Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

We'd like to see a picture of your new instrument. Most here are not familiar with that builder, I suspect. Playing on a table top is VERY traditional. A number of pre-Revival builders put small feet on the bottom to raise the bottom off the table top and allow it to vibrate, giving louder sound. You may want to consider making a Possum Board - think 1/2" or thinner Poplar plank 5-8" wide x 36" long from the Lowes or Home Depot "hobby wood" section, with a couple 1/4" square rails glued across say 28" apart, to support your dulcimer. Now glue that rubber shelf liner to the top of those rails. Set the whole thing on a table, then set the dulcimer on top.

On the question of staining.... very few builders do. Most like to see the beauty of the wood grain. Use a clear polyurethane and wipe it on. Repeat 3-4 times, steel wool in between coats. I personally prefer a satin finish rather than deep gloss.

You may want to read the article I wrote called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? . It's an illustrated glossary of terms (so we all speak the same language, plus answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new best friend.

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

Wider stance, not bigger lap. Legs wide apart at the knee. Left knee under the 1st - 3rd fret, left end of the dulcimer tucked into your right hip. Also wear slacks which are not made of polyester or other slippery materials. As Don sez, you can also use a piece of rubber shelf liner, or a piece of chamoix skin.

Some "standup" players, like Robert Force, leave the strings in their original configuration; he reaches over the top of the instrument rather than coming in from below the way a guitarist would. Strings can also be reversed if the player is left handed.

Rather than continuing to tack additional questions onto a discussion, Tony, it's often better to start a new discussion, as it makes it easier for others interested in the question to find both the Q and the A using the Search function...

If you want to change out your string and set up your dulcimer for "true" key of G, you'll want to use a string gauge calculator like the one at www.strothers.com to determine which gauges of strings to buy.

No, but I'd love to have something more than just an email address. Does he have a website or Ebay store or something where we can see what he's selling?

Pedant? What's that about your feet? It's never pedantic to ask for a clarification!

My bad. I should (as I advised someone else yesterday) provide a 'reader's guide' to my tab. There is no standard for writing tab.

Yes - repeated numbers are repeated strums (notes) at that fret.

I use periods rather than blank spaces between notes to indicate "relative timing" timing. Some websites cram several blank spaces into one, so I use the periods as space holders. With three dots you hold the note longer than one or two dots or no space between the strums.

Hope that makes sense.

Welcome James, to our little corner of musical paradise.

Most tab does not indicate strum pattern, because in many, many cases the direction you strum doesn't matter if you exercise pick angle control to emphasize the melody strings rather than the drones.

Tons of tab at www.everythingdulcimer.com that is not chord-melody style. Also a site called sniff.numachi.com ... depends on the kinds of music you like.

You won't find much published tab for anything by Dylan as it is still covered under US Copyright law.

Maybe these will help:

Amazing Grace - DAA tuning

0..3.5.3.5.4.3.1.0

0..3.5.3.5.4.7

5.7.5.7.5.3.1.3.1.0

0..3.5.3.5.4.3

Blowin' in the Wind -- DAA tuning

7.77.8.7.6.7.5.4.3

7.77.8.7.6.7

7.77.8.7.6.7.5.4.3

77.77.6.55.4

5.66.5.4.4.555.4.3

5.66.5.44..3.2.3

Mandy, something that may help is to get a schedule book (if you don't already have one) and physically schedule times for X and Y and Z and A and B on a daily and weekly basis.... Then, of course, stick to the schedule. the secret is to also schedule in time for nothing specific -- sit back and take a breath time.

Tanya - welcome to our little corner of musical paradise. I'll give you a short answer here, and suggest that you start a new separate discussion in the Beginner Group rather than side tracking Mandy's discussion. Tht way too mor epeople will see your questions and respond to them.

The first thing I suggest is that you read the article I wrote called I Just Got A Dulcimer Now What?? It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terminology, plus answers to many beginner questions about the tuning, playing, care and feeding of our favorite instrument.

The article is here: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

Things to understand... With a given set of strings (diameters) you can only tune the dulcimer up or down a couple of keynotes before things get too tight or too sloppy. Generally speaking, you can only play in one Key at a time. To change keys you must re-tune the dulcimer. Most dulcimers are tuned to the key of D and with the 'normal' string set can tune down to C or maybe B, and up to E and maybe F. Any other keys require different strings. Under most circumstances the Keynote of the dulcimer is defined by the note to which the bass string is tuned. That's the farthest string from you, The middle and melody string(s) are tuned to higher pitches relative to that keynote -- for example DAA, CGG, DAd, CGc. For each keynote the multi-finger chords will be different.

Great job, Phil! Keep up the good playing. Keeping those fingers moving will help the arthritis in the long run.

"How does one attach an overlay?"

Glue. Titebond II or III for preference. The fret slots are them cut in the overlay.

First, hardly anyone ever varnishes/lacquers the tiop of the fretboard. Too prone to quickly being worn away and looking nasty. Oiled fretboards are very common. So is an ebony overlay. The advantage of ebony (virtually zero disadvantages) i that that wood is so much harder and finer pored, and thus, when sanded/polished fine, it is much faster when you're sliding fingers or noters up and down. Faster even than a freshly oiled non ebony fretboard polished fine. Few woods are harder - Snakewood and Lignum Vitae come to mind - but they're even more expensive than ebony...

Dulcimer have three courses of strings - bass drone, middle drone and melody. Any of those courses can have two or even three strings. The idea of the doubled melody course is that with the modern more voluminous-bodied dulcimers played traditionally (not-chord melody style), the doubled melody course provided more volume to balance against the increased bass/baritone response inherent in larger bodied dulcimers.

As mentioned above, most builders there days (but not all) use the doubled melody course. From the player standpoint the advantage is that you can play single or double depending on what you prefer.

My recommendation is that you learn to play with the doubled melody course. Then after six months or so of experience you can decide whether you want to continue that way or not.

Check out my blog article called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's an illustrated glossary of terms, plus answers to many beginner questions of tuning, playing, care and feeding of your dulcimer:

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

Easier by far to build a double dulcimer with one diatonic and one chromatic fretboard the engineering to make a replaceable fretboard only would be very complex. Harpmaker's Travel dulcimer with the slide off/on top comes closest conceptually.

The VSL for any two types of fretboard can be any length you like as long as you can calculate the fret spacing.

Like johnp, the version of Wayfaring Stranger that I know is played in Dorian or Aeolian Mode, not Mixolydian. I play it on my G tuned dulcimers in GDC - Dorian - the melody string tuned one note down from Ionian GDD.

The "problem" with nail strumming is that you don't get enough volume to be heard more that 6 feet away in a quiet room. Yes, I spent something like years just strumming out, using a Herco brand plastic Thumb-Flat pick. Basically a flat pick with a thumb-sized loop. With practice you can get rally fast with that thumb pick. If you play with things you may be able to strum out with the thumb pick and strum in with a finger pick on another finger.

If you learn to finger-pick you can wear the whole complement of finger picks.

Dropping flat picks usually happens because you're not holding on to enough of the pick (i've seen some beginners using only two fingertips); and are trying to keep the pick rigidly at right angles to the strings. A better technique is to only expose about 1/4" or so of the pick tip, and bury the rest of the pick in your fist. Then strum by rotating the the whole wrist so that the pick brushes the strings, not clicking past each one.

If you have trouble dropping picks, try smearing the wide part of the pick with some rubber cement or something to rough it up.

Welcome Leighann!

The choice of picks is nearly limitless, from feathers to plastic to iridium. However.

There are probably physical reasons why you're constantly dropping the pick.

Reason #1 is that as a newbie you've probably got a "white knuckle death grip" on it; and

Reason #2 is you have far too much pick sticking out of your fist.

You only need to have 1/4" or so of pick exposed. RELAX your wrist and let your hand rotate and move, changing the "angle of attack" from this: / to this: \ as you strum rather than trying to keep the pick rigidly upright like this: |

There is no known long term physiological damage associated with strumming with your nails. If there were, you'd hear about Picker's Thumb or Strummer's Syndrome or some such. Granted, if you like really buffed, highly polished and seasonally decorated nails it's not so good, but that's a different thing.

What "banjo players use" are (usually) metal fingerpicks; they're fine for certain sounds but not for everything. Different pick stiffnesses and materials -- leather, quill, felt, metal, plastics, thin, thick, etc. -- give you different sounds

"Look up on Google how to make a milk jug pick" Why bother looking something like that up??? That's kinda silly. In the time it takes you to type "how to make a milk jug pick" you can make three or four of them! Use a pair of scissors and cut a triangle about 1.5" on a side.Or bigger. Or smaller. Milk jug, credit card, yogurt tub, whatever. Round the corners. Strum. It's said that Jean Ritchie uses a quarter of a butter tub lid as a pick because her arthritis is bad (but she is 90 years young).

Word of advice -- don't let nerdy research get in the way of dulcimer playing time. Two separate activities.

Cedar Creek kits are no better or worse than any other kits.

I would humbly suggest that since you say "...I built a dulcimer years ago...and one of the tuners has stripped out on it. I have also had factory tuners strip out on guitars..." that the problem does not lay in the tuners themselves, but in something you are doing to them....

We just don't hear of factory or other tuners "stripping out" without decades of use or excessive (ab)use -- rock concert performers for example.

Cardboard dulcimer = $50 or $60.

Student/Beginner wooden instrument $100-$125

You can always make, or have someone make you, a wooden body and glue the fretboard from the cardboard instrument on it. There have been decent sounding dulcimers made from Legos and sheet acrylic plastic. The fretboard is the key to good sound. Without the frets in the right places you've got nothing but noise.

Ayup - Korean, and usually good sounding instruments, unlike more modern dulcimers being built offshore in Romania and other places...

What tuning is *requiring* you to use a 6+ fret? Playing Chord-Melody or Melody Stringstyle? The more or less correct answer is to change tuning tothe onethat does not require the 6+ fret. If it's DAd that requires the 6+, then tune to DAA and play the tune; or vice versa.

I would not suggest a toothpick as a temporary fret - it's too soft, and the note will not sound clearly. Use a length of large paperclip wire instead.

The simplest work around is to just not play the 6+ note, but either rest for that time or play the previous note again or the following note twice.

Since your dulcimer does not have a 6+ fret I would seriously suggest learning to play in DAA rather than DAd. If you must play Chord-Melody style, you can play the same chords, more or less, in DAA (but not at the same frets). But a traditional (no 6+ fret) diantonic dulcimer is probably best played traditionally -- Melody & Drone or Noter & Drone style.

johnp -- I knew my forestry education would come in handy some day...
The wood pictured is one of over a dozen species of genus Populus common to North America, infected by fungus during the dying process - aka 'spalted'.

There are about 25 species of poplar/cottonwood in the genus Populus - in several categories : White and Black Poplars, eastern & western Poplars, Aspens, Balsam Poplars, Bigleaf Poplars, etc.

Liriodendron tulipifera has a name that for some reason has tickled my fancy since I learned it over 40 years ago. Common names include Tulip Tree, Tulip Poplar, Whitewood, Fiddlewood, and Yellow Poplar. It is NOT a poplar, but rather a unique member of the Magnoliaceae family. Like the Magnolias they produce large pinkish-white flowers in the spring. They are one of the largest North American trees, being known up to 190 ft tall and over 10 ft in diameter. Thirty years ago in Ohio I personally surveyed a 20 acre section of bottom land that had only 46 trees, each at least 150 ft tall and 8 ft in diameter with clear trunks at least 70 feet before the first branch. Absolutely magnificent trees!

The tree is called "tulip" because, of course, of the distinctive shape of the leaf, which appears something like a tulip in profile, as does the Liriodendron flower itself:

Dang! What about if you stabilized it with a good slather of urethane or epoxy, sliced it in half, urethaned again and then started hand planing?

HD28 -- you may want to look at a couple of articles here that I've written:

I Just Got A Dulcimer Now What? has an illustrated glossary, plus answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing care and feeding of your dulcimer: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

Uncontrite Modal Folker is a discussion of Modes and modal music and how they apply to the dulcimer (differently than they do guitar): http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/uncontrite-modal-folker

FWIW -- most dulcimer players of my acquaintance do not play "accompaniment chords" in a jam or elsewhere. They are playing chord-melody style -- one chord per note of the complete melody, not just one chord per measure of music.

Yes... and no. I'm not one who plays with a capo. But I can see that if you capo at 2, from CGc you do get the strings tuned to EBe. But what you lose is the sequence of wide and narrow fret spacings that define the notes you'll get from that tuning. You no longer get do, re, mi, fa, sol, la... so you lose the scale.

Yep - to get up to F and G you need a different set of strings (especially the bass) than is used for C and D.

Don't de-tune to "the C chord" We call it tuning to Mixolydian Mode Key of C -- that would be CGc tuning. Basically tune every string down one note. DAd and CGc are what we call 1-5-8 tunings, and they all use the same tab. CGc, DAd, EBe, FCf and GDg are all 1-5-8 tunings. So if you have tab for one tuning/key you have the tab for all keys.

No dumb questions, Nige; just ones we haven't answered yet.

Yes - if' you're tuned in DAd, you are playing in the key of D.

A capo is only of limited help in changing key, as others will jump in here and explain.

One simple answer to your second question is "you can't" - play through tunes in different key without re-tuning that is....

Unlike the guitar or mandolin, the dulcimer does not have all the notes available all the time. One Key at a time.

You can't go wrong with a dulcimer from Dave "Harpmaker" Lynch, who hangs out here occasionally.

http://sweetwoodsinstruments.com/dulcimers.php

His Hourglass runs $325 and is offered in half a dozen top woods and nearly as many body woods to get just the look you want. Dave is a great builder whose instruments have a warm and deep sound. Even his Student Model, for $125, although not an hourglass shape, has a better sound than instruments costing much more. He's easy to work with too, to make you just the instrument you want. Why settle for a second or fifth hand mass-produced instrument, when you can have one made just the way you want?

Barbara - this site won't give you tab, but it does give lyrics and sound files so you can learn by ear. Arguably the best ballad site on the Internet: www.contemplator.com

Here's another that's good for ballad and other music, lyrics and more:

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/traditional-music/

SMN = Standard Musical Notation -- sheet music with lines and blobs with/out tails. Not Tabulature. I worked the tune out myself, but have never sat down and actually tabbed it out. I learn songs by ear rather than from Tab or SMN - after I can sing/hum/whistle a tune I can pick it out. As I pick out the tune I generally write down the fret numbers and create a tab for the song. But All I ever really keep is the first few measures as a memory aid.

A lot os shet music can be found on line, free. Also some dulcimer tab. You just have to google the tune name with 'dulcimer tab' included.

Have you read my beginner's article here called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's here:

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

Battle of New Orleans dulcimer tab (DAA tuning) is here:

http://sniff.numachi.com/lookup.cgi?ds1=A&ds2=A&ds3=D&ti=BATNEWOR&tt=BATNEWOR&tab=d

"Newer"songs are often still under copyright, and you probably won't find dulcimer tab for them, as paying the rights fees to publish them can be costly. You can tab such songs out from 'sheet music' for your personal use, if you can read SMN. Interesting that you mention Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, as Nov 10th was the anniversary of her sinking. I play it in Dorian Modal tuning - DAG or CGF

Every time I pick up a dulcimer! That's how a person becomes intimately familiar with the instrument and where the sounds are coming from relative to each other.

Roger had a lot of things published in the early years of Dulcimer Players News. You can browse the Archives here:

http://www.dpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=544&Itemid=106

When the Archive was part of Everything Dulcimer, there was a better Index of the early years, but that has gone away since the files reverted to DPN.

There are several tab books of medieval/renn music for dulcimer.

The strings not staying in tune can be remedied with a little "peg dope" from a violin shop. Save the old strings, but replace them, one by one, with new strings of similar gauges (a luthier or even a mechanic with a micrometer can tell you the existing gauges of the strings).

What is the VSL? Other dimensions of the instrument?

That was my first exposure to Mediterranean Mountain environment. Steep, thickly brush covered slopes, red clay. Bamboo and some of Robin's reed-type grasses along the river bottom. Most of the trees are smaller leaved varieties than we have in the States - more like Live Oak and Laurel Oak than Maple or Poplar. Interesting mix of hardwoods and scattered pines and cedars too. The finca has a couple feral orchards; one of cherries and one of olives, and a veggie garden in disuse. There's a metalworking shop to die for, and an equally well-equipped woodworking shop, and always has a bunch of projects on the fire, including a built-from-scratch small steam engine that's about 75% complete.

His nearest neighbors are a Brit couple in the mid 50s who bought a piece of the original finca from Dad about 10 years ago. They sort of look after him and help him with things.

I spent the last week as a Spanish hillbilly! My Lady Sally's father retired to Catalonia (a Spanish province) about 30 years ago (he turns 90 in March), and Sally goes twice a year for a week to visit him on his finca (think farm or homestead). Brits seem to retire to Spain the way New Yorkers retire to Florida, and for much the same reasons. This time I got to go along and meet him for the first time.

He lives about 30 miles up a dirt mountain track from the village of Llado, which is in turn some 20 miles from the town of Figueres (where Salvador Dali lived). In another direction he's only about 30 miles over a mountain from the Mediterranean and France. The finca is now only about 18 hectares (think 40 acres), although it was once much larger.

Although there is piped water, his only electricity is a mix of 12 volt solar panel/battery and a gas-fired generator if/when he decides to fire it up. He is not computer literate or interested in them. The nearest occasional access is a neighbor, about a mile away but they were only home one day while we were there.

The main house and outbuildings are, as you can see, stone, and have been built, re-built, and added to over the years. Goats and sheep and horses and 'javelin' (wild boar) roam the property and the valley in general (I got to help cut down on the size of the sounder of pigs that inhabit the valley).

We were gone just a week, flying in and out of Barcelona. In some ways it felt like forever, and it some it was far too short. Next time I will take a dulcimer.

I agree with Mike. Forget waxing over tung oil. Use 4, no more than 5, coats of tung oil and buff between coats.

By ear player since the beginning nearly 40 years ago. I listen to a tune a hundred or more times until I can sing/hum or whistle it, on command, anytime. They I sit down and pick it out on the dulcimer. At that time I write the melody line tab as a memory aid. After I've played it a day (by ear not tab) I don't need more memory than the first few measures of tab.

I'm another that refers to dulcimers as "it". In German, since the dulcimer derived from the general zitter (most probably NOT specifically the scheitholt, in spite of Praetorius) I would use the feminine form...