"There's no right way, or wrong way to play the dulcimer." Just YOUR way. For many years I used the Herco brand flat-thumb picks. Basically a triangular flat pick with thumb loop. Works well.
I also have picks/strummers made from feather shafts, thin wood, thick leather, thick felt (uke pick), plastic lids, plastic packing strap and zip ties, vegetable ivory and shell.
Doh!! Yer right, Bob! My bad... musta been a Senior Moment. Adjust the Bridge, not the Nut, Blondie!
Lowering the action is really pretty easy:
Slack the strings and remove the nut.
Lay a sheet of 400 grit sandpaper face up on a flat surface.
Sand 10 or 15 strokes off of the bottom.
Slip the nut back in place, tighten the outer strings, and check the action height with your nickel.
Repeat as needed...
Phil has the right idea. It's what we call the Nickel & Dime Action Height. Slide a dime next to the 1st fret. The strings should just touch to top of the dime. Then slip a nickel on top of the 7th fret; again the strings should just touch the nickel. If the strings don't touch, then the action can certainly be lowered.
It's nice to know that MMD uses the Nickel & Dime for their base action.
The ones that I've seen and played were not particularly high. It's an easy enough fix to set the action down where you want. How high is "high" at say the 7th fret?
Nigel -- be sure to contact Robin Clark in Snowdonia, who is a member here. He is a fabulous player who has a company called BirdRock Dulcimers and sells instruments, supplies, etc. www.dulcimers.co.uk
JenniferC --I do sing it as well. Have a video of my half-hour Opening Act performance at the Americana Community Music Association here in Fort Myers. I did Lay The Bend Bonnie Broom, which evolved into The Riddle Song (I gave my love a cherry); and The Elfin Knight which became Scarborough Fair. I'll have to see if I can upload it here...
Nigel-- some of us also play/sing Ar Hyd y Nos and Rhyfelgyrch Gwŷr Harlech (but not in the Welsh, mind) and
Mark Gilston sent me the tab for the version of Elfin Knight that I do with 12 verses. Great DAC Aeolian tune! Usually I then explain that that song evolved as it moved south into England to a town near London where they created a version (new words, new tune, same story). 500 years later, Paul Simon borrowed 4 verses of Scarborough Fair and brought them to America...
www.contemplator.com
Nearly all the Child Ballads, Turlough O'Carolan, Scots/Irish/English Folk, Sea Chanties and more. Histories and back stories and interesting commentary on the songs. Sometimes it's hard to pick out the melody from her MIDI files, but there are other sources. Plus links to a lot more...
I built a Mirleton once -- the adult version of a kazoo. Also ocarina.
All of the Anglo-Saxon Lyres were all-wood. No skin heads. The construction is always "carved body" with a separate soundboard inlet into the body. The hollow body extending part way up the arms.
I take back what I said about soundholes. I was looking at info about the Trossingen Lyre -- the most complete archeological find and elaborately decorated. I had forgotten that it had 8 or 10 small (1/8"?) soundholes spaced around the bridge position. But this was apparently the only AS lyre found with soundholes.
Nope -- no sound holes. Almost none of those found in burial sites in England or Germany had sound holes.
Here's a picture of the tuning key, based on the original found in the gravesite. Unlike keys for autoharp pins, you apply the rotation in-line with the peg, pushing in as you turn. I would think you could make a similar key for any wooden peg instrument.
I used Tung Oil as a finish for the Lyre. I like it a lot more than urethane or other "varnishes".
Yeah.... good lookin' instrument; builder -- not so much
Irene -- of course I play it! It's tuned "pentatonic+" -- do, re, me, sol, la, do'. The instrument is from the 8th century -- back when there really were no sing-and-play "songs. There were chants - Church chants, chanted audio-books like the sagas, Beowulf, the Poetic Edda, etc. The Lyre was used for dramatic flourishes in a story, as well as a mnemonic device so that the skald/bard could remember where -- in hundreds or thousands of verses -- he was at any given point in the tale.
Just a followup to my previous "getting started with this Lyre" post. The Myrtle wood turned out to have some fabulous 'tiger stripe' effect in it. The Port Orford Cedar is a great wood for doing the kolrose decoration on. I have it tuned D3, E3, F#3, A4, B4, C4 with acoustic guitar nylon 2nd & 3rd strings.
John Knopf made the tuning pegs for me -- great job, and the tuning wrench he made to fit them, following the plans, works perfectly.
Move the string back again to the other set of notches. It may be that you just didn't have the string seated properly the first time.
I'm reasonably sure there will be a good bit of N&D things. There was a pretty vociferous chain of posts on FB concerning that very subject. Some of us are planning getting together for just such activities not matter how much 'official' N&D there is...
Should be a great noter, that's for sure!
Mike makes a heckuva dulcimer. I particularly like the looks of his "fiddle sided" instruments. I've met him as a couple of festivals, and had the opportunity to play his instruments several times, and I like them. They're not my "high silvery" sounding traditional favorites, but they have a beautiful tone, intonation and look. You could not go wrong with one of his creations. He's easy to work with, as well.
Dusty has a good point. I was recently introduced to the condenser microphone, which isn't like the usual hand-held stick mic. It's a sort of Omni-pickup that you put on a stand in front of you. Nothing attached to your instrument. They pick up both the instrument and your singing very well. I've seen them on Amazon for around $75.
I use simple contact piezo pickups that I get off the Net; cost about $3-$5 each. The sticky tape does not bother the dulcimer's finish. Sometimes I replace the tape with 3M double sided tape...
Yeah -- sorry to hear you won't make it Robin; I was looking forward to meeting you also...
Hopefully they'll list the sessions soon. Here are some sessions offered last year:
Old Time Music for Beginners
Key of A
Ballads
Beginning Dulcimer
Singing with the Dulcimer
Counter Melodies
Little Songs
Irish Drinking Tunes
Surviving A Jam Session
Key of G
There were also seminars on dulcimer construction and Sacred Harp/Shape Note Singing
Tune as you always do. Tell them, with their chromatic instruments, that you play in the key of D (or C if you tune CGG or CGc). They can play to your tuning easier than you can tune to their playing.
You won't necessarily be able to play every note of tunes they play. But if you listen, you'll be able to hear 3-5 note phrases of the tune. If you can quickly find that phrase on your melody string, just play that phrase over and over, in the same time as the tune, and you will have created a "part" for the tune that will meld with what they are doing...
If you say "I'm tuned DAA". They will tell you that you are playing in the key of d because that's the first note of your scale. If you are tuned DAd, they will say that you are playing in the key of g. That's because dulcimer folks tune the instrument to a keynote and everything revolves around that keynote; where chromatic instrument players tune to some base tuning from which they can play in all sorts of keys.
The area under the slit is hollowed out, and the top underneath that is undoubtedly open to that cavity. Like other hollowed fretboards, there is a major weight-loss when hollowing, and some indication of improved acoustics as well. The slit is, no doubt, just the builder's way of being different rather than just adding round holes.
Over on www.everythingdulcimer.com, David Bennet has been publishing a wonderful nearly daily series called Today In Mountain Dulcimer History. You'll find info about Amburgey there, I know...
For a "history lesson" on builders, find a copy of Jean Ritchie's book The Dulcimer Book; also Michael Murphys The Appalachian Dulcimer. Both books are out of print, but can be found, and both have lists of dulcimer builders that go back into the 1960s.
Are you looking to have a dulcimer built? Trying to find more information about a specific luthier? If you have questions we can probably help.
Tabulature tells you which string needs to be tuned to what note so that the song you are trying to play will sound right. So yes, changing your tuning to match the tabulature is "part of the deal". At least until you have enough experience playing and tuning to find where the notes are by ear; or learning to read sheet music (which also requires the dulcimer to be tuned to a specific set of notes).
Actually, I found a tab -- in DAd -- for Frosty :
http://dulcimer-autoharp.org/PDF/FrostyMDchords.pdf
Dusty is right -- you do need the 6+ fret, but most dulcimers seem to have it these days. Although the tab has some chords, you can simply play the melody line and it sounds just fine.
Several versions of tab for Silent Night can be found here:
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/tab/index.php
Since you are so new to things, perhaps you should read the article I wrote a number of years ago called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms, plus instructions of tuning, playing, care and feeding of your instrument. The article file is attached here.
Don't worry. Take things easy and just go with the flow... A lot of things aren't really necessary, although they might be interesting to know. Spend time developing your style -- playing the way you want to play the songs you like.
In another thread, @don-grundy , a new player, asked What is a capo? and What is a False Nut?
A Capo is a bar which is easily clamped over the top of the strings, to fret all the strings at a given location, forming a temporary nut. This not only changes the key of each string, but also the sequence of whole and half intervals (fret spacings) between the "new nut" and the bridge. Thus the sequence of notes you get is different. If you are in DAA and capo at the first fret, the open string are now EBB, which would seem to be E-Ionian Mode. But the sequence of fret spacings gives you the notes of Aeolian Mode, not Ionian Mode.
A False Nut is usually used by Melody-Drone or Noter & Drone players. It is a small 'stick' placed under a string (usually the bass string) to create a new nut (and new note) for just that string. The sequence of fret intervals on all other strings remains the same. A False Nut on the bass string changes the Keynote of the instrument but not the Mode (sequence of notes played on the melody string). If you are in DAA and put a False Nut on the bass string at the 1st fret you go from DAA to EAA and are still playing in Ionian Mode.
That's another subject Don. I'll answer it in another post so we can keep subject separate and easier to find.
Are you looking for a case? A dulcimer by this builder? Or the combination of case and instrument?
Yep that is nominally DAA tab. I've not seen other tab or publications by Tom Arnold. Anyone else?? He must be assuming (somewhat erroneously) that everyone has a 6+ fret on their instrument.
Not seen other DAA tab with 6+ or other added frets either...
Another "Never".
Like Robin I prefer my fretboards unadulterated with extra frets. As he says, it's just cleaner, and I don't mind re-tuning a single string to change modes -- takes less than a minute usually. DAA, DAC, DAG, DAd just change the melody string to change the mode. I keep another dulcimer tuned Ccc for singing with as that keynote suits my voice much better. The Bagpipe tuning -- Ddd, Ccc etc. does for dulcimers without additional frets what the 6+ fret does for those who tune DAd -- it allows me to play at least two modes -- Ionian and Mixolydian, and 'cheat' Dorian and sometimes Aeolian using grace notes to work around missing incidentals.
That's the kind I've built -- basically a wider, longer dulcimer body combined with a 6" tambourine that is free floating and perched on 3 or 4 stub legs to hold it at the correct height. The free floating bridge sets just aft of center on the drumhead.
I've heard both "drum in a box" and "drum on a 2x10" type banjimers. IMHO the "drum in a box" types sound much more like a banjo -- both in sound a volume.
Sorta like the difference between hearing an acoustic guitar and a solid body electric guitar being played acoustically (not plugged in to anything). They both sound like "guitar" but the acoustic sound MUCH better.
Slack the strings.
Use a large C clamp and padding right where the fretboard ends, and see if you can GENTLY squeeze the gap shut, even just a little. If so, that's better/good. Use thick, slo-setting superglue and clamp for a couple minutes until things set. Otherwise you'll have to fill the gap.
Use painter's tape to mask the sides and under the arch, and use thick superglue to fill the gap. This may take several applications.
Yes -- there are McSpads that are 3" deep. There are several models of McSpadden. Some as shallow as 1.5", commonly at about 2" deep. At least some of the older ones with a 28.5" VSL were that deep; I found the dimensions in a listing of McSpaddens for sale.
It is a known dulcimer maxim that the larger the interior volume of the instrument, the more bass/baritone/guitar-like the sound; conversely a dulcimer of the same basic size with a smaller volume will have a more traditional "high silvery" sound. The way most dulcimers add to the deeper sound is by increasing the depth of the sides. Shape (hourglass vs teardrop vs TMB) has nothing to do with the sound here; only the interior volume.
The dimensions of the June Apple are given as 1-3/4" x 6-1/4" x 35-1/2"
So although it's only 6-1/4" wide, it's 1-3/4" deep, and multiplied out, that gives you 388 cu. in. of interior body.
Compare that to my traditional Virginia Hogfiddle which is 1-1/8" x 5-1/4" x 35-1/4", or 208 cu. in.
Then compare those to a more or less standard McSpadden at 3" x 7" x 36" = 756 cu. in., which has a more modern "guitar-like" sound.
So... compared to most common dulcimers, the June Apple model will have a "more traditional" sound, certainly.
I've looked at those pictures a couple times, and frankly I can't see any "slight separation" between the fretboard (not neck -- dulcimers do not have a neck) and the top. I don't see any "area that has dropped", either.
If you must do something other than just play it, as Irene suggests, I would tilt the instrument 45 degrees on its side, and using either a fine squeeze tip from superglue bottle, or a toothpick, put a couple drops of 'slow set' superglue right in the joint.
I Just Got A.pdf - 1MB