Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Memorize, memorize, memorize. Except in an orchestral setting, where, as Robin points out, the maestro is telling the players how to "feel" the music, IMHO having paper on stage while performing is tacky. Others disagree with me; but that's OK.

It also, in part depends on how long the piece is, too. Memorizing a major concerto or opera or whatever - say The Planets Symphony -- is not realistic. But with dulcimer we're mostly playing repetitions of a verse and chorus.

I think its possible to have a memorized repertoire of over a hundred songs. I know I have more than a hundred songs that I can play with little or no prodding. I do keep a cheat sheet around with the first few measures of over a hundred songs on it, so I can remember how a tune starts when I'm hearing all sorts of other music around me at a jam or open mic. Again it depends on the nature and complexity of the tunes. I play mostly folk tunes with a verse and chorus; Robin plays more complex fiddle tunes.

Got a pair of Sunday pants ( holy, holy...)? Take the leg without a hole and cut it of at the crotch end. Sew shut along the cuff. Turne the edges over at the other end and sew a tube about an inch wide. Run a bootlace through the tube as a drawstring. Stitch a rope carry strap from end to end. Viola! Cheap gig bag.

Yep - made like that. The 6+ fret is an innovation of 1960s builder Howie Mitchell, who wrote the first, or one of the first how-to books on dulcimer building. The true diatonic scale does not include that half-step.

Personally, I refuse to have a dulcimer with a 6+ fret, but then I'm an uncontrite modal folker and hard-core traditional player! You don't need the 6+ fret if you're willing play in DAA, and tune to DAd only for the handful of true Mixolydian Mode tunes we commonly play. Most tunes tabbed in DAd are not Mixolydian. They are Ionian mode tunes tabbed in DAd so that folks don't have to re-tune from DAd to DAA to play them.

Another option is to tune that dulcimer to Ddd also called Bagpipe tuning. That way you can use DAd tab (but not for chords, as the middle drone is d not A.

If you're a dedicated DAd, Chord-Melody player, you can have the 6+ and 13+ frets added, or you could sell/trade it for a dulcimer which has the 6+ fret.

As a Personal Chef I do pretty special things to veggies...

Jan - Sure wish I could trade veggies for a dulcimer!

I believe what you're referring to is what we normally refer to as the 6+ fret, not the 7th fret. Many older dulcimers were built without that fret, back when people weren't stuck on playing everything in DAd.

Take a look at the pictures of the traditional diatonic fretboard and "added" fret fretboard in my article for new players called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's here: http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what just to make sure we're talking abut the same thing... Then tell us which of those two fretboards your new/old dulcimer has.

BTW - Howard Rugg is a member here and comes around periodically. If you send him a PM I'll bet he can give you lots of details about your instrument.

Any reasonably competent luthier (including most of the builders here) can add the 6+ and/or 13+ fret. I've seen prices ranging from $10 to $50 per fret.

Skip; part of your answer does deal with Modes. Modes are scales, and each is different. It has nothing to do with Keys which are the basic note of the tuning - D, C, G etc. DAA is one of eight Ionian scales all of which have the notes - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do. The Mixolydian scale is do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti-flat, do. Old Joe Clark, for example cannot be played on a dulcimer that does not have a 6+ fret unless you retune to DAd, because only then is there a ti-flat note in the scale. People who have 6+ frets on their dulcimer play both Ionian and the very few true Mixolydian tunes without re-tuning.

The other 'inappropriate tuning' also has to do with scales and their relationship to the drones. Take a perfectly good Ionian scale tune like Good King Wenceslas, that needs only do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti and do.

You may be able to get Folkcraft to make a FolkRoots with a 3/4" or even 1" high fretboard for playing Noter & Drone style. Don't try anything shallower than 3/4"; you just won't be able to play well...

When I ship dulcimers, I use the ultra heavy (1/2" thick) cardboard tubes used as concrete molds for piers and posts, which you can find at Home Depot or Lowe's. It costs a couple bucks, but that's not a problem. I cut the tube a few inches over length and make end caps from corregated cardboard and tape one in place with balled up newspaper or whatever for end padding. Inside, I roll the dulcimer up in bubble wrap until it's a snug fit, side it into place, then tape on the other end cap. Because of the shape, any weight place on it or shoved into it tends to be deflected. Either that or the carrier stands it on end.

Never let a dulcimer club tell you what you should or must or hafta to do! If they start that, find another club.

Interesting. Veeerrrryyy long tuning head with a nice shape. Veeerrrryyy narrow waist, but that will make it easy to pick up in the center. Very long discontinuous fretboard. Looks like nice workmanship.

Now get busy playing!

I've built a dulcimer or two using Sassafras. A number of builders are using it very successfully. It makes a very good dulcimer whatever wood it's combined with, or as a total build. The Clemmer dulcimers I've heard are good modern deep-mellow instruments in comparison to the high-silvery sound of old time traditional dulcimers.

Sam's experience is exactly why I would rather deal with the maker, not a distributor who has no stock on hand (most Internet companies).

Actually, for a 1-2 month wait, you can get a custom dulcimer from a builder like Harpmaker Dave or John Knopf or others, rather than just another stock model.

Ummmm that should read 25% or more... my fingers musta had a senior moment...

Unless there is significant savings (2% or more) I try not to deal with a middleman who doesn't make what I'm buying (especially in higher price items), but go directly to the source. The people at Folkcraft are good to work with.

Here's enough for a complete set of Aeoliantunes:

Shady Grove

Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)

Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair

The Foggy Dew (Irish)

Star of County Down

The Parting Glass

When Johnny Comes Marching Home -- a really eerie and mournful version

Wayfaring Stranger

Yeah.... I've seen similar low-priced offers on things from China related to other hobbies I have. I'm just not a fan of sending me credit card info directly to China, plus the stuff usually is really cheaply made... Glad you've gotten some good buys though, Matt.

I suggest the Just Strings brand generic strings... the SIT strings for $2.09 a set are perfectly good loop-end strings for DAA. I use them all the time. Almost all strings in the world are made by one or two companies and then 'branded' by Martin, D'Addario, D'Arco, etc. So, IMHO it doesn't pay to pay for "brand name" strings.

Gayle -- there's frugal and then there's cheap. Playing old strings isn't frugal; it's being cheap. A set of strings is only a couple bucks if you order a couple sets at a time from www.juststrings.com , and still only about five bucks a set from a local acoustic music shop. If you do not have at least one spare set of strings on hand you are doing yourself a disservice, and if you don't change your strings at the bare minimum of once a year you're doing your dulcimer, and your audience, a disservice as well.

Mando Mandy and the Goat Ropers -- now there's a name for a CW/Folk/OldeTyme band!

Another example of someone building a dulcimer without a lot of clues. The staggered string pins are interesting. The peg in the tail block may be just to keep the end off the ground when you stand it in the corner. Another builder who does not understand the function of sound hole size to body size! Nice elliptical shape though,,,

Welcome Syd;

The shape of the dulcimer isn't the problem. No shape, except a box, is any more stable than another. Chances are it's

A) the 'slippery' pants/shorts you wear. Use that rubbery shelf liner material as a mat across your lap.

or

2) your basic 'posture' with the instrument. Many beginners try to sit too prim and proper. Start with your knees wide apart - more than 18 inches! Sit upright, not laid back, not hunched over. Then don't put the dulcimer at right angles across your lap. Angle it so that the right end is tucked back by your right hip and the left end is out over your left knee - about the 1-3 frets over your knee. As you strum the right end will try to work its way out - on an instroke with your picking hand brucsh your little finger into the body, pushing it back against your hip.

If you practice good posture, you absol;utely do not need a strap or anything like that. If correct posture doesn't work, conside gettin/making a table of some sort on which you can put the dulcimer while you play.

The only things stranger than his fret pattern is his spelling of "Appalachian". I wouldn't tune it, I would never have bought it.

II notice he also lists Martian strings. Is this another one from the fella who go all peeved when we told him his instrument wasn't right???

Never heard of them. Looks like an average plywood dulcimer. Design-wise I don't care for the "neck" sticking out beyond the body. Just doesn't look 'right' to me; but that's me... Just based on looks, I'd rather have a Harpmaker Student.

IF, ah say IF you change the strings to appropriate gauges, there is no reason that you cannot tune the Ron Ewing (or any other) "dulcimette" to a normal key of D (DAA, DAd, DAC, DAG). When you change the strings, the bridge won't slide around because the larger gauges will apply appropriate downward pressure.

What gauges of strings? Go to www.strothers.com and use the String Finder to find out. Plug in the VSL of your instrument, and specify which note (D, A or d) -- and it will tell you what strings to get.

If for any reason the bridge on any dulcimer starts sliding around, a single drop of Superglue will hold it yet still allow easy removal.

Hogfiddle is one of the regional American names for the mountain or Appalachian Dulcimer; along with Indian Walking Stick, Dulcemore, Scantlin', and Tennessee Music Box. A Possum board is a detachable second back that gives your dulcimer more volume without electric amplification. Check out my article here in the Blog section called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms, plus answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, music, care and feeding of our favorite instrument.

Welcome to our little corner of musical Paradise.

Why? Maybe because we're fans of an unusual instrument with an interesting history. Maybe it's because we like 'rooting for an underdog'. Maybe it's because we like being 'different'. Somehow the dulcimer just isn't as pretentious a classical guitar or violin. Not as set in its ways as a banjo or mandolin.

Could be Sweetgum, but if so, it haslots of character. You could always "scratch & sniff" on an out of the ay place inside, and see if you get the characteristic Sassafras aroma. That's what it looks most like, to me - flat sawn Sassafras.

Modal Tuning, may be my phrase.

Historically the word Mode goes back to the Greeks and the Monochord (one string) instrument. A Mode is a scale on a single string - the Melody string. The dulcimer has two drones which accompany the Melody. Those drones are almost always in a 1-5 relationship. A Modal Tuning would be the combination of drones and melody string notes for playing in a particular Mode - DAA or CGG or GDD are all Ionian Modal tunings where the scale (in D, C or G) starts on the 3rd fret and walks up to the 10th. DAd, CGc, GDg are Mixolydian Modal tunings where the scale starts on the Open note and goes to fret 7. Thus I can write "All Ionian Modal tunings share common tabulature."

Skip - Modes are scales, plain and simple.

The one we all know - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti and do again - is the Ionian Mode scale

The Mixolydian Mode scale is - do, re. mi, fa, sol, la, ti-flat, and do again.

• If your dulcimer has the 6+ fret you have both the ti and the ti-flat note whether tuned in DAd or DAA
• If you dulcimer does not have the 6+ fret and you're in DAA you only have the ti note.
• If your dulcimer does not have a 6+ fret and you're in DAd you only have the ti-flat note.

All D tunings work together

DAA, DAd, Ddd, ddd, DAC, DAG just to name the most common. Try Ddd - you won't have to change any strings and you get the Galax sound with an extra deep bass note.

Using different tunings works just fine as long as everyone is in the same key.

I've done such wacky things to prove this to some groups as playing in DAG when everyone else was in DAd. In such 'stuck' groups dedicated to one tuning, I almost invariably play in DAA, as it's my 'go to' tuning. A great many stuck DAd players don't even know that the majority of songs they are playing are not in Mixolydian Mode and don't need to be played in DAd. As Rob said, a good player in a different tuning can create harmonies and other parts around a bunch of folks playing with a one track mind.

Do people switch back and forth to play various songs...

Heck yes! Songs come in different Modes - feelings if you will - bright & cheerful, mournful & sad for example. The different Modal tunings reflect those feelings to an extent - DAA vs DAC or DAG. Changing the melody string by one or two notes doesn't seem like much, but it makes a world of difference in the sound.

Isn't that hard on the strings?

Well... yeah. But nothin' lives forever and at less than $3 per set, strings are cheap! And if you're scared of changing them, it's time for some Tough Love

Read my Blog articles here: I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? and Uncontrite Modal Folker to learn more about changing tunings, modes and general dulcimerness.

Boiled cabbage, squirrel heads in gravy, five pounds of possum, Peas pease eatin' goober peas, how many other food related songs are there of similar nature???

Boiled cabbage is easy. Chop it into about 2"x3" pieces and simmer a few minutes - just until it's limp. Don't boil it into submission. I like to season mine with caraway seeds, apples and/or apple cider, and bratwurst or loose mild Italian sausage.

Tastes just like chicken....

Good lookin' 'shrooms, Sam.

Here are some great savory (not sweet) scones I made a week r so back. Split one of these while warm and slip in a slice of smoked turkey or ham, and yuuummm!

Smoky Mushroom Cheddar Scones

2 Cups AP flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 stick Butter, unsalted, chilled, cubed
1 CupWhite Cheddar shredded

3/4 Cup finely chopped Mushrooms

3/4 Cup cold Half & Half
1 large egg

1 tsp Smokehouse Maple Seasoning or other dry smoke spice blend

Preheat the oven to 375F
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Cut Butter into dry mix. Add cheese and mushrooms, stir to combine.
Whisk cream and egg. Add cream mixture to flour mixture. Stir until everything comes together.

Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface. Gather dough together; pat to a thickness of about 1 inch. Cut into wedges or rounds.
Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake scones until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool at least 10 minutes.

The cornbread sounds good - except for the Italian additions -- pepperoni and banana peppers!! I'd use ground beef cooked with Taco seasoning. And diced green chiles (not jalapenos).

I have a Russian recipe for a stuffed pan 'bread' like this, where you make up basically a large batch of pancake batter, and the stuffing is sauteed onions and mushrooms...

Aw Paul.... Now you got me craving Lau lau! Guess I'd better make Kahlua Pork tomorrow so I can make Lau lau for the weekend. You goin' to da Big Island, mon? Or Oahu? I've got a good friend over at Kealakahua, who makes great Lau lau, even if she does buy her Kahlua Pig. Have some kine grinds for me, mon. Great post mon. Aloha!

Can't get Old By up there? For the Kahlua Pork, I'm a big fan of Sweet Baby Ray's brand BBQ sauces. But if you want an Asian style BBQ sauce, nothing beats Hoisin Sauce. It's really thick, so dilute it with a bit of water or mild white vinegar (or both).

Here's an Old Bay copycat:

Makes about 1/4 cup:

• 1 tablespoon ground dried bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons celery salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground celery seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground mace
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Of course, by the time you buy all those spices (if you don't already have them), you'd make money if you took a day off work, drove across the border, bought a case of The Right Stuff and drove back home

Sam - sure -- share away!

Meg - the recipes for Emeril's Bam! spice blends are available on line... I won't buy his product, but I do make my own Bam! spice when I need to.

Kahlua Pork
(Hawaiian style BBQ, Sam Choy technique)

3-5 lb Pork Putt - NOT shoulder

Liquid Smoke

Hawaiian Sea Salt, Kosher Salt or other large grain salt

Banana Leaf or Ti (not Tea) leaves from a florist shop

Dissolve 2 bouillon cubes in a quart of water

Pre-heat oven to 250F. Yep 250, not 350. That low.

With a sharp knife, slash the pork butt in a diamond pattern (like you see on a big ham). Measure one Tablespoon of Liquid smoke per pound of meat, and rub it all over the butt. Measure 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of meat and rub that all over the butt.

Wrap the meat in the leaves (if you have them, otherwise, do without), and place in a fairly close fitting covered casserole or Dutch oven. Add bouillon water to half way up the meat, cover and bake for 1 hour per pound of meat. Remove, discard leaves if you used them, reserve the liquid. Pull the meat apart with a pair of forks, discarding any large pieces of fat that might remain. Put the pulled pork in a large bowl and pour the reserved liquid over everything - it will soak up the liquid.

If you want barbecue sauce, add it to each serving or sandwich, don't smother the shredded pork in it. Serve on a bun with cole slaw if you like, with fried okra or French fries on the side

It's been a LOOONNG time but we used to have a thread about healthy living and eating and lots of us posted recipes there. Can't find that thread now... Anyway, here's a recipe I've made lately at the request of a couple of my Personal Chef clients.

Seafood Stuffed Eggplant
2 large Italian Eggplant

1 lb shelled shrimp or mixed seafood

1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup Onion, diced

1 Roma Tomato, diced

2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning of choice

Extra cheese for topping - mozzarella, asiago, white cheddar etc.

Optional - spicy peppers to taste

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the "guts", leaving about 1/4" of meat in the shells. Set aside face down on paper towels. In a skillet, saute the chopped seafood, chopped eggplant guts, onion, tomato, optional peppers if used, and seasoning, in a bit of oil or water, over medium-high heat, until tender - 10 minutes or so. In a small bowl combine the panko and parmesan. Add the breadcrumb mixture to the sauteed mixture, tossing to combine. You want a dense "stuffing" texture here. Heap the dressing mixture into the eggplant shells. Place stuffed eggplants on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Top with remainng cheese and bake until until melted. browned and/or crispy on top. Serve with a dollop of Romesco sauce, or if you don't have or make that, use another tomato-based sauce.

serves 4 with a side salad

I've also made this with canned tuna or canned salmon if you're not fond of shrimp or shellfish...