Forum Activity for @robin-clark

I can understand that Raul - I prefer old time to bluegrass sessions myself on dulcimer (although I am the dobro player in a local bluegrass band!!!!)

I converted a standard dulcimer to Galax tuning and used that for about 6 months at sessions before deciding to buy a Galax instrument. I just put 4 x 0.010 strings equidistant on a TK O'Brian dulcimer thatI had. It gave me the opportunity to try out the tuning and playing style with quills and noter before I took the plunge and spent some money. Ihave a couple of Galax dulcimers now. I find that I rarely play them at home, just a little practice time to keep on top of the technique which is quite difficult. I prefer to pick up one of my more standard dulcimers when playing for myself. However, I always have a Galax in my bag for session.It is something that I've heard Phyllis Gaskins say about the instrument as well - once you getanother instrument in the mix with the Galax it really comes to life. They are very distinctive and classic played solo but they also have this other life of driving the rhythm within an old time mix. When I get the chance, one of my favourite playing situations with aGalax is to play for a clog dancer and have their feet as the second instrument

Raul Blacksten said:

We have the "bluegrass nazi" out here and he has influenced way too many people. Besides, bluegrass is the only genre of music that I know of that has rules as to what kind of instruments are acceptable. Me, I'm not a big bluegrass fan. I much prefer old time and traditional music. As to the Galax, I have wanted one for some time, but they are rare in SoCal.

Try a Galax dulcimer with noter and quill at a Bluegrass jam Raul. The instrument sits in its own 'space' in the mix providing 'high hat' rhythm, and you'll also get chucked the odd lead break once the crowd gets to know you

Thanks Stephen and every one else for your comments.

I think that I have slightly miss-represented myself in my earlier posts. I would far prefer to play old fiddle tunes knee to knee with you Stephen than play the Beatles!!! I am just really interested why these tunes have found such longevity with the dulcimer. When I sit down to play banjo, mandolin, guitar or dulcimer, as I did yesterday, it is the old fiddle tunes that I'm drawn to.

I think that your insight Stephen into the fact that these type of old tunes are melody centered probably has a lot to do with their popularity among dulcmr players. In fact, that was just the sort of insight I was searching for when I asked my original question.

The 'play TUNES or PLAY tunes' allegory is actually a little in balance for me. In many contexts the tunes themselves are as important (play TUNES) as the playing (PLAY tunes). And itwas the Appalachian fiddletunes themselves that drew me to the dulcimer; in that I discovered old time fiddle tunes BEFORE I discovered the dulcimer. So in my case it was the tunes that led me to the instrument rather than the instrument's teaching materialleading me to the tunes. A lot of the sessions I attend are TUNE centered - for example they will be billed as an 'old time' session of 'Welsh tune session' etc so there is an expectation that not 'everything goes'. The TUNES are the focus and the hub of the wheel around which the players dance. The love of the tunes and the love of playing are intertwined, and it does matter WHAT you play as much as HOW you play it. There is a social context and connectivity, a tribe, that gels the participants. The Beatles or Aerosmith are not played at a Welsh tune session or old time sessionbecause in that context and moment in time it is notthe tribe'smusic. In some respects I think that there is an element of this tribalism amongst us dulcimer players regarding our repertoir. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all - it is just something we should notice about ourselves.

I enjoy playing a variety of music on the dulcimer but always return to Appalachian tunes and also folk tunes from other countries that have a 'fit' to the instrument. I love the tunes possibly more than I love the dulcimer, in that I will sit down and pick out the tunes on pretty much whatever instrument I have in my hands at the time. What I love about the dulcimer, particularly old style noter drone playing, is that it plays the tunes so well- with just the perfect timbre and feel I love to hear.

So thank you again for your insights. I felt it was a question worth posing just to generate a debate on why the Appalachian repertoir is still so interlinked with the instrument despite playing styles and players exposure to different music genera having moved on so far since the 1960s. It is good to think these fundamental issues through once in a while

Hi Jeff,

Yes - I've had strings break tuning down. If they are old and have been in one tuning for a while then there can be a weakness at the tuning peg. Mind you I've broken strings, old and new, either simply through lots of re-tuning causing weakness (I use lots of different tunings) or because of another factor such as a burr on the tuning post. If your strings consistanly break then I would look for a specific cause - but if they justoccasionally break then that's just what strings do!!!!

I have a 0.012 melody string on my standard cherry McSpadden (28.5" VSL). I have no problem tuning it from G a tone below the A in DAA up to d for D,d,d or D,A,d (a 5 tone spread) for noter drone playing.

Robin

As you can see this shows a single setting, but can be translated in to the diatonic world in 3(or 4) different ways. DAD, DAA, DAG,( DAC) and thats without any transposing.

One reason I try not to talk in modes when it is more accurate to talk of gapped scales.

John P - I can understand that. The fact that many, many tunes are 'gapped' (Cripple Creek, Angeline the Baker, Shady Grove, Cluck Old Hen, Buffalo Gals etc etc) is a godsend at old time sessions as it saves a lot of re-tuning. I can play most of the 'standards' in more than one position on the freboard.

But I don't think it is more accurate to talk about gapped scales rather than modes as these aren't really cross modal tunes. They are just tunes that don't use all the notes from their 'home' mode and so you can cheat by moving them around the fretboard. For example, if you start to improvise on Cripple Creek or Angeline the Baker you very quickly realise that their 'home' mode is ionian even though the tunesthemselvescan be played on the mixolidian scale. I've not come across a tune yet that will truely work in more than one mode, when you start to harmonise or improvise they all have their 'home' mode. It is good though to know that you can get away with playing lots of tunes from different start points on the diatonic scale.

Quite true Paul - it can be confusing.

You are right the '1' does denote the keynote. Howevera '1' does not always appear as an open string. Some quite common tunings like 5-5-5 (D,d,d played in the key of G ionian from the 3rd fret) or5-5-4 (D-d-c played out of G dorianwith the keynote at the 4th fret) do not have a '1' on the open strings. If you can learn to find the '1', the keynote,by counting up the melody stringit will give you both the key and themodefor every possibletuning.

Paul Certo said:

The original question here was how to determine the keynote when changing from a tuning such as DAD to DGD. Let us not confuse each other with this issue. When we speak of dulcimer tunings as 155,158, 515, etc, the string we designate as "1" is tuned to the key note of the scale that tuning is used to play. To say that tunings don't have key notes is to confuse people. Adding an extra scale to a single tuning by way of the 6+ fret doesn't change the key note, it only allows us to play two modes from one tuning. Both of those modes, ionian and mixolydian, relate to the same Keynote.

While some may understand advanced music theory, many do not. And of those who do not, a good many play very well, and do not allow the lack of college level classes to hinder their enjoyment. Lets keep our answers to the point, and not go too deep. There are many lessons between beginning and advanced theory, those who are missing many of those lessons will become confused.

Paul

Hi John,

Transcribing modal folk tunes into SMN can be a wee bit problematic for us noter drone players as the 'convention' varies (ie. there is no convention!). So a tune that is in the key of A mixolidian mode may appear in SMN written on a key of D signature staff, because that's the scale of notes the mode actually uses although it starts and finishes on A.

http://thesession.org/tunes/7237/7237?print=true

(June Apple - Key of A mixolidian but written in key of D)

However, if you set your drones for key of D according to the key signature and then play the tune as written you will be in the wrong key and mode (because the modes sound is set by its relationship to the drones). This factor doesn't matter to fiddlers (most Appalachian tune SMN is written for/by fiddlers) as they are just playing the melody - so you quite often see key of A mixolidian tunes like June Apple, Red Haired Boy and Old Joe Clark written in the key of D in fiddle books although they are played off the page in the key of A and appear listed under 'Key of A Tunes'.In the same way,key of A Dorian tunes like Shady Grove or Frosty Morning are often witten in the key of G.

http://thesession.org/tunes/6467/6467?print=true

(Cold Frosty Morning - written in the key of G ionian but actually played off the page in the key of A dorian although there is no indication of that fact on the SMN here - a bit of a problem for us noter drone players when selecting drones!)

Alternatively, some transcribers would write a key of A mixolidian tune on a key of A signature staff and then use accidentals to define the mode.

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/session-mandolin-tab/pdf/old_joe_...

(Old Joe Clark - also A mixolidian but this time written in the key of A with accidentals)

The trouble with this approach is that when you get to something like key of A aeolian you end up with accidentals all over the staff and it becomes unreadable - so in that case the tune may be written as the key of C on the staff but would need to be played against A and/or E drones on the dulcimer!!!!!! But you have to know that the tune is in A rather than C, although you are playing the C scale notes and the tune is written on the page in C ionian.

I have also seen some pieces written with a two step variation. So, for example, our key of A aeolian tune may be written in the key of G but with a mixolidian accidental (F sharp moved to F) yet we would need to find key of A drones to play the tune in A aeolian! Some dulcimer teaching books are particulary fond of doing this because they write everything from the key of D staff but may be playing in another key and then find they have to 'accidental' their way around the tune or the 6+.

I think that the most 'dulcimer friendly' SMN I have seen is written in the key signature of the note placed at the 3rd fret (ie key of D key signature for A mixolidian like the first examples above) - but then the true key of the piece is written top left at the start of the tune. So, as an example, 'F Dorian' would be written above a staff showing a key of Eb key signature (the tune being written in Eb) and then you'd know straight away that C and F drones would be OK to play against your melody string tuned to Bb.

There, see how easy it is to play in keys and scales on our little diatonic instrument Its a good job folk music is an aural tradition or you'd need a PhD to play the dulcimer!

Robin

John Hockett said:

I must have said something incorrectly. You make my point but with overkill. Modes is modes, but we play in keys and scales or else we could not transcribe into staff notation.

Hi John,

I have come across a few tunes that don't resolve and so the mode (and drone selection) are a bit difficult to spot. The Blackest Crow isone. It sounds like a minor tune but it is an unresolvedmajor key tune that finishes on the 6thnote (and minor chord) leaving everything hanging and in tension! A good versionof the tune to listen to in order to get the sound of thatunresolved ending is the one they played on the Transatlantic sessions.

In fact at the 1.53 mark theyswitch the phrase end note to a major chord, which passesunoticed!

john p said:

Thanks for looking at that Robin, explains to me more of what I'm doing.

I never do resolve the tune, I like to hear it left hanging. I've reduced it to pentatonic, gapped at the 2nd and 5th, so start and end on the same note, It can be played out of the 2nd, 5th or 8th fret like that.

john

Hi John,

I've just had a look at 'The Curra Road'

Ger Wolfe plays it in the key of C - It is an ionian tune so CGG will work fine. The 'home fret' is the 3rd fret. The tune starts on the 5th fret but resolves to the 3rd the second time through Part A and at the end of Part B.

Robin

[edit] I've recently put up a piece called 'The Curra Road'. Convention would say this is one of the minor modes, but none of the ones I tried really suited the words. I ended up using a simple Ionian tuning, but playing out of the Locrian position (Home = 2nd fret).

john

Hi Babs,

No, I don't capo - I re-tune my drones. Have a look at this:

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/group/oldstyledronenoterplayers/page/tunings-for-noter-drone-beginner-intermediate

The principle of tuning, which John also mentioned above, is that the drones are there to support the melody whatever key and mode that melody is in.

Hi Ken,

Yep - most of the time I'm playing with the bass string being the 'keynote', but not always. And for the type of playing I do - playing a lot at sessions - I need to know the key I'm playing in and the mode within that key. So I've had to work out a system for understanding tunings that suits my playing - but the system I use for working out tuningsmay notsuit the way others play - and it is not the way that tunings and modes were explained by the likes of Bonnie Carol or Jean Ritchie.

Hi Ken and Babs,

In some tunings the keynote does not appear in the drones at all. D,d,d may have the keynote of D in the drones or that tuning could be played as the key of G, with the keynote being on the 3rd fret of the melody string and not appear in the drones at all.At least half of the traditionalGalax tunes are in the key of G from d,d,d,d tuning!

Personally, I would not use the term 'keynote' in relation to the drones at all but instead find it on the melody string. For example, for the key of D ionian the keynote is at the 3rd fret on the melody string. The drones will be either the root or the 5th of the D ionian scale - and they will work in any combination. You could have D,A,A or D,d,A or A,d,A or A,A,A - all of those tunings would be key of D ionian tunings and A,A,A would also be key of A mixolidian. They would each have a slightly differnt feel to them but they would all work.

When I'm learning a new tune I always start with the melody string and place the keynote on the correct fret first. So if I was playing in A dorian then I would place an 'a' at the 4th fret (so my string would be tuned to d). My drones would need to be either A or E in any combination A,A or A,E, or E,A or E,E. Depending on the feel I wanted from the tune and the ability of the bass and middle string gauges to reach certasin notes I would decide which drone combination to select.

Robin

Hi Paul,

I re-read my pervious post and realise that it sounded like a dig at you - which it wasn't. I was pointing out that although called 'new' there was probably a historical use of the 5th bass drone.

There were a lot of dulcimer terms that appeared and then died in the 60s to 90s and a few that made it through to become the conventions of today. I think that it is great to find older teaching books with different terms and techniques described in them as it is a part of living history - and often it is only by chance that those terms have not become today's 'norm'. The most prominantteaching book of that era is Jean Ritchie's 'The Dulcimer Book' and yet there are techniques and terms in that book which did not make it to become today's 'norm'. In factthe playing styles, TAB style, tunings and terminologyshe espoused in what must be the most purchased dulcimer teaching book of all time did not make it through the revival to become today's playing 'norm'. The way the instrument is designed, played and talked about today owes a lot more to California than Appalachia! However, the way that Jean Ritchie described the modesfrom one key with a constant 1-5 drone over a re-tuned melody string did become the 'standard' for describing modes. And I expect that this is why the reverse of those drones became described as 'new' - the authors not knowing thatin some pre-revival traditions a 5th bass was common. I've seen the term 'new modes' myself in Neal Hellman's'Dulcimer Chord Book' published by Mel Bay in 1981 and have no idea why the term 'reversed' rather than 'new' has become the norm, it is perhaps simply a quirk of popular usage.

Paul Certo said:

Again, I used terminology from dulcimer books I learned from. I'm not chiseling the writing off the stone tablets. The "new" modes used a 5th drone, but placed it on the bass string instead of the middle string. I was trying to explain to the original poster how to find other keys without the expense of a new dulcimer. A lot of us shy away from being told we have to have several dulcimers in different tunings and string gauges, some diatonic, some chromatic, etc. The question here was about tunings and keys, not history. If we stray too far from the original question, we may confuse instead of educating.

Paul

I'm not quite so sure how 'new' the concept of playing over a 5th bass drone really was in the 60s? Perhaps because Jean Ritchie didn't usetunings with a 5th on the bass thatthose who followed thought that they had invented something new out of the need to get to the key of G on their contemporary instruments. Whereas playing in the key of G from some form of unison tuning was common in many dulcimer lineages. Players in the 19th century knew about switching tunes from say D to G without re-tuning by using common drones, and I'm reasonably convinced that some knew about E,A,A as a key of A tuning. And I'm coming across 'new' oldtunings all the time like B',B,B on the Ed Presnell Dulcimer Maker video used by Nettie Presnell who is playing ionian tunes on the mixolidian scale (gapped 7th tunes) in the key of F over octave separated 5th drones.

In fact, the 'new' aspect of dulcimer playing from the late 60s was struggling to get into other tunings on dulcimers with string gaugesand low actions set up for chord melody playing in D,A,d. I also have a suspicion that wooden pegs and piano wire strings gave rise to the use of a wider range of keys and tunings, albeit unintentionally. Although it is more difficult to be accurate with wooden pegs, a small turn does tend pitch you into another tuning unwittingly. And I'm sure that on many occasions when tuning by ear a player would have ended up with the bass a 4th gap fromthe middle string rather than a 5th and played in a 'reverse' tuning - I have done so myself!

Robin

Strumelia - I find that the liberal consumption ofliquor (for medicinal purposes) at such musical sessions improves my understanding of modes and tuningsgreatly

Strumelia said:

John, Robin usually plays in crowded pubs with bunches of whistles and concertinas and fiddlers, so he probably hasn't noticed all this time that there was something a little 'off' about his mixolydian tunes.

john p said:

Hi Robin,
...Whilst it's true you can play an Ionian tune from the Mixalydian position with a 6+, the reverse is not true, you can't play a Mixalydian tune from the Ionian position....

john

Ahh!!!! You are right there!

You may want to look at that one again John. From D,A,d a capo at fret 3 gives you G,d,g and the full standard ionian scale (do,ra,me,fa,so,la,te,do). So you can play ionian chord melody tunes using the same fingering you would for a chord melody tune in D,A,d only you are now in the key of G. The original 6+ becomes a 3+, which is ignored.

Robin

john p said:

Hmmm. Couple of points here.

What you suggest is a simple way of getting to G. but only works for tunes that are gapped at the 7th. Otherwise you need a 8+ fret to give you the min7th. Many Mixalydian tunes are gapped, so you can often get away with it.

The second scale you talk about starts a 5th above the original, not a 4th. In order to use it you would need to take the DAd tuning down a tone to CGc and place the capo at the 4th fret. You can then use the 6+ to give you the maj3rd.

john

Robin Clark said:

You can make it really easy for yourself Babs. Use the TAB numbers as written - but start counting the frets from your capo. So fret 3 is your new 0, fret 4 is now 1, fret 5 is now 2 etc. So you can just play the TAB as it is witten with no differnce in the fingering pattern to playing without the capo. See using the capo as simply giving you a shorter dulcimer in a higher key!!! The tuning you are using is still a 1-5-8 tuning the same as DAd only now it is G,d,g. BTW this simplicity is only the case with a capo at fret 3 because your dulcimer fretboard has two major scales exactly the same (due to the 6+) - one starts at the nut and the other at fret 3. If you put the capo on other frets then all bets are off !!!!!!

Robin

You can make it really easy for yourself Babs. Use the TAB numbers as written - but start counting the frets from your capo. So fret 3 is your new 0, fret 4 is now 1, fret 5 is now 2 etc. So you can just play the TAB as it is witten with no differnce in the fingering pattern to playing without the capo. See using the capo as simply giving you a shorter dulcimer in a higher key!!! The tuning you are using is still a 1-5-8 tuning the same as DAd only now it is G,d,g. BTW this simplicity is only the case with a capo at fret 3 because your dulcimer fretboard has two major scales exactly the same (due to the 6+) - one starts at the nut and the other at fret 3. If you put the capo on other frets then all bets are off !!!!!!

Robin

Hi Babs,

You will not be able to tune a standard set of dulcimer strings on a standard dulcimer from DAdd either UP to G,d,gg or DOWN to G',D,GG. The most you'll safely get from most string sets is up to E and down to A with the bass string, up to d and down to G with the middle string and up to d and down to G with the melody strings. That's assuming a 28" scale and the McSpadden DAA string gauges on 0.022w, 0.012, 0.012, 0.012.

What you could do however is to tune to DAdd and then put a capo on fret 3. You can play the same as if youwere in DAdd only you are now in Gdgg.

Robin

Hi Lisa -Now that's a GREAT photo!!!!!!

I'm just learning tremolo - it is THE sound of the instrument after all I have found a couple of good lessons on Youtube - one of which talked about angling the pick slightly just by rocking your thumb so it glides over the strings and doesn't catch. The other talked about the wrist action, matching your tremolo speed to the speed of the metronome beat, and getting the whole arm totally relaxed so it i just a loose, quick. non stressedwrist action. All seem like good tips. I'm working on double stop temolo too - as I really love that sound and there seems to be a lot of it in the old bluegrass tracks I'm listening to.

Dave - that's lovely playing I've certainly not reached the key of A pentatonic blues page in the book yet!

Robin

Hi Rick - yep it is a lot of fun!

I think that having a very specific goal really helps to move skills forward (the goal for me is to play the mandolinin our band's set at gigs on roughly 20% of the set by the end of 2013 - so I need a least 5 tunes at stage performance level on the instrument), each little bit of practice time is focussed on taking little steps forward towards that goal. Also, I always expect to struggle a little whenever I practice. If I'm not struggling to do something new then I'm not learning anything. So whilst practice is 'fun' for me on all my instruments that 'fun' comes from meanngful, results focused practice. Ican rememberthat Stephen Seifert put up a quote somewhere from a pro musician that was something along the lines of "The more I learn to play my instrument the harder it gets to play". I think that's because each new skill learned opens up more doors of possibility and is also stacked on previous skills - so you just end up building one skill on top of another that are all running consecutively.

We have a great metaphor for this phenomena in our village. Coming out of the back of the village we have an old cattle and sheep drovers road going up over Cadair Idris to Dolgellau - it is called the Ffordd Ddu or 'Black Road'. Quite a few of us from the village will mountain bike the 'up and over' on a regular basis. The 1000ft climb to the top takes about 40 minutes from the valley floor. We all comment how, despite cycling the road regularly for many years, the climb never gets any easier! We just do it a little faster some days or a little slower others, and generally faster than when we first started - but the feeling of effort remains the same. And this is how music practice should feel -the feeling of effort should remain high despite your skill level. The goal of practice is to physicallychange the way you play. If you are not working every time you pick up your instrument on changing the way you play by the time you put it down then your practice time is ineffective.

Robin

Well I've been playing mandolin for a whole3 weeks now!!!! The model I have is a Kentucky KM140 (the bottom end of their range). It has a solid spruce top and maple laminate back and sides. The general construction was actually pretty good and the neck angle excellent. The frets had been leveled but not re-crowned - so I did that job and a fret polish. I popped a set of Gibson monel strings on it, cut the nut, set the truss rodand set-up the bridge intonation and height. Knowing nothing about mandolins I took the set-up measurements from Gibson's standard mandolin set-up (5/64ths bass side @12th and 3/64s treble side @ 12th) and it plays like a dream What I love about the instrument is just how much fun a mandolin is to play

Here's a sound clip of an improvisedlead break for Wild and Wicked World that I'm working on. As expected after such a short time I'm still veryclumsy with the instrument in my hands! Hopefully everything will feel more natural as we get more 'hands on' time together!:

Thanks !

Rick, I don't think that the two instruments, dulcimer and mandolin, are complimentary from a player's perspective as there are no cross-over skills that I can see- the mandolinis a very different instrument to handle. I have a big advantage coming new to the mandolin over many beginners; and that is that I know the music I want to achieve very well. I've played dobro in a bluegrass band for about 7 years and so have stood next to a mandolin player for many, many hours watching what they do and hearing the part the instrument plays in bluegrass music. I have also played dulcimer for many hours with a mandolin player (The Kitchen Sessions) although for much of the time he switched to mandola or tenor guitar.

So my mandolin practice is focussing on the physical - getting really confortable with the instrument in my hands as quickly as I can. I have no intention of becoming a great mandolin player but if I can reasonably knock out chops, fills and the odd lead break at a steady standard for bluegrass band gigs then that will be just fine. I play exactly those parts on dobro - chops, fills and lead breaks - so it is the physical techniques of the mandolin that I have to concentrate on. For example the act of playing chops, in time, on the off-beat, to drive the band along I have already completely wired on dobro, and for the last 18 months or so since our mandolin player left the band I have taken up that role to an evengreater extent. So on mandolin I have focussed on getting my instrument hold,pick grip, strum technique and 4 finger chop chords practicedmost because for85% or more of the time I spend with the instrument in my handson stagemy primary job will be classic mandolin chops to drive the band along. I need to work out some kick-offs, a couple of turnarounds, a few finishes and some lead breaks to whatever tunes I switch from dobro to mandolin on (I'll probably use a lot of vibrato double stops on my lead breaks as they look flashy, sound bluegrassy and eat up time - and are far easier than intricate fast runs!!!!!!!) - and that's going to be about the sum of my mandolin playing

Robin

No - I've not seen that one. I must case up a copy

R N Lackey said:

Good for you, Robin. Nice to see someone unafraid to take on a new instrument. I'm sure you'll be posting video of your mandolin technique really soon! Oh... have you heard the Baldissari/Schnaufer Appalachian Mandolin/Dulcimer album? I'm sure you have, but just in case

My youngest son bought me a Kentucky make A Style mandolin for Christmas and said "I thought that you may be able to play this in your band". We lost our mandolin player about a year ago, but picked up a fiddler

I really wasn't sure if my left hand with its finger damage would cope with a mandolin but 2 weeks in and I seem to be managing to reach everything I want to OK. In fact, the 4 finger G and D chords may be a little easier with the top section of your first finger missing (not that I'd recommend it ).

YouTube has been great. I watched Bill Munroe on Christmas Day to get an idea how to stand and hold the instrument and use a strap. I did a full set-up onthe instrument.In the past two weeks I'veworked my way through stuff like pick grip and technique (I bought a load of mandolin picks and have tried different styles - at present the Wengen 1.00 is my fav for tone and handling),easy chords, bluegrass chop chords, scales, vibrato, simple riffs and solos, double stopsand played as many old time tunes in differnt keys as I could work out. This evening I took the instrument to band practice and had 3 hours of flat out bluegrass speed chops standing next to the bass player (boom chick heaven ) plus I was being chucked solos on each tune (which I played really badly ). There's nothing like peer pressure from the rest of the band to sharpen up your playing!!!!

It looks like we may have a gig on Friday - if we do then I'll give the instrument its first stage outing for a couple of tunes

Here are a few of the downsides to ebony fretboards.

It is brittle and can be hard to work with. It is prone to chipping if you ever have to re-fret. It is prone to cracking over time. The best trees are gone and the quality is not what it used to be. The good stuff today is likely to be unethically obtained at best or even illegally logged so a lot of what's sold as ebony now is actually other spieces not quite as black or hard. It doesn't take staple frets easily - it must be pre-drilled and the leg spacing and angle on the drilled holes perfect or the frets will not bed properly. It is expensive.

Hi Leighann,

When you first start to knit you usefat needles, go slow and drop stiches but as your skill and accuracy increase you can knit faster with precision using thinner needles and drop less stiches. Eventually, the skill of knitting is 'automated' and your brain can even do other things like chatting whilst happily knitting away

Strumming a dulcimer is exactly the same. Strumming with a pick is a physical skill that requires a very high degree of precision, speed andaccuracy and hours and hours of practice. You can use 'big picks' or other techniques like sticky picks to help the learning process along the way. But, over time, you'll simply and imperceptibly just get better at strumming and holding on to your pick (whatever type of pick you choose to use in the long run). It is one of those skills that just evolves without too much analysis alongside learning tunes.

...but being my nerdy self, I'm researching a lot and playing less...

And therein lies the rub! We nerds sometimes need to learn to let go of the head stuff and simply rely on physical experience, without analysis, to get us to the next stage. And it can be fun to move away fromour preferred theoretical learning style and be a free child activist for a while and just see what happens experientially

Robin

Hi Delores,

You can get away with just having one strap button on the tail block as Dusty says - no need for a strap button on the headstock. You can either tie a bootlace around the headstock and quick release to it - or, even simpler, just throw a bootlace loop tied to the end of your strap around the headstock (works best with scroll headstocks).

It's funny, when I first started playing I used a strap all the time. Then I moved to pads, and now I most often play without anything, particularly when playing the Ed Thomas or Charles Prichard replica dulcimers I have. I think that some of that has to do with the fact that painted poplar wood is just more 'sticky' than a modern super smooth dulcimer but I also think I've just got better at balancing the instrument on my lap as my playing has improved!

A strap is really handy though as it means you can sit on all sorts of objects at various heights and the dulcimer stays put!!!!

Robin

Nice collection! I sold reso ukes for a while a couple of years ago, which is how I found out about D tuning. I had a small batch made butcouldn't get the down pressure I wanted on the cone from GCEA so I had a chat with a friend of mine who has an original National from the early 30s and who is an expert on National guitars (I had copied the tail block off of his original National uke for the small run I had made). It was him who told me "Oh they used to play these in D not C", and that extra tone up to ADF#Bgave me the down pressure to really get the cones singing as I wanted.

Robin

Hi Nigel,

Yep - that's know as C tuning for ukes (C6 actually). Smaller ukes, particularly during the early part of the 20th century, were tuned a tone higher A,D,F#,B (D6) and played in the key of D.

No - they can just tune up from C to the old 1930s D tuning

Nigel Caddick said:

Ha ha, thank you Robin LOL

I will have to get the other 22 ukuleleists to buy capo's then.....

Oh I just love these multi-confusing questions

Nigel - You can actually get away with murder on a dulcimer working out of D,A,d with or without a capo to assist, unless the folks you play with go somewhere really weird like A# minor

You don't have to play full chords on the dulcimer - in fact many dulcimer 'chords' just contain two notes (0,0,0 for D or 3,3,3 for G are examples) so you can play in other keys with a bit of thought and simply miss out the notes you don't have and substitue a harmony note. For example:there's a C chord at 3,4,6 and an F chord (without an F) at 6,8,6 and a G chord at 3,3,5 and the relative minor (Am without the 3rd) at4,4,4. So you can strum along in the key of C adding the odd fill or partial melody from D,A,d.

You can also work melody over drones at a session(playing modal tunings) and the other instruments will fill in the chord changes while you hold the root and/or 5th of the primary key within your drones. This is my prefered method for sessions although it involves re-tuning. I also like to play on a short scale instrument tuned to highG,d,g - same chord shapes as D,A,d but with G as the home tuning as I feel this tuning tends to lift the instrumemt up over the top of the guitar (just personal preference).

With a standard set of string gauges and a bit of thought you can get pretty much into any key and scale (mode). And I would look at the dulcimer as an instrument of possibilities rather than restrictions

Of course, if most of the tunes you play with friends are in the key of C then you can always get the guitarist to put a capo on a fret 2 so you can all play in the key of D

Robin

Hi John,

To my mind, the photo is not of a 'reverse capo' or 'false nut' but a 'partial capo'. The capo in the picture works the same as a normal capo - it holds down the strings behind a fret. A false nut/reverse capo is independant of any frets and will work on older dulcimers with no frets under the middle and bass strings.

The most useful positions to capo the dronesis the first fret on the bass string from 1-5-5 tuning to give 5-1-1 tuning. This enables a switch from key of D ionian tunes D-A-A to key of A mixolidian tunes E-A-A - lots of popular Appalachian tunes fall into these two keys/modes when played at sessions. The capo in the photo would facilitate this switch nicely. Also a retuning of the melody string from A to d would give E-A-d using the partial capo - so you would have key of A dorian - another very popular key/mode fo Appalachian tunes. Occasionally I will use a reverse nut at fret 3 from D-d-d tuning to give G-d-d (key of G ionian). I could stay in D-d-d (5-5-5) but lifting the bass to G (1-5-5) gives a very bright sound which suits a lot of the popular key of G Appalachian tunes.

Being able to have the partial capo in the photo work on the bass string at the frist fret and third fret would be an advantage for fast tuning changes at old time sessions. However, it looks like the rail is at a slope in the photo to increase the downforce as the capo arm is slid forward. This may cause a problem if trying to use this design over a span of 3 frets. I'm sure though that you could come up with a design that would work.

Robin

I was looking at the music for thistune last week as a potential one for playing in noter drone. I thought it was a little 'plain' without the modern Celtic chord changes in Part B, which seem to be the#2 tunes signature. I think I may have a go at adding back some ornamentation to Part B to make it a little more of a 'tune' for noter drone- If it works out perhaps I'll record it and post it here as John Stinson #3

That is a lovely instrument!

I'm not that surprised by the staples being full width. I've seen that before on early dulcimers that were only ever played in noter drone style. The width of the staples would depend on the tool that they were shaped around. Also there are lots of other little features on that dulcimer that are very neat and tidy. The full width frets look very tidy too and I expect they were installed to make the instrument look symetrical and very smart.

It's a beauty

Oooh That's lovely

Hi Gayle,

Yep - Playing by ear is a skill rather than a tallent. And some folk will find it easy than others to learn just like any other skill. A few good teaching points and the motivation to practice will speed up the process - just the same as learning anything else.

I think that TABs are probably very good for picking up a chord melody arrangement of a tune (a bit like a Travis picking arrangement for guitar). I see lots of post from folk saying "Oh I just love such and such a tune; does anyone have the TAB?" In other words, they know ofthe tune already (froma CD or the radio etc for example Candle in the Wind by Elton John)but are looking for a dulcimer arrangement of it. SMN would be pretty complex for a chord melody arrangement, so TABs show someones dulcimer arrangement in a simpler form.

SMN is good for tunes that you don't know at all or don't know well enough to whistle. For noter drone I think it is better than TAB all round because of the reasons I gave above. And for chord melody I sort of prefer to work out my own arrangement using just the melody as a basis. Hence TAB has really passed me by.

Hi Gayle,

I would say 90% of my playing is by ear and about 10% from startdard sheet music (fiddle tune books usually). I never use TAB.

As your experience develops you will find it easier and easier to work by ear. It just takes practice to begin to hear intervals (the tune rising and falling) and note lenghts. Your ear will become more discriminating and pick up the fine nuances in the music you are listeneing to. BUT it does take specific practice!!!!! Youcould startby picking tunes off the CDs that come with the tune books you have and see how far you can get without looking at the music. It is much easier to do the combination of hearing the tune and reading the TAB, so many folk don't move beyond this as they put no time into specific ear training. My wife started playing fiddle about 3 years ago and would do exactly what you do (CD abd written music). She said that she couldn't play by ear. I callenged her (a dangerous thing ) to tell me how many hours she had actually put into practicing playing by ear!!! Of course, she hadn't actually done much more than tried it a couple of times and then taken the easy route. Now she can sit in on a session and pick up tunes by ear.

A similar thing happens with reading music. The idea behind music is that you don't have to hear the tune on CD, you 'hear' what's written on the page - rather than 'read' what's written on the page. So when I use sheet music I'm not looking see what note this or that dot is and then say 'That's an F#so in this tuning it is at the 2nd fret'. I'm hearing the melody (singing it, humming it or hearing it in my head) as I scan across the page. I use sheet music to play by ear! Again it is just a skill that needs some specific practice time. I will take music books up to bed and practice reading/hearing tunes without my dulcimer. I'm not very good at it yet but I can pick out basic new melodies. And I can use the sheet music to reinforce a tunes that I'm learning. So I can practice my dulcimer playing, in silence, without my dulcimer - a useful skill. It also means that I can sight transpose to some extent using this method. As I'm only interested in the melody intervals and note lenghts I can read a tune in the key of G but play it in say the key of A or D.

You are at a great stating point, matching the written tune to the heard tune. I would suggest that you really put some time into both skills of learning by ear and learning to 'hear' written sheet music as in the long run these skills will really help your playing.

Robin

One thing I forgot to mention was that memorising a tune for performance is not the same as longer term remembering a tune. I have memorised perhaps 100 tunes that I have recored or performed without music - but I'd be hard pressed to 'remember' 10 of them at present without some sort of memory jog to get me going. That memory jog could be written music or hearing the tune. Most of those tunes that I once 'memorised' for a performance would require some work to get back to that standard again.

So I wouldn't get too hung up on not 'remembering' tunes. Most musicians 'by ear'repertiore is made up of the 20 or so tunes they are currently regularly playing.