Forum Activity for @jim-yates

And if you have a rack, it should be perfectly legal to play while driving.  In Canada, at least, hands free devices are legal.  I'm not sure the police would agree.

A couple of folks mentioned Chromatics.  Toots Thielemans, the master of the chromatic harp passed away today (August 22, 2016) in his early nineties.  Here's a clip of Toots playing his most famous composition, Bluesette.  Part way through he is surprised by another master of the chromatic harp, Stevie Wonder.
I bought a chromatic in the mid-sixties after hearing Toots, but it has not received much attention.

A friend of ours and a mentor to both of my sons, the late Willie P. Bennett was the best rack player I've ever heard or played with.  Here's the last song I ever heard Willie play:

Willie plays Stardust

One of our neighbours, Carlos Del Junco is one of Canada's (and the world's I'd guess) best mouth harp players.  He sometimes sits in with our jug band.  Here he is with our fiddle player, Jim Bowskill, playing guitar (Jim is a master of many instruments).

Jimmy Bowskill & Carlos Del Junco

Terry again, I have a plastic box that I bought at Canadian Tire (a Canuck hardware store).  It was meant to store small parts, but it fits six 10 hole diatonic mouth harps perfectly and fits in a guitar or banjo case easily. The old Elton rack is one I bought in the early sixties and the only modifications are a bend to make it hit my mouth squarely and a couple of lock washers.  I also have a drawer full of harps that I never use, but these six get played pretty regularly.

Terry, Here's another view of the drum.  It was a cheap, $7.00 drum from a school supplies catalog. I put the design on the front in magic marker.

Lisa, I lined up the thumb hole with the third hole from the bottom of the whistle and used a drill bit the same diameter as the hole on the front, so it makes the same note as the third hole from the bottom of a tin whistle.  I seem to recall playing a tune called Nonesuch, in my decade ago attempt at becoming a pipe & Tabor player, but I can't recall what it goes like now.

I just looked it up on "The Session" website and here it is:  Nonesuch on The Session

I had skipped over page two.  I just saw Lisa's video and was impressed.  I see that my homemade pipe & tabor are quite crude compared to the ones you guys have, but they'll do me for now.  Maybe I'll start working on the tune Lisa played.

I made a tabor pipe from a Generation D whistle about a decade ago and worked at it for a while, but it has been sitting in a crock of whistles in my music room for a few years now.  I got it out to tke these photos

I strted by inding the bit that would exactly fit the third hole from the bottom and , placing the whistle on a piece of scrap board, I drilled through the back of the whistle.  I then put a piece of masking tape over all but the bottom two holes and, voila, I had a workable tabor pipe.

I have a cheap 12 inch frame drum, with no snare, that I had intended using as a tabor drum.  You guys may have inspired me to have another go at it.
What tunes do you folks play on your pipe? 

Then there's the group called DAM (Mothers Against Dyslexia)

That's the knot I was taught to use in Scouts when I wanted to shorten a rope.  I figured it'd work on a strap as well.

A sheepshank?

 Sheepshank_knot.jpg - 54KB

I love Maria's strap.

Mine was a South American cotton belt that I bought at a festival.  Very colourful.

 strap4.jpg - 14KB

I have put planetary tuners on all of my steel string banjos, but my nylon string banjoleles have friction tuners as does my favourite dulcimer.  I think you can see Pete's guitar tuners here.  He had three Grover Rotomatics and one cheap knock off that he put on when one of the Grovers got busted.

 Pete's strap.jpg - 12KB

@userno4, Why would planetary tuners cause a banjo to not hold its tuning?  Most banjo players seem to prefer them, although Pete Seeger did use guitar tuners on his banjo.
I think the planetary tuners on your Lyon & Healy would be add ons.  I believe it would have come with friction tuners.

Great information in the two links provided by Lisa.  Thanks for sharing Lisa.

Unless you have a 6&1/2 fret and capo at 3 in which case you'll be FCC or FCF, you will have to play in a different mode.  You can't just apply the capo a little higher if the tuning's too low for you the way you would on a guitar or banjo.

I guess I could cut the chopstick a little shorter, but I've never been stabbed.  This is still the original chopstick from 30 years ago, though the elastic band has been replaced quite a few times.

Mine was not influenced by Ron Ewing.  In fact I'd never heard of him or anyone else using a dulcimer capo when I made mine about 30 some odd years back .  It's still my favourite dulcimer capo.

The guitar was my first instrument, circa 1960.
Since we had only one guitar for a short while, my brother and I both learned mouth harp to play some Sonny & Brownie tunes
I bought my first mandolin in the mid sixties.
I built a dulcimer in the early seventies and bought a better one at a yard sale in the early eighties.
I quit smoking 40 years ago and put the money aside.  I used it to buy my first five string banjo.
I learned to play Autoharp on one that belonged to the school where I taught and bought a few of my own later.
I also play tenor banjo.
I have played at piano accordion, button accordion and English concertina, but have neglected them lately.
My newest instruments are the Filipino banduria, The ukulele and the tiple.

My wife says, "The concept of enough hasn't gotten through to Jim."
I'd probably be a much better guitarist if I'd stuck to it only.

No.  The Echo Super Vamper is a regular 10 hole diatonic.  I have no idea why they used the word "Echo".

This is a Marine Band Special in C that was given to me by my ex-father-in-law.  It's a 12 hole diatonic with a wooden comb.

This is a 10 hole Hohner Echo Super Vamper in A that I bought in Scotland circa 1969 when my Marine Band in A crapped out.  It's identical to the Marine Band except for the top cover plate.  I haven't been to the British Isles in many years and am not sure if these are still available over there.  Perhaps they now sell Marine Bands over there.

There is a framed copy of this photo on my piano.

In 1968/69 I took a year off to hitch-hike overseas.  I didn't want to take a guitar, but I did take a few mouth harps.  I became a much better mouth harp player from my roadside practice sessions.
Just to add a bit of non-mouth harp, but dulcimer (the wrong kind for this site) content:
Just outside of Kilkenny I was picked up by an older gentleman who asked me, "Are you goin' to the fleadh?"
I asked, "What's a fleadh?"
He told me it was a festival of Irish trad music, so I said, "Sure I'm goin' to the fleadh."
The fleadh was in New Ross and on the way there, he asked, "Do you know what a dulcimer is?"
I said sure and described Jean Ritchie's instrument.  He stopped the car and said that his was a different type of dulcimer.  It was a hammered dulcimer and the first one I'd ever seen.  I spent the day with Mr. Andy Dowling (pronounced Doolin) and a pleasanter day I can't recall.
Here's Andy standing in front of his car in New Ross circa 1969.

I recall finishing a gig with the North Shore Ramblers at the Wilno Station Inn and driving the 3 hour drive home to Port Hope in the middle of the night.  Since "hands free devices" are legal in Ontario, I put my rack on and made my way home while playing the harp.  Not sure that the police would approve, but it kept me awake.

This plastic parts box was bought at Canadian Tire.  It jst happened to fit six harps perfectly and fits in a guitar case.  The Elton harp rack is one that I bought in the early sixties, right after I first saw Jimmy Reed.  The only modifications I've made is lock washers and a bend in the frame so that it hit my mouth at the proper angle.
The box now contains a Marine Band, a couple of Special Twenties, a Big River, a Blues harp and a Lee Oskar.  I have them labeled A/e, G/d, lowF/c, C/g, D/a and lowD/a.

My kids got harmonicas in their stockings at Christmas (as did I and my siblings).

Willie was one of Canada's best roots singer/songwriters.  He loved the music side of the music business, but not the business side.  He spent most of his career as a sideman, but released some fine solo albums along the way.

These are my dulcimer capos.  The elastic band/chopstick capo has been in use for over 30 years with occasional replacement elastics, but the same chopstick.
The Bic pen cap with the tail cut short and a string groove put in it fits over the fret to capo the bass string for playing in different modes without re-tuning.  It works well for DAA tuning.  I got the idea from a 5-string banjo player who uses one of these for a fifth string capo.

I love the low D Special 20.  It lets me play in the same range as a fiddle and sounds good for "twin fiddle" tunes.  I find I get the most use out of my A and C, played cross for E and G blues and my G, low D and A played straight for folkier tunes and Irish fiddle tunes.

I often play on a rack.  My favourite rack player was the late Willie P. Bennett.  He was a good friend and mentor to both of my sons and I enjoyed jamming with him many times.  I inherited a few of his Lee Oskar harps and hope they still have some of Willie's mojo on 'em.

I was surprised when I went to buy a new harp a couple of months ago.  They were about $70 for Marine Bands.

I found these taisho kotos in a flea market in Georgetown, Ontario.  The bottom one had a price tag of $65 and when I went back to buy it for my friend Steafan, the seller said that I could have two for $100, so I just couldn't say no.  These are played by strumming the strings with a pick near the bridge and pressing keys to stop the strings on the fretboard below the cover.The white keys are se up like a dulcimer's frets and the black keys make it chromatic.  There are 4 melody strings tuned with three in the upper octave and one in the lower.  There is also a bass drone string.

It's sort of a cross between a dulcimer and a typewriter.

 kotos.jpg - 128KB

I use a pen cap as a partial capo on my dulcimer.

Leah,

What is a reverse capo?