Forum Activity for @dusty

Regardless of how you start playing, I think it's important to end by playing something that you know pretty well.  To avoid the frustration that comes from trying to improve on any musical instrument, it is essential to maintain a feeling of satisfaction and confidence.  Don't put the dulcimer down when you're frustrated; rather, put it down with a feeling of joy and competence.  Make sure the last tune you play is something you know well and that gives you pleasure.

Unlike Ken, I do practice.  There are techniques or songs that I find challenging that I want to learn.  Of course, sometimes I just play and don't care about mistakes or improving. That's important, too. But when I want to focus and consciously improve my playing I always start with some scales and arpeggios to get my technique into shape.  Then I might play one song that I've learned recently, but pretty soon I start with whatever I'm working on at the moment. It might be a song or it might be a technique. Often it's a tiny section of a song, even a measure that's giving me problems, and I'll obsess on that measure, playing it over and over and over.  But as I said above, while that OCD behavior does indeed lead to improvement, it can also be frustrating, so I make sure I avoid or at least minimize that feeling of frustration by switching to a tune that I know well.

Occasionally, I review lists of songs to make sure I don't "lose" any.  Right now I have two different lists.  One is the tunes that I play with my local dulcimer group.  I don't really mind if I make mistakes with that stuff, since we play it all together, but I want to at least remember how each tune goes.  The second list is my list of tunes that I might play if someone asked me to play in front of people.  That list changes, as I add and drop tunes as my tastes and abilities evolve, but I try to make sure I can play those tunes with as few mistakes as possible.  I don't go over these lists of tunes every day, though.  Depending on how busy life gets I might only get to them once every couple of weeks.

There are some pretty fancy carbon-fiber guitars that are made specifically for outdoor extreme temperatures.  And I've played those ukuleles like the Waterman by Kala that can be used as an oar if you get stuck in a boat.  But I don't think dulcimers built along those lines would be so simple or inexpensive.

My initial thought is similar to what @Greg-Gunner and @Ken-Hulme have suggested.  Get an octave dulcimer.  They are no more than 2 feet long and can easily be transported in a small padded case and left beside your desk while you work. Then you just sling it over your shoulder, grab your lunch pail, and have a musical lunch hour.  I work from home and still sometimes play one during lunchtime!  My wife sometimes takes a shoulder bag to work that could easily hold a purse, a lunch, and an octave dulcimer.  You could do the same.

looks beautiful!

Jeannnie, I'm so glad you are starting to build your collection of dulcimers again.    And your story is more evidence of what a kind, giving community dulcimer players are.  Perhaps I'll see you at some dulcimer event in northern Cal one of these days.

Ken is right.  It looks like the bridge has a groove for a double melody string, so you could make one in the nut and string the dulcimer as a three-course instrument with a double melody string.  Or you could just string it as a three string instrument with no double melody.  Lots of folks take off that extra string anyway.

You might consider putting on new strings if those on the instrument seem old. I try to change strings every few months.

By the way, this Forum on Site Questions is intended for questions about how the website works.  So I've moved this discussion to the Forum for questions on specific instruments and luthiers. It will be easier for others to find that way.

Favorites?  Depends on my mood.

I will say that I think the two most beautiful melodies ever written are Danny Boy (Londonderry Air) and Greensleeves.

DAC is in the key of D minor.  Your "home" or "tonic" is the first fret on the melody string, which is a D.

Jimmy, let me add that if you are playing in a drone style, the drones themselves tell you what the key is.  Drones can only be the 1st and 5th notes of the scale, so DAA is D ionian.  DAd is D mixolydian.  DAC is D aeolian.  And DAG is D Dorian.

Hey I just remembered that Butch Ross also has a book of Beatles tunes.  Since I know he has played "Blackbird" on the MD, I bet that tune is there.

JP, if you contacted someone privately, that would be OK.  But if we make those kinds of connections on the public discussions at FOTMD, even if the actual exchange happens elsewhere, the site is still legally implicated.

JP, performing and distribution are two different things.  You can perform a cover at a formal venue because in all likelihood that venue has paid an annual fee to ASCAP. And even if they didn't, the legal burden is on the venue and not the performer to ensure they are in compliance with copyright tunes.

You can play at home and for your friends and family any copryighted music you want.  That is legal.  It is also legal to tab out for your own purposes a copyrighted song.  And you can even share it with a friend.  That's all legal.

But you cannot distribute that material without paying for a license to do so.  And the Napster court case affirmed that online sharing constitutes illegal distribution.  Because FOTMD is free and open to the public, we cannot exchange copyrighted materials. 

Most of the stuff on those guitar tab sites is illegal. Plain and simple.  There are also tons of YouTube videos of people playing covers of copyrighted tunes.  That's all illegal, too.

Neal Hellman published a book of Beatles tunes arranged for the MD, but I don't think "Blackbird" is in there.  The only dulcimer player I can think of who has played the tune is Butch Ross.

The second way to incorporate a photo is to embed it as I did the screen shot in both of these responses to you.  In that case you choose the "embed local media" icon, which looks like a piece of film strip and is the second-to-last icon on the tool bar above the text box.

When you click the embed local media icon, a screen will appear asking you what size you want the photo to be and where the photo is located.

Jimmy, there are a couple of different ways to incorporate a photo into a post.  One is to use the "Attache File" button just below the text box on the right. As in this screen shot below.

When you "Attach File" it appears as a small icon below your text, with a download link to the right, as in the case below.

 Dusty the Jester.jpg - 20KB

You don't need a strum hollow. You can strum or pick anywhere you want.  I usually tell beginners to strum wherever their hand and arm feel most comfortable. Eventually, as you have discovered, you will learn to move toward the bridge to get a sharper tone and tighter strings and toward the middle of the dulcimer to get a warmer tone and looser strings.

Adding a strum hollow will not change the tone of your dulcimer.  The only exception would be if you use a flatpick and sometimes hit the fretboard, creating a clicking sound.  (I sometimes have that issue, unfortunately.) Good technique can avoid that problem, and strumming over the strum hollow does as well, obviously.

It sounds like you are off to a great start.  My advice would be to eventually begin strumming both in and out, alternating in a steady pattern, but don't worry about that right away. Take your time.

There's always one comedian in the crowd.

Barbara, my baritone dulcimette is about 28.5" long and 7" wide at its widest along the lower bout.  If your local music store is worth anything, they might be able to order a viola case from one of their suppliers. You could then bring in your Ginger and determine whether it would fit or not. If not, they should be able to return it no problem.  It's worth talking to them.

You will have to adjust the inside of the case to adapt it to the dulcimer, but you should be able to see how to do that when you see them both together.

Very cool photo, Charles. I was going to say something similar to Strumelia's comment (though I certainly couldn't identify the date of the photo by the clothing -- wow!.  Bluegrass was invented in the 1950s, so these guys were some kind of string band.  Think of Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, although that trio used a banjo instead of a mandolin.

If you want to hear what they might have sounded like, Columbia Records put out a 2 CD compilation of stuff that was originally released on old 78s from the mid 20s to the mid 30s.  The CD is called White Country Blues.  I highly recommend it.

@Victorsings, I think I remember reading somewhere that Larry Barringer turned his luthier business over to Terry McCafferty, who is currently making excellent dulcimers out of Houston. You might consider contacting Terry.

Hi Barbara. I used a viola case for my baritone dulcimette by Ron Ewing. It is about the same length as a Ginger.  You can see a picture here .  I just cut away the part of the case that holds up the neck.  I didn't do a particularly good job, but the case works really well.  It's small enough to easily fit in the overhead compartment of airplanes and the hardshell case offers peace of mind.

I suggest taking your Ginger into a music store, not a Guitar Center but a store that deals with a variety of instruments such as those that serve school orchestras.  The will have lots of types of cases to check out.

There are also gun cases with customizable foam that could be form fitted around your dulcimer, but TSA would definitely notice those!

Don, you've gotten some good advice here.  As Robin has pointed out, the main keys for folk music are C, D, G, and A, and Skip has explained how to figure out the important I, IV, and V chords in those keys.  You can use any chord chart, such as those Stephen Seifert makes available , to learn how to play those chords.  You should also be aware of how versatile the barre chord is.  I assume you can count to 7 and you know the alphabet. If 000 is a D chord, then 111 is an E chord, 222 is an F (really F#) chord, 333 is a G chord, 444 is an A chord, 555 is a B chord, and 666 is a C chord.  Then we start over with D again at 777. Until you learn more chord voicings, those are safe places for you.

Personally, I prefer to approach this by using a capo, which enables me to play in D, G, and A out of a DAd tuning, and then tuning down a step to CGc to play in C.  Then I only have to learn the chord positions for one key but they will work in the others.  What I mean by that is that 002 is a D chord when tuned DAd, a G chord with the capo at 3, an A chord with the capo at 4, and a C chord when tuned CGc.  So I consider that a I chord rather than remembering four different chord names.  The same with the 013.  That's a G in DAd, but a C with the capo at 3, a D with the capo at 4, and an F when tuned CGc.  I could memorize all that or I could just think of it as a IV chord.  I could go on, but hopefully you see my point. 

I explain this approach in a document I've attached which was written for a different but related question, and also includes a transposition chart for the major keys.  And you can see me demonstrating how to use a capo to move to the keys of G and A this video here .

strumming in various keys out of DAd tuning.pdf - 22KB

If by "standard" you mean a guitar capo, yeah, that won't work.  Ron Ewing in Ohio makes great dulcimer capos for about $22 or $23.  He usually ships really fast, too. If you're pretty handy on the workbench you can make one of your own.  It's worth having one around even if you don't use it for this tune.

Congratulations, Jimmy. Now that you're so good at changing strings, I have an old autoharp . . . 

Hey, I do have one tip for you which I learned from Butch Ross and can't believe I never though of.  As you found out, it can be hard to keep the loop ends on until there is enough tension on the string.  But you can use a capo to do that for you, which frees up your hands.  So put the loop end on, pull the string taut, and put a capo on to hold it in place.  Then go ahead and wind the string around the tuner.  It's so simple I'm embarrassed that I was changing strings for years and never thought of it.

And don't worry; the 45 minutes will be reduced to 5 or 10 in no time.

How about this ?

Patricia, maybe that was the one Wayne posted some pictures of.  I remember that ribbon binding.

Patricia, I wasn't aware that Howard had started building again when you guys were making the film. I thought he started afterwards, perhaps as a result of renewed attention the film brought it!  And I think I remember Wayne posting some pictures of a small dulcimer that Howard was building for him several years ago. Perhaps that was a prototype.

Lisa, the danger buying most of the cheap dulcimers out there is that they are not really instruments but "dulcimer-shaped objects" intended to be hung on a wall somewhere rather than played.  A lot of them have really high action, making them hard to play, and many don't even have correct intonation, so you will sound off even if you are playing correctly.  

Bill Berg and David Lynch are two reputable luthiers who make "student" dulcimers for less than $150.  They are real instruments and will encourage you to play.  However, they are not really small travel dulcimers.  The small dulcimers don't really cost less than the big ones since they involve basically the same amount of work.  One option for you might be a cardboard dulcimer.  Folkcraft sells some that you can either put together yourself or buy pre-assembled.  I played one at a festival a couple of years ago and was amazed how well it sounded, although obviously it did not have extraordinary volume.

But I should also say that I own several really nice small dulcimers, including octave dulcimers by Ron Ewing and David Beede.  They are small enough to fit in a decent-sized backpack or under the seat in front of you on a plane and yet they both have a really charming tone.  They don't have a lot of sustain, but they stand out in a group of dulcimers because of the higher pitch.  They are not really cheap, but they are delightful instruments that maintain their value pretty well.

Almost every day, I am sitting playing the dulcimer and my wife smiles lovingly and then closes the door to whatever room I am in.  I get the hint.

Oh my! I could just kiss you, @Maddie-Myers!   I've been looking for that book for years and I don't know why it never occurred to me to post a note here.  I'll send you a personal message right away. You're the best!

For several years I've been searching for the book of dulcimer tablature that accompanies Randy Wilkinson's album on Kicking Mule records called Elizabethan Music for Dulcimer.  The book came out in 1982, I believe.

Does anyone have a copy kicking around that they'd be willing to part with?

Muchas gracias!

Adrian, I can only compare my McCafferty with the other fine dulcimers I own: Blue Lion, Modern Mountain Dulcimers, and Probst, the latter of which I currently have strung as a baritone. 

My 25" McCafferty has a superior balance, very warm tone, and exceptional volume.  It is not as bass dominant as my Modern Mountain Dulcimer, but is better balanced.  Compared to my Probst, the McCafferty does not have as much sustain, but don't get me wrong; the sustain is very good, just not quite as infinite as the Probst. And the sustain might be a function of the shorter VSL. I have a feeling that the sustain of a 28" McCafferty would be just as remarkable as the Probst.

The action is also wonderful. It takes very little pressure from your fingers to fret a string.  I also find it equally beautiful flatpicked or fingerpicked.  Prior to buying the McCafferty, I used my MMD for flatpicking and my Blue Lion for fingerpicking, but the McCafferty excels in both.  However, I found the strings a bit too far apart for fast flatpicking and moved the melody and bass strings in a little bit so that they are about 1" apart.

I don't know much about electronics, but I love the pickup Terry uses. It is a Twin Spot pickup by K & K Sound.  I plug right into my Fishman Loudbox mini with no pre-amp and no equalizer and the sound is just what you'd want: an amplified but warm, acoustic tone. 

I bought my McCafferty before Terry started making radiused fretboards, so I can't speak to that feature.

In general, I cannot imagine a competent player looking for a high-end dulcimer with a big, round, warm sound being dissatisfied with a McCafferty instrument.  There might be a detail or two (such as the distance between strings) that would have to be customized, but Terry knows what he's doing.  His dulcimers are really nice.  Two members of my local dulcimer group contacted him for their own the first time they heard mine.   A few days after I received my dulcimer from Terry I played in a kind of round robin on a stage with three other dulcimer players. We took turns playing tunes.  Afterwards, a professional player in the audience (he was actually the main act who followed us) told me that the tone of my dulcimer really stood out among the others.  He didn't say my playing stood out, but was only talking about the tone of the dulcimer!

I use something called Metronome Beats.  It can be programmed in any number of ways. I particularly like the visual display options.

Adrian, there is no way to really answer that question.  I have a McCafferty dulcimer and love it.  Obviously, it was worth it to me.  But I don't know how anyone can quantify the variables that add value to a dulcimer. Sound is one issue. So is comfort.  And the visual appeal might be another factor.

My advice would be that if you have to ask if it's worth it, you should probably play for a while before making an investment in your dream dulcimer.  With a McCafferty dulcimer you are paying for some variables that might not be important to you.  Do you want an ebony overlay on the fretboard?  That adds significant cost.  Do you want an internal pickup?  Do you want a radiused fretboard?  Those options probably amount to a third or so of the cost of the instrument. If you don't want those, then you should not buy a dulcimer with them.  If you don't know if you want those options, then wait.

It took me several years of playing to determine my own preferences.  If you are a beginner or have only played a couple of dulcimers, I would suggest not even thinking about spending more than a few hundred dollars for a dulcimer until you have played long enough to know exactly what you want.  (That is, unless you have loads of cash. If you have loads of cash, go ahead and buy a McCafferty.  In fact, buy two, and send me one!  And I'll take a David Beede dulcimer, too, while you're at it.  )

Seriously, though, there is no rush.  Attend some dulcimer festivals and pay attention to the dulcimers that sound good to you. Ask if you can try them.  You will have the opportunity to try some nice dulcimers and you'll have a better sense of how they differ, what your personal preferences are, and what dulcimers might be best for you.

And don't forget to check the For Sale forum here.  McCafferty has sold a lot of dulcimers over the past couple of years. I bet we start seeing a few used.

Lots of good albums out there, but also lots of free stuff on YouTube and SoundCloud.  I learned my first dozen songs or so from watching YouTube videos.  With the videos you can see people play as well as hear the music, so its a great teaching tool.  Just a YouTube search for "mountain dulcimer" will lead you on a never ending but very enjoyable journey.

Well at least we can say that we play an instrument with one of the oldest names for musical instruments.

My understanding, Terry, is that what is referred to as a "dulcimer" in the Book of Daniel was probably closer to a bagpipe than the fretted zither that you and I play, which has much more recent origins, as we know.  The KJV was an English translation from Aramaic and Hebrew, so to really investigate specifically what instrument was meant by the term, we'd need to know those languages.

There are a handful of references to something called a "dulcimer" in literature, but again, our lap dulcimer was probably not what the authors had in mind.

One of the most well known is Samuel Tayler Coleridge's "Kubla Khan":

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssianian maid

And on her dulcimer she played

Singing of Mount Abora.

Jimmy, when the chat is open, there are four controls on the lower left.  The bottom one will minimize the chat.

Once it's minimized it stays on the screen off on the lower right-hand corner.

 Jimmy, you get the same speech bubble icon on your phone or tablet.

You use the speech bubble icon that appears in the upper right-hand corner of message you want to copy when you move your cursor over it.