Forum Activity for @dusty

Babs, remember that guitar straps have to hold up the weight of the guitar, but a dulcimer is going to be supported by your lap, even if you hold it in place with a strap. If the screws that come with the strap buttons seem too long, feel free to use smaller ones. I have done that on two of my dulcimers.

A couple of other pieces of advice: as Jan suggests, put some soap on the screw before you screw it into the pre-drilled hole. It will make it easier. And screw by hand; don't use an electric driver. Just take it slowly and you'll be fine.

Also remember that you might not need a strap button on the head of the dulcimer. You can just loop underneath the strings and around the head. That way you can avoid drilling into the body of your dulcimer. There are lots of inexpensive products you can buy to facilitate this. Chech out this Planet Waves quick release or this leather device by Martin . And some straps come with leather strips to attach to the headstock instead of a hole to attach to a strap button.

A national treasure indeed, marg. In many ways, anyone who plays the dulcimer today is one of Jean Ritchie's heirs.

Strumelia started a discussion in the Jean Ritchie Fan Club group devoted to remembering Jean.

I've had a few of the easy clip-ons and find them mostly all the same. I just bought one of the new Snark SN-8 (new black) models on Ebay and only paid $8 or $9, so look around and don't pay too much. I must like it since I have two of the SN-2 (red) models. The only complaints I've heard about the Snarks is that sometimes the head snaps off the base. But that's got to be user error, so if you take care of it, it will be fine. And I don't think you can beat the price.

There really aren't a whole lot of variables. How fast and accurate is the tuner? How easy it is to read? Other than that, some have a crappy metronome built in and most allow for calibration, so perhaps you can play along with a piano or autoharp or hammered dulicimer that is tuned to itself but a tad off. I personally never use those features.

Judy, most bluegrass tunes are the same tunes played in dulcimer circles or old timey groups, but they are simply played much faster in bluegrass groups. The most comprehensive collections of those tunes in dulcimer tab are Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam books. You might pick up the first of those books and then do an online search for common bluegrass tunes to see which ones are played in both circles.

One thing to look out for, though, is that while dulcimer players play nearly every tune in D, in bluegrass circles, other keys such as C, G, and A are also common. Blackberry Blossom is always in G, Billy in the Lowground is always in C, Red-Haired Boy is always in A, St. Anne's Reel is always in D, and so forth. If you are going to play with bluegrass folks you will want to learn the keys for common songs.

When I was learning mandolin, I used a book/CD set called Steve Kaufman's Bluegrass Workout which has music for a whole bunch of common bluegrass tunes, with a CD that plays each tune once very slowly and then once at bluegrass speed. But each rendition has the full song once and then two versions with just the back-up instruments, and you are supposed to play the melody. It was really good practice. The book does not include dulcimer tab, though, but if you can learn by ear or get the basic melody off the standard music notation it could work pretty well.

For most of my life I jogged pretty regularly. It was a cheap way of getting really good exercise and could be done anywhere in the world. And sometimes I was able to enjoy really scenic runs, such as the hills above Berkeley overlooking San Francisco Bay, the SF skyline, and the Golden Gate Bridge, or a run I used to do in the rolling hills of Iowa where I would see no other people or cars for an entire 6-mile run. But recently some problems with my feet, ankles, and knees have made it kind of risky for me to run on the roads. Eventually I joined a gym and it took me about a full year of running on the treadmill regularly before I taught myself to do it. The meditative zen that I could achieve on the roads when I was lost in my own thoughts was really hard to find on a machine in a brightly lit room next to another machine with another person huffing and puffing and another machine next to that one and . . . . Eventually I learned to ignore my surroundings and get into a groove despite the fact that dozens of strangers were sweating only a few feet from me. I can't say that it's not boring but rather that eventually I learned how to do it despite the boredom.

Strumelia said:

No, the bicycling to the gym part is not boring, it's the 'stationary' treadmill at the gym that's boring. I'm never bored riding my bike.

A friend of mine seriously believes that all babies should be issued a ukulele by the government. She insists that the savings in terms of increased production due to greater happiness would far outweigh the costs of the instrument. She is a mental health professional. Maybe she got the idea from Good Ol' Charlie Brown:

Or maybe she got it from this song by Loudon Wainwright III , who insists that "Four strings made of nylon always put a smile on/Anybody's face who's feeling blue." Why?

Because a ukulele's like a little baby

You cradle it in your arms and you sing

A lulluby or ditty when you're feeling shi**y

It'll pick you up, you know it's just the thing.

Geekling said:

Hey, I have Kaiser! Do you think they might issue me a uke, like they did my cane (not the Hurrycane, mind you)?

Kaiser Permanente, an HMO based in Northern California (in fact, the first HMO ever, created back when the Kaiser shipyards made the ships in Oakland and Richmond, CA that won World War II) has been running a recent advertising campaign:

I don't have high blood pressure, but I would have to agree that music reduces stress and helps us deal emotionally with whatever life throws our way.

I looks like a cool instrument, and it sounds wonderful. But I am confused about the logic of such a complicated fretboard. Why not have chromatic frets under all the strings? You could simply choose not to fret the two bass strings and you could choose to only play diatonic music on the melody string. What is the advantage to the two drone strings being unfretted and the melody string limited to diatonic frets?

Congratulations, Ken, on placing third. That's an accomplishment unto itself. I would imagine at most of the competitions everyone knows each other, which is why at a lot of them the performances are supposed to be anonymous (not that you can't identify most players by their playing style).

Linda Brockinton told me she used to work for a whole year in preparation for a competition. She would arrange a tune with an introduction, a couple of verses, a few variations on the verses, and then some kind of ending. And she would practice all year to really have everything down. Even if you don't take your preparation to that level, the fact that you are already planning what you're going to play means you will likely be more prepared than you were this year.

My hat's off to you, Ken. I get nervous enough at a friendly open mic. I can't imagine a competition.

And Aaron's advice is best: "have fun and enjoy being there."

That's pretty cool, Susie. I want one of those!

I assume that traditionally dulcimers were tuned to whatever keynote sounded best. A luthier would "hoo in the hole," meaning sing into the soundhole and find the tone that resonated most saliently and then tune the instrument to that key.

Obviously if you are singing with the dulcimer, you will tune to the key that best fits your voice. And that might vary by song. I can sing some songs in D, but others I have to sing in C, C# or even G depending on the precise range of the melody.

For just playing, though I tend to switch between C and D depending on whether I am fingerpicking or flatpicking. I like the extra slack and the soft pull of the strings in C for fingerpicking, for that allows a more precise touch. But for flatpicking, especially playing fast, I want the strings tighter and with less give, so I tune to D. I also tend to flatpick back toward the bridge and fingerpick toward the 10th fret or so.

I think Ken is probably right about the timing of the switch from C to D. Whether it was specifically to play fiddle tunes or merely to play with other instruments in the keys of D, G and A, I am not sure.

But you are certainly correct, Babs, that the norm these days, regardless of what modal tuning one uses, is to tune to the key of D, at least on standard sized dulcimers.

Thanks, Martha. I don't know that one but it looks approachable enough from the tab. Thanks for the suggestion.

Martha E said:

One of my favorites is Keel Row:

http://threeriversdulcimersociety.net/Music/Keel%20Row.pdf

Thanks, James. I play all three of those with my regular dulcimer group, so they were among the first I put on the list.

James Phillips said:

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

I have to admit, John, that I didn't know that one. But I just gave it a listen and it sure is fun! I'll put some tab together, maybe even some lyrics and chords, and add that to the list. Thanks for the suggestion!

john p said:

You have to include 'I'll Tell Me Ma' as well.

Thanks, William. The Minstrel Boy was the first fingerpicking tune I ever tried, and I'll definitely add that to the list. I also learned Annie Laurie from some tab Nina Zanetti posted on her website, so I'll definitely add at least those two. the list of songs I have to learn, though, is getting pretty long, so I'm not sure how many of the others will make it to the list before the event itslef. Thanks for the suggestions.

William Craig Mann said:

Consider:

Scotland the Brave, The Minstrel Boy, The Green Hills of Tyroll (The Scottish Soldier), The Battle's O'er

and a little more complex:

Mo Guile Mear, Be Thou My Vision, McLeod's Reel, Annie Laurie, Endearing Young Charms

I think that history is accurate, Peter. And I just paid for another year of the website. As long as the website is up, the list will be, too, although it may evolve over time.

Peter W. said:

I read that Irish emigrants went to Liverpool first to escape from unemployment. From there the big ships to America departed, and many of them decided to give it a try.

Please keep your list online - I guess I'll like to try out some of them during the summer...

Scotland the Brave is a good suggestion, Babs. Thanks.

Babs Greene said:

That's one of the reasons I didn't mention tunes by title but gave the book information instead, Dusty, I know it has Scotland the Brave and other familiar tunes in it but they may only be familiar more so to people in the UK

I guess it's fair to say, Guy, that you are an uncommon musician in many ways. Peter mentioned Down by the Sally Gardens as well, so I'll be learning that one and adding it for sure. Thanks!

Guy Babusek said:

Looks like a great list to me. I tend to do a lot of so called "Celtic" music, but I don't think most of mine is very common LOL. Down By The Sally Gardens might be a nice addition to your list.

Babs, I have a couple of books of Celtic tunes but I don't really know which ones are the more common ones, so rather than just choosing tunes at random, I'm looking for those that a lot of players would either know or at least be interested in learning. I'll definitely check out the book you mention, though.

Babs Greene said:

The Complete Book of Celtic Music for Appalachian Dulcimer has a few that you might be interested in.

Linda, the list is obviously a personal one. I included what I thought to be common tunes as well as tunes that I happen to know. I'll check out Red is the Rose. And we might play Wild Mountain Thyme, but I won't put it on the list with tablature since it's still under copyright. Thanks for the suggestions!

Linda W. Collins said:

This is quite a varied list. How about adding:

Red Is the Rose

Will Ye Go, Lassie Go? (Wild Mountain Thyme)

Thanks, Ken. I could probably add Lock Lomond and Auld Lang Syne right away. The others I'll have to learn first. But thanks for the suggestions.

Ken Hulme said:

Loch Lomond

Banks of the Bann

Maire's Wedding

Auld Lang Syne

Tramps and Hawkers

Thanks, Peter. I'll check out Down By the Sally Gardens. And its funny, but I just arranged a version of Leaving of Liverpool for my regular dulcimer group, but I always thought of it as English rather than Irish since it mentions Liverpool. Now that I think about it, though, it was always sung by those Irish groups like the Clancy Brothers, the Pogues, and Tommy Makem, wasn't it?

Peter W. said:

you could add

... Down by the Sall[e]y Gardens

and perhaps...

... Leaving of Liverpool

Hello good people of FOTMD. I have been asked to lead a Celtic jam at this spring's Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering . I agreed to do it only after making it clear that this would not be an Irish or Celtic "session" but would more resemble a song circle in which we focused on Celtic tunes, including many slower tunes.

The way this jam is being publicized, people are invited to bring a song to play or to learn one from the jam leader (me). And I was asked to put together a list of tunes, ideally with tab, that people could examine ahead of time. I have started that process, and added a page of Celtic Tunes Commonly Played on the Dulcimer on my website.

Please take a look at that list and let me know if I have left out any obvious tunes. I am not necessarily looking for your favorite Irish polka or Scottish lament, but rather tunes that are commonly played on the dulcimer. For example, just yesterday someone suggested that I add "Farewell to Tarwathie" and "All Through the Night." To be honest, I am not looking for anything too complicated, either, for I have to be able to play and perhaps teach any song on the list.

And just for the record, I am fully aware that the very term "Celtic" might be offensive to some in that it glosses over the differences among Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Manx, and Breton musical cultures. No offense is intended. But from the perspective of the vast immigrant land of the U.S. of A., music from the various Celtic cultures does exhibit some shared characteristics that differentiates it from, for example, Afro-Caribbean music or Baltic music or klezmer or whatever. As a further confessional, I think so far I only have Irish, Scottish, and Welsh tunes on the list. (I ask particular forgiveness from the Breton family I lived with for 6 months in the late 1980s. Pardonnez-moi.)

I welcome any suggestions you have. And if you have none because my list is so wonderful, well I'd love to hear that too.

Well, since you're not leaving until September, we'll see you at the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering on May 30 and the Redwood Dulcimer Day in Santa Cruz on August 1, correct?

Lexie, my suggested CD is not filled with traditional appalachian folk tunes at all, but I find it to be the most relaxing dulcimer CD of the several dozen that I own: Mark Nelson's Ke Kukima Polinahe: Hawaiian and Polynesian Music for Mountain Dulcimer .

I think there is a book of tab for all the songs on the CD, but it might be difficult stuff for I've never heard anyone else play the tunes.

Babs, I don't know Bonnie's book, though it seems like it would be really helpful.

I can tell you that I developed a technique (mainly from watching Linda Brockinton and Nina Zanetti) of brushing my finger across the strings of the dulcimer. It is like an inward strum, but much softer since it is done by the finger. If you do it quickly, the strings sound in unison, but if you do it slowly, then you get a more arpeggiated sound.

But without reading the discussions of technique in Bonnie's book, I don't know if that's what she means by drag or not.

I would agree with Strumelia. If you are enjoying some of the arrangements in the book you will probably benefit from the explanations and other arrangements there as well.

Vicki, since you have a simple version of the song, I would suggest listening or watching other versions of the song to see if you can steal an idea or two.

Larry Conger, for example, does a really nice job of using some minor chords to add some "color" to the tune.And most of the filler he adds is just quick arpeggios.

For the record, I've been working on this tune for a while myself. I think it's one of most under-rated American melodies. And don't limit yourself to dulcimer versions. Again, since you already have a simple version, try to add a little spice little by little. One of my favorites is this bluesy soulful version by Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt. You can tell from Nora's gospel-inspired organ at the beginning, that this is something special. Maybe you can steal a melodic variation, a short chord progression, or whatever.

Dana, I only now just noticed this thread, so I have just learned of your situation. I am so sorry to hear of what you've been going through. But I can tell you are facing things head on. And how wonderful is it that dulcimer music can be part of your treatment! You are spreading the joy of dulcimer music even while fighting cancer! I'll keep you in my thoughts, Dana.

For the record, I've never had the "mess" Steve did with the ball of strings fromJust Strings. I just remove one at a time and the ball stays intact. It is quite compact, in fact, much more so than the individual strings in a packet. I keep it all in the ziploc bag they come in.

In general, steel is steel and strings are strings. The quality will not vary from one retailer to another, but there are variables for wound strings that might be a matter of personal preference. I prefer the tone of bronze wound strings to nickel strings, for example, but I would not say that they are better, merely that I prefer the tone.

I do indeed buy bulk wound strings and have done so from both Just Strings and Folkcraft. However, I try to buy as much as I can from my local music stores. You never know, but you might find yourself in a bind, with a workshop or gig the next day, and you need a string or two. If there are no brick-and-mortar stores around, you will be up that proverbial creek without a paddle. Strings are cheap, so even though it costs a little more, I buy as much as possible from my local music stores. Plus, you might just meet someone interested in the dulcimer.

Babs, remember that for people who play in a drone style, the only string they have to think about is the melody string, so new tunings really mean that the key note (or home note or tonic) is in a different place on that melody string. Obviously, in that style of playing, switching tunings is wholly different than it is for those of us who play cross string and with chords. In my playing, for example, I never think of a note in isolation; I think of chord positions and see the melody out of those positions.

I play other instruments, too, such as the guitar and mandolin. I have no trouble switching from one to the other even though they are tuned completely differently and chord shapes are completely different. I think something similar is at hand for those people who are proficient playing in many different tunings. They simply learn different places to find notes on the fretboard. Their brains flip a switch when they switch tunings in the same way that I flip from guitar to mandolin.

I have not gotten there, I must admit. I almost always tune 1-5-8 and after 5 years I find I am still getting to know the fretboard. (Only a couple of weeks ago, for example, did I find the 8-6+-5 E chord!) This limitation to my playing is mostly on purpose. I want to know the fretboard well enough that I can accompany other people playing a song that I don't know and without recourse to tab or other music. I can do that on the guitar and mandolin and am working on being similarly proficient on the dulcimer. I would love to be playing a song when someone says "take a few verses, Dusty" and be able to improvise something melodic and fun for a while. But I can't quite do that now. Maybe at some point I will surely experiment more seriously with other tunings, but my goal right now is to know the fretboard in a 1-5-8 tuning. I am not "afraid" of other tunings in the sense that I will occasionally play around with one or take a workshop on DAc tunes or something like that, but I still consider my main "work" on the dulcimer to be getting better aquainted with the fretboard in a 1-5-8 tuning.

Noah, you are certainly right that a lot of people are afraid of changing tunings or changing strings, but I am confused by parts of your question. Referring to the key of A or G does not tell us how exactly you are tuned, which leads to Strumelia's essential question.

And there are laws of physics that rule over any propaganda. Given any specific VSL and any specific gauge string, there is a limit to how low or how high you can tune that string.

I would also add that the perfect VSL is dependent on your playing style. If you are playing in a droning style, longer VSLs are less troublesome than they are for people who play chords. I play cross string and chord a lot and I find 28-1/2 is about the upper limit for me. I simply can't finger certain chords with a VSL longer than that.

Monica, if you have not been playing long, give it some time. Chording involves using and stretching muscles in your hand and fingers that you might never have used before. It may be that a 30" dulcimer will always be too long, but I doubt if you will have trouble with anything 27" or less after you've been playing a while.

Right you are, Ken. I don't think there would have been a California dulcimer scene back in the 1970s had it not been for Joni and Richard.

Here is Joni:

Here are Richard and Mimi:

Here is Cyndi Lauper:

Ken, you'll be happy to see that Faria is using a noter. And I have to smile when Pete Seeger asks "What key? D?"

By the way, many years ago Neal Hellman put out a book in which he transcribed every dulcimer tune by RichardFaria. The book is long out-of-print, but Neal has made a pdf available online free of charge. Follow the links in his blog called LiberatingFaria .

I wouldn't call it folk/rock, but Cyndi Lauper has been playing dulcimer on stage and TV for the last few years.

FYI: this is the website entirely devoted to the 1-3-5 tuning: http://www.mountaindulcimer-1-3-5.com/ .

Good idea for a forum, Ken. Thanks!

In another discussion Robert Schuler pointed me to the Snips and Clips website of penny whistle tunes. Lots of those tunes work on the dulcimer, of course, too.

Well, Charley, I hope you get better fast and start enjoying your new musical toy. Let us know how it goes.

James, my understanding is that the tenor guitar is tuned to fifths, usually CGDA or GDAE. AndGDAE is exactly how a mandolin is tuned, though an octave higher than a tenor guitar). So you might seek out mandolin tab for tunes. Even if you tune CGDA, you could still use that tab; you will simply be in a different key. But chord charts and tab for the mandolin are certainly more popular on the internet, so you might look for that stuff instead of limiting yourself to lessons on tenor guitar.

Wow, that's great, Mandy. The dulcimer looks great, and I really like seeing all the pictures of the process. Good job! I look forward to hearing it, too!

I did blush a little, seeing a naked dulcimer.