Forum Activity for @robin-clark

Hi Gayle,

Certainly memorising your music will improve your performance of it in the long run as it frees up mental capacity to allow you to focus on the tone and feel of the piece. Lets take this top level professional concert as an example.

The orchestra members are using the music- the conductor is doing a lot of the 'feel' and enterpretation 'work' for them. The conductor and soloist themselves know the piece intimately and work without the sheetmusic, and this frees up their capacity to put real feeling into the performance.

Basically, reading the music is taking up brain space in the moment that you could be using for listening and adapting. It takes a lot of work to memorise a piece of music but as you have found it can allow you to improve your performance.

Robin

Hi Skip,

There are session conventions for Old Time and Celtic sessions that place certain tunes in certain keys. This has usually occured because the tune falls easiest to the fingers on fiddle in that particular key. If you want to know that Old Joe Clark is an A mixolidian tune, or 'Shove the Pig's Foot' is a G ionian tune then the best place to look is in any fiddle book or on line somewhere like The Session http://www.thesession.org/ or Old Time Jam http://www.oldtimejam.com/Tunes.html

You'll find a few of us on FOTMD will play tunes in their usual session keys rather than just in D. This is because we play at open sessions where those tunes are played in those keys - so it is pragmatic to learn them in the standard session key. If you only play for yourself or at dulcimer jams then I would stick with the key of D and DAdd - it is the pragmatic thing to do in those circumstances. If you want to join in at multi-instrument old time jams then you will need to learn the tunes intheir standard sessionkeys. You can still do that primarily from DAdd if you are a C/M player, and some very good C/M players manage exactly that without a capo! For example: Old Joe Clark in A mixolidian works fine out of DAdd C/M style using 1,0,1 as your base.

You'll also find a few of us here on FOTMD tuning to keys that suit our instruments. I'll post tunes in their non-standard key because that specifictuning for that specific tune works tonally on the dulcimer I'm playing. Forexample: Ralph Lee Smith has a video on YouTube of him playing Sourwood Mountain (usually played as an A tune)on an old Pritchard dulcimer in the key of E. I emailed Ralph about this and he said it was because that dulcimer he had sounded good in E. I.D Stamper recordedSourwood Mountai in G on his small bodied dulcimer etc etc. I have ended up recording some very unusual tunings for tunes simply because I didn't have a tuner to hand and so tuned up my strings to 'a good note' !!!

Robin

I have one simple tip for shipping. It has served me well with my guitar business and so I do the same with the dulcimers I send out. Over the past5 years my shipping damage rate for guitars plus dulcimers is 0.25% (1:400) and I'm sure that is largely due to this little trick.

I put one of those heavy duty plastic box handles at the balance point of the box.

I find that the couriers naturally carry the box by the handle, load it the way up I want it loaded, and are less likely to drop or throw the box (it is easier to place the box than throw it once you have it by the handle). It is a bit of a psychological trick as well as a practical device - but it does seem to be working.

Robin

That's a pretty accurate summary Paul of the guitar/banjo string industry.

There are a few exceptions, Newtone Strings here inthe UK being one. Malcolm Newton who runs the company (and physically makes most of the strings!) worked for a wire rope firm in the Midlands and learnt about wiredrawing, plating, winding etc from there. Malcolm is very particular about the wire he uses, and his strings are always in short supply as he won't make them if the wire is not perfect. I buy about 1200 strings from Malcolm a year for my guitar business but the wait can be frustrating!!! I doubt you'll find them in the US.

Strings do make a differnce to tone.

For my Ed Thomas replica I use German piano wire from Heckscher, who started up in 1883. It seems likely from what I have readthat steelpiano wire was available quite widelyin the US from about the time of the Civil War and it appears as a mail orderitem in the earliest Sears & Roebuck catalogues I have been able to research. I know that John Mawhee used piano wire for his dulcimers made just after the civil war (guage #8 on a 25" scale tuned right up to G,d,d) and on my Ed Thomas Imake up the strings from Gauge #8 wire for the bass (0.020") and gauge #4 for the middle and melody (0.013). Piano wire feels slightly softer than modern guitar strings and so perhaps settles to pitch at a slightly lower tension - though I don't have the ability to measure this. The tone is different - is is a little morebass and top with less mid - like a telecaster twang! A number of my most recent recordings of my Ed Thomas replicahave beenmade using piano wire strings (you can find them in varios posts in the Old Style Drone & Noter section).

Although there has been plenty written about early dulcimer design, woods and building technique unfortunately little focus has been placed on the strings used - and yet they are an element that would have had significant impact on both the tone the instrument produced and the tunings selected. I have only been able to pick up snippets of information from here and there - and I'm always on the search for more if anyone has any!

Paul Certo said:

For the record, it's the music wire that is made by only a few companies. It is used by a lot of companies to make strings, and some of these string makers make strings for other companies to package and market. I doubt if strings sold under an instrument brand name are actually made by those companies. Gibson, Fender, and Martin all sell strings, but I don't think any of them make strings.

I agree - as an instrument ages it often improves in tone and volume. New instruments can sound just a little "tight" to my ears. But buy a nice sounding new dulcimer and in years to come it could well become a classic I'm not sure if that has to do with playing or just the aging of the wood - or perhaps a combination? Some older instruments that have been in attics and not played much at all still have that 'aged' tone. Also some new instruments built from aged or reclaimed wood sound wonderful. I had a batch of dulcimers delivered recently from the Hagen family workshop and a couple of them sounded particularly wonderful. I asked Chas about them and he said that the tops on those instruments were from a billet of cherry that had been cut over 50 years ago - so there was my answer!

In 'dulcimer speak' we usually refer to modes just as a scale on the melody string supported by appropriate drones (drones being the root and/or 5th of the scale being played). This is not the musically correct way to define modes but it is a very useful nomelculture for noter/drone dulcimer players. This is because we have to retune not just to the key of a tune but to the modal scale within that key - and very few other instruments have to do this.

So, basically, if I/we want to backup/harmonize, or even play straight melody, using a different tuning, I/we would probably have a greater chance for success by xxx/chording, rather than xxx/droning, and rhythm.

Actually - No. It is very easy to get into the correct key and mode for most folk music playing noter drone - and play effective back-up and harmony. Chord melody can work out more complex.

Blimey!!!!! I'm with Robin T here. I tune my dulcimer to what sounds right when playing with other folks and then work out what my tuning/mode actually is after I've finished playing So my music 'theory' tends to be reverse engineered based on what's actually happened

There's no problem with different instruments being in different tunings - as long as the sound all fits together.

Incidently - I've never come across a traditional Appalachiantune in the key of D mixolidian? All the mixolidian ones tend to be in the key of A. Easy for D,A,A players as we just tune to E,A,A. But I've never seen the D,A,dTAB for "Old Joe Clark" in the right key. However, not knowing any better, "Old Joe Clark" was one of the first tunes I learn't on mountain dulcimer, tuned D,A,d and played chord melody style in the key of A because that's the key everyone I knew was using(banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar etc). I just worked it out by ear from 1,0,1 as a starting point.

And I think that this is the major point about mixed compatible tunings. Don't think just in terms of playing with other dulcimers, think in terms of playing with other instruments (dulcimers included) and you'll find it is not rocket science to pretty much switch to any key or mode desired - particularly when working with the traditional Appalachian repertoire.

Hi Katie,

Those who play in traditional styles are likely to retune more than those players who use chords (ie traditional players play the melody just on the melody string and use the other strings as drones). This is because melody(or noter)/drone players need to re-tune to change key or move from major to minor or into another mode such as mixolidian.A contemporary player can makesuch shifts in key or mode using differnt chord shapes and/or a capo from a single tuning - usually DAd.

Strumelia is right that some players, even traditional ones, stay in one tuning. There are families such as the Graves or the Meltons who have a history of using just one tuning since the 1860s (not a typo - the same tuning for 150 years!!!).

Personally, I like to use a lot of tunings as I enjoy finding the right timbre to match a tune. Also I play with many other traditional musiciansat sessions and so I will need to re-tune for old fiddle tunes in saythe keys of A or Gas well as D during an evening set.

As Strumelia says, I wouldn't worry too much about shortening the life of your strings by re-tuning - breaking strings is going to happen anyway at some point so learning to change them quickly is a handy skill anyway.

There is a page of info here that may give you an idea about why those using traditional playing styles would need to re-tune.

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

Robin

Electronic tuners are a great help. Particularly those that work on vibration as they are a Godsend on stage or in pub sessions. But most of them are not key accurate (some of the Paterson tuners have settings for various keys) and therefore on many key tuned instruments the tuners are off-pitch beyond the root note. I would suggest tuning the fretted root note on the melody string with your tuner and then tuning the other strings by ear from that note. You can use a tuner to get close but the final tweek really needs to be by ear.

I had a fun tuning 'moment' at a gig yesterday. Nick asked for a C chord to tune his guitar to before kicking off on a bluegrass tune. So I played the chord on my dobro for him, which of course doesn't have any frets at all

BTW - whatever happened to tuning forks

Well the good news is that you have noticed!!!!

The bad news is that there are no shortcuts You just need lots and lots of practice like Robin T said above. Strumming is a very complex skill - it is physically difficult and musically difficult and it is the most important aspect of your playing. If you are not struggling with strumming, then you are not pushing yourself hard enough. I always struggle to get my right hand exactly how I want it. When I learn a new tune I'm constantly trying tofathom outhow I should be working my right hand and I'll try differnt picks, grips, and rhythm patterns until I'm happy.

Hey Mandy,

I had the same problem with carrying my dulcimer when I was on a wild camping trip on the West Coast of Scotland. In the end I just wrapped a load of trailer straps around my hard case and set off on the trip

Oh well, the case worked as good map holder, and a table for my camping stove!!!!!!!

But I did get to play in some pretty cool locations!

That's great advice Butch - thanks for sharing your extensive experience of this issue. And I'm really sorry to have missed your visit to the UK last year

The UK airports are very strict about hand baggage and security in general, and we don't have a government regulation on the carrage of instruments as hand baggage. But, luckily, some of our airlines are very understanding and spell out very clearly in their terms and conditions what you can carry as additional handbaggage. Even EasyJet will allow any musicalinstrument up to the size of 30cm x 120cm x 38cm(easily a full size Mc Spadden dulcimer case) to go in an overhead. But stay away from RyanAir !!!!!!!!

One final point - make sure that you don't have anything in the dulcimer case pocket that is a restricted item such as a multi-tool for fitting your strings - orthat will get you into trouble at security

I'm sure you will be fine. I've carried a travel guitar (baby Taylor size) and a dulcimer (McSpadden Ginger) on inter-continental flights to Asia and Central America from the UK - and we don't have the benefit of the new US regulations. I would suggest that you actuallyfly with the smallest, lightest case you can for the instrument - a fitted gig bag like the McSpadden one is great.That way itlooks like an instrument to airline staff and security will look certain to fit easily in an overhead. And place it yourself in the overhead bin - just keep an eye on other passengers loading that bin and offer to help them. I never ask permission to carry on - wait until you are challenged and then pull out the new US regs.

A Ginger has proved an excellent option for travelling - it's gig baglooks like a fiddle case and so airline staff are dead scared about its potential value and leave well alone!!!!

Here it is in Costa Rica

Not necessarily true. Modes as simple descriptors in the way that dulcimer players use them are very useful. Whenan OT session goes to the key of A the fiddlers may use AEAE forBuffalo Gals, Old Joe Clark and Cluck Old Hen etc. However, we need 3 different A tunings for those 3 tunes (ionian, mixolidian, dorian) - so it is pretty handy to have our own descriptors (and to some extent be able to hear the scales) to be able to place the root A on the right starting fret through re-tuning. It saves a lot of time and confusion to be able to call modes. And they are not an offset from the tonic key on the dulcimer as you cannot add a flattened 3rd for this or a flattened 7th for that - we don't have the semitones! You have to physically move the start point of the scale on the instrument through re-tuning.

Thosemodal names are bloody useful for traditional playing styleswhere you have touse a lot of different tunings.

Jeremy Main said:

Mostly because the Victorians made it complicated and then added an extra layer of nonsense by adding those quasi-mystical Greek names. Really all it's about is an offset from whatever tonic key you're playing in, itself very often somewhat questionable when you're playing something pentatonic, for example. It's easier to describe the offset from tonic and the key.

It sounds like A mixolidian - like many Irish derived tunes (Red Haired Boy etc). Try A',A,A or A',A,d with a 6+

I would have to say that I agree with you there Paul. A mic' into the pa gives the best acoustic sound. I usually use a Sure SM57 - nice and robust, reliable and directional. They are around $80. You can get a stronger signal off of an undersaddle transducer but you then color the tone, in the same wayas an undersaddle transducer does on an acoustic guitar - they are not'bad' just different to the pure acoustic sound. If I neededI high level ofoutput then I could be tempted to just go fully electric - but I can't see me doing that personally as it would not suit the music I want to play.

One of the issues with piezo transducers is that there sensitivity changes depending on the pressure they are under. You can hear this yourself with a stick-on. Just put a finger on it when you play and you'll hear the bass response and overall volume improve. This is why they work best as an under-saddle system where they are under load.

Don't write-off a uni-directional mic as an option. For the most natural sound then this could be the best way to go.

Excellent !!!!!!

I may have to have a T shirt made with "Born to DAA...." on it

Hi Bill,

That clip 'Kitchen Sessions 3' is also on the .mp3 player on my home page near the bottom of the list of tunes I have uploaded to my page.

Robin

I used to play dulcimer regularly with a mandolin playera couple of years ago. The two instrumentsgo together well as long as you think about the arangements you are going to use. To get over the 'volume' issue I played in noter drone style and that gave me the punch to keep up with mandolin. I've just had a look through my sound files to see if I had any recordings and I've found one of me on dulcimer in d,d,d,d tuning and Chris on mandola rather than mandolin - We are just jamming around with an old Welsh tune but you'll get the idea of how we arranged for the two instruments:

Yes certainly,

John mentioned A aeolian in his post, which is probably the one A tuning it would be difficult to reach - but e,e,e,e A ionian, e,e,d,d A dorian and e,e,d,d A mixolidian (6+) should be fine with the 0.010s he has fitted.

Strumelia said:

Robin Clark said:

Hi John,

You don't need to tune down for A modal tunes - leave your strings at d,d,d,d (or d,d,d if it is a 3 string) and just place a reverse capo under the two drones near the first fret lifting them to e,e . This gives you a tuning of e,e,d,d, (or e,e,d for 3 strings). You now have key of A dorian starting atthe 4th fret

Robin, if he does what you describe above, and also tunes the two melody strings up to ee, won't he then be able to play in A ionian?...which is more useful than just A dorian... just pondering here.

Hi John,

You don't need to tune down for A modal tunes - leave your strings at d,d,d,d (or d,d,d if it is a 3 string) and just place a reverse capo under the two drones near the first fret lifting them to e,e . This gives you a tuning of e,e,d,d, (or e,e,d for 3 strings). You now have key of A dorian starting atthe 4th fret The end of a chopstick makes a good reverse capo(the term 'false nut' is probably a better description).

Ahh... I see that you can tune up to e with your strings so simply tune to e,e,d,d. If you have a 6+ this tuning will also give you key of A mixolidian for tunes like Old Joe Clark, June Apple etc as well astunes in A minor such as Frosty Morning, Shady Grove, Cluck Old Hen etc

Galax players often play overtwo 5th drones rather than root drones.

Hi Barbara,

The traditional mountain dulcimer was not known as a mountain dulcimer or Appalachian dulcimer - these are fairly recent terms. The instrument went under many different names in many different counties (waterswivel, fence scorpion, hog fiddle, dulcimore, music box American dulcimer etc etc). The shape of the body varied, hourglass, boat and teardrop all being made in different areas around the same time. The number of strings varied in differnt regions as did the tunings. What was consistant was the fretboard not extending beyond the body, the diatonic fret layout and frets under the melody string(s) only. So it was always played in a melody over drone style, andin most counties with a noter.

So that defines a moutnain dulcimer..er..hog fiddle..er..scantlin...er...feather harp...er...dulcerine..er.. Well, you get the idea!

For me, it is the diatonic fretboard, melody string only fretting and playing over drones that defines the instrument in its traditional form.

In terms of its contemporary form - well the sky is the limit !!!!!!

I love those sessions - just had a weekend of them myself

Bobby Ratliff said:

Here's a video that I love!

One of the fiddle players is a young lady named: Dakota Hobbie.

Hi Lisa,

I know exactly what you mean! Nick saidthe same thing about the guitart player when he saw the video clip - he doesn't like the switch in rhythm and chords that the "new" players are producing. It would be interesting to hear the fiddleplaying exactly the same but with banjo - maybe it is the guitar that is swinging the tune not the fiddle? It iscatching the fiddle thatI want to do on dulcimer - definately not interested in copying the guitar!!!!!!!!

Strumelia said:

Robin, I like that Tim/Riley video very much as well. Isn't it wonderful to see noter/dronal playing being brought to the fore again? I love it! Those two do it so well, what a fine duo combo.

As to the second video 'Rockbridge' with the fiddle young woman and guitar player- just my own take on it, but I really have to say I dislike what the guitar player is doing. I don't hear the 'celtic' thing you are hearing, I'm hearing a jazz/bluegrass thing (could be due to our different backgrounds). The fiddling is fine oldtime style and bowing rhythm. The guitar player is driving home his heavy-handed jazzy style timing. He likely doesn't realize that he is doing that- I imagine he thinks he is playing pure, powerful, and supportive OT guitar. But to me he is just turning it into some ego fusion thing. I kind of got the tip-off even before the fiddler started playing, from seeing him strutting his 'riffs' while she very patiently smiled and waited. I never enjoy it when we wind up playing in a session with a guitar player like this.

Hey Robin,

I loved that video of Tim Erikson and Riley Baugus. It was good to see Tim playing in noter drone

Riley Baugus was playing on stage and jamming at the small old time festival I was at this last weekend here in the UK He did a great concert on Friday and Saturday evenings with Ira Bernstein flatfooting. I missed Riley's teaching session because I was running a noter/drone class.

I have a couple of videos to post here - in many repects they are very noter/drone dulcimer related but don't have dulcimers in them! The first is Tommy Jarrell playing and singing Poor Ellen Smith. I would love to capture that rolling drone with the off-beat shuffle on noter drone dulcimer. The way he backs himself up whilst singing through playing a lower simplified melody reminds me of the way Jean Ritchie works with her dulcimer. Also I love the extra crooked half bar that appears just now and then. I'm going to have to catch this tune sometime and put it on my dulcimer. There was a fiddle teaching session this last weekend on Tommy Jarrell's bowing style - I'm not a fiddler but I did want to go to the session to see what I could learn about playing noter/drone dulcimer from it (unfortunately I missed that one as well due to workshop commitments - Oh well!)

The second video I have is typical of how young fiddlers are pushing the old tunes. It is difficult to explain but I hear lots of OT fiddlers, particularly the younger generations, moving the rhythm around and adding long stroke drones. They are sort of pushing a Celtic influence into old time. I'm not sure if the guitar is in droped d or what (actually I think it is in standard tuning) but the playing style is very similar to Celtic DADGAD in rhythm - not your typical OT guitar style at all. I like this transatlantic cross-over. From 'bluegrass' we got 'newgrass' and bands like Nickel Creek - and something similar is happening to old time. Again, I'm looking to catch this sound and feel on noter/drone dulcimer - but I'm not there yet on this one either !!!!!

This has been a great thread

I'm getting so much from it about how others prefer to learn. I have a complete beginner turning up for a lesson today and what I don't want to do is to just teach the way that "I" like to learn because there's a very good chance that they will have a very different learning preference to me!!!!!!

Just a bit about learning by ear - I do regularly "forget" tunes and need a memory jog to get them back. Folk who play by TAB seem to reach for that as a memory jog. I just need to hear a little phrase of the tune to bring it back to me. I often can't remember how some tunes start but there may well be a littlememorablephrase somewhere in the tune and if I can pick that up then I quickly have the whole tune.

I think that remembering tunes is a skill rather than a tallent - If it is something that you practice doing then it does get easier. But I can't saythat playing by earis easybecause, like any skill, I find it a constant struggle to improvemy listening skills.

Robin

Hi Many and Lisa,

Even I, a nonTAB user, can see the benefits of some form of shorthand to get you going (I actually quite like Folkfan's 0,1,2,3 etc over the words of a song!). A little difficult to explain this concept but I would use TAB (or a simple version of TAB) to get someone to have the physical experience of playing. Because without that physical experience of making nice sounds that are related to one another, learning to play by ear may not get started at all. I think that a few folk have said that they use TAB to get going on a piece and then put it to one side once they have mastered whatever phrase or passage they were having difficulty with - and I can understand this. As I said, I tend touse a recording of the tune I am learning in the same way - once I have learnt the piece I'll put the recording to one side. I see that some may then refer back to the TAB if they forget the tune - I will play the recording of the tune again if I forget it or want to improve on where I am with it.

When I have taught I have used some form of TAB if needed. Not pre-prepared TAB but simple TAB (like Folkfan's)written in the moment with the student so we can learn a little passage and then turn the TAB over and keep playing. Once the TAB is gone this frees up capacity (the capacity that wasused for reading) for the student to start noticing other aspects of music like rhythm or timing or note intervals. So I will admit to TAB being a useful tool - it is just not one that I have ever used for my own playing.

Good topic Mitch,

I don't use TAB at all. I prefer to "catch" tunes from CDs or other musicians. When I first started playing I watched other dulcimer players on YouTube and copied them, and so had a mix of vision and sound as my guide. But most of my new tunes now come from recordings made by fiddlers or banjo players. I use audacity sometimes to slow some tracks down if I'm having difficulty catching a phrase. Sometimes I use SMN to follow the rhythm or rise and fall of a phrase - I follow the SMN while listening to the piece to give me a mental "picture" of the tune. But TAB leaves me cold - it requires too much "thought" to be useful. I need to build up direct nuro links between sound and my physical movements to play fast and clean or to fit tunes with other musicians (adaptability). The lengthyTABprocess ofsight/cognitive processing/movement/sound is too restrictive and too darn slow to be useful to me. At least SMN uses non verbal patterns and so takes up less mental capacity (once learned) leaving more head room for actual playing. SMN also has way more usefulinformation than TAB.

Personally, I think that TAB sould carry a health warning (Warning - using TAB can seriously damage your playing) BUT so many folk swear by TAB that there must be something really atractive in it for them. I know I'm in a very small minority but TAB has simply passed me by LOL !!!!!

Now, if anyone want's to learn to play by ear, I'm more than happy to give a few pointers on how to do that

Robin

Hi Barbara,

Yes - the Ionian set melody strings (0.012)can be tuned up to "d". It is something that I do all the time. They are stiffer than 0.010 strings but quite managable really. I quite like to run 3 strings on my McSpaddens by taking off the inner melody string to end up with 0.022 bass, 0.012 middle and 0.012 melody. It then becomes very easy to play in all types of playing style and tunings like that and has a very sweet, uncluttered"old time" sound. I think that those standard McSpaddens are a great workhorse - not the prettiest or most fancy dulcimer out there but alovely pragmatic musician's instrument and very versatile.

Robin

Hi Barbara,

I would echo what has been said here. I really wouldn't worry too much about getting a compensated bridge. McSpadden untertake the compensation because the string gauges they use for a pureD,A,dd set-up have a 4 gauge difference between the middle and melody strings. Because of this the middle string (a 0.014)pulls just a fraction sharper higher up the fretboard than the melody strings (0.010). But it is very, verymarginal and the reality is you can compensate with your initial tuning and playing style if your bridge is flat across (like 90% of us end up doing). Also, the standard Ionian strings that McSpadden fit (0.022, 0.012, 0.012, 0.012) for D,A,Awill go to D,A,dd with no problem anyway - and the compensation is even less necessary in that set-up.

The McSpadden bridge compensation is the "perfect" for D,A,dd and one specific string gauge set. A flat non-compansated bridge is the "perfectly acceptable" for all types of set-up and playing styles.

Regarding woods - Simply be led by your ears, hands and eyes when you go to choose your new dulcimer. All those standard McSpaddens are great instruments so just pick the one that really talks to you and you won't go wrong. There are differences between the various woods and also differences between two dulcimers build of the same woods because no two pieces of wood are identical- so just choose the one that feels right for you.

Robin

Paul you are right - the relief (or lack of it) on the fretboard will effect the action, feel and over all playability of a dulcimer. I do somewhere around 200 to 300 resonator guitar set-ups per year - fret leveling, setting relief, cutting nuts and cutting new bridges. And, to get it right, the sequence is relief first, then nut and then bridge. With a dulcimer the player can do nothing about the instrument's relief, unless you want to take off all the frets and sand and re-finish the fretboard !!!! The best playing dulcimers I get through my shop are those with just a touch of relief in the fretboard. I get to compare a lot of instruments side by side so feel pretty justified in saying that a little relief makes a big difference. You can run a lower action at the 7th and still have a beautifully clean playing instrument for chord melody style if there is a touch of relief in the fretboard.

BUT NOTER DRONE IS DIFFERENT FOR ME - Having a touch of relief remains the same - I want that on all my dulcimers. However, I run a much higher action at both nut and bridge. I want absolute clarityfrom my melody string, working off an in-strum lead and using very stiff picks (quills of wood strummer). I've just measured my own noter drone specific instruments - the ones where I have cut new nuts and bridges to set the action to suit my playing style - and my prefered action is way, way higher than nickle and dime. For example the Prichard replica I have, which I cut a new nut and bridge for, has an action of 1.5mm 'above' the first fret (I could sit a dime on top of the fret) and 3mm above the 7th. I'm using 0.013 gauge piano wire for the melody string on that instrument. I have an old dulcimer with the action even higher but the fret pattern is visibly shifted to the left on that dulcimer and the first fret even more so. With a fret pattern set by ear on older dulcimers you often see this shifted 1st fret - and it is due to the nut height that the early players would use. I see that Bobby Ratliff at Slate Creek Dulcimers, who builds noter drone specific instruments, fits a floating bridge so players can intonate the melody string if they change action height or string gauges or tuning tension. It is a very good idea as I certainly need my VSL slightly longer than the VSL of the fret scale. Kevin Messenger builds this fret pattern shift into his Prichard replicas. Because pretty much all contemporary dulcimers are designed around D,A,d and chord melody playing the bigger volume builders standardise their action, string gauges and pitch intonation around set parameters. This is why if you tune the open strings of many contemporary dulcimers to exactly D,A,A and play with a noter the darn instrument plays sharp So us noter drone players end up tuning the drones against the fretted root note on the melody string (the 'd' at the 3rd fret) and accept that our melody string open A will be slightly flatter than our drone string open A

So, coming back to string height, no one set height will suit every dulcimer or player. However, you can't just change the string height or gauges or tunings and expect all to be perfect. And, if you do get a comission for a build from a noter drone player have a think about the implication on the fret pattern that running a higher action and higher string gauge will have. And don't forget that a noter drone player doesn't need equal temperament fretting as they are not playing across the strings fret against fret - you could opt for a mean tone or just intonation or quarter-comma meantone or simply set the frets by ear

Bring them both down a little at a time whilst continuously checking the measurements.

Having said that - you really don't want to know the measurements off my favourite dulcimers

Hey Mary,

That's an increadible instrument - it sounds like a whole band

Great playing

Hi Whit,

From D,A,A simply raise the bass D to an E - giving E,A,A I use a reverse capo on some of my dulcimers which I just slide under the bass string next to the first fret. On other dulcimers, where I have a slightly lower gauge bass string my bass string will tune up the tone from D to E. E,A,A gives you all those mixolidian fiddle tunes (OJC, June Apple etc) and any ionian ones (Buffalo Gals, Cripple Creek) if you either have a 6+ or simply avoid using the 7th of the scale.

From D,A,d I again raise the bass D to an E (either re-tuning or with a reverse capo) giving E,A,d and can then play the A dorian tunes (Shady Grove, Elzic's Farewell, Cluck Old Hen, Cuckcoo, Frosty Morning etc). With a 6+ you can also work all the ionian and mixolidian tunes around this tuning aswell. So on 90% of modern standard dulcimers E,A,d will cover off everything the fiddlers play when they re-tune to A,E,A,E

I also use A,a,a and A,a,d depending on the sound I want.

If you want to play chord/melody then a quick way to get to the key of A is to put a capo on fret 4. As long as your dulcimer has a 6+ fret then this will give you the A scale and the chord shapes you are used to from D,A,d. Additionally, by using the 6 rather than the 6+, you can play many Am fiddle tunes in this position.

Tuning your D,A,d 1-5-8 dulcimer to the key of A - keeping the same 1-5-8 string ratio - is a little more awkward. As Ken says, you will probably need to change your string gauges.

You can play in the key of A from D,A,d using 1-0-1 as your root chord A, open strings as the D chord and 1-1-1 as the E chord (3-3-3 for G on mixolidian tunes).It is a little awkward as it is the mixolidian scale that's under your fingers. But tunes like Old Joe Clark and June Apple that are usually played in the key of A mixolidian at old time sessions can be played using this approach.

If you play melody/drone or noter/drone then your options for getting to the key of A with a standard string set are greater than with chord/melody. I regularly (make that daily!!!!) play in the key of A because the list of fiddle tunes played in that key is endless! If you can't play in A major, A minor and A mixolidian then you will never cut it at any old time sessions!!!!!!!

Hi Goshi,

McSpadden's have a high fretboard that is hollowed out. The high fretboard helps certain playing styles (thumb-on-top noter)and the hollowing both make the instrument lighter and more resonant - and to some extent the shape also helps stop the fretboard warping as it is a strong cross section. Many veryold dulcimers had hollowed out fretboards, and many didn't. From my experience the higher ones were hollow. The arching that FolkCraft do has a similar effect (as you have mentioned). I think that arching is a fairly modern (late 60s) development as I can't remember seeing a pre-revival dulcimer with arching? But there could well be some out there LOL!!!!!

Robin

Well Thanna,

As a noter drone player, you need to find yourself a good old time banjo player to jam with. Banjo and noter drone go together like ham and eggs Much better than trying to fit in where your playing style is not appreciated.

Thanna said:

Justreturned from my first - and very likely my last - jam with the local dulcimer club and wish I'd printed this out to take with me. I just endured a 2 hour lecture on why I should play DAD, why I should chord and how I need to play without a noter. To say that I didn't feel welcome would have been an understatement. I left at the lunch break because I'd had enough. Sad because I felt pretty good about my ability to keep up with the music itself.

Back to playing for my own enjoyment!

Hi Lisa,

--I'm assuming we are talking about actually sounding the fretted notes and melodies, rather than just tapping a stick on the soundbox with no notes like a drum rhythm.

I think that something differnt altogether is happening with fiddlesticks. The stick player is bouncing the sticks off the strings that are not being bowed or fretted and so is simply sounding out a rhythm on open drones. This is why it only works (or works best) on cross-tuned fiddles. You can watch the stick player in that clip of Tom Eriksen you posted move from playing the bass open strings to the trebble open strings as Eric moves his fretting and shuffle bowing from the trebble strings to the bass strings in Part B. I've seen this pattern of movement on other YouTube clips of fiddlestick playing. The stick player watches where the fiddler is fretting and bowing and simply dances on the open strings that the fidder is not using. It took me a while to spot what was going on but once you see it and try it out you get the idea of how it all works.

So with the MD you can do the same thing - ie one person bounce the sticks off the drones while the other playes the melody with a noter and strums as normal but with a focus on the melody strings. There doesn't seem to be any clash between pick andstick on the drones, so the MD player doesn't need to avoid the drones.

Robin

Great clips!

I love the way the stick player uses those bodhran style Celtic rhythms on the fiddle.When I played the sticks last night I was thinking about how I would play bodhran to the tune.

I understand what you are saying Lisa about using a striker toplay the tune on MD or other zither - that looks like quite a differnt concept. We've had a go here today though at one person playing the tune noter/drone while a second sits opposite in courting dulcimer style and beats outa bohdran style rhythm on the drone strings. It seems to work on MD pretty much the same way it does on fiddle.

Robin