Forum Activity for @strumelia

Hugs to all who are missing their sweet furry companions...

Look at that sweet little babe!

Yes I like "River lute" as well. This is part of a topic that usually inspires some debate. But yes technically a mountain dulcimer is defined as type of zither (box with strings going over the top, and no real neck). Lute family is broad and includes guitars, and lutes all have necks. Yours can be most accurately described as a (mostly) diatonically fretted guitar.

@fharlm , the ones in your link are all pretty big. I had a personal sized indoor rebounder for a year or so. I liked it at first, but eventually found it made me a little dizzy. I occasionally have bouts of vertigo, so that's not the greatest fit. If not for that it might have been fine. I do suggest you get one that is made specifically for one-person fitness use and not for multi-kids fun use. And pay attention to the weight limit suggestions.
I switched over to having a rowing machine in my living room, which seems to suit me way better. 😃

I have always like 'mustached' dogs. They remind me of my very first dog Facha, and my big sweet mixed breed dog Jasper.

Here is a working link to Ken's article:

https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/2316/ken-hulmes-i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what-article

Leo, in my prior post I said the hoya "Krinkle 8" flowers smell just like chocolate covered cherries! Most hoyas release more intense scent at night because they are primarily pollinated by moths.
My hoyas are kept inside my house, in partly-sunny windows.

Hoyas don't like excessive watering, and they tend to have tough thick leaves. So in a way they are a bit like succulents. The potting medium is important- they like a pot that is not too large for them, and orchid mix that has chunks of bark and maybe some perlite or sphagnum in it. They grow on trees in the wild and can be found all over the world.

Some varieties do and some don't Dusty. You have to do some research on that. My hoya Krinkle8 did not drip nectar. I think my hoya wayetii did drip a little. I agree that would be annoying.
You can get cuttings or young started plants on Etsy. I got 2 Krinkle8 young plants and potted them together in a hanging pot... that gave me a nicer bushy young plant to start with. Now a year later it has grown to twice the size.

They are epiphytes, like orchids. So they like airy soil that has lots of drainage and bark chips.. like chunky orchid potting mix soil. They do not thrive in typical potting soil that has little aeration.

Here is the first bloom of my Krinkle 8, a year after i potted the young plants together... there are now two other buds forming:

@Fharlm - that's a lovely spider plant! It's been decades since i had a spider plant, but I agree they give back a whole lot in return for a little considerate care.

I've had several of my indoor hoya plants bloom for me in the past two months. The most exciting one was my hoya Krinkle 8. The spherical umbel of pink blooms smelled exactly like chocolate covered cherries!

"If you habitually wear slick polyester slacks, then a shelf-liner is useful."

I think if you wear slick polyester slacks, it's probably best that you not venture out in public anyway. 

It's a great solution. But to confirm what Dusty warned on- do NOT store the rubber shelf material directly in contact with the wood. It WILL leave strange waffles patterns on your dulcimer over time. Not residue, but actually lightening the color of the wood so you can't just clean it off.

On behalf of all site members, I just wanted to give a hug of appreciation to our wonderful VOLUNTEER Welcome Wagon here on FOTMD.

Our "Greeters" post warm welcome comments on the profile page of every new member who joins the site. They do this simply because they know how good it feels to receive a friendly post or two on your page when you first join.  Our greeting team puts the "friends" in Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer, and they do it out of their own kindness.

I'd like to add that there are no special requirements for joining them as a FOTMD "Greeter"- you just have to love people and make a friendly welcoming comment on new members' profile pages with some regularity- whenever you feel you can. If you'd like more info just catch FOTMD Moderator Jim Fawcett early on most mornings in the ChatRoom here on FOTMD.  To open the Chat, click the blue "quote bubble" button at bottom right of any page on the site.

Let's all give our thanks to our site's current Welcome Wagon Team!:

@jim-fawcett

@ken-longfield

@richard-streib

@benjamin-w-barr-jr

@rob-n-lackey

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omg Dusty, too adorable! 

Hey, that's so nice of you to let me know how it helped you! Makes my day. 

If anyone wants to check it out, here's a link:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/09/few-of-my-posts-about-modes.html

My own thoughts are that a VSL of between 25"-27" is really ideal if one is intending to play in the key of D a great deal. (most dulcimers play in D more than in any other key). Once you get in the longer 28-30" vsl range, you are going to start breaking strings a little more often, and the shorter you go ...say 22-24", the heavier strings you will need to put on in order to play comfortably in the key of D.

That's the reason epinettes (which often have a typical vsl of only 21" or so) are usually tuned higher for the key of G (3 steps up from the usual dulcimer D). And dulcimers longer than 28" scale length often do better when tuned to C (1 step lower than the usual D).

Beginner dulcimer players often worry that they 'need' a shorter vsl because they have small hands. What they don't take into account are two important factors: 1) They be using also their thumb while fretting ...which extends their reach way beyond what most guitar players do using only four fingers ...and 2) Because of the drone-friendly tunings of dulcimers in the first place, one frequently is making use of open strings while fretting chords. So it's not really all that common or critical to make a long stretch when chording. When it does come up that a long stretch is needed, your thumb can neatly solve the issue most of the time.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend a 28-30" vsl dulcimer to people with smaller hands, I think that vsl's of 25-27" are great for people with any size hands, even small hands.  Just my two cents.

(runs and hides my trusty can of Pledge before anyone sees it...)

Folks, be sure to look over ALL the discussions in the "How Do I...?" forum, for help in figuring out how to do things on the site here.

Check it out, the answers may already be there waiting for you:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i

@molly-mccurdy - I need to contact you right away. I've sent you a private note here. Can you please check your FOTMD inbox and respond to me? Thank you!  -strumelia

@marg - if you are tuning to the key of D, then the note D would be "1" as you count on your fingers with the alphabet... and the fifth (5) from there would be A (D, E, F, G, A). That's the 1 (the tonic or key note) and its 5th note in the scale... D with A. Hence the popular tuning DAA.

and i thought *I* had a lot of banjers. 

Well that's a really lovely instrument! I like that it's got a relatively shallow depth, so the sound will be bright and project nicely. Love the little sound holes too. Must be a bit of a job to tune though! 

Who made your fretless banjo?

Welcome to the site!
Wow what a lot of music playing runs in your family- how nice!

That's a crazy adventure Ken. Hope you don't get hit too badly by the hurricane now.

+Plus to what Dusty said, but with one added thought:

Usually hardwood bridges are preferred and give better tone. Violins and banjos most typically have maple bridges.
However, I found out that with early style banjos the best most resonant sound is achieved with softwood bridges like spruce, cedar, pine, etc. I was at an early banjo gathering once where a fellow was selling bridges made from many various woods, and it was suggested by more than one person that i try a softwood bridge. I tried many bridges that day and they were right- the evergreen ones gave a noticeably richer more resonant tone... which very much surprised me. I bought several and put them on my 3 early style banjos.
I can only guess it's a similar effect as when a dulcimer has a spruce, redwood, or cedar top- which is softer wood but gives a very mellow resonant tone. I should note that the early fretless banjos use nylgut strings rather than steel strings and this may have relevance, other things being equal.

So don't destroy that cedar bridge once you make a new hardwood one. Swap them back and forth and do a sound test! 

That's pretty cute Sheryl! Clever.

I usually take a small needle nose pliers and bend the very ends right back on themselves like a little loop.

Yeah that does sound awesome Ken. Have a great time!  Don't catch covid.

You said you would like to probably experiment with chord playing, so i strongly suggest adding at least the 6.5 fret. (And it's 'octave companion' 13.5 fret if you get up that far)

Only enough pressure to make the string touch the fret. Sometimes with higher frets, if you press the string all the way down to touch the wood, then you are further stretching the string and making it sound sharp.

I think skip means you don't have to push the string all the way down to the wooden fretboard when pressing down the string between the frets. Also try to keep the noter not slanted- it gives a clearer sound. (unless you are purposely using the slanted noter technique for other reasons)

Dave, this is an interesting question and subject.
I can see that you are a pretty accomplished musician. I'm afraid I can't think of examples of the kind you are looking for in particular, but it shouldn't be a hard thing to do if you have musicians who can play along with each other by ear.

I went to our site's video section, and punched in "mandolin" in the search box, and came up with this:
https://fotmd.com/search/results/jrVimeo,jrYouTube,jrVideo/1/25/search_string=mandolin
There looks like maybe a couple of examples of dulcimer and mandolin playing together in a group, but you'll have to look through them.
Sorry I can't be of more help!

I've seen some guitars made with slanted or curvy frets. It's an overly-complex way of avoiding a compensated bridge. A compensated bridge is a heck of a lot easier and gets the job done, maybe a tiny bit less precisely than curved/slanted frets.

Of course, if you can't sing either of those songs, you're in trouble. lolol

No caption needed.

John, that is so coooool!!! I'll remember that one and use it.

The Cripple Creek dulcimer book instructs one to tune to the key of G for ionian mode, but without using a reverse tuning.

They instruct to tune the bass string to the G below middle C for bass string (G3 in octave labeling), then to the D (D4) right above middle C for the middle and melody strings. (Gddd for ionian key-of-G, as opposed to our typical key-of-D ionian tuning DAAA which has all strings below middle C). 

(Note that this Gddd 'might' strain your bass and middle strings if they are heavy gauge or if you have a long vsl.)

Dusty you correctly surmised the reverse tunings in the chart while I was typing my endless novel.

It's worth reading Robert Force's story about the book:
https://robertforce.com/SongsAndInstruction/InSearchOfTheWildDulcimer.html

And you can read the book itself online here:
https://robertforce.com/SongsAndInstruction/InSearchOfTheWildDulcimer-PDFs.html

NOTES:  in the "Tuning chart" page, at bottom he states the string length as being 24"... quite a short vsl.

He also states the strings as being listed 'from low to high', therefore he writes his mixolydian tuning in the chart from top to bottom: DADD meaning the top D is the low bass string and the two bottom d's are the pair of melody strings. He refers to the melody string s , plural. He lists the gauges as 22(low bass), 12, and 10 (0.22, 0.12, and 0.10)

He's giving DGdd as the tuning for Ionian mode. That's a 'reverse Ionian' tuning for the key of G.

Why that somewhat unusual tuning for playing in ionian mode? I figure this came about because when he tuned to DAAA on a 24" scale with the melody strings being 0.10, they were just too floppy for him to think playable. The third fret on the melody strings in DGdd is a G note, so that's the tonic/key he indicated. But if you tried to tune typically (1-5-5) for ionian in the key of G, you'd tune Gddd. The Bass string would break long before hitting that higher G, and it'd likely be too loose and jangly if tuned to the G below the usual D.  To avoid breaking the bass or middle string is the reason some folks use a 'reverse tuning'- where the tonic low note is instead on the middle string and the heavy string is tuned instead to a fifth below the tonic. The bass and middle string notes get swapped. It saves strings from breaking or from being too low to play.
For the key of G that reverse tuning would then be DGdd as in the chart, with the middle string taking over the job of the tonic low note, the melody strings playing high g tonic on the 3rd fret, and the bass string tuned to a fifth from the tonic (the 5th note in the key of G being a D) but in the lower octave. The bass and middle strings have exchanged duties, and you don't break any strings.

If the scale length of the person mapping out the tuning chart had been a more typical 26-28" length, then the normal key of D ionian tuning of DAAA would have worked fine. OR, it also would have also worked fine in DAAA on a 24" scale if he had put heavier strings on.
It's little wonder folks tuned up from the key of C to the key of D if they were making or playing 24" scale dulcimers. I also notice he has the chart use the key of E for aeolian mode. I think a lot of this was to accommodate that short 24" scale whoever wrote the chart was working with, assuming they didn't want to try changing to heavier strings for whatever reasons.

Robert's intro clearly states that he (and others he was working with) didn't really know much of anything about dulcimers or how they were traditionally played when they started having fun with them. They experimented, improvised, adapted, and learned as they went along.

That's wild!

How to make $20 by selling dulcimer buttons:
Start by spending $70 to make and mail a dozen of them.