Now lol Robin I can't go that far.
I was surprised when I had mine taken off . It's Ebony and I can't even see where he did it. I have a old one that was so off that I had to have fret one and two moved. It was surprisingly on from 3 up but 1 and 2 was a good quarter of an Inch off. That one showed bad.
I'm with you Don. I found a nice olde mcspadden that I like a lot. It had a I I/2 . I took it up there last week and had it taken out. Lol. They looked at me like o had 4 eyes.
I only noticed because I play in it all the time but don't want a new player learning to try it and it not work .
It's BF#B or Bflat F Bflat
Hi marg. I play in CGC all the time. I did want to correct one little thing if you are going to be trying some of these. My friend sings in Bflat so I tune to B flat -F - Bflat a lot.if you run to B it will have to be B-F#-B. One other tip. If you have been tuned to D for awhile your strings will be slack if you tune down. A new set will fix that. I tune one in D and one in C so I don't have to change often. A lot of the really old books were written in C. Understanding that DAD is not a tuning but rather a mixolydian tuning in the key of D makes it a little easier to understand.
I mostly play in CGC 3 string. Occasionally DAD and DDD . Just keepin it simple.
Music
Music feeds my soul
and it truly melts my heart.
I knew music would be my life
From the very start.
I have played and taught for years,
All kinds of music in many of places
But the best part of my life
Is the smiles on my students faces.
I have a key in my possession
It opens up a door
To the wonderful world of music,
Where some have never been before.
I have a key in my possession
It opens the door to peace
Calms the sick and soothes the soul,
May music never cease!!
Hey Whit, I normally play it in Em. I tuned my baratone to FCF and capoed on 1 and played it. I have Martin Jazz strings on my baratone and it did just fine. You can play any DAD tab capoed on1with it tuned this way if your dulcimer will tune down that low. Its really Low. Could do the same thing ona bass as well. Probably too floppy on a standard dulcimer unless you use heavy strings. I use a 10/14/23 on my standard. I play in Bflat a lot there tuning to Bflat, F, Bflat and its pretty loose.
What about the McSpadden dulcimer cases that have the backpack straps. I use mine all the time and have some friends with cycles and they just put them on their back and go.
Dave,
Thank you so much, this is beautiful.He was such a great Christian first, parent second and musician 3rd. How many of us can say the same. Perfect thanks. LB
If there is no 6+ fret, I would tune DAA and play melody-drone or noter & drone style.
Linda,
You may want to refer your friend to the following website. It has some background information on John Maxwell, including an estimate of the current value of one of his dulcimers.
http://www.planetdulcimer.com/vintage/john_maxwell.html
Greg
I got a call yesterday from a lady in my area who saidshe had a dulcimer bought in 1976 and never playedSo i checked it put and it is a wonderful instrumentbuilt by a John maxwell at the Upper CumberlandCraft Center in Cookeville , Tenn. It is in a finelycrafted wooden box and has been stored there since1976. Beautiful instrument with lively carved tuning pegsand is set up with 4 equal distant stings, 2 of whichare base strings. Will try to post a picture on my home pageas I'm sending this from an iPhone and don't know howto do it . If you know any history please let me know.
"Where harmony enhances health"!? Does that mean we're all going to live long lives? Or does it mean that those of us declared without talent will have surgeon general health warnings placed on our dulcimers?
