Forum Activity for @dusty

I am (very slowly) working on an arrangement of the Irish Gaelic air "Song of the Books" or " Amhrán na Leabha."  It's a haunting melody. I found some sheet music for the penny whistle, which provides the basic melody.  But I've been listening to this vocal version and altering the basic melody to capture a small fraction of the nuances of the singer's voice.  The big task will be deciding on the harmonic accompaniment. Lots of minor chords, obviously, but beyond that I've yet to figure it out.

Once I've tabbed out the melody and decided on the chording, then I'll have to actually sit down and play it a bunch to see how it all fits under the fingers. More revisions to follow then.

You can rest assured I'll be listening to this tune non-stop for many days to come.

Hi Tom,

First, I took the liberty of moving your question to the Forum on specific luthiers, since it seemed more appropriate.

Second, I would guess from the model and serial number that the instrument was pre-Folkcraft, but to be sure, why not contact @howard-rugg directly?  He is a member here and usually has very good records about the instruments made by Capritaurus and FolkRoots.

My first dulcimer had no fret markers, and I managed fine. The diatonic fretboard IS your fret marker. The first skinny fret is 3. The last fat fret before the three skinnies (assuming you have a 6+) is 5. The last of the three skinnies is 7.

Since then I've bought instruments that have fret markers, and you do get accustomed to them. But unlike the banjo, the dulcimer does not need them.

I think now the main reasons to mark at 3, 5, and 7--even if you don't play only on the melody string--is because that's standard and you want to get used to the way most dulcimers are designed so you won't get confused if you switch dulcimers. And yes, those fret mark stickers look great and come off very easily.

Unless it specifically says "loop end," the strings will be ball end since that is the standard for guitars.  (Notice their mandolin sets specify "loop end.")  But they sell single loop-end strings, so it seems that would be the way to go.  A single phosphor bronze loop-end string only costs a couple of bucks.  Why not buy one and check it out?

Hey @carolynf,

The easiest way to play in G might be to tune the middle string to G so you would be in DGd.  Then the drones would be "right" but "reversed," meaning the root or key tone would be on the middle string and the 5th would be on the bass string. Your home base on the melody string would no longer be the open D, but the G on the third fret.

If you don't want to retune, you could put a capo at the third fret.  If you are tuned DAd and capo at 3, your notes would now be GDg, so you could play in G exactly the same way you were playing in D before.

You can play in G without using either of those methods, but as you have discovered, you can't rely on the open strings as much. You would also likely have to move up the fretboard to get the C natural that falls on the 6th fret of the bass and middle strings.  (In fact, I've been working on a series of intermediate-level arrangements of tunes played first in D and then in G, all out of the DAd tuning. The challenge for the G parts though, is that we move up the fretboard where we are often less comfortable and have to use more fingers to play chords.)

EDIT: Woops! I see @ken-longfield is a faster typist than I am and offered the same advice already.

I put new strings on my dulcimer today, and she loves me again.

I often play dulcimers with radically different VSLs, ranging from a tiny octave dulcimer to standard dulcimers of 25" and 27" and a baritone of 28".  I suppose I have to look more regularly at the fretboard until I get situated, but only once that I remember was I playing a tune I had arranged on one dulcimer and ran into difficulty playing it on a different one. The fingering had to change slightly and I was caught off guard. 

I used to switch between guitar and mandolin, too.  We humans are adaptable creatures.

That's a lot of tomatillos!

It's so nice to see and hear about folks playing music outdoors.  Thanks for sharing, everyone!

I shared music with others in my monthly dulcimer club on zoom today (mostly English country dances), but nothing outdoors.  The smoke from the wildfires up the Sierras has blown down into the valley and the air quality is unhealthy.  No outdoor music today or outdoor anything for me.  I put on an N95 respirator mask just to turn on the sprinklers.

I hope others have been able to share music with their communities.

It's a nice read, Ken, and mostly accurate. Thanks for sharing.

Hey @illmade2, it may be that there is little information on that particular maker, but as far as "common tuning," there is no reason to think your dulcimer is any different than others.  That instrument has three courses, with the melody course doubled.   The most common tunings would be DAAA and DAdd. The Get Tuned website can help.

I know a few people who have bought New Harmony dulcimers over the past year or two.  They rave about the big, full sound.  I haven't played one myself, but hope to soon.  I met Rick (the luthier, not the business/PR guy) in Zoom when New Harmony was a vendor at the virtual Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering.  He seemed to know most of the other dulcimer makers in the country and was familiar with the variations in their designs. I'm not ready to buy another dulcimer right now, but we discussed my personal preferences, and he was certainly willing to build a dulcimer to please me.

Several luthiers offer a three-string option, and a few (like Modern Mountain Dulcimers) only make dulcimers with three strings.  That approach may be in the minority, but it is not unheard of.

As @gail-webber explains, the accutune bridge is a way of adjusting the compensation for each string individually, providing greater accuracy in intonation depending on tuning and string gauge. 

Perhaps just as importantly, the New Harmony design does not really use an end block.  Instead the strings latch onto an undercut bridge with several inches to spare before the end of the top. That design allows the sound board to resonate a lot more than it does on a standard dulcimer. The resulting sound resembles not the traditional, high silvery sound of older dulcimers but the warmer, round sound of a guitar.

As for the hole in the head, I assumed it was simply so that the instrument would be easy to hang on a wall on a simple peg, like those traditional Shaker chairs.

Lighter strings will be looser.  Heavier strings will be tighter.

If you're playing by yourself, though, and don't need to be in a specific key, I would suggest tuning higher for tighter strings and lower for looser strings.  That's a lot easier than changing strings.

Hey, @johnpat27.  I have  a few thoughts here.

Consider starting with three strings, especially if you want to fingerpick.  Just remove the doubled strings.  You can always add them back later on.  I was given this advice when I first started and out of nothing but hubris, I resisted it, thinking that since I play 12-string guitar and mandolin the extra strings wouldn't bother me.  But eventually (like 2 years later) I strung up my instrument with three single strings and loved the clarity of the sound.  Some techniques (like hammer-ons and pull-offs) are easier with single strings and some (like bending) are virtually impossible with double strings.

Second, there are two resources for drone players close by: Strumelia's Mountain Dulcimer Noter and Drone Blog (which others have mentioned but not provided a link for) and the Old Style Noter and Drone Players Group here at FOTMD.  You have to join the group to see all the posts, but you'll find lots of information and camaraderie there. 

Third, have fun. Put the the instrument on your lap, find a melody that you like, and let your instrument ring!

Yes, of course you can sand the bridge. Be careful, though, and go little by little. When you were working on the nut you really couldn't mess up since the zero fret was going to set the height of the strings down on that end of the dulcimer. You don't have that safety net when you work on the bridge.

Marg, if the strings are really sitting on the zero fret so that the strings are vibrating between the zero fret and the bridge, the nut will have no effect on the action.  You might consider sanding down the bridge, however.  

@sunvalleylaw, don't feel you have to abandon techniques you developed playing the guitar. I also came to the dulcimer from the guitar, and when I bought my first dulcimer I got a 12-pack of those pointy, triangular, Herdim picks.  I never took to them, gave them away at a festival, and went back to the same Tortex picks you use.  I tend to use the green .88 ones when there is a little more slack in the strings and the blue 1.0 ones when the strings are nice and tight.  If you are only strumming across all the strings, those big, pointy, floppy picks are fine.  But if you want to flatpick and play long single-note runs, you need a bit more control.

Since noter/drone players can handle higher action than those of us who fret with our fingers, a lot of dulcimers are made with higher action.  By all means, do what you can to get the action as low as possible without causing any strings to buzz.

It seems you are well on your way to ensuring you are comfortable playing your instrument.  That will certainly allow you to progress quickly.

Nate asks all the right questions here.  You might try simply removing the nut and allowing the zero fret to do what it's supposed to do.  Then you could check the intonation and the action.  If the dulcimer functions correctly, you can feel comfortable sanding the nut way down, since, as Nate says, it's only purpose is to space the strings correctly.

That video is super clear, isn't it?  By the way, that practice of using the same chord shape and moving it around the fretboard is what Joellen calls "parallel" chords. It is an easy approach to learn (well, the left hand is, anyway), since the fingers stay in the same shape and you just have to move them up and down the fretboard.

Nice catch, @ken-longfield! I guess they don't call you "eagle eyes" for nothing!

Marg, I'll let the builders answer that question.  I would think that if the distance between the 0 fret and all the strings were the same, you might consider sanding the bottom of the nut.  But if that distance varies, you might also need to deepen the slits.

The good news is that you don't have to be so precise to the left of the 0 fret. If the frets (including the 0) are set up correctly, they should come off the 0 fret and the action and intonation should be good.

I can't help identify the maker of the kit, but I would bet those little nails by the nut are to help space the strings appropriately, since the can come in at any number of angles off the tuners.

Yes, the strings should touch the 0 fret.  The strings should vibrating between the 0 fret and the bridge.  There should be no space between the strings and the 0 fret.

I've seen those leaves and hummingbirds on several dulcimers, not just Cedar Creek.  It looks nice in general.

If you were really dense, @sunvalleylaw, you wouldn't apologize.  And there's nothing to apologize for anyway.  Unlike Facebook, which has the endless scroll that keeps moving, we try to maintain discussions and forums so they can be searched and used later on.

A couple of posts earlier, @ken-hulme posted a link to an article he wrote: Ken Hulme's "I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?" Article - Strumelia | fotmd.com .  The link is actually to a discussion about that article, but the first post in the discussion by our fearless leader @strumelia has a link to a pdf of the article.  Just follow the link above, scroll to the bottom of the discussion to find the first post, and you'll see that pdf link.

@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.