Forum Activity for @dusty

Nathina, if you play the dulcimer in a traditional style, meaning it sits on your lap, the back cannot vibrate much at all.  That is one of the main reasons dulcimers have so much less volume than guitars.  The other reason is that the fingerboard traditionally lays right across the top, so the top can't vibrate much at all.  One reason some people get dulcimers with a false or galaz bottom is to allow the bottom to vibrate more, getting more volume.

But I don't see this as a choice.  Both the top and the bottom vibrate, but both are limited by the structure of the dulcimer.  If you want some proof that the top vibrates, check out this video by David Beede demonstrating his decoupled tailpiece .  Basically the more restrained the top, the brighter the sound, the less restrained the top, the louder and more mellow is the sound. If you want proof that the bottom vibrates, put it on your lap and strum a chord, then while the chord is sounding, lift the dulcimer up.  You will get a burst of volume as the bottom is allowed to vibrate.

I have one dulcimer with a pickup on the bottom and I don't like it very much.  To get a decent sound I need to play with an equalizer to get decent separation.  The internal pickup I like the best is in my McCafferty dulcimer. It's a K & K Sound twin spot piezo, so there are actually two different spots transmitting sound. Unfortunately, I don't know where those spots are, although I have to correspond with him on something else and I'll try to remember to ask.

If I am not mistaken, you have a pickup that attaches to the outside of the dulcimer.  Play around with that, putting it in different places.  I think you'll discover a lot about where the most resonant places on your dulcimer are.

@marg, you can organize your tab in folders if you wish. You don't need special software for that.  You could create one big folder that has everything and then sub-folders on holiday tunes, or celtic tunes or however you want to organize them. But you can also just use the search function, so if someone calls out "Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine" you just search for "grassh" and click on that song and you don't have to remember what folder it's in.

Neither of the two people in my dulcimer group who have all their tablature on their tablets and use foot pedals organize their tab in subfolders.  They just have one big folder and either scroll alphabetically or use the search function to find tab for any given song.  And they are always much faster than the folks with their binders of papers.

I certainly don't know who made that interesting dulcimer. Several luthiers use those sheaves, though, so that might not be a revealing clue.

It is an odd combination of a very traditional, truly diatonic fretboard (with no 6+ fret) and a very modern, solid body electric.  

That's a lot to be going through, @ken-longfield. I hope everything goes swimmingly.

It rained today in Northern California. First time since the spring.  The trees and grass and shrubs are relaxed and smiling.  So are the firefighters.

Jill, you have opened up the live chat. You simply need to minimize it.  The icon with the left pointing arrow and a vertical line will do the job.

The good news: my wife started that new job this week, so now we're all working or going to school from home. Our tight little COVID circle is intact again.

The bad news: our county is moving backwards into a more restrictive set of COVID protocols (California has a 4-tiered, color-coded system).   It seems everyone gets serious about being careful and the infection rates go down, allowing us to move into a less restrictive tier.  Everyone celebrates and decides we're out of the woods, and then they get careless again, putting us back into a more restrictive tier.  

Looking at the pictures, it's possible they measured from the nut rather than the zero fret.

If you are playing noter/drone, VSL should not matter as much. For chording, a half an inch makes a big difference. The same with a buzz on a drone string. If you are not fretting it, who cares?  But it might matter if you ever wanted to sell the dulcimer, so if you bought it new, you might want to contact the builder. 

Black Mountain makes their own instruments and they do not look like those Roosebecks made overseas.

It looks like quite an elegant dulcimer, Nathina.  Congratulations!

Don't think of your initial tuning as a commitment.  Earlier today I joined an online dulcimer gathering and we used three different tunings (DAd, DAA, DAC) without changing strings at all.  And I regularly tune down to C or up to E with the same set of strings.

Ken is correct about the order in which we list the strings. You can still find older books and tab that list strings from melody to bass, but sometime (mid-late 70s?) the nonexistent Council on Dulcimer Standards decreed that we should list strings from bass to melody.  Honestly it makes no difference at all, but it is nice when we all refer to things the same way.

The dimensions listed for a dulcimer should be pretty exact.  I don't know anyone who would list the VSL as 29" if it were really 28.5".  That half inch would make a huge difference in terms of fingering the frets, even if the difference in sound would be minimal.

Having said that, if you expect a dulcimer to sound a certain way based on dimensions alone (or wood choice or bracing or . . .) you are likely to be disappointed.  There are so many factors that influence a dulcimer's sound.  Certain luthiers have certain sounds regardless of the exact size or shape or wood they use.  My point is not that size has no effect, for in general you would expect larger instruments to have more volume and more sustain, but modern luthiers are able to achieve both in smaller dulcimers.  My McCafferty is very loud and very mellow, and the VSL is only 25", though the box is indeed deeper than those of traditional dulcimers. My point is simply that the luthier has much more to do with the sound of a dulcimer than the size or shape or any other individual variable.

Nathina, I will be curious to read of your reaction to these pickups on a mountain dulcimer.  The criticism of all external piezo pickups is that they capture every vibration, so as the instrument shifts on your lap or you touch the top with your hand, those sounds get magnified.  That might not be a problem with the hammered dulcimer, which is why your experience has been so good, although the size of a HD probably warrants one of those systems with two or more pickups to catch the range of the instrument.  I am eager to hear of your experiences with these pickups on the MD.

I just checked with the member of my dulcimer group who uses one of those pedals.  He does not use special music software at all, just a generic pdf reader.  The foot pedal is called a PageFlip Firefly and connects via bluetooth to his tablet.  No special software is needed for the foot pedal.

I would check if your foot pedal will work with Acrobat Reader or even just a generic version.  Then you can just keep all your files in a big folder and don't need GigBook at all.

Marg, I am pretty sure a couple of people in my dulcimer group don't use any app at all but just keep pdf files of all their tab and use a pedal to turn the pages.  I'll check with them and get back to you.

What format are the files in GigBook?

The harmony would definitely need to be simplified.  But I wonder about the melody itself. I just took a look at some sheet music, and there are one or two accidentals involved.  Those notes just might not be found on the fretboard, although there are always workarounds.  (You could change the melody slightly or bend a string to get the note you wanted.)

Another option would be to choose a chromatic tuning such 1-3-5.  But in 1-5-8 or 1-5-5, I think there would be a missing note or two.  

It's certainly worth a try, though!

Wow, @nathina, the contrasting tones of those two instruments is remarkable.  You're quite a good player, too.

For what it's worth, I am skeptical that you could get the Gershwin tune on the MD.  Just going by ear, it sounds like there are too many non-diatonic notes involved.  I could be wrong, though, and if you have any extra frets it might be possible.

That's a beautiful hammered dulcimer, @nathina. 

I'm going in the opposite direction. After playing mountain dulcimer for about 10 years, just a few weeks ago I was gifted a 16/15 Dusty Strings HD.  I can find simple melodies pretty well, but I'm still trying to figure out how to fill in chordal tones.

@lisavb, if you have to buy a dulcimer without playing it, both McSpadden and Folkcraft are solid choices.  But as you can see, you have many choices to make aside from which dulcimer maker you choose.

Unless you are truly wealthy (in which case, can I get a few bucks?) you will want to develop your preferences before investing any serious money into a dulcimer.  Flat head or scroll?  Ebony (or micarta) overlay?  What size VSL? What width fretboard?  Galax back? Extra frets? Jumbo frets?  Radiused fretboard? Internal pickup?  What about wood choices?  The list of options just grows and grows.  You may want to take some time to figure that stuff out before you buy an instrument from either of these fine makers.

The action can usually be adjusted, so that is not a true variable differentiating McSpadden from Folkcraft.

Honestly, you will get a fine instrument with either of these folks. I would suggest deciding the other stuff first and then investigating which company can best meet your needs.  And as @susie says, give them a call and maybe they can help you decide on all the features you're interested in.

@lisa-c, it's certainly a good idea to get a ballpark idea of what a good string gauge would be for different tunings, as you've done, but you will want to experiment and find the ideal for you.  We all have different preferences.  On my full-size dulcimers I use a .026 on the bass, . 016 on the middle, and .013 on the melody.  That might be too heavy for others, but I like the bigger sound and the extra resistance when bending strings.  And my preferences also change depending on how I am playing. When I fingerpick, I like a little extra give in the strings, so I tune down to C. When I flatpick, I like really taut strings with a quick response to the pick, and I tune up to Eb or even E.  In other words, I keep the string gauges the same but change the tuning to get a different feel.  Of course, when I play with others, I just keep things tuned to D.

@lisa-c, you can check out the Strothers String Gauge Calculator .  You input the vibrating string length and the specific note you want it the calculator will tell you a string gauge. It errs on the light side, so feel free to go one or two sizes heavier.

There used to be a website devoted to the 1-3-5 tuning, but I can't seem to find it now. Maybe someone will chime in.

For some reason, a lot of people who use that tuning choose to choose F-A-C.  Maybe that allows you to go back and forth between D-A-d and F-A-C without changing strings.  I'm not sure.

Jill, I think Martin uses Richlite, a product very similar to micarta.  Neither should expand or shrink at all, unlike ebony.  They require no care whatsoever.

Interestingly, both can be colored in any way, but everyone uses black so that they look like ebony. But there's no reason you couldn't have a purple overlay or hot pink or whatever.

Jill, I bought a dulcimer from Ron Ewing several years ago and he talked me out of the ebony overlay.  I trusted him since he would have gotten more money out of me with it added, but I've regretted not having that overlay ever since.  I am sure Ebony is not the only material that can be used, and the artificial materials like Richlite and Micarta might work even better, but personally I like the extra hard surface both for ease of fingering and also to prevent any pick damage.  Sometimes I pick rather energetically, and my dulcimers without ebony overlay have little marks where my pick routinely hits the fretboard.  And because ebony is so much denser than walnut or the other woods, your fingers slide over the fretboard much more easily.  The Micarta and Richlite options might even be better in that regard since they are non-porous materials.

And for what it's worth, I LOVE the contrast of the ebony (or micarta) over the lighter woods, cherry being my favorite for its fine looks.

YMMV.  Less aggressive players than I might have no need for a fingerboard overaly at all.

I'm glad you got to see the movie, Robin the Producer.

I'm mesmerized by your sensitive playing, Robin.  So subtle and precise.

And I love how each tune was filmed in a different local spot.  I'm really taken by the cemetery where you play the 155 Lullaby.  What a peaceful spot.

Nice!

Hey @kevin63. I've been using an Android for years, and even though I just got an iPhone 11 for work, I really don't know how to use it.  

What you need to do is re-size the image. If you try to send an image by text or email, the phone will automatically ask you if you want to resize. If you are not performing one of those actions, you can still resize a photo within the Photos app, according to these instructions .

I hope that works for you. I have to admit that I usually transfer photos to my laptop and play with them there where I have full editing capabilities, so I can't tell you exactly what you need to do.

Indeed, that's a fine looking instrument. It's amazing how rich the wood looks.

We tend to be snobs about wood and denigrate plywood, but I have one dulcimer with a plywood top and it has a real punch to it. My guess is that the combination of the larger boxes of the Capritaurus dulcimer and the ply will mean you have a pretty powerful instrument there.

If you are going to play with other people, you will want to tune to D, and since the dulcimer is a true diatonic (no 6+ fret), I agree with @john-gribble that DAA would be a good choice.  However, if you are playing by yourself, see if you can find the sweet tone.  Put your mouth near the sound hole and "hoo in the hole," meaning sing different pitches into the soundhole. It is possible one or two might resonate more profoundly than the others. If so, tune your bass string to that tone and the other two a fifth above it.  That's where the dulcimer will sing the most powerfully.

At some point Howard became very meticulous about the dulcimers he produced and has records of every single one. This must indeed be a really early model before he developed that bookkeeping practice. You have a genuine historical artifact there.

I just started working on the Irish jig "The Gander in the Pratie Hole."  It's an interesting tune because the A part is in D major but the B part is in D mixolydian. So the first part has C# and the second part has C natural.

A little bit of good news for us.  My wife is getting a new job that will allow her to work entirely from home.  Her current job only lets her work from home two days a week, and since I work from home and our daughter is doing high school virtually, my wife's job was the only exception to our otherwise tight, COVID-free lives.  She requested on numerous occasions to work from home, citing the number of people in the building who had been infected and complaining that too many co-workers were not following proper protocols, but they only gave her two days.  So she's leaving.  And getting a promotion, too.  Probably the happiest member of our family will be the dog, who will soon have the whole pack home every day, the way he thinks it ought to be.

Beautiful, Susie!  I'm a fan of the Gingers and think they sound great tuned up to F, G, or A.

Nate, as Ken and Skip have explained, the notion of key on a modal instrument gets a little tricky.

I would just define a key as the tonal center of a piece of music, the tone that seems to represent rest or resolution with the other notes creating different degrees of tension.  

Your effort to determine key by examining the sharps and flats of a piece makes sense in western classical music, and you are correct that the key of D major has a C# and they key of G has a C natural.  That "key signature" defines the major scale, or the Ionian mode.  However, with traditional, modal music, any mode can be played in any key, so the key, or tonal center, does not necessarily determine the scale pattern. To use the most common examples, D Ionian uses the C sharp, but D Mixolydian uses the C natural. 

In fact, those examples explain why the 6+ fret was added.  On a true diatonic dulcimer tuned to D, tuning DAd would not give you a major scale (Ionian mode) precisely because the 6 fret is a C natural.  To play the major scale, one would tune DAA and start the scale at the 3rd fret.  Then you get the C# on the 9th fret.  To avoid having to retune, dulcimer players about a half century ago began adding the 6+ fret so that they could play in the two most common major-sounding modes, the Ionian and Mixolydian, without re-tuning.

Let's also remember that a lot of folk and pop music doesn't use all the notes of the scale or mode.  A lot of music is pentatonic, meaning only 5 notes are used.  And heck, the old song by the Chrystals, "Da Doo Ron Ron," only has three notes in it!

"So what?" you might ask.  Good question.  My point is that every song has a key, meaning the tonal center or "home base" even if it does not make use of the scale indicated by the key signature.

Having said all this, I would guess that 90 percent of the time when you are tuned DAA or DAd you are playing in the key of D (or Bm, the "relative minor").  If you fret across all the strings, then you can also play in G and perhaps (though it gets tricky) A.  I've recently been arranging several tunes that work in both D and G on the DAd dulcimer. That way you can modulate after a couple of verses and impress your friends and family.

I usually default to playing scales and arpeggios when I first pick up the dulcimer, especially if I haven't played in a while.  I try to end any playing session doing a couple of tunes that I know really well, so the final emotion I leave with is satisfaction and competence rather than the frustration that comes when you learn new stuff.

Glad to know Jessica is OK.  It's hard to keep up with the disasters these days.

No rush, Don.  Just enjoy yourself, but feel free to reach out if any questions pop up.

Thanks for the tip, @pmundy.  I saw the title to that book but haven't picked it up just yet.  The woman who gave me the hammered dulcimer included well over a dozen (mostly older) instructional books. I've been skimming through those and if I can't find exactly what I'm looking for I'll consider Ken's book.  I sure enjoy the music he makes with his son, who is perhaps my favorite clawhammer banjo player.

If anyone is bidding on that dulcimer, I have a question: "Can you lend me a few bucks?"

Contact me by personal message, Don, if you have more questions on this stuff. 

By the way, in explaining things to you, I've made a further change in the tab.  

In measure 2, instead of getting the F# on the 2nd fret of the melody string, I will now indicate it as the 5th fret of the middle string. So I would use my ring finger on the 2 at the end of the 1st measure and then slide that finger up to 4 for the second measure, leaving my middle finger ready for the 5 on the middle string.   That way the move up happens a little earlier, but it involves the same finger on the same string just sliding up two frets and then the hand is in perfect position for the next two measures.

Don, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "guideline."  A note on the melody string can be found 3 frets higher on the middle string, and a note on the middle string can be found 4 frets higher on the bass string.

If you're looking for guidelines about when you would want to move to another string rather than stay on the string you are on, I think you have to examine the specific notes you are playing and your hand position.  In my playing I try to follow a few golden rules: 1) minimize left-hand movement; 2) moving from one chord position to another, try to keep at least one finger on the same string; and 3) keep your left hand in a chord position as much as possible.

If you are not playing chords, some of that won't mean much to you, but you should still understand the principles.  Let me address the question of when to shift to another string by looking at the first two lines of a tune I just tabbed out last night for my dulcimer club meeting this weekend.

The melody (pick-up note aside) is entirely played on the melody string in the first two measures, but in the 3rd measure I get the melody note of G on the 6th fret of the middle string. Why?  That same note is found on the third fret of the melody string.  But look at the subsequent melody notes; they are found on frets 5 and 7.  So rather than have to jump from 3 to 5 and then to 7, I just move my hand up, catching the 6th fret of the middle string with my middle finger, and then leaving that finger down, my ring finger falls onto the 5th fret of the melody string.  Those fingers stay down as I reach with my index finger (or thumb) to 7, then lift it up and hit the 5, where my ring finger can still be found.  And then, moving to the 4th measure, that position with my middle finger on the middle string and my ring finger on the melody string just slides down one fret from 0-6-5 to 0-5-4.

So by using the middle string for that one note, I am able to get almost two entire measures with my hand in the same position.

Notice that I said "almost two entire measures."  The last note of the first line is an F#, and I indicate it on the melody string at the 2nd fret even though it is the same note as the 5th fret of the middle string, where my finger already is.  Truth be told, I probably play that note on the middle string there most of the time when I play this tune. However, the 5th measure obliges us to move all the way down to the 3rd fret for the melody string and then everything that follows is down by the nut.  So to facilitate that move, I chose to tab this tune out using the 2nd fret of the melody string rather than the 5th fret of the middle string.

Obviously, there is no hard science to this stuff. You just try to figure out what will work best for you, meaning what will facilitate you finding the melody in the easiest way possible, with the least amount of movement.

Don, @Strumelia's correct. A lot of people cannot pick out simple melodies on the dulcimer. If you can do that you are ahead of the curve.  Just keep working at it.

If you want to challenge yourself, try to pick out melodies going across the strings as well as up and down a single string.  If you are tuned DAd, just add 3 to the fret on the melody string and you'll find that same note on the middle string.  

Here's a challenge for you:  Play "Three Blind Mice."  You will begin at the second fret of the melody string.  But when you get to "They all ran after the farmer's wife" you will have to move up to 7.  However, instead of continuing on down the melody string for the end of that phrase, try to move to the middle string.  You will finish the song on the 3rd fret of the middle string instead of the open melody string.  See how it works out.

Obviously, drone players will always stay on the melody string. But those of us who include chords in our playing try to minimize our hand movement.  Learning to find portions of the melody on the other strings will help you achieve that goal.

No need to be embarrassed.  That's how you learn an instrument.  I still have trouble playing from tab but generally get a tune in my head and then find it on the fretboard.  Sometimes if I have trouble with a spot or two, I'll turn to tablature to see how someone else plays the tune, but then I just go back to the instrument.

Congrats, @traildad!  I'm sure you two will make beautiful music together!