I posted these 6 photos on my page of an unusual dulcimer possibly made by a builder in Indiana. It was suggested I also post them here. The builder's logo/signature are woodburned into it and should help.
I have 1 photo in my photos section that I somehow acquired from the Berea Gathering. I have 6 photos I would like to post and ask if anybody recognizes who made my Swan-shaped Dulcimer. I can select them from my files & they range from 87.5 KB to 181 KB, so that should be smaller than the 1.5 MB it says is the maximum. I click the Select Images to Upload box on my Photos tab, open the photo in my file and drop it on the Select Images box, where the title appears in a green box (but no photo). There the size goes from 87.5kB to 0.2MB with all but 1 of the 6 either 0.1 or 0.2 MB. What step am I missing? While I'm at it I'd like to group all 6 together, titling it Swan-shaped Dulcimer and in the gallery description say where I bought it as a clue & ask if anybody recognizes the signature & logo on it and the instrument.
Using the earliest Wayback Machine capture , however, produced this great resource &, yes, @ruth-lawrence , I was able to click & find "Cats in the Cradle. " I know Dusty's site (still online at this writing) let you find the song. Don't know if his link is a more recent posting from the same people after the Berkeley.edu site was dropped, but there's never enough ways to find a song when you really want it & this did indeed give a lot of 60s & 70s songs.
Scratch that if you are hoping for the actual sheet music. I went to the "Browse the Collection" tab. Scrolled down & clicked on Box 75 - Victor Herbert 1910-1920, but it doesn't work. Apparently the site just listed what they owned (& maybe the covers). If you can get to Johns Hopkins University, I suppose it's useful for serious researchers, but not for the rest of us. <SIGH!>
Like a library, the Wayback Machine feature doesn't create the material, just produces what is (or in their case, was) out there.
I tend to use the most recent date available in the hopes of it containing the most information. In this case I later checked the first posting and think the site is less useful for us than it originally appeared.
Lovers of old-time sheet music can still find the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music online even though it's no longer online at the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins University. The Wayback Machine capture for February 10, 2013 is the last available, but can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20130210014156/https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/index.html
-- can you tell I'm goofing off by prowling the Dulcimer Resources: TABS/Books/websites/DVDs?
https://johnsackenheim.com is more "traditional" than "country music." I almost didn't look at it, then decided to peek.
This discussion brought up the dreaded "404 page not found", so I did my own finding via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (a tool I highly recommend). This went down fairly recently as this was last scanned Nov. 21, 2018. By the way I started with the general website Barb Feick did & it's quite huge, as playing dulcimer was only one of her instruments & one of her interests http://barbfeick.com/
Right now I'm looking for online sources of material, especially tab in preparation for going digital as much as possible. To my dulcimer friends like @ken-hulme & others who believe tab is a crutch, I'm definitely handicapped & need it. Sorry, but my ear lets me goof too often & memory has never been my strength -- Storytelling is best "from the heart & the moment" (although I sometimes have printed references handy), while memory is for acting. (I do community theatre to help exercise it, but don't tend to be "letter perfect.")
Hey everybody, especially @dusty-turtle who said he'd "been looking for this book for years", I thought I'd check to see if anybody was selling it, & found a pdf version online!!! https://www.rivercitydulcimers.com/Randy%20Wilkinson,%20Elizabethan%20Dulcimer.pdf.
See it pays to prowl old discussions.
Wow! I just squeaked in there!
Thank you & I hope none of us qualify as being Picklepusses
@Dusty Turtle,
By all means, make use of our additional verse. When I sing the song there is a horse named Pinto, a dog named Chili, A fish named Jelly, and a friend named Yuman.
He gets jealous & wants attention.
At least he doesn't get as upset as when I try to play the concertina. I presume it, my Native American flutes, my ocarinas all hurt his ears. I try to not play when he's in the house, but really need to get back to the concertina. (Held off while my wrist recuperated -- see the discussion on the thumb -- & forgot it. Need to start all over, especially as it will exercise my wrist.)
(I notice he doesn't mind my husband's banjo playing.)
Just went down to the start of this discussion & see we should give "And where did you learn them from?" Beans came along with waaaay too many songs from being a camper & camp counselor. Folklorists might be able to pry the sources out from me further, but then there's all the additional years as a children's librarian.
Guess I should contribute something to the discussion. If I'm strictly honest about how my dulcimer was used, just this past summer (many libraries are cooperatively doing an astronomical Summer Reading program theme to celebrate the moon landing anniversary) I told an Australian story about the sun that ended with the Kookaburra. I then did the song's 2 verses that are more standard & added the 1 an Australian friend told me years ago about:
Kookaburra sits on the electric wire
Setting all his tail on fire
Stop, Kookaburra,
Stop, Kookaburra,
Hot your tail must be. (ouch, ouch, ouch!) -- do those ouches with your hands off the dulcimer as if they're burning up.
* * *
See your children's librarian for LOTS more material.
@Dusty Turtle, I like your addition & trust it's given as Creative Commons for all of us to use. I learned the song as the dog's name was Porkin. Chili & Jelly are actually a bit neater as you don't have the problem wanting to change to the plural.
Well I learned a mildly clever song from Stephen Seifert. I think he just called it "Chili Bean." My daughter and I added a verse.
The version I knew went:
My dog Porkin loves to roam,
One day he came roaming home,
Full of fleas and very unclean,
Where in the world has Porkin Bean?
Finally got a chance to look the book up -- you may be able to borrow it depending on your library's inter-library loan situation. I got the title slightly wrong <Gasp!> It should be Caring for the Painful Thumb by Jan Albrecht & if you go to Amazon it's 35.99! You see why I recommend borrowing it if possible?
I have a few exercises I do when my thumbs get sore & so far haven't needed more. My time in therapy is due to breaking my wrist 2 years in a row, so I try for every other day on that & my thumbs as needed.
This topic remains important & I recommend prowling for Care of the Painful Thumb. Occupational Therapists recommend it. Just having a few exercises to strengthen the muscles involved can really help. I was also told women have naturally weaker thumbs. I find exercise when mine hurt help.
Not sure if tart cherries & its juice truly help, but it's delicious & I know somebody who swears by it for arthritis.
Apologies for bringing up so late, but it is a problem that hits many.
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Trying to catch back posts from times too busy to check in here.
It sounds like Angus left you with many wonderful memories. Sorry he had to go, but know he'll be waiting for you with all 4 legs on the other side.
Knowing the way I play, I'd be making all kinds of excuses & apologies, but Let Us Break Bread Together comes to mind.
Not just for beginners. Thank you, Sandi, for bringing this up again and thank you, Dusty, for the cleaned up link for http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/ . The site is worth bookmarking and also prowling that Main Menu. It started in 2000 and is so jam-packed with information and sites to see. While the tab and other information isn't written for dulcimer, it has tons of resources. I had two songs I needed to come up with the lyrics, "Old Joe Clark" and "So Long It's Been Good to Know You." Both have tons of versions and this let me compare and decide. There's lots of music resources and the music education section is a school unto itself. Just wish the dulcimer had been part of the resources. It feels like we're the "Rodney Dangerfield" of musical instruments.
I confess my time available for practice gives me too little review time and tends toward program needs and a song or songs matching themes coming up at our local folklore society. I use the group's monthly themes to try new material. The later in the list, the better the amount of time spent on the song.
To add to my guilt, I have more than just MDs I should be playing/practicing.
To paraphrase a popular quote about books: So many instruments, so little practice time.
Yes, it all comes down to prioritizing, which also shows why I'm not a musician, but a storyteller who dabbles in music.
This is not saying I won't try to apply some of the ideas offered here. After all that's the benefit of FOTMD.
Bit of a postscript here. I had heard of the title "Little Musgrave", but that's about it. This is one wicked little song. Yes, it ends as unhappily as Child Ballads have a nasty tendency to do (are there any happy ones?), but the action is far from slow and I think our Strumelia would agree this one ought to hold the audience's interest. I'll prowl the verses to get it as lean as possible.
WOW! I just went to YouTube and caught Nic Jones's fingerstyle guitar version. Oh Ken, that's one heck of a rockin' Child's ballad. I know for a fact they plan to bring the theme of Child's Ballads back next year and I was dreading a real downer of an evening. The librarian in me will research the heck out of this song, but I'd thank ye kindly for any arrangement, or whatever you might be willing to send my way. I know I could probably manage it on guitar, but I'd love to do it on the dulcimer.
I'd post The 3 Ravens, but if you read my update on how my performance went, I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to it for a lo-o-o-o-ng while.
I do play Shady Grove and it has a few mournful verses, but the tune is bouncy.
Mine does, too, it's just in and out in temperature changes and my own ear tends to be more "forgiving" ( a.k.a. lazy) than some with perfect pitch.
Years ago I bought a very nice 2 octave +1 psaltery made by Harbor Town Dulcimer Shoppe. The tag says P.O. Box 48, Rockaway Beach, MO 65740 with a phone number of 417-561-2728. It has the notes on one side with the accidentals on the opposite side unnamed.
Without the notation I would never have tried it. I have used it in my programs, but tuning 28 notes can be a pain. It was before I fell in love with the dulcimer. My husband tries to get me to return to it, but it's very low on my priorities. Haven't tried to sell it, but admit it's possible.
This is SO FOTMD! I'm not quite sure when I started here (I found something dating back about 6 years ago), but at the time I was taking instruction from a very fine folk instrumentalist. He was fine for other instruments and he gave me a good start on the dulcimer, but I finally found it was time to leave. He was so dogmatic (hmm, dog as opposed to a bunch of cats), while I found FOTMD members inclined to say there are so many ways and each has validity. Guess this is also why I'd find it hard to limit myself to any one of these names.
Hmmmm. I was going to suggest we vote, but this is going to be hard to choose. A choir? I also find myself liking Exaltation, Embarrassment, and Medley. Of course to an accountant or tax official it's Inventory or Supplies.
I plan to check back from time to time to see what's listed for MI, OH, IN.
Welcome, Pondoro. Sounds like you may play several folk instruments in depth before adding to your Instrument Zoo. I think you will enjoy the dulcimer.
As Strumelia mentioned, there are so many instruments I yearn to play well but it would take several lifetimes. I haven't been able to restrain myself enough to fit that playing well requirement. Fortunately the dulcimer is forgiving of my dabbling. I sometimes say this is what happens when you give a Girl Scout the Dabbler badge. I still am one. Several of us here are. I think you will feel right at home, there's even a forum about Adventures with 'Other's Instruments. Enjoy!
As Steve says on his home page:The only way this works is if you spread the word. So, please, yell it from the mountain tops. Talk about it in your newsletters. Tell your friends. Share a link on Facebook. We’ve got to let people know this is here!
I probably am the only active mountain dulcimer at Paint Creek Folklore Society, but we have a few players who like to get hammered, so I sent it to our hammered dulcimer playing vice president and to our newsletter editor, oh & I'm going to send it to Wanda Degen & Deedee Tibbetts, who have an event coming up & also do workshops in the summer at Interlochen.
Let's spread the word (& thanks, Steve, like you I find past events give a planning guide when looking ahead).
Linda,
I agree completely with your "festival stalking." My own schedule -- or more accurately lack of one -- makes this my own way of considering festivals and workshops. To make a comparison, I post an email list as part of a site I run devoted to storytelling in Michigan. Another storyteller puts the list together each month from submissions by either storytellers about their gigs or from venues. Space and format is limited for each event.
I don't know if the limitations of our specific instrument is comparable, but I keep access to past issues available for exactly the resource Linda requested.
Does it list everything? Dunberidiculous! If the event isn't submitted, nobody goes after anyone and asks for a listing. Clarification? Of course, especially for anyone new to the format. Posting websites and ways to contact the venue also are encouraged as part of the listing format.
What might FOTMD do differently? Only Lisa can say, I don't know if it would be a problem, but couldn't it be handled like a group? When an event is finished, would it be a problem to move the posting to a "group " called Past Events ? Just as groups have introductory remarks, it could say it exists to offer an opportunity to see past events that may recur.
Maybe FOTMD isn't the place for a list, but I do agree with the idea. Everything Dulcimer, as I remember, used to let you look at old festivals. I used that old information to begin to plan out my festival year in advance. Even if it is old information, it helps to know the month a certain festival is usually held and maybe a website URL. I've found festivals close by that way to attend in future years. Okay, now I kinda sound like a festival stalker. Lol! 😀
Just went prowling online & 16.5 inches definitely would have blocked the t.v. screen (horrors!) & the shortest rack's a bit too long. I posted it just as a way to do a custom fit. Personally I prefer wood to the utilitarian look of a rack. Still your rack is another answer fitting the discussion topic & should fit many situations & tastes.
I use a guitar rack but it's full. @jack-ferguson makes a nifty double dulcimer stand
Cool, simple solution, Jack, but I can tell it wouldn't have fit the space I had. <sigh!> This was a custom fit for a fairly limited space with next to no width (the double stand would have been impossible & probably the guitar rack) & the rack looks long.
This discussion is slightly closer to what my husband just built than the similar "Dulcimer Display Stands - What do you use?" I've no wall space to hang my dulcimers and no instrument stands not in use with my guitars or husband's banjos. I'd been standing them up next to the bookcase seen in these photos or laying in another spot. They fell once too often and my husband started talking about putting some instruments away! 
He could tell that discussion was going nowhere.
This is his creation using spare wood, stained (oh yeah, some got spilled coming up from the basement), he cut the holes using his jigsaw, and he cushioned the holes using window draft sealer which comes in a strip of foam rubber with adhesive on the back.
A 4th dulcimer I call "the Orphan" lays in the space at the bottom between dulcimers and bookcase. It's the dulcimer that started me on my D ulcimer A cquisition D isease as I found the poor thing abandoned in a flea market. It's not well-made, but I keep it in Aeolian for rare use or offer to loan it out explaining it's my least valued. I also have a small inexpensive travel dulcimer in its case.
Keeping your instruments handy can be hard if your musical "petting zoo" is large, but if not locked away they are more likely to be picked up and played on a moment's notice.
Thank you for "resurrecting" these songs. (Zombie Jamboree by the Kingston Trio just popped into my mind as I said that, but that is definitely NOT mournful, spooky, or lonesome.) I, too, enjoy "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" as Wanda Degan taught an Ionian version. The reason for my thanks is I was wanting something spooky for dulcimer and wasn't happy with what I found among my own music.
The mention of "She Moved Through the Fair" is perfect for me. I've loved & been haunted by it for a long time. The same was true about the baritone dulcimer, so, now that I have one, this is going to be my first real work for it. Tried to figure it out with SMN and what I came up with seemed flat. Went online and found an experimental way to tab it at Digital Tradition. I chose AbEbAb tuning and am dying to play it . . . well maybe I'll just hold a seance by playing it. The October meeting of my local folklore society has Ghost Stories as the theme. I could tell tons, but the group is really geared towards music and I like to challenge myself musically monthly, so I really want to chill everybody out with this piece.
BTW I know a few here play bowed psaltery and ages ago I played Tom Lehrer's "The Irish Ballad" on mine. If you know Tom Lehrer's work, you can appreciate it's satirical. On guitar I like to sing an old song, "The Legend of the Red Mill" from the Rudolf Friml operetta, The Red Mill. It has a great spooky refrain and, like "She Moved Through the Fair", it doesn't answer all the mysteries it raises.
I hope Lisa's blog is read. Her call for respect is needed. Possibly those trained classically are at a disadvantage because we have been trained to start with the written notation. It doesn't mean the end result must be mechanical.
Difficulty playing by ear also doesn't necessarily mean lack of trying. Ditto memorization. People have different learning styles and abilities.
Frankly one of the things I have enjoyed here is the understanding there are so many ways to play and enjoy the dulcimer.
I have loved awakening my ear in Ionian tuning. I still need the security blanket of music for moments of uncertainty. Mixolydian arrangements are beyond my ear at present other than snatches played repeatedly. Those arrangements go beyond what I used to do playing guitar by chord and various strums. Maybe some day I will be up to that, but right now I enjoy the freedom found playing my dulcimer.
Let's all play, whether by ear or in print, a chorus of Aretha Franklin's R-e-s-p-e-c-t.
At the risk of turning this into a different topic, I agree with the practice part even though I never could get the hang of getting a harmonica to play just a note at a time. <Ptooey!> My Ionian playing of Christmas carols comes closest to this.
Memory and knowledge of what you want to play are a major factor. Also those of us who go beyond just a melody are probably dissatisfied with not being able to flesh it out.
Terry, ages ago I gave away my harmonica and the book I bought as I just couldn't get it. Wish I could as it's a small very portable instrument.
