Dave's dulcimers are top-notch for sure.
Forum Activity for @cindy-smith
Tinwhistle / penny whistles
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
I've played the tinwhistle for many years now and have a lot of them: Clarkes, Susatos, Waltons, etc. My favorite are my C and D Michael Burkes. I play old-time and a little Celtic with a banjo player who also plays guitar, dulcimer, and fiddle and sings. I play dulcimer, fiddle a bit, sing, play whistle, and am now learning hammered dulcimer. The whistle is really fun and goes so well with old-time.
I started in DAdd but have branched out to many tunings, including DAA, DAC, DGD, GDD, as well tunings for the key of C (CGC, CGBb etc). I love C for singing, but I too play with a fiddler/ banjo player who loves D and G. There are old-time banjo songs in a double C tuning, but I can't yet always relate banjo tunings to what key the song is actually in. I wish C would be the main key again, but I guess that won't happen. But you can always just tune down a step and play the DAD or DAA tab-- it will still work, just will be a whole note lower.
Strumelia said:
In our gatherings of old-time musicians ( sometimes several hundred at a time), the keys most often played in are G,D,A, and C. There are a LOT of oldtime fiddle tunes in C !! Some jam sessions go on for several hours all in the key of C. The C tunes have a very carnival/circus/rag flavor to them. I notice many of them seem to be from Georgia (U.S. deep south, not Russia).Brian avoids playing in C because of his old hand injury, he can't make the stretches very well in C on his fiddle. I'm kind of glad about that, because the C fiddle tunes vaguely remind me of scary clowns! lol!!
How did you first discover the mountain dulcimer?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
The guy I'm seeing plays banjo, dulcimer, fiddle, and some guitar. He lent me his dulcimer, knowing I'd love it, and he was right!