Forum Activity for @dusty

@sunvalleylaw, that book is by Joellen Lapidus, who was a pioneering dulcimer player and maker several decades ago and is still active and influential today.  Her book is one of the few that mixes stuff for beginners with very advanced material on rhythmic strumming and chords and stuff.  It will serve you very well.  Joellen still plays both traditional songs in a drone style and other jazzy stuff with chords.  She also experiments with different tunings, more than most people, I think.  I'm sure you'll learn a lot there, although you should keep your eyes open for other instructional material that might be free online. And of course, when you're ready, you can contact Joellen directly or find her at a dulcimer festival.

@sunvalleylaw, the article is in a link in the very first post.  Follow Ken's link and then scroll to the bottom where you can find that first post.  You'll find the article there.

What a sweet story, @ken-longfield.  It shows how strong the student/teacher bond can be and also how dulcimers bring people together in so many ways.

Looks nice!

que bella!

Good luck with your build, @glp1958. Make sure you join the Dulcimer Making Group , for folks there will have lots of advice for every stage of the project.  Some of that advice might even be helpful!

I put new strings on the Guild 6-string last night, all in preparation for today's Pick - N - Jam, an annual party in which people pick wild berries (mostly blackberries this time of year) and then gather at an old farmhouse to make jam. While the jam is cooking, we take out our instruments and pick and jam some more.  I'll be bringing my dulcimer and my guitar.  This event was canceled last summer, but this year anyone vaccinated was invited to come.  So grab your dulcimer and your copy of Rise Up Singing and come on down!

That's sad news, Geoff.  John used to be pretty active here online, although not so much in recent years.

He once posted a version of the old country blues Leaving Home that showed me the range of material that could be played on the dulcimer.

Please share our condolences with Angela and make sure she knows that even those of us who never met John in person thought very highly of him as well.

This image purports to show a Geoffrey Johnson of Hughes Dulcimer Company in 1974.  Not sure if it's the same Geoffrey Johnson.  I'm sure @ken-hulme can tell us about Hughes.

Thanks for sharing that, @robin-thompson.  I certainly believe the match between the personal expressiveness of Joni's songs on Blue and the minimalist approach of her dulcimer is what defines the album.

It's nice to see Joellen getting some publicity.  I wish she still sold her dulcimers for $200!

Thanks for that link, Strumelia. I read that article this morning. I have to admit I never thought to connect Joni's Blue with Miles's Kind of Blue , though I've loved both albums for years.

There's also a piece in the NY Times today: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/20/arts/music/joni-mitchell-blue.html?searchResultPosition=1 .

Both articles are worth exploring on a screen bigger than a phone since there's lots of pictures and interactive content.

Unfortunately, after a comment by Roseanne Cash about the "weird sound" of James Taylor's guitar, the editors inserted an audio excerpt of Joni's dulcimer.  D'oh!

There's also an NPR "listening party" on YouTube on June 22 .  Not sure what that will be like. Thousands of people listening to the album and chatting about it?

@robin-thompson, is that the collection that has Joni's first four Reprise albums?  It looks interesting, but since I already have all of those CDs, I'm not sure what I'd gain from "newly remastered" versions.

Every time I listen to Blue carefully, I notice something new.  For example, I had long thought that "A Case of You" was just a love song, but now I rethink the lines "I could drink a case of you and still be on my feet" to mean that she can't be swept off her feet by anyone. I hear it now more as a statement of her own independence. And that website I link to below explains that "Little Green" is about her giving up a baby for adoption.  Now I understand the words and just find it heartbreaking.

Bonaparte's Retreat, methinks.

Edit: Today people usually play Bonaparte's Retreat with three parts.  The version in the documentary only has two of them.  The missing part is what defines the tune to us as mixolydian since it relies on the lowered 7th. If you skip that part, you can probably play it in either ionian or mixolydian.

Joni Mitchell's Blue album, which introduced the dulcimer to millions of pop music fans, is 50 years old.  Check out CBC Radio's celebration of the album , which includes commentary and artwork inspired by the music.  The importance of the dulcimer is highlighted clearly:

The album’s distinctive sound comes from the dulcimer, which is the main instrument on four of Blue‘s songs. “I took off to Europe carrying a flute and this dulcimer because it was very light for backpacking around Europe,” [Joni] said. “I wrote most of Blue  on it.”

I don't have to tell you what a phenomenal combination of vulnerability and strength Joni's songs embody. And no one has ever matched the melodic playfulness of her soprano vocals.

In the folk tradition, we generally agree that isolating "who" originally did something is pretty tough indeed.  Instead we talk about different regional traditions that developed over time. As @dan and @ken-hulme have explained, today, people sometimes use the term "dulcimore" to refer to traditional, pre-revival (1940s) instruments or replicas of those instruments.

Just for kicks, a few years ago I collected the attached list of the various names that have been given to our beloved instrument.

a dulcimer by any other name.pdf - 44KB

The return to gatherings with family and friends is so wonderful. Scrabble, Banagrams, or just sharing a bottle of wine.

I just booked tickets for the family to visit my folks, whom we haven't seen in nearly two years, since the summer before the pandemic.  And we're attending a neighborhood party this evening, when we've all pitched in to hire a pizza truck, two guys with a wood-fired oven that they tow around from their van.  All the adults and kids over 12 in the neighborhood have been vaccinated, and we'll be outdoors anyway.  It will be so nice to hang out with people again.

I'm sitting with my daughter in the outdoor patio of a neighborhood café.  It feels so strange to be in public with no mask on.  Here in California, where the state is approaching that magical 70 percent vaccination rate, the pandemic restrictions are going to be lifted in about a week.  This café is even hosting its first ever open mic night a few days after the state re-opens.  A return to normal?  I wonder how long it will be before I'm comfortable with no mask on.

Congratulations to Diane.  And what a nice gesture on your part, John.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on how music is good for your brain.

I found the 6-String Soldiers on Memorial Day.  This is good sh . . . stuff.

The first thing to try would be that screw on the end of the button.  It probably won't take much. 

Check out this video of Leonard Bernstein explaining the mixolydian mode to some young folk.  What a great teacher!

https://youtu.be/x0rUDj1UrO8?t=72

For reference purposes: Blue Lion's bass dulcimer has a 27.5" scale length and they use .052w for the bass, .032w for the middle, and .024w for the melody.

More and more luthiers are making dulcimers with shorter scale lengths, even for baritone and bass dulcimers.  New Harmony is now making baritone and bass models with 25" and 26" scale lengths. You might contact Rick there and see what they use for string gauges.  To really get a bass sound I think you need pretty heavy strings.  Those recommendations Ken got from the String Calculator--always the place to start--are pretty close to what I use on my 27" Probst strung as a baritone. (34, 24, 16).

Hi @lois-sprengnether-keel.  Well you've demonstrate how you can do good history lesson using folks music.

The words we know to Old Rosin the Beau certainly makes it a drinking song, but I wonder if the song was not originally an instrumental simply called Rosin the Bow, and someone put some tongue-in-cheek lyrics to it, creating a song better known than the original.

Thanks, @ken-longfield and @ken-hulme. I should have know you two would be the first to join the conversation!

Having grown up in Boston, I've know the Charlie and the MTA song about as long as I've known the Longfellow poem about Paul Revere ("Listen my children and you shall hear . . . ").  Both were required material in elementary schools.

There are lots of one-offs, I assume.  I heard an old Scottish tune called "The Bold Princess Royal" that must have been the source of the melody for Sweet Betsy from Pike.

But so far you guys have confirmed my sense that Rosin the Beau has been used more than any other melody.

Hey @jost.  Well first of all, the people who worry about dominating the activity feed are never the ones who need to worry about dominating the activity feed, so think no more about that. The Moderators do have the ability to delete an item from the Activity Feed, and sometimes we do that when one person uploads several audio and video files and then edits them all, but in your case, a few items in that feed is nothing to worry about.  

We have discussed getting rid of some of those boxes that show up when you upload an audio text since they are not displayed publicly.  I suppose we could also find a way for them to be shown, but since so few people use that feature it has never been an issue.  In the meantime, you have two choices if you want to share lyrics. One is to put them in the description.  That will display, but will require significant scrolling on the part of the viewer.  The second is just to add another comment in which you put the lyrics.

Don't be ashamed. Just the fact that you posted your concern here shows you to be a good dulci-citizen.

@lisavb, I'm glad that you and yours have gotten vaccinated.  The mass vaccination site near us also operated very efficiently.  I'm not sure they were all so successful, though.

When my daughter's school shut down last spring, they initially said it was for a 4-day weekend to do a deep cleaning.  Then they canceled the next week of school and then the next.  No one understood at the time how long this would last.  We all thought it would "blow over," as you say.

I'll have to figure out the best way to accommodate both a small number of people live in person and a larger group spread around the world.  But one thing I can definitely conclude: dealing with the pandemic has strengthened rather than weakened the dulcimer community.  So many of our local groups had to stop meeting, but now we're connecting with so many more people spread around the country and the world.

I just got a call from the music shop where I used to host a monthly dulcimer club before we moved online in April or May of last year.  As of sometime in June, they will be allowed to host indoor gatherings again.  Now I have to establish whether there's sufficient interest.  Some of those who used to drive a long way to join us have already expressed that they would like to stay online.  Others have joined from around the country and a few from overseas, so I'll either have to do two gatherings a month or perhaps one hybrid gathering.  I know they have livestreamed concerts from the music store, but I'm not sure that is interactive enough. Hmm . . . 

The other Orthey dulcimers I've seen had VSLs of 27".  If yours is close to that, a wound bass string around .024 would probably be right.  Middle string perhaps .012 or so and the melody string would depend on your tuning. If you are tuning DAA, then keep a .012 for the melody. If DAd, perhaps .010.  

My personal preference would be for slightly heavier strings (.026, .014, .012) but those that I list might be close to standard for that size dulcimer.

And as the image suggests, you will need loop end strings, although if all you can get are ball end, you can always remove the ball manually.  Just squeeze them gently with plyers and pop them out of the strings.

We know how common it has been in the folklore tradition to add new lyrics to an old melody.  Poets such as Robert Burns did so incessantly, it seems.  Woody Guthrie did so, too.  I have two questions for you to contemplate: 1) What melodies seem to have been used more than others for new songs; and 2) Have any melodies been used more than Rosin the Beau?

To provide context for the second question, let me point you to the following:

1) Roll on Liberty Ball

2) Lincoln and Liberty

3) Acres of Clams

4) Mary of the Wild Moor

5) Lament of the Old Sourdough  

If you have more to add, please do so.

One of my most exciting moments as a dulcimer player was playing Cripple Creek as fast as I could while Aubrey did her clog dancing on a small wooden square she had brought with her.  We were in a jam circle and it was my turn to name a tune. I just said I wanted to accompany  Aubrey's clogging, and she replied, "Well you better play pretty fast then!"  I sacrificed accuracy for speed and just watched in awe as Aubrey's feet did their magic.

I can't wait until I get a chance to hear the latest episode.  Thanks, Patricia and Wayne for all you do!

Looks like a beauty, and I'm sure it sounds like one, too!

@adkzookeeper, I'm glad to hear you're so happy with your dulcimer.  And in general, it's wonderful that McSpadden is offering a more affordable model.

@ken-hulme, I agree with your basic message about the vast number of diatonic songs and the fact that we can often find work-arounds for songs with an occasional accidental, but the fact is that there are millions of songs that simply cannot be played on a diatonic fretboard.  I challenge you to play George Gershwin's " Rhapsody in Blue ," for example.  I don't even think that ascending clarinet line that begins the whole piece could be done on a diatonic fretboard. Or how about Art Tatum's " Tiger Rag ?" (Obviously I've chosen extreme examples to make the point.)

Having said that, one might argue that the piano is more limited than the dulcimer. After all, on a dulcimer we can get all those microtones in between notes either by bending strings or using that noter technique in between frets where the noter touches the fretboard and the string.  Playing those microtones is possible on a piano.  Instead of concentrating on what an instrument can't do, we should concentrate on what it can do, and find our freedom of expression there.

Did you hear about the poor guy from Avenue J?  He has to go 6 blocks to P.

@Silverstrings, McCafferty fretboards are 1-1/2 inches wide.  That is a pretty standard size.  My Blue Lion and Probst dulcimers also have 1-1/2" wide fretboards.

Terry now sells his dulcimers with notches in the bridge and nut so that the strings can be set pretty widely apart or brought in closer. I can't tell you the exact distances since I have a custom version, but I'm sure Terry would answer these questions. 

I just watched this video of Nora Brown on the banjo .  She is only 15.  Born in Brooklyn.  I think there is hope for the world after all.

"Bag of Kazoos" would be a good name for a jug band. Or even just a folk jam.

Hi @natebuildstoys.  I never buy packaged string sets for my dulcimers.  I buy single strings, although for some gauges that I use a lot, I buy them in bulk through JustStrings.com or Folkcraft.

But the first step is to figure out what gauge strings you like.  I prefer strings a little heavier than most, tuning DAd, I use .026 bronze wound for the bass, .016 for the middle, and .013 for the melody.  I think .024, .014, and .012 is probably more standard.

Once you figure out what gauges strings you want, just buy them as singles at any local music store. You only have to specify whether you want ball end or loop end.

And yes, the string gauge calculators err on the light side. But once you know that, and once you've developed your own preferences, you can still use the calculator, making the necessary adjustments.

Your bridge might have to be adjusted slightly depending on string gauges. But if the intonation seems OK, don't worry about it.  On my dulcimers with moveable bridges, I tend to check the bridge placement periodically, as in whenever I put on a new set of strings or perhaps before a performance.

I don't think I have accumulated dulcimers.  But I leave them alone at night and they reproduce.