Forum Activity for @dusty

Louis, that chair certainly looks comfortable, but it might be more conducive to napping than playing the dulcimer.Just looking at it makesme want to curlupandcatch up on sleep.

Louis Hopkins said:

Hi I have just ordered one of these but I don't know if the same thing is available in the USA but I think it would be ideal for someone with a bad back it folds up and comes with a bag.

Mike, the bottom chair in Strumelia's post is called the quick-e-seat and it's made by GCI Outdoor. It can be bought,as Cheryl explains,through REI, Amazon, orevenMike Clemmer, who calls it best ever pickin' chair or something like that. I think it is made for birders or outdoor artists. There is a shoulder strap which also folds the chair up automatically when you lift it. Obviously, it has no arms, so you have room for your instrument. And it has a little bag probably intended to hold a beer, but it works just as well for a tuner, picks, a capo, or whatever you need. The seat of the chair is in the shape of a triangle, with one point intended to go between your legs. It is not as uncomfortable as it sounds, and you want your legs apart when playing the dulcimer anyway. The chair is very light, very portable and very convenient. It is not super comfortable, so you'll want to stand up from time to time and get the blood flowing through your legs again. I have one and take it everywhere.

Wow, that tenor guitulcimer sounds great, Robin. It has a really nice, warm sound. And your playing is just precious. You display such patience with that slow rolling melody. Nice work!

Dennis, almost all luthiers will install a pickup if you request it. I have a MMD with an internal pickup and will probably have my Blue Lion retrofitted with one as well.

I don't think you should buy a dulcimer simply for the pickup. Find the dulcimer that most meats your needs or whose sound you prefer and have a pickup installed in it.

Marg, many dulcimers are made with a nut and a bridge that can be configured for two different arrangements of strings. One is the standard three-course instrument with a double melody string. The other is four equidistant strings. I assume that is what you are talking about.

marg said:

Looking close up at the hourglass, it looks to have slits in the fretboard end for several strings . Could you put 5 or 6 strings on this dulcimer?

Larry, for $300 you can get a very nice instrument. That Cripple Creek could be good, but it might also have problems similar to those of recent instruments discussed in the forums I link to above. And as you can see, some of those were utterly unplayable.

Since the ad is on Craig's list, it is obviously local, and you can see and play the dulcimer before buying it. If you are really interested, take an electronic tuner with you when you go to see it. Tune it up and play a little bit. Is the action reasonable? Action refers to how high off the fretboard the strings are. If the action is too low, the strings will likely buzz. If it is too high, it will be hard to finger the strings. Additionally, high action might also lead to faulty intonation. Use your tuner to check each fret on each string as you move up the fretboard. Do the notes stay in tune or do they get sharp or flat as you move up the fretboard? Some of the other Cripple Creek dulciemrs described in those other discussions had bad intonation, perhaps due to faulty fret positioning. But that basically makes them unplayable. As you play,doesthe instrument stay in tuneor lose itstuning repeatedly? If the instrument has not been played recently and if the strings are old, it might have trouble staying in tune anyway, but if it seems to need constant retuning, that could be a sign of faulty tuning pegs.

Again, let me reiterate that $300 is a fair amount for a used instrument. In fact,I've paid that price for a used Blue Lion and also a used Laurel Mountain, both of which are probably better instruments than the Cripple Creek.I would advise definite caution here.There are fine new dulcimers that you can buy in the $300 range. For example, FOTMD member David Lynch sells several model dulcimers for $325 and a student model for $125. I have one of the student models which I use when I travel on the east coast. It is a wonderful instrument. I can only imagine how nice David's higher end instruments are. Check out his website here . You might also keep an eye on the For Sale Forum here at FOTMD. Periodically instrument come available there that might be better risks than the Cripple Creek. Or you might start a discussion asking about recommendations for dulcimers in the $300 range. A bunch of folks will probably recommend luthiers they know and trust.

Before making a purchase, take a look at this discussion from some time ago. And in there I link to another discussion from a few years earlier.

While I think Ken is correct that in general Cripple Creek dulcimers were quality instruments for some time, there have been difficulties going back further than the 8 months or so he recalls.

Garland, regardless of what gauge strings you use, please note Dana's original post. There is no difference between dulcimer strings and guitar strings. You can just go into any local music store and ask for acoustic guitar strings. There is no need to buy complete sets and no need to buy anything specifically labeled "dulcimer strings."

That instrument's no good. You should send it to me.

Not quite, Joe. I bought my Eede Beede directly from David. I think you might have bought a Folkroots Travel dulcimer from me and then went searching for a capo for it. Am I right about that?

David Beede ships his octave dulcimers with .008 for the melody, .010 for the middle, and a wound .011 for the bass.

It might be hard to find a wound string of that size. My local acoustic instrument shop had to special order them for me.

However, the reason not to try one would be the slot in the bridge and nut. If the slot is cut for a regular steel string, then the wound string might not fit in it very well. And if it does make its way into the slot, it might stretch it, potentially ruining it for regular strings. I would say be careful.

Steven, there are many affordable options for entry-level dulcimers. Very good cardboard dulcimers are sold new for as little as $60. I recently played one made by Folkcraft and it sounded remarkably good. There are also several luthiers who make student dulcimers for under $200.

I would personally recommend a student dulcimer by David "Harpmaker" Lynch of Sweet Woods Instruments. You can find his website here . He sells a student dulcimer for $125. David is also a member here at FOTMD so you can contact him directly without leaving this website.

I had heard other players recommend his student dulcimer and comment that it plays as well and sounds as nice as dulcimers costing well over three times the price. I just bought one for myself last month. I wanted an affordable instrument to play on the east coast since I spend a few weeks every summer and a few weeks over the holidays there every year. And I'll be honest that it was hard for me to leave it behind when I came back home. The dulcimer is made of birch ply, I believe, which helps keep costs down. And David knows what he is doing. The intonation is excellent and the sound surprisinglyrich. It seems to play just as well for soft, fingerstyle play and for louder strumming with a flatpick.

If you get a cardboard dulcimer or most other student models and your wife decides that she does enjoy playing and wants to keep doing it, you will have to upgrade and get a nicer dulcimer. With David's student model, she may want to upgrade, but she won't have to. It would be a satisfying instrument for years. I expect to keep mine. And if you do decide to upgrade, David has some kind of trade-in policy as well.

Wow, Robin. That is a haunting version of the song. It's putting shivers up my spine. Your commandand ability to get nuanced sound out of the noter is just remarkable.

I've heard Willie do a couple of versions, but I would say they were mostly in the traditional major key with a couple of minor chords thrown in. I think I don't know the version you are referring to.

Here is a minor version of the song by the Blind Boys of Alabama to the tune we usually associate with House of the Rising Son:

Wout, I already play a dulcimer with a 1+ and 6+ fret as well as the octave equivalents of that. I fear that over time I will add more extra frets as I find a reason for the 4+ and so forth. But I like the simplicity of the diatonic fretboard and the more I thought about those harp levers the more I began wondering about something like that for a dulcimer.

Wout Blommers said:

Well, wouldn't the easiest way be a talk with Steve Eulberg about a chromatic dulcimer?

I have to admit that although I started this thread, I was probably ill equipped to do so since I don't build instruments and really don't even have the vocabulary to refer to parts of a harp accurately.

But you guys have been great in helping me think through this and even offering new and creative ideas.

David: I should have thought to just ask you about this stuff in the beginning. Those levers I saw on two small harps that basically just pushed on the strings to raise the pitch on the other side of a pin or something acting like a bridge might have been made by whoever made the harps. All those anyone else or I have found online seem to work like those you describe. I am now convinced those premade levers that reduce the VSL would not work on the dulcimer.

Bobby: I guess I did misunderstand you, and maybe that has to do with my limited understanding of modes. I had thought you imagined a lever (or maybe to) so that you could toggle back and forth between a DAd tuning and a DAC tuning. You could then play a medley of say "Red-Haired Boy" and "Gilderoy," which is basically the same tune but out of a minor mode without retuning.

Wout: I think you are right that nothing we could rig up would allow the pitch of a string to change as much as a fourth. But my original idea was not to replace tuning altogether but either to allow a momentary change in pitch to be a able to catch an accidentalor to allow a change from a D tuning to a C tuning. I play a lot in multi-instrument jams and out of a D tuning I can play in the key of G or use a capo to get the keys of G and A. But the other common key is C, and I have to retune all three strings for that. There isn't always time and I sometimes miss the first verse or so of the next song.

Skip, the whammy bar idea was just my way of thinking about how you might activate something to change the tuning of a string while you were playing. I imaged using the whammy not really to hear the bend, but to get from one extreme to another, with those extremes representing a 1/2 note or perhaps a whole note. I don't even know how much a normal whammy bar adjusts the pitch anyway. I was just trying to envisiona devise as simple to use as the button on chromatic harmonicas that shifts the pitch a half note.

Thanks again, everyone, for chiming in even if to help me realize what's not possible.

And yes, for those of you suggesting the hipshottuners, those look a lotmore promising!

Remember that the ones I saw this morning were onharps, so perhaps bridge is not the right words. In one case the leversbasically acted to pushon the string on the non-vibrating side of a metal post around which the stringbent just before it hit the pin, thus tightening the string. They did not seem to be adjustable, but they were not all identical, meaning there were different size levers for different strings. Another type hadits own horizontal metal bar on the lever itself. When the lever was engaged,it pushed on the string just past that metal bar, again tightening the string. Those,too, did not seem to be adjustablebut were different sizes.Obviously, the degree of precision here is pretty high. My cousin's harp--which I only saw one inebriated evening and did not examine closely since the idea had not yet occured to me touse these contraptions on another instrument--has levers that can be adjusted for each string.They may indeed be the kind that shorten the VSL.

For the record, I did a quick search online too, and the only prefabricated levers I could find that were sold independly of a harp were intended to change the VSL, too. That might be what my cousin has and as you've all pointed out, they would not work on a fretted instrument.

If it would be feasible at all to design a lever for use on the dulcimer, it would obviously involve a lot of work to get it to fit exactly right. My uncle makes autoharps (and puts fine tuners on those) and perhaps I'll ask him if it would be possible todesign something. Maybe the only reasonable use would be as Bobby said to change the tuning of the melody string so you could switch modes in the middle of a tune or medley. But I still like the idea of something resembling a whammy bar that could alter a string by a 1/2 note and then drop it back down. I guess I'll keep dreaming.

Ivan, tune a string to a note. Any note. Now tune it a 1/2 note higher. That is all a lever does.

It might be that in the picture I posted the VSL appears to change. But on one harp I looked at this morning the levers were situated in between the bridge and the pin, so only the tension of the string is changed, not its vibrating length. In the other example I saw, the lever was itself a bridge. Each string went over a small horizontal pin, and it stopped vibrating there. The lever pushed a small piece of metal onto the string just after that pin, increasing the tension of the string. But the pin itself did not move, so the VSL did not change.

Ken is correct that the levers work essentially in the same way as fine tuners. Violin players do not have to change where they finger a note because they used the fine tuners. The tuners--like the levers--are situated on part of the string that does not vibrate.

There may be different models of levers that work in different ways. Maybe some really do change the VSL, and maybe that change in VSL would be enough to throw the fret pattern out of whack. I don't know. But there are at least a couple of examples of levers that don't alter the VSL at all.

I honestly think people are over-thinking the theoretical aspects of this issue.

The spacing of frets is determined both by the VSL and by the gauge of the string. That is why the best instruments have fully compensated fretboards. So obviously, anything you do to change the pitch of a string will alter slightly where the ideal frets would be. But I think a half tone would not be noticeable any more than switching from 12 to 14 gauge strings would be.

And on the harps I've seen, the VSL does not change. What changes is the tension of the string, for the lever sits in between the bridge and the zither pins and simply presses on the string enough to increase the pitch by exactly a half tone.

Yes, John, one of the ways I imaged using this would be toflip a lever while playing. I got the idea watching my cousing play the harp. She was running up the strings for an arpeggio but flipped the lever on one string for one note and then immediately after she played it, she flipped it back.

Could something like that work on the dulcimer? I don't know. That's one reason I posted this question. But those tremolo bars that electric guitarists use made me think it might be possible to rig something up.

John, maybe I am not explaining myself well. What the lever does is raise the pitch of a string by a 1/2 note. It is that simple. If the lever were active on a stringon a fretted instrument, then every fret would play a note 1/2 note higher than it would have with the lever down. So I got to wonderingwhether it might be possible to use a lever on a dulcimer so that you couldhitthe lever andplay the 1st fret to get the equivalent of a 1+ fret. If you could do that easily, then you mightbe able to play chromatic music without adding extra frets.

My second thought was that if you had a lever on every string, and the levers could adjust the tuning by a whole note, then you could easily go back and forth between a C tuning anda D tuning, for example.

Bobby had a more do-able idea of a lever on the melody string that would allow you to switch between aeolian tuning and mixolydian tuningjust by flipping the lever.

To be honest, I don't know modes that well, but I do know of some songs that go back and forth between major andminor keys, and the ability to change tunings like that in the middle of a song would sure be helpful.

john p said:

Hi Dusty,

I think there is a danger of misunderstanding what the semitone levers do. As I understand it, the harp is a diatonic instrument, and the levers don't add any extra frets.

I think you are right, Bobby. The lever sits between the bridge and the zither pins. When you raise the lever, a small metal piece pushes down on the string, raising it a 1/2 note. There may be some other models, but I just looked at a one at my local music store and that's how it works.

Some harpists only put them on certain strings, but in the picture above each string has one and they are color-coded to help the player know which string is which. Obviously, nothing that elaborate would be needed for a dulcimer.

Bobby, I don't know if you were thinking backwards or not, but you clearly seem to understand what got me thinking about this to begin with.

Folkfan, why do you suggest a fretless dulcimer? On a fretless you could get any note you wanted anyway. I see the lever as a way to compensate for the limits of a diatonic fretboard.

If I had the talent to play a fretless dulcimer,I wouldn't have this problem to begin with.

Shawn McCurdy said:

Now if you happened to have a fretless dulcimer.....

Ivan, my understanding is that the harp lever sharpens the string by exactly a 1/2 note. So a C becomes a C#,an F becomes and F# and so forth.If that same balance could be achieved on a dulcimer, then the lever would make every note a 1/2 note higher (not just the open string).

I imagine two possible uses. One would be if it were easily accessible like the tremoloor whammy bar on an electric guitar (or that littlebutton on chromatic harmonicas). When you wanted a notethat could only beplayed with a 1/2 fret, you could finger the fret just below the note andhit that lever to get the note you needed.

The second use would be if you could design those levers to alter the tone a full note instead of a 1/2 note.Then you could tune to C and flip all those levers to quickly get into D tuning. For those of us who play a lot in multi-instrument jams, that would be really helpful since there is not always time in between songs to re-tune 3 or 4 strings.

Ivan Bradley said:

Dusty, a harp lever works by shortening the VSL of an individual string, making it a semitone sharp. With a fretted instrument, shortening the VSL to make the string any significant amount sharp would play havoc with the fret spacing - they'd all be out of kilter except for the open string.

Many of us are familiar with the levers that harpists use to adjust the tuning of a string by a 1/2 step. The obvious advantage is being able to play a diatonic instrument and still get those accidentals when necessary.

Has anyone ever triedinstallinglevers on a dulcimer? It might be done just on the melody string or on all strings, and it might be a way of playing chromatic music without adding all those pesky frets all over the place.

If levers could adjust a string by a whole note, you could conceivably "flip the levers" to change from a C tuning to a D tuning.

Am I off my rocker or is this feasible?

Lucky you, John, to have seen that show. It's kind of funny to hear those two dulcimer tunes after an electric set with a big bass and all. Some of it reminds me of the Miles of Aisles album where she has a full band, including electric bass, horns, and everything, yet behind it all is Joni's melodic voice and acoustic sensibilities.

By the 80s you could hear her voice changing, getting deeper with less sustain, signs of both age and cigarettes.

I'd be her "mean old daddy" anytime.

Some of us have seen pieces of this clip, but the whole concert is available on YouTube. I've cued it to the spot where Joni Mitchell introduces her dulcimer to the audience and then plays "California," one of my favorite Joni songs.

http://youtu.be/qH9DzMKxulc?t=16m14s

Thanks for listening. I recorded that at the Redwood Dulcimer Day last summer, and you can hear all the folk in the audience. But Paul and Ron recently recorded a cleaner version of the arrangement:

Jan, I'll make sure Paul sees your request. It is indeed abeautiful arrangement, and I can understand why you'd wantto play it.

Jan Potts said:

Is this duet arrangement available for purchase? I love both parts--and would like to learn both! And, Rob, if you learn them, too, we'll play a duet some day!

Thanks, Wayne and John. I'm glad to get one of Paul's arrangements some exposure.

Wayne, what makes you think it is tab and not standard music notation? (Actually, I think it is tab that Ron is reading, but I just wanted to give you a hard time. ) Paul arranged the piece for two dulcimers and not surprisingly he knows it better than Ron does. The arrangement is so precise that if Ron were to play a note that might sound great when playing solo but is not exactly what Paul had written, he would ruin the harmonies and counter-melodies that Paul intended.

I wish I could say thanks, Carrie and Cheryl. All I did was hold a camera. We're going to try to make another recording with a better mic on Paul's dulcimer. And hopefully my dulcimer group will record one or more of Paul's arrangements. He's got a couple with three or four parts of increasing difficulty, so everyone from the beginners to the more advanced can play a part.

Since I am not playing in this video, I can't upload it to our video library, but I wanted to share with everyone this carefully arranged duet of Turlough O'Carolan's "Si Bheag Si Mohr" which Paul Furnas and Ron Beardslee played at the Redwood Dulcimer Day this past weekend.

Both are founding members ofmy dulcimer group, River City Dulcimers. Paul has been playing and teaching the dulcimer for decades. He has a doctorate in early music and is a font of knowledge about music history and music theory. He has many arrangements of songs, all very carefully thought out. It is a bit hard to hear his fingerpicking here, but hopefully you can all see how pretty the arrangement is. And Paul's smile at the end is precious!

Listening to this soft and carefularrangement of the song makes me feel like that proverbial bull in a china shop when I play my awkward strumming version of the tune.

Joseph, personally I do tilt the dulcimer up a little bit, not fully vertical like a guitar, but just enough so the back is off my lap. But I do that more for the comfort of my strumming hand and not my fretting hand.

First, most of the time when dulcimer player refer to barre chords they do not actually mean they finger them as barre chords with a single finger. Most dulcimer players fret across all the strings on the same fret by using either their middle, ring, and pinky fingers or their index, middle, and ring fingers. Mark Gilston does the former; Linda Brockinton does the latter. I do both, depending on the chords or notes immediately before and after the barre chord.

Second, people who do barre a lot with a single finger tilt their hand so that it is more the side of their finger making the barre than the soft bottom. Using the side allows you to use the bone of your finger as a brace. If I am not mistaken, Stephen Seifert uses his ring finger to barre in that fashion.

Third, professionals who barre a lot get dulcimers with what is called a radiused fretboard. That means the fretboard is curved so as to allow an easier barre. Almost all guitar fretboards are radiused, but a different degree of curve is necessary for the dulcimer. Both Aaron O'Rourke and Erin Rogers play on dulcimers made by David Beede with radiused fretboards.

Fourth, Ken is correct that as you stretch for more chords you will be using muscles in your fingers and hands that have rarely been used before. Some discomfort at first is to be expected. But you should definitely not continue doing things that cause you pain. In order to play well you have to be comfortable. If some chords necessitate a stretch that hurts, find another way of playing the chord. Over time those stretches will be easier and easier, but you certainly don't want to hurt yourself.

Fifth, Ken is also correct (notice a pattern here?) about arched fingers. Obviously he is not referring to forming a barre chord with a single finger, but when you finger the fretboard, you should be using the very tips of your fingers, not the fat pads. To do that well might require developing some strength in the fingers, but that will come with time. When my daughter plays the piano, I encourage her to hold her hands so that an egg could fit beneath her fingers and palm on the keyboard and her hand won't crush it. As a general rule that is good advice for the playing the dulcimer as well.

Thanks, Babs. I figure if you find just one or two ideas, then it was a success. Let me know if you have any questions.

Babs Greene said:

Nice vids Dusty, also given me some new stuff to get in to.

Glad you've found the videos helpful, Helen. It's interesting that John comes from the drums and I come from the guitar, but we both end up in the same place. Don't be afraid to peek at the third video. Basically, it shows how the same flatpicking pattern works for picking single notes and not just strumming all the strings. You may or may not be ready for it, but it can't hurt for you to begin thinking about where you could put a single note or short single-note run into songs you already play.

Theenthusiasmanddedicationyou have shown in learning this instrument and in playing in public is inspiring to us all, Helen. Keep it up!

David, I think we are talking about two different issues here. You seem to be concerned with how to arrange a tune, meaning how fast it should be, how much embellishment is appropriate, and so forth. I am talking about technique, meaning the ability to play accurately no matter what speed you choose to play. But I don't think I disagree with anything you've said.

Obviously, if people are playing together and one is playing faster or slower than the others, that is not good. As every kindergarten teacher knows, the ability to play well with others is important. That is why someone usually counts off "12ready go" or whatever they choose before they start playing together, to ensure they play at the same tempo. Often in bluegrass bands the fiddler will begin with the "taters," just a couple of notes (usually in a bum-ditty rhythm) to set the tempo. But one big difference between professional and amateur musicians is the ability to play in a constant rhythm. And for many stringed instruments (guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, etc.) the key is right-hand technique. (For the record, I do indeed use a metronome a lot when I practice.)

I think how busy one is when playing should in part at least be a function of how many musicians are involved. The more musicians, the less you should be playing. As you point out, some songs just don't call for much embellishment at all. But these are questions of arrangement, not technique.

In the case of the three versions of "Simple Gifts," I agree with Wayne, Babs, and (I assume) David that the first version is better. But we are making that judgment based on the arrangements of the song, not the playing ability of the performers. That song is a great example of one that should be played slowly with a sparse arrangement and little embellishment. Personally, I play that song on the penny whistle and the autoharp, but not on the guitar or dulcimer. If I were to play it on the dulcimer I would choose a baritone with a deep voice and good sustain so I could letall those half-notes (and even those few whole notes) ring out.

At the end of the third video to which I point Helen as part of my explanation of my flatpicking technique, Idemonstrate the song "East Virginia." (It is an old Carter Family tune but it is alsoa generic country song melody and I know of at least two other songs that use the same melody.) You never hear dulcimer players play this song. It is filled with a lot of notes that last 4, 5, 6, or 8 beats. It works great with a singer accompanied by a guitar strumming chords. But on the dulcimer, leaving all those long notes to ring out creates problems. One is that it is hard to know when to start playing again, and the risk is great that you'll come back too early, thus ruining the rhythm of the song. It is also the case that all those long notes ringing out when there is no playing going on increases the nap factor, meaning it will put the audience to sleep. I demonstrate on that video what the song would sound like if you played the melody as written. But then I demonstrate what it would sound like if you add the kind of chordal accompaniment a guitar would offer. It becomes a song at that point. And then I also demonstrate how those long pauses are places one might choose to add some filler licks. The end result is a version of the song that clearly differentiates between the melody, the chords, and the filler. Basically that version combines the jobs of singer, guitarist, and (perhaps) mandolin player. And it is all made possible by a right-hand technique capable of keeping a steady beat. The point is not that you have to strum chords on every eighth noteor fill every pause with lots of extra notes, but that the same technique that will allow you to play Bile Dem Cabbage steadily at any speed will also allow you to play chordal accompaniment or add filler when you deem it appropriate .

Just yesterday I was taught a song by Karen Mueller at the Redwood Dulcimer Day: "Jeff Davis" by Norman Blake. If you excuse my sloppy play (I was just introduced to thesong yesterday) and weird lighting (I'm using a halogen shop light), please look at the "A" part of the song. The first part of that selection begins with an eighth note pair followed by a quarter note, and that pattern repeats a few times. It is essential that the eighth note pairs have the same duration as the quarter notes that follow them. And then thelast two measures are a longeighth note run.

When we worked on the song at the festival, a lot of people had trouble with the rhythm of the song. That was unfortunate, since the workshop was supposed to be on how to use the 1+ fret, not how to play accurately. So Karen had to explain to folks how to alternate their strumming so that they could get accurate differentiation between eighth notes and quarter notes and could someday be able to play the last measures at a speed faster than the sleep-walking speed used to teach the song. Note that what I play here (other than that last strum at the end) is nothing but what is written as the melody. I add no chords and no embellishment. The right-hand technique I've developed, though, allows me to learn that song without having to count in my head to ensure that quarter notes get twice as much time as eighth notes and allows me to begin playing it up to speed (I've still got a ways to go) even though I amjust learning the song.

But that same right-handed technique allows one to add chords and add fillers when one chooses, with the confidence that the notes will always beon rhythm. That doesn't mean we will always play the correct chords, or our filler will always be tasteful or we won't ruin a wonderful song by playing it like Speedy Gonzales on chrystal meth. But we can rest assured that our playing will always be accurate and steady. The back-and-forth right-hand technique is nothing but a tool that allows us to play steadily so that we can concentrate on the more creative aspects of making beautiful music.

Given the last set of comments here, I just want to offer a clarification of my own position. In my mind, there is a set pattern for strumming. It is in-out or out-in on a regular beat. Usually that is an eighth note pattern but on some slower songs it might actually be a sixteenth-note pattern. That is the pattern that is implicit in your right hand. But that pattern does not have to be actualized on the strings. Depending on the song, you might only hit the strings on a fraction of those strums. What the pattern does, however, is ensure that you are exactly on beat when you choose to strum. In other words, you need to be able to strum in-out or out-in in a regular pattern, but that does not mean you always do it.

Secondly, what we refer to as a strum might indeed be a pick. Just as you can choose to hit no strings on a strum (what some instructors call air strums) you can choose to hit only one or two strings as well. In my mind there ought to be no difference in your right hand between strumming and picking. And you should be able to shift between strumming all the strings and playing single-note runs or arpeggios with no alteration in the basic rhythm of your right hand.

So the way think of this, your right hand develops an out-in (or in-out) pattern which is usually based on eighth notes, so it moves out on the down beats and in on the upbeats, but on any strum you can choose to play three strings, two strings, one string, or no strings. What the pattern assures is that you will always be exactly on beat.

There are an infinite number of specific rhythmic combinations you can choose from. (The Bum-ditty is one example, where you are playing this out-in strum based on eighth notes but choose not to strum on the & following the 1st and 3rd beats. In other words, you are playing a quarter note, two eighth notes, quarter note, two eighth notes.) And I thoroughly agree with the emphasis of David and John's posts above that you should not get locked into one rhythmic pattern but should vary it as the song and even the phrase suggests.

Helen, I just took another listen to your John Stinson, and it is clear that you are getting very close to a steady back-and-forth strum. You do not have to reinvent anything you are doing.

In that song, the first measure is simply four quarter notes. You strum out on all of those. Good! The second measure has two quarter notes and then four eighth notes. You strum out on the quarter notes and out-in on each of the eighth note pairs. Excellent! You are doing just what I would be doing.

All you need to work on is keeping that strum as steady as possible so that you are always on beat. And remember that whenever you strum out, your hand has to come back in before you strum out again. That in strum should happen evenly even if you choose not to strum any strings. Although you might play "Bum bum ditty ditty" or "Bum ditty bum ditty" your hand should be moving "ditty ditty" all the time. (The bums are just quarter notes and the ditty is a pair of eighth notes.)

You're too kind,John.The fact is that you dojust as much in ahigher-quality 6-minute video asI do inmy amateur 45 minutes.Plusyou play the drums.

John Keane said:

Dusty, there's a bunch of great info in those videos of yours and well worth checkin' out!