Forum Activity for @james-phillips

Nice playing and demonstration there Robert! If I may ask, why did you go with a slightly shorter vsl for the just intonated dulcimers you'd made?

If you were a little bit closer, I live in Urbana.

I know re-stringing is not everyone's favorite thing in the world to do, but I decided I would restring a couple of my dulcimers over the weekend. Just finally finished the last one a bit ago At any rate, I had strings from juststrings.com, but I know people have mentioned other sites they order off, so my question is which string sites or sites do folks get there strings from?

I wound up getting the Snark from a local music store when I got strings to restring a dulcimer. Works well and eliminates the need for me to use a Signal Flex guitar tuner pickup that I plugged into the Korg so it could tune in a noise environment. Thank you all for the suggestions, much appreciated

Good morning all,

My Korg CA30 chromatic tuner is on the fritz and I am thinking it is on it's way out. Changed the batteries, and still acting up. I am starting this to find out what electronic tuners people use and recommend. I have not bought an electronic tuner since I bought this back in mid 00's, so I have no idea what is out there nowadays.

Best,

I'm going to change it to if "so and so" came to dinner as while I do play songs out of the hymnal, I am more spiritual then religious, if that makes sense. Mine would be Ode to Joy, In The Sweet Bye and Bye and Wildwood Flower.

Babs, you can play DGd tab, just use an Ionian mode tab for DAA. Same tab numbers, just will sound in G other then D.

Here is a thread I decided to start, rather then to hi-jack another thread, so here it is: What tunings do you like to use?

For me, I personally either like to use some form of Ionian tuning, or a Bagpipe tuning. Here is my list of tunings, and on which instrument:

D-d-dd, Bagpipe tuning. This is on an hourglass that I bought from Robert Schuler. It has the 6.5 fret on it, so from the open fret, I can do D mixolydian, D major (as long as it doesn't dip below the scale) and from the 3rd fret, key of G major. This, btw, is the only dulcimer I have with the 6.5.

E-B-BB, Ionian tuning. This is on an hourglass I ordered from Jack Ferguson. Nice clear, bell like sound.

DGd, Reverse Ionian. On a prototype student dulcimer from Dan Cox. To me, and a couple people people I'd played it for, it seems to have a bagpipe type sound. I know it isn't a "true" Ionian tuning, but most out of the box dulcimers these days are set up and strung for DAd tuning (which I don't use) so I personally feel that it is easier to take the A down to a G, rather then that d on down to A, because with the string gauge used for that high d going down, it will flop around like a clothesline, and sound dead.

DAA, Ionian tuning. On a student dulcimer from Dan Cox. This seems to be another that beginners would use. I don't know if it is the 155 specific scale Dan used for this, or what, but this does, like my E-B-BB tuned dulcimer, has a good bell like tone to it.

These, of course, are what I *prefer* to use, and on which instrument. Hopefully it isn't too too confusing

Babs, personally, for me, Iplay by the numbers. I currently have four dulcimers I use, and since not a one of them is tuned the same, I just use a tab, and see what fits with what dulcimers. I won't hijack this thread with my tunings etc. To answer the question, and from what I learned over the years, Ken is right that it was around the late 60's. For example, in Jean Ritchie's The Dulcimer Book, she has everything laid out in C, but in her later teaching material, it's D.

Dusty, a couple I'd suggest are already on that list - Water Is Wide, Southwind, Morning Has Broken. Good luck with this!

Like Bob, I have different instruments set for different tunings: One of them is one from Bob, which is tuned D-d-dd Bagpipe tuning & has a 6.5 fret. From that, on the open I can get both D mixolydian, as well as key of D, and from the 3rd fret, key of G. I am a noter drone player, and so I think by the numbers.

I also play standard 6-string guitar and picked up the 4-string tenor recently. Completely different beasts. Tenor is tuned C G D A whereas standard guitar tuning is E A D G B E. So a learning curve.

BTW, just so you know, there is a learning curve with noter/drone, more then what is realized. Yes, we deal with the melody string(s) but there is a whole lot of noter techniques, and strumming styles going on.

The other thing as well Monica to consider is the style you are playing. If you are doing noter/drone, it really does not matter how long the vsl. However, for chording, 27 vsl or so in DAd seems to be the norm for what I have scene.

Thanks Stephen. I ultimately did get an Ibanez tenor guitar from Sweetwater, and printed out a sheet of basic chord shapes I found on the internet. I'll be looking for some tenor banjo books on Barnes and Noble later on. I did post a picture of my Ibanez on my profile page a few minutes ago if interested in seeing it.

I'd been playing guitar since I was 16 years old, and decided since I will turn 40 in March (ugh), to add another guitar to the arsenal, an acoustic tenor guitar. I saw a modest priced Ibanez that I am looking at, which should fit the bill nicely.

I was wondering if anyone on here owns a tenor guitar, can point me in the direction of some resources etc. so I can halfway have a clue when the time comes when I get a tenor guitar.

That is such an awesome looking instrument! And to make it yourself in that class must have given you a complete sense of satisfaction. I can not wait for you to make a video playing it so I can hear this beauty.

Got a question: Does anyone have a Hickory Folkcraft? What do you think of the sound, etc? Any thoughts/insights would be greatly appreciated.

This is so funny that this thread has scene a new life I ultimately have put the idea of getting a ukulele on hold for the time being. Dusty, I wound up with an Oscar Schmidt parlor guitar, which is like the old Stella guitars they made through the 1920's and 1930's. I had a nice full sound to it, not "tinny" sound if you know what I mean. Sounds well in the Maybelle Carter scratch, fingerstyle, and basic rhythm strumming.

For a while, I have been toying with getting a ukulele to learn to play, to add to my list of instruments I play. (I also can play acoustical guitar, autoharp, and can fake my way on the electric bass.)

At any rate, I was wondering who all plays the ukulele, and what they think of this package that I am eye-balling on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Schmidt-OU5-Instructional-Polishing/dp/B005ETZN72/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1420763277&sr=1-1&keywords=oscar+schmidt+ou5+concert+ukulele

If it isn't that good a ukulele, I would like to know, then maybe get pointed in a right direction. My budget won't stretch for a fancy handmade $1000 type LOL but I want one that is a quality instrument that will bring joy, not defeat, when learning.

I want to thank everyone who decided to have a go on Amazing Grace. Well done!

As a follow up, I was asked, what's up for next month? A continuation of a once a month "challenge" seems like a good idea if it seems like a good idea for others. I'll throw a song out there for people to work on for the month to get ready for posting the first Sunday of the month. A song that came to my mind is the traditional O Shenandoah. I think it is one most folks know and can work on a version of for the coming month.

I'll make it a point to bump this thread up when we have a week to go.

Best,

As this was the first '"challenge" tune posted, but like how I re-did Shenandoah a bit ago, I re-did my clip of Amazing Grace. Hopefully the quality is much improved since the posting I did of this. http://youtu.be/zP0PL2tmTHA

I need to admit that I was sort of bad and never saw that reply. I did not know that group existed at all, which makes me wonder if others may not know if it existed. I just figure putting it in the main videos section would give everyone a chance to see it, without looking through the videos.

Marg - just remember = This is not MGM or a movie studio. Do the best with what you have on hand. I know mine are not the best, because I have a laptop with a built in camera and mic I use, plus I play my FolkRoots on my desk when recording. I think as long as the *feeling* is there, that is what matters first and foremost. I'd rather see a video where it isn't the best quality technical wise, but the playing was spot on. Having both is ideal, but if it was one or the other, you now know my feelings.

I had an idea, and mused about it in chat earlier, and thought that I would post it here and see what kind of response it would get.

I have always thought it was interesting hearing other folks' interpretations of songs, because while the song might be the same, people do there own take on it, making it there own.

So my thought is this: What about the first Sunday of January, the 4th, we all do versions of Amazing Grace, and post them up to share? Do it in your style, your way, your tuning preference. Be it noter/drone, fingerstyle, chord melody, fingerdancing....the more styles the better.

If anyone is interested in this, feel free to respond to this thread.

I decided to stretch my repertoire a bit, and decided to work on Gray Cat, a song I remember that the dulcimer group I used to go to did. My questions are: the A part repeats 2x, and the B part 2x?, and how many times? Thanks in advance,

I have a dumb question but exactly what is mean tone, and how does it relate to the dulcimer? I know the sound is different and that is about all I know. Best,

Sandra, I hate to say this, but I am lost trying to figure out what it is you are wanting to know. If no one responds, call up McSpadden or email them your question and they will be able to answer it.

Thought it would be a nice thread idea for people to share about what there first song was on the dulcimer, and maybe any back story or how it came to be.

Mine was Wildwood Flower. I'd been playing autoharp and guitar the local dulcimer club, and there was a Thursday night session where it was just me and the lady that ran it. We were doing some tunes, and we started playing Wildwood Flower. I looked at her, and said, Diane, can you show me how to play that on the dulcimer? So line by line, I was shown on her dulcimer how to play Wildwood Flower. Diane favored DAA, so I was first shown Wildwood Flower out of DAA. After a while, I relearned it in DAd and then never could play it out Ionian tuning to save my life. Even now, on my 3 string Clark model dulcimer from Dan Cox that is tuned bagpipe Ccc, I play it from the open fret using DAd tab. My eventual goal is to relearn it out of Ionian, and usually I can do the first two lines just fine, but the third is where things start going south for me It is on my dulcimer bucket list to do, so we'll see.

Our dogs tend to congregate around when I'm playing.

This is a doozie Brian I play noter / drone style, but prefer a single melody string. 2 of my dulcimers are in fact 3 string. A recent acquisition is a 4 string, but equidistant with a single melody string. But that's just my own preference.

Just wanted to bump this to the top and remind people of my Christmas In July video idea, of people posting Holiday music in the month of July.

Even if we wind up doing the same songs, we all have our own ways of playing and tuning. I'm for sure going to start working up Silent Night, and the US version of Away In A Manger.

lol John Henry

I had an idea, and I wanted to get this out early, so we could all maybe work up something to do. I had this idea that maybe we could do a Christmas in July group of videos to post. Christmas in July is something I remember doing years ago at the church I used to go to, as it was to remind us of the Holiday spirit year round, and I thought it could be something we as a site could do video wise. Anyone else game for this idea?

Another suggestion is to get a capo for her guitar, and she could capo on the 2nd fret, and play C position chords. It will sound in the key of D. When I played guitar with the local dulcimer society, that's what I did. It has a good full sound for the key of D imo.

Sheryl, welcome to FOTMD. Sounding pretty is subjective to everyone's ears. So we all could help guide you, what style of playing are you looking into? Chording, noter/drone? That could help us help you.

Dusty,

I too play the autoharp. I send it to be restrung ;-)

Dusty Turtle said:

Dean, I change strings regularly, too, but not quite as often as Ken. I probably do it about every three months on the instruments I play regularly. Not only do dirt and oil from your hands accumulate on the strings, but the metal begins to oxidize too, and they become more rigid over time. I think if you change strings you will notice that they sound, look, and feel much better.

I even changed the strings on my autoharp once. Once!

then CGc tuning would be a good one to go with to play those chords with that group. Sounds like fun :-)

Lisa, I was thinking the same thing. I thought that it would be Aelion mode capo'd at the first fret in CGc or DAd.

Larry,

Another idea is to have one dulcimer in either Bagpipe tuning Ddd with the 6.5 fret, and to have another in CGG Ionian tuning. With the 6.5 for Bagpipe D, from the open string you would get key of D and D mixolydian, and from the 3rd fret down key of G. With a reverse capo under the drones on the first fret, you would get E minor as well. Just a thought for whatever it is worth,

J.O.P.

I came across Rod on PalTalk, and he was a good person. It was always a pleasure hearing his playing, as well as him talking about his assorted dulcimers and sharing what they were tuned to etc. I still can not believe it's been 3 years.

I'm going to do some listing, and when I sell and get the funds in hand, I will make a donation to this site.