Forum Activity for @strumelia

Wow, that's unexpected!  How nice!

But even if they accidentally let the domain expire... If they knew their stuff, they would have had some sort of backup of the email addresses of all their members. They could have then emailed everyone to at least let them know they were ending the site. If they cared.

A couple of weeks?  Doesn't sound good.

You gotta show up and commit for the long haul, like Bruce Ford did with the real/original Everything Dulcimer.

@ StudentofRhythm it's so wonderful that you gave your little daughter a penny whistle. I hope she figures out a simple couple of tunes on it and that it sparks the joy of making music in her!   
Maybe the two of you will work out a simple tune duet on whistle and dulcimer!  (I found "Bear Dance" to be a great choice of tune for total beginners of various instruments to work on. You almost 'can't go wrong' with that tune.)

Welcome @Buckeye67 !  My very first mtn dulcimer was a new walnut hourglass McSpadden exactly like yours, which I think i got somewhere around 1995-96... so it may be a sister/sibling to yours. 😸  It has a voice like an angel, i gave it to my younger daughter years ago. Enjoy it!  McSpaddens are a great choice, and they retain their value over time.

I agree with Ken and Dwain that this looks to be more likely from the 1960s or early 70s. Definitely not from the 1940s.

It's a cool dulcimer!- and seems like it'd be worth restoring.

I recall going to several different dulcimer festivals at a time when George was the ONLY staff teacher there who included noter style playing in his workshops, among maybe 20 mtn dulcimer teachers. I do remember how like-able George was during his presentations. His teaching style was always fun and accessible.

I read that George Haggerty has passed away. He encouraged and inspired so many hundreds of new dulcimer players over the decades.
Anyone want to share their experiences with George?

Here is a nice little article I came across.

Have been getting nice fresh leaf lettuce from our veggie garden for the past 3 weeks, and giving some to my good friends.

Today I cut the first big leaves of Swiss chard and stir fried it to eat with leftover stuffed shells. It was yummy!  I'm glad i planted some scallions this year, since they will come in handy for stir frying as well. I'm on a stir fry kick this year! 

My tomato plants are about 10" high and are making flowers already.  

It's always fun to think about how to spend other people's money. 

Not much has changed in contra dancing since this 1964 film:

Very beautiful!  And I love the natural brown pegs against the black.

Dusty, you expressed it so well. I agree about your coffee table comment, and thank you for the input about tablet size- very helpful!  KenL, I'm glad you posted your timely final tribute to a great publication that enriched all our lives for many years.

It does still feel odd and somehow 'not right' that now both the original (Bruce Ford's) EverythingDulcimer site and DPN magazine are both gone. They were together the very backbone of the dulcimer community. I realize that there is now an entire new generation (or two!) of dulcimer players who never even experienced DPN or the 'real' ED in their heydays. Perhaps we sound like old geezers lamenting the past.

To me, facebook groups are rather pale replacements, since 1) they are not conducive to in depth discussion, 2) they tend to consist largely of ads and self promotions, and 3) the info posted on them just kinda disappears after a day or two and it's almost impossible to search for any past content. Not to mention you have to join FB  ( lolol)

Nice to read about you David!  Welcome to FOTMD. 

Thanks friends!  Yep, it went well and I do notice things are definitely faster.
There will be some software updates coming up in the near future, and those may not be quite as smooth.  🚧 🚒

The deed is done. All seems fine to me. Please report any noticed problems here.
If you notice any initial loading glitches, first just refresh your page, OR restart your browser.
All should be fine after the cache catches up to the latest state. Thanks!

Hi everyone. I thought I'd let you know that on tuesday morning April 18 we will be moving to a new server and there might possibly be temporary glitches on fotmd for an hour or so. Not to worry, it should go smoothly and this move likely won't even be noticed.  -the Management.  :)

Ah, that's cool Robin. It can be listed here even though it's an online event, there have been quite a few online festivals and gatherings in fotmd's event section during the past 3 years of pandemic. 
Last year's floods were such a terrible blow for so many in that area.

Sounds like a great gathering!

Maybe next year one of the organizers could plan ahead to post it in our main Events section here on FOTMD. There are a lot of noter players here who might be interested in going.

So much depends on the size of the peghead (or peg box), and the overall size of the dulcimer.
Choose pegs that don't look too big or too small for the instrument. Use your eye. 👁

My 29" vsl langspil was equipped with Wittner internally geared viola pegs:

It's an imposing instrument and violin pegs would have looked silly on it.

Or, the geared tuners in viola size. Violin sized tuners might only look natural on smaller dulcimers. Check the sizes of the tuners and the instrument.

Robin, that was a sweet box dulcimer!

Hi Keigh,

@flint-hill

Ken's FOTMD page is here http://fotmd.com/flint-hill
You can try contacting him through here, though he has not logged in here since 2015. He might get your email if you message him from here.

This is his Youtube channel page: http://www.youtube.com/@FlintHillVideo/videos

P.S. I just wrote to him from the only email address I have for him, with a link to this discussion.

It's got a 6.5 fret slot, so it's not likely to be from before the 1970s.

Here's a couple of good online measurement descriptions of 1970s McSp kit dulcimers.

If I'm not mistaken, Gary was making wonderful and modestly priced box dulcimers at a time when almost no other dulcimer builders were making box dulcimers or Tennessee music box reproductions.

I hear there are tens of dollars to be made in dulcimer magazines and websites.

This is indeed sad news. I'm wishing comfort for his family.

BTW Nate, I appreciate the fact that you are obviously using the site's search feature to pull up relevant and interesting discussions on topics you are interested in, rather than simply starting new and possibly redundant discussions.
This is one of the good things about a site that keeps older content easily accessible, as opposed to a FB type site where everything prior to the current week gets impossibly buried.

Good point Nate.

Another weird thing- If you play a lot, your fretting hand will actually be able to stretch more than your strumming/picking hand. Due to making stretching moves thousands of times to fret on fingerboards, while the strumming hand does not.
I've played stringed instruments for decades. Both my hands appear to be exactly the same size and length. But when i stretch my hands out to create the most distance between my thumb and pinky tip, and place my palms together, I see that my left/fretting hand can stretching over 1" more from thumb to pinky than my right hand. It's like the way a gymnast or dancer can perfect doing a split with longtime practice.

Shootrj, if you've ever starting singing a song and found it too high or too low for your voice, and started over to sing it a little higher or lower to be more comfortable, then... what you actually did was change the key you were singing in.

I mean like for several examples-

--If i was playing dulcimer in an oldtime fiddle jam session, they usually play in the keys of D, G, and A. I used to use my slightly shorter scale dulcimer for tuning up to key of D, and I'd keep my slightly longer scale dulcimer for tuning lower to the keys of G and A. Changing tunings too often or drastically can wear the strings and make them break faster. For example changing from a DAA tuning to DAd back and forth too often is something I try to avoid when jamming.
--When I'm at home and trying to sing with the dulcimer, the key of D is too high for me, so I might go to a lower key for that as long as i don't have to consider what keys others might need to play instruments in.
--If I'm playing a lonesome/sad tune it would usually call for either an aeolian or a dorian type of tuning, as opposed to a 'happy' sounding typical DAA or CGG ionian-friendly tuning.

I've made lots of long blog posts on my noter blog about how I myself deal with all these things, I can't really summarize or condense them here. Your question is pretty broad and covers a lot of ground. My blog does have an index to sort posts by subject matter, so maybe you can find something helpful there in addition to other folks' fine suggestions here.  :)

Go for it!

To me, scale length has been hugely important dependent on what tunings and keys I want to play in. If you're a singer it is critical. This matters less when you plan to play by yourself, but becomes super important if you plan to play with other people, especially if the other folks are not only playing dulcimers.

My dulcimers and banjos have a certain narrow range of scale lengths because I have always played them with other people on other instruments, or have sung with them. On the other hand, my custom langspil I was able to have made in a longer scale to tune a key or two lower, because i knew i would only be playing it by myself and wanted a lower key 'mournful' sounding instrument.

That said, learning to be able to play in more than 1 or 2 tunings, or using a capo, will enable one to play in more keys on an instrument of any scale.

@hugssandi , so good to see you post again here on fotmd! 

Robin and KenL both said it so well.

I hope David is at peace, and that he will be remembered in the beautiful sound of hundreds of people playing his dulcimers for years to come. My wishes for comfort go out to his loved ones.

John Henry is a truly wonderful and amazing person. He and his family are in my thoughts and loving wishes right now.

Those strings should work ok, but if the .012 strings for the melody course feel too stiff or are hard for you to press down, try using .010 melody strings, especially since your scale length is almost 28".

Ken, I assume you mean Richard Latker.

Richard is a member of FOTMD: @pristine2
Though he has not recently been active on this site, he might respond if you send him a private message here.

I seem to recall that Bruce Ford mentioned that he would not be saving or archiving the vast discussion forums of ED. I do recall reading Bruce's post about that and thinking Well that's a shame to lose all those years of discussion, but perhaps it's for the best anyway.  I believe what was archived and made available were the Tab section, the Festivals section, and the Articles.
In any case, I think one would need a forum or php software framework and a hosted site in which to actually import/read/interpret an archived php forum. It's not like a text file that you can just open and read.

Dusty is right that you might try the internet Archive. However, it will be limited in terms of 'drilling down' into discussions from the past. You might not be able to get to all the replies or be able to search it the same way as a regular website. It won't function the same way as a real original forum.

Hope this helps.

Mike Seeger most likely learned Georgia Buck from Elizabeth Cotten:

In the early 1940s, Cotten had moved to Washington, D.C., where (as a domestic) she began working for the legendary Charles Seeger family and caring for children Pete, Peggy, and Mike.

(also we should note that her name is spelled Cotten)

Dusty, how nice that you whipped that together so beautifully!