Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Wow!  you watched all two of my videos?!

When you re-strung the dulcimer, did you take all the strings off at the same time and then replace them all?  Or did you remove/replace one string at a time?  It's possible that the bridge has been slightly misplaced, and that is what's causing the intonation problem.

DT said: "There's a lot to be said for putting down the dulcimer (or guitar, or whatever...) and singing a cappella.  Without a steady strum, it's more natural to let the rhythm wander."

That's one of the reasons I love the old Appalachian Play-Sing-Play style which I use.  Play a Verse, Sing a Verse, Play a Verse, and repeat.  You can do all sorts of variations like playing both a verse and chorus, then sing a verse, play the chorus, sing the chorus; etc.   Done this way you can play a regular 3/4 or 4/4, or and still get the freedom from rigid metro-gnome rhythms when singing the verse.  Or you can play the rhythm of the words (as I do) and still embellish the words when you sing a capella.  That's how I do Parting Glass, DT!

Usually I play a verse and chorus, so the audience hears and knows what I'm going to sing.  Then I sing a verse and chorus, play part of a verse, sing a verse, play part of the chorus, sing the chorus, and repeat...

A padded, insulated case, like a Bag Lady dulcimer bag, will definitely help with environmental changes.  These days I keep two dulcimers in my Bag Lady double-bag aboard my liveaboard sailboat, all year 'round, with temps that range from 100+ to 30 and humidity that ranges from under 30% to 100%.  They keep their tuning very well, seldom needing adjusting more than a few cents.  When I lived out West in Colorado, Arizona and Utah, the same bag helped them adjust from home temp/humidity to outdoor temps and humidities year round -- well below freezing to well above 100F.  I've never kept one in a PARKED car for 6 or 8 hours, in any temp, but have had them inside while I've driven for those kinds of times.  Today, in fact I drove diagonally across Florida for 6 hours with temps in the hi 80s.  Yes the AC was on, but the sun was shining bright on the bag in the back end of the SUV and it was plenty warm back there.  No problems.

There is a wire cutting tool called an End Nipper or some such -- lets you get reeeaaal close.  I use it for cutting frets to length.

Here's a link to a couple different inexpensive End Nippers from Amazon: 

http://www.amazon.com/uxcell%C2%AE-Nipper-Cutting-Pliers-Jewelry/dp/B00524WTO4

Same here Marg; I use the wire cutter in the middle of my needle nose pliers to clip off any excess string after going around and through the hole twice and pulling up tight.

Nice work kusani.  We all do what it takes to make things work for us.  I personally find a bit of roughing up with 60 grit sandpaper gives a more sure grip on my favorite picks.

That certainly is a distinctive style of instrument, from the unusual scroll head to the relief slots in the top of the tail.  I wish you well in finding our more about Mister Pyle.

Here's a link to a short discussion about Pyle and his dulcimer from Everything Dulcimer.com:  http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31812

If you google his name along with the word dulcimer you'll find several mentions of him...

What my brother Ken said!  Enjoy your dulcimer journey!

Friction tuners will hold a tuning if they are adjusted correctly using the little screws in the ends of the knobs.

Buy strings from www.juststrings.com.  They have Just Strings dulcimer sets, and individual strings in any gauge you can think of for really little money.  Buy several seta and have them around.  I buy sets for as little as $3 each.

My guitar buddy, Houseboat Jim, and I are working up Love Me Tender/Aura Lee for guitar and dulcimer. Two dulcimers would be even easier.  We alternate Aura and Love Me verses and choruses, each singing in turn.  I do the Aura Lee parts and he does the Love Me Tender bits.

Aura VerseLove Me chorusLove Me VerseAura Chorus

and repeat

See "Always tune a vibrating string..." above...

A string is a string is a string...  There only a couple of manufacturers in the world who produce "music wire" in a wide range of gauges and types (plain steel and various kinds of wound strings).  They sell this music wire in HUGE (miles long) spools to companies who make and package strings -- both branded (D'Arco, Martin, etc.) and private label (like JustStrings).  These are the people who have machines to put loops in the end or little brass eyelets.  Guitar strings, banjo strings, mandolin strings, dulcimers string and more all come from the same place.  The only thing special about dulcimer strings is the package and perhaps the length (mandolin strings are not as long as guitar or banjo strings).

The appropriate (or favorite) gauges of strings for specific tunings always depends on the VSL of the dulcimer, and the open note to which you will tune that string.

To cure RestringingPhobia and avoid DeathMissile injuries:

When re-stringing, only ever mess with one string at a time.  Off comes the Bad String.  On goes the Good String.   The new Good string has to go around the post the same way the old string did (clockwise or counterclockwise).  It only needs to make a couple turns around the post and through the hole -- trim off the excess string.  Turn the tuning knob until the new Good string makes at least a dull twang.  Tune the new Good string as below.  Rinse and repeat with the other strings.

Always tune a vibrating string.  Grab what you think is the correct tuning knob.  Pluck the string you want to tune.  While the string is 'singing', give the tuning knob a quarter turn one way or the other.  If you do NOT hear a change in the singing string, STOP! (because you have the wrong tuning knob).  If you DO hear a change in pitch, continue, a quarter turn at a time, plucking and turning the knob, while watching your electronic tuner.  The closer you get to the right note, the smaller your knob-turnings should be until you zero in on the right note. 

If you want tab for Four Strong Winds, I have it. I play it with my Open Mic guitar buddy.

Contact member Mark Mathieu, our resident Canadien Errant, who is from Hearst, Ontario, he had a real repertoire of Canadian tunes...

Here's the Old Time tunes I mix in with my usual Scots ballads and such at our weekly Open Mic.

• The Cuckoo
• Old Joe Clark
• Wafaring Stranger
• Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)
• Matty Groves
• Trials, Troubles, Tribulations
• Crawdad Hole
• Amazing Grace
• Barbara Allen
• Go Tell Aunt Rhodie

Brian -- thanks for those references.  Looks like I've got some light reading ahead...

I think that, if you have sufficiently sophisticated and sensitive instrumentation (or perfect pitch and memory) that you might be able to detect a change in tone of an instrument over time-in-use.  Urban myth has people placing instrument in from of large/loud speakers to absorb vibrations and theoretically "improve with age" an instrument placed in front of the blaring speakers. 

I'd like to see some quantitative (measureable/recordable) evidence of such a shift in tone, but all we ever get is qualitative ('I notice', 'I can') evidence.  It sounds so logical -- the wood would get more flexible on a cellular level after being continuously vibrated for X amount of time.  But to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever conclusively proven the idea one way or another.

If someone had some serious sound measuring equipment, a spare dulcimer, an automatic strummer, a sound generator, and a year of time, I believe this urban myth could be confirmed or denied.  Sadly, like so many other dulcimer myths, hardly anyone has the inclination to do any such testing.  A couple years back I provided test recordings for those who claimed they could hear the difference between an hourglass shape and a teardrop shape, and only one person responded to my challenge.  And the result didn't come anywhere close to proving he could hear the difference ('way less than 25% correct).

Sam, IMHO what I believe you are hearing are the natural differences in the thousands of factors which go into the construction of a dulcimer.  The difference in tone between fingers/noter and fingers/pick is easily understood when you consider that flesh, compared to wood or plastic, absorbs and mutes vibrations from the strings.

I strum to the rhythm of the words, not some arbitrary 3/4, 4/4, 9/8 time.  I've listened to quite a few of the old recordings, and that seems to be the way the ole tymers sang a tune, and if they sang that way, they probably played that way as well.

A metronome to me is just a little blue guy living in the city, not a tik-tock I follow for music...

Other than a grave marker reference, the only other thing I coud find about Powell was a  2014 auction of household goods where the deceased had owned one of Powell's dulcimers.

Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky from the 20s to the 70s and later, is/was full of "small" builders of dulcimers.  If you can get the instrument for a decent price, George, go for it.

Samurai -- if the tuners don't keep it in tune, the little screws in the ends of the knobs probably need tightening -- start with just a half turn.  Don't crank them all the way tight, just enough so the strings hold tune.

Below is a PDF of revised article I wrote several years ago, called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?  which is an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all talk about the same things the same way), plus answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your dulcimer.

I Just Got A Dulcimer 2016.pdf - 1.1MB

I'd say Yes, re-string it.  And No, don't use the 'stored' strings.  Depending on the environment where you live, even packaged strings will degrade over time, temperature and other factors.  I live in a riparian environment -- tidal river -- and strings corrode very readily.  But even when I lived a mile high and a thousnad miles from the ocean, they still corroded...  Strings are cheap -- under $10 a set even at an expensive music shop; under $3 a set from www.juststrings.com...  Buy a couple sets and replace frequently -- every six months at least.

Thanks for that listing Sam.  I've never seen her tab gallery before.  Not just DAA, but DAd, DF#A, DGd and DGB melody line tabs as well as separate listings for Christmas and Hymns.    

 John - we don't mention Jean's book often, I guess,  because it can be difficult to acquire a copy these days.  Noter & Drone style is NOT about DAA tuning (although that is very common).  I've been playing N&D for over 40 years, and have played in every tuning except Phrygian, I think.  If you have a traditional dulcimer without the 6+ fret, Ddd (a.k.a. Bagpipe tuning) is very useful; perhaps more useful than DAA.  Ddd (or equivalent) without the 6+ fret, lets you play at least two tunings (Ionian and Mixolydian) without re-tuning, and you can "cheat" tunes from one or two other Modes as well.

Welcome Bernuk!!  You'll want to contact Robin Clark, a memeber here, who lives up in Snowdonia, and runs a business called Birdrock Dulcimers:  www.dulcimers.co.uk   I hope you find your Seagull sounding true scales... there have been a number of posts about how mis-fretted some folks have found them....

David -- it might not hurt to take a loot at the article I wrote years ago and revised just recently.  It has a lot of that 155/158 and other information about tuning and playing, care and feeding of your dulcimer:

I Just Got A Dulcimer 2016.pdf - 1.1MB

If you haven't devoured it yet, Lisa's Noter & Drone Blog is a wealth of information, tunes and techniques, posted since early 2009.

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/

I'm not sure Bonnie's shop is set up for that sort of thing.  Give them a call, though. It can't hurt.  There are other dulcimer builders in the area.

Back before al the cellphones had digital recorders built in, I bought a small handheld DR for something like $30, and recorded every minute of every class.

Yup.  That's what I learned to call wires that plug into things at both ends -- a cable

Take the workshops that sound interesting to you, regardless of level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).  Whether you can keep up, or do everything the others are doing is irrelevent.  You will learn something whether you use it immediately or not.  And the fun part is that six weeks or a year later you'll have these great Ah Ha! moments when something you learned sinks home or suddenly makes perfect sense.

I've gotta laugh.  Everytime I see the subject of this thread I think "Pick Up Cord -- that should be "pick up NOTE", not "CHORD".

Yes -- at least go tune it and play it.  If you like the sound, it is a good value for the money.

Yeah -- yer right.  Probably Ducimer Factory.  Didn't they study on the Fords, or work for them, or something like that?

No maker's mark inside....  Any idea how old it is?    It reminds me of the Cripple Creek dulcimers from Bud & Donna Ford.

Surprisingly, I've playd both Old Joe and I'll Fly and any number of other "cheerful" tunes as part of a Music For Healing & Therapy program at a hospital near where I lived.  Folks in hospitals don't always (or often) want to hear dolorious music, they wanted to be lifted up and cheered up, not be drowned in saccrine-sweet angel harp music as if they're going to kick off any second.  I actually had a patient tell me that she liked my music so much better than the program director's harp music -- said she wasn't ready to go to heaven yet, thank you very much!

Good job, Kevin.  Well deserved recognition of your talents.

"high ground" and "New Orleans" just don't belong in the same sentence....

My update is that I now live on my sailboat at a marina on the Caloosahatchee, and my favorite place to just play is "sittin' on the dock of the bay, watchin' the tide roll away..." 

The "waist" of an hourglass dulcimer is the narrow place between the upper bout and the lower bout, in reference to the hourglass dulcimer being shaped like a woman. 

"Wasp waist" refers to a narrower than usual waist, because the wasp has a notoriously narrow waist between its thorax and abdomen, compared to say the honey bee.