days. I am excited because i actually see a little improvement just from that short time practicing.
I am only working on 2 VERY simple Finnish folk ditties that came with the instrument- one is in minor mode and one in major. That's all I need to work on for now, because I'm using these two simple tunes like exercises. They each only have 8 measures in them, and only six notes. It's weird to get used to rocking over onto the far (unfretted) drone string for the tonic melody note each time you want it, but I'm starting to get used to that idea. The main melody string is tuned to the second note (Re) of the scale! 
It's tuned AEB - the B being the melody string (the other two strings played open as drones and/or tonic note) in the key of A.
Still sounds like squeaky train brakes, but that's expected. Every once in a while I accidentally hit a couple of nice clear notes and that's enough excitement to keep me motivated! lol!
Mostly trying to hold the bow perpendicular to the strings and move it fast enough to catch the strings well instead of skreeking.
But I'm having tons of fun!!
Thanks Randy. I guess I like the challenge. I really respond to the primitive folk sound and the drones, so even the scratchy out of tune practice is pleasing to me in a strange way.
Sounds to me like you should try fiddling with the fiddle held down low against the ribs instead of in 'classic violin' form. brian plays that way often- he says it's the 'lazy' way to play, but it sure sounds good to me!
Randy Adams said:
I admire you for taking on the challenge Lisa. I was 41 (1992) when I started playing the dulcimer...had been playing guitar & banjo for 20+ years.... and I remember thinking I never wanted to learn another instrument....it's a huge undertaking. But I have enjoyed the journey.
The only instrument I would have liked to learn in my life is the fiddle. I have tried 3 or 4 or 5 times and never made it more than 2 weeks!... : (....I just can't do it. Hurts my left wrist to be in the position....my face, and ears, are right next to where the bow is squeaking and scratching... : ).....
Anyways...have fun! This is inspiring! Hope you check in ever so often with a progress report and trials & tribulations!... : ).....
Hi Robin,
i figure it will keep me out of trouble...sometimes.
Yes the strings are made of pretty firmly twisted horsehair. My strings have 6o strands for the low drone and 40 strands for the two higher strings.
Yes, you can make your own strings as they wear and get too thin. I bought extra bowhair hanks which can make the strings too. The bow is horsehair too, but straight not twisted, and somewhat loose- you create extra bowhair tension with your fingers as you bow (underhand grip). you are almost always playing two strings at once.
Robin Thompson said:
Lisa, I'll wait-- got nothin' but time.
Glad Randy started the thread because I was wonderin', too. You probably haven't had it long enough to tell much about the horsehair strings. . . Are the hairs twisted? Do they have to be replaced often? Can you buy hanks of horsehair and make your own strings?
Hey thanks Randy for starting a thread.
Heck, I've only had it about two days and we've been doing various other stuff so I haven;t been able to paractice it as much as I'd like yet, but getting some practice in today.
Here's a good example of a simple tunes played on a jouhikko:
It will take me many months before I can play something that well!
So how's it going. You luvin' it? Is it what you thought it was gonna be?
I'ts not easy- very challenging. Mostly because you are frettin the string in mid air, no frets or fingerboard to guide you. Also bowing is an art in itself and takes a LONG time to get decent. I'm sounding very scratchy and very out of tune- as I expected! It is what I thought it would be, perhaps a tad quieter than I thought, but then it's got horsehair strings, not steel fiddle strings. a nice 'chewy' textured sound.
<Are you taking to it like a duck to water?.. : ).....Are you having fun? Is it hard to play? Do you like the sound? >>>
It's GREAT fun, but not something I can just slip into doing- will take much work, but I kind of knew that going in. Yes, i love the sound, and as you know I love drones. The bowing is what will be the greatest challenge.
<How do you pronounce it? Is it a well made instrument? What type of songs are you going to play?>>>
Pronounced YOO-hee-koh. It's a very simple instrument, not refined like a guitar. Sturdy and wll put together, but primitive, like it was designed to be. (The other one that's almost done will be a little more delicate and refined).
Best suited for simple older folk tunes and some medieval tunes. Played in either major or minor. It uses only 6 notes in the scale, so the tunes must be very simple. On this one, the middle string is a low drone below the tonic note, a fifth. So this one is tuned to key of A and the low drone is an E.
My other one coming soon will be strung and tuned differently and will be played in G. It's low drone string will be on the top side rather than the middle.
<Any one else have/play one of these?>>>
Pristine (Richard) has one from this same maker- I think he got it a year and a half ago, but I don't know if he's been playing it much.
FlintHill said:
<Can't wait to hear you play these.>>>
lol!
