Forum Activity for @john-shaw

What MAKE of strings is best?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I wouldn't worry too much about the MAKE of strings. There are remarkably few string making factories in the world and they generally make strings for a variety of different brands. You've been given some good advice so far, and you won't go far wrong if you bear in mind what Ken and folkfan have said. After a while you'll get to know your own preferences.

Lots of players would disagree, but personally I've never been keen on 'squeakless' strings. They sound a little bit lifeless to me, and I'm happy to accept a bit of squeak from wound strings (within reason) as part of the sound and verve of the instrument.

Unlike Ken, I do hear a difference between bronze and nickel wound strings, with bronze wound giving a slightly warmer sound - which may or may not be what you want!

Snark tuner

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I just got a red Snark tuner yesterday, and I'm very impressed with its visual clarity and accuracy. (I got it on the recommendation of Robin Clark, who sang its praises when we met at the Bristol Folk Festival the other weekend. Thanks, Robin!)

Hello Kyle, I'm another Brit who would really be interested to read your findings. Best wishes, John.

John Henry..thought I'd share

OFF TOPIC discussions

I've just been to see John Henry in hospital this afternoon. He's very cheerful - but rather bored! His operation which was due last week was delayed because of equipment failure, and has been rescheduled for tomorrow. He was tickled pink by the interest and concern of his friends on this site, and would love to hear from them.

I know some people are a bit bored with hearts, but I just love them (either way up). I also really like diamonds. Many present-day dulcimers have sound hole shapes that are too fussy, busy and complex for my personal taste (vine leaves etc). Just my two penn'orth!

Sorry Katie, I forgot to respond to your point about using the left thumb. I don't use my left thumb either, because it doesn't feel comfortable or natural to me to do so, but lots of players do use it - probably the majority! I haven't seen the Schnaufer instructional DVD, but I suspect his reason for advising against thumb use is to encourage a more upright, vertical position in the left hand digits viv-a-vis the fretboard. (Thumb use tends to flatten the hand a little, and might tend to encourage a less positive finger action.) Bear this in mind, but remember that lots of players do use their thumb!

Hello Katie - David was a wonderful player and there is good theory behind the tilted position he advocates (as the back of the dulcimer is freer to vibrate and project sound than if it is damped by the knees). Stephen Seifert uses the same position. However I've never been able to get this position to work for me, and like most players I have the MD flat on my lap. I put non-slip mesh on my lap under the MD to stop it slipping around. (Some people use a strap on the the instrument, with the strap going under their knees or around their back, for the same reason.)If you look at most of the videos on this site and elsewhere you'll see most people adopting the flat lap position rather than the Schnaufer position. If the Schnaufer position doesn't work for you I wouldn't worry about it at all!
updated by @john-shaw: 02/13/16 10:38:36AM

I have to challenge KenH's assertion that "the dulcimer was invented/designed as a three course Instrument". The oldest dulcimers that have come down to us are probably teardrop-shaped Virginia style instruments, almost all of which have 4 strings which are in a more or less equidistant arrangement. Usually the frets ran under 2 of the strings, which probably indicates that the player depressed both strings with a noter despite their physical separation and let the other 2 sound as drones. This playing practice persists today in Galax-style, though Galax instruments are more commonly other single-bouted patterns (boat-shaped or wide diamond-ish shape) rather than teardrop. Some old-time Virginia players may have chosen to fret only one string with the noter - it's difficult to be sure of anything -and the equidistant arrangement gave them the choice.The Cumberland mountain, Huntington WV and North Carolina instruments were normally designed as 3 course instruments, with just 3 individual strings - and thanks to Jean Ritchie the Cumberland (Thomas/Amburgey) pattern became the folk revival's initial model of what a dulcimer was like.As Ralph Lee Smith makes clear in "Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions" the three course dulcimer with a doubled melody string (the pattern we are most familiar with in present day dulcimers) is an "innovation of the folk revival" which Homer Ledford started in unusual circumstances. At some point in his career (about 1960 according to Ralph) he began to make 3-course dulcimers with a doubled middle course to suit his own playing style, but started putting the double course on the outside (where we know it today) at the request of Floyd Baker (Edna Ritchie's husband). This was to suit Floyd's noter-playing style, as Floyd did not want an extra drone string, and preferred the double course to be on the melody strings to help the melody carry over the drones. The innovation caught on - for good reason, Ken would say! But it is still a dulcimer revival-era innovation.I write as a dedicated 3-course buff who has no inclination to explore 4-string equidistant playing, but 4 equidistant string dulcimers have at least as much historical justification as 3-string ones. Historically both types would have been played noter-drone style of course. I love that sound and approach, but I also love other approaches (chording;flatpicking across all strings etc.) all of which are just as much revival-era innovations as the double course melody string is!To each his/her own! Ken has a clear preference for a double melody course, but let's be clear that it is an artistic preference (to which, of course, he is perfectly entitled) rather than something with deep roots in dulcimer history. Most of the time I prefer the character of a single melody string - the sound I first fell in love with on the early Jean Ritchie records. Mine is an artistic preference too. I think Ken is wrong to suggest that 3 string players are in some way chickening out from the the demands of managing a double course. Personally I have a wonderful MD with a double course melody string in my brood which I play when that's the sound I want, but more often I choose to play dulcimers with a single melody string. Sorry Ken, but I had to get this off my chest - and I do agree with most of your other points - honest!

Our mutual friend John Henry gets the most wonderful tone from using the thick end of a turkey or goose quill as a noter. This doesn't score all that high on durability, I suppose, although they seem to last him a reasonable time, but it's a great sound and action. John started using them after learning that this is what most of the Galax-style players in Virginia use.

I'm only a very occasional noter player, but a fair bit of what I do is melody/drone using finger(s). I use just 3 strings on nearly all my dulcimers, however many strings the maker intended them for! I love the clarity of sound of one melody string, and I don't find that two strings are significantly louder than one. As someone who slides the index finger a lot up and down the melody string I sometimes have a distressing habit of pushing the two strings of a double course into each other. Having said that, I have one dulcimer that sounds just wonderful with a double course on the treble, so I use that one if that's the sound I want.I think you are right, Dave, that 3-string instruments were the norm in the folk revival 40 or 50 years ago, and 4-string dulcimers have become something of a standard since that time. Of course there always was a 4-string tradition in Virginia, as borne out by many historic dulcimers; and in south-west Virginia Galax instruments have 4 strings. But the folk revival norm established by Jean Ritchie was initially for 3 strings, as was standard in her part of eastern Kentucky.

Do You Have A Favorite Irish Song?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

"John of Dreams" was written by the English songwriter Bill Caddick. It has been taken up by a lot of people, including quite a number of Irish singers (Christy Moore, for one). Bill inadvertently borrowed most of the opening musical phrase from Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique"!

Do You Have A Favorite Irish Song?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

You're quite right, folkfan - "Long Black Veil" is an American country song. It was written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin, and was first recorded by Lefty Frizzell in 1959. A great song, but definitely not Irish.

If you could only keep ONE of your dulcimers....

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

My keeper would have to be my Arthur Robb mahogany and alpine spruce 3-string hourglass, made in 1981 - the one I am holding in my avatar picture. It was the first really good dulcimer I bought. I asked Arthur for a responsive instrument in which the one treble string would really sing out against the lower strings, and he really provided that! It was his idea to use alpine spruce (as in classical guitars, lutes etc.) for the top, which is rather frighteningly thin. (The mahogany back is very thin too.) Over the years it's been the one I play the most, and has been the most responsive to a variety of playing styles. It would be a wrench to be without the others, but if I was only allowed one this would have to be it.

How many dulcimers do you own... lets see the lists..

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I should have engaged brain before writing my previous post! There needs to be quite a big qualification to my statement that the Jeffreys was meant for noter playing. The height of the raised fretboard above the top soundboard is only half an inch, which makes the "Jean Ritchie" noter grip (thumb on top, index finger against the side of the fretstock acting as guide) very awkward. Noter players who put their index finger above the noter would find it OK. It might be more accurate to say the dulcimer is ideal for fingerdancers.I'll post a picture soon, but it looks very like CD's Jeffreys dulcimer.

How many dulcimers do you own... lets see the lists..

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Yes, I'm sure it was meant for noter playing, Strumelia.

How many dulcimers do you own... lets see the lists..

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I'm delighted to report an addition to the list of dulcimers I posted on this thread a little while back. I've just acquired an AW Jeffreys dulcimer from eBay UK. It needed a good clean-up, but even with the very ancient clapped-out strings that were on it, it really sings. It's the old-style bright, silvery dulcimer voice of course, and a real joy to play. Action is pretty high but somehow it doesn't feel like it is.In my earlier post I mentioned the "one in - one out" agreement I have with my wife Angela! It looks like one of our friends (who we sing and play with in a big group called the Hotwells Howlers) is going to take one of my Hungarian citeras off my hands to help me comply with this!

How many dulcimers do you own... lets see the lists..

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

OK - here we go. My list isn't as long as Rod's, but it's quite a few instruments, and I do have an agreement with my wife Angela that any future acquisitions are on a "one in - one out" basis! In order of purchase (year of manufacture given after maker's name):1. Arthur Robb 1981 mahogany/Swiss pine hourglass. (My favourite.)2. Arthur Robb 1983 cherry/western red cedar hourglass.3. Ron Ewing 1990 mahogany/WRC teardrop dulcimette.4. Sunhearth (Walter Martin)1979 walnut/WRC hourglass.5. John Crocker (John Henry on this site) 1998 sapele/butternut teardrop.6. Keith Young 2001 walnut/wormy chestnut teardrop.7. Homer Ledford 1978 cherry/spruce hourglass ("Special Dogwood").8. Modern Mountain Dulcimer (David McKinney) 2007 walnut/paulonia/spruce hourglass.9. Timbre Hill (Paul Conrad) 2008 red elm/walnut hourglass.10. Rodney Hensley 2009 all cherry hourglass.Regardless of how many strings the maker intended, I keep all of these as 3-stringers apart from the second Arthur Robb MD, which has a doubled treble string, and the dulcimette, which has 6 strings (3 double courses). I keep the Modern Mountain Dulcimer as a baritone, though it wasn't built as one. (In normal range tuning it seemed to have a complete absence of treble, but it makes a very satisfying baritone dulcimer.) I also own an Arthur Robb electric MD and a cheap but nice Korean MD, both of which are out on very extended loans to others. I also have two Hungarian zithers (citeras).

Hello folkfan - What you call Ionian in this last post is actually Aeolian. Ionian would be 1-5-5 (eg. DAA).

A W Jeffreys Jr.

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

After a long interval I've just caught up again with this discussion. I'm another happy (UK) owner of an AWJ dulcimer, which I bought very cheaply on British eBay 3 or 4 years ago.I would counsel against changing the fret pattern to equal temperament. pristine2 is someone I greatly respect, and whose opinions are always valuable. BUT I think the plaintive qualities he loves in AWJ's dulcimers derive partly from the distinctive non-equal temperament. My advice would be to leave fretting alone, enjoy its lovely melody/drone qualities, and accept that to play more chordal music you need to turn to another dulcimer!

To the list of tunings which AWJ's dulcimers really, REALLY like I would add DAC or similar (Aeolian tuning).

How did you first discover the mountain dulcimer?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I first heard and saw a mountain dulcimer at the Oxford University Folk Club (the Heritage Society)in 1963 or '64 when an American lady did a floor spot and sang and played one. I never learned her name, but I remember being enchanted with the sweet, archaic sound. Shortly afterwards I became a lifelong lover of Jean Ritchie's music when I bought what I think was her first LP release on a British label (actually a re-release on licence of some of her earliest Elektra recordings). A few years later I bought (for 4) a fingerboard-only dulcimer, clearly made under the influence of the John Pearse book that John Henry Charles Crocker has mentioned elsewhere in this thread. I stuck a magnetic pickup on it and played it as a second or third instrument in a folk/rock/theatre group (Elecampane) I was in for some years. (I was mainly playing bass guitar and occasionally guitar.) I didn't get deeply into MD playing at this time, and just used it for very simple occasional strumming. In 1979 I bought a much nicer dulcimer. It was only a Korean import (money was tight) but it had a lovely character and was a delight to play. I think the cheap Korean dulcimers of the late 70s and early 80s get a generally bad press in the dulcimer world, and certainly the quality could vary, but mine was very nice - and I know at least one serious MD player here in England who plays his Korean model from this era as his main MD even today. The same day as I bought mine I also bought Neal Hellman's "Dulcimer Songbook" which introduced me to a range of what to me were new styles and approaches. It was the combination of a nice instrument and an inspirational book that excited me and really got my playing to start to develop. I date my real playing from that moment. I took some things from the new approaches in the book that really got my imagination going (even though I don't like to get too far from the instrument's traditional styles), and I had a nice dulcimer to try them out on!