Forum Activity for @dusty

Thanks for the advice, Wout.  

Since I don't really play bass (I can fake it since I play guitar, but my technique is really lacking) I can't tell how the action is. It seems pretty good, for the strings even up the fretboard are not too high. I haven't formally tested the intonation, but I think I would have noticed problem if it were obvious enough. 

It's good to know I might not have to use my pinky much, but my hands are not that large, so we'll have to see.  I've been working on strengthening my pinky for dulcimer and guitar playing, so it can't hurt to keep working on it.

In my initial post just below the picture I have a link to a review of 4 or 5 ABGs by a bass guitar website.  According to them, the only one that could really function in an acoustic setting without being amplified is the Boulder Creek.  So although you may be right that it seems louder to the player because of the soundhole on the top (Boulder Creek's "signature" design), it appears that it really is louder than most of the others. I think it is a bit bigger than the others, too, which might be part of the reason for the volume, though Boulder Creek tries to credit their bracing system.

I'll have to look into your suggestions on strings.  The Shop gave me a free set of phosphor bronze strings since the ones on there are a bit old, but I was planning on picking up some Elixir or other "squeakless" strings.  I'll have to experiment a bit. As I've said, this is all new territory to me.  Thanks again for the advice.

Thanks, James.  My hope is to eventually develop some arrangements that include the dulcimer, guitar, and bass, and to record them all myself. I've got a ways to go, though.  My pinky is really weak and I get a lot of buzz when I fret with it.  It's going to be a while before I'll be able to play cleanly.

Thanks, Ken.  It was a good deal for both of us. The shop wanted to make room for more instruments for the holiday season and is also gearing up to move to a nicer location (with a permanent theater for all those dulcimer concerts!).  I wanted an acoustic bass guitar but would never have spent the $1000  Amazon lists.  

I can't wait to join some jams and give it a go.  Just playing around on it makes my fingers feel so weak, though.  I need to do some weight training for my fingers!

Well, I've never really played bass before, but I have found myself in a few jams where we needed a bass, and I have visions (fantasies?) of making some recordings where I play multiple instruments  . . . so . . . I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a really nice price in this Boulder Creek acoustic bass guitar.  I had had my eye on it for some time at a local music store where my dulcimer club meets, and they were running a clearance sale to make some room for new stock. None of the acoustic basses were chosen for the sale, but I asked about this one and the owner agreed to sell it to me for 10 percent over his cost, which is way less than half of the price on Amazon and 40 percent lower than any price I could find anywhere.  When he threw in a slightly used case, I couldn't resist.  Now I've got to strengthen my fingers to be able to play the darn thing!

Bass Player website has a nice review of the instrument here . What I like most about it is that it is loud enough to be heard in an acoustic jam without being plugged in, but it has a pickup and pre-amp if I need to go electric.

Cool, Bobby. If I had any kind of taxidermy mount in my house I would want it to be a jackalope.  I was just explaining to my daughter what jackalopes are . . . uh . . . or aren't.

Someone told me that jackrabbits are not rabbits and antelopes are not antelopes.  Sounds crazy to me.

I love the color and design on the scorpion head, Charles.   All I could think about hearing of your Milgro charm was the "charming"  film the Milagro Beanfield War .

Here is something different.  This is a document, probably about 20" x 14" that I have in a frame. The printed part reads "On the part of the King and of Monsieur the Intendant of Bordeaux" and goes on to explain that a nobleman wanted to start a weekly market every Monday and a fair the third Monday of every month. It asks whether anyone opposed those actions. OK, it's interesting enough that the French King would ask for public comment, since he could have simply granted or denied the request, but what I find interesting is the ceremony of information. In an age before newspapers or television, how did this news get out?  The handwritten part is a testimony dated "the year one thousand seven hundred fifty six and the 28th day of the month of March" and reads, "I, Pierre Dutil . . . testify to having read, cried, and published this announcement at the beginning of parish mass in the town of Julliac, on the main doors of whose church I posted this announcement so that no one can claim ignorance of it." And of course, the fact that the document dates from 1756 is pretty cool, too.  Maybe you'll see me on Antiques Road Show someday.

Thanks, Bob. That's a funny video and much better rababa playing than the video I found (I suggest jumping to about 0:52):

When my daughter was in pre-school I used to visit with a cart filled with instruments and entertain the kids. I played the ukulele, guitar, autoharp, mandolin, and dulcimer.  Her teacher was so taken with my ability to play these stringed instruments, that when my daughter "graduated" to kindergarten, she gave me this rababa as a present.  Her husband works building huge hotels in the Middle East, and he brought it back from there.  Somewhere along the trip he lost the bridge, so I just stuck on the bridge for a banjo mandolin. I have no idea how to play it, for you bow across a single string the tone of which you can change either by twisting a nob at the top or by pushing down on it with your finger. But I think it would be pretty hard to play Bile Dem Cabbage on this thing!  So instead of getting played, this piece just hangs on the wall in the living room.

Jan is really onto something. If you can whistle a tune, it means your brain has learned to associate different sizes in the opening of your lips to get different pitches. When you hum or sing, your brain has learned exactly how much to stretch or relax your vocal chord to get a certain pitch.

When you learn an instrument, your brain can also learn how high up a string you have to move to get a pitch. It's just a matter of doing it enough that you can train your brain in that manner.

When you first learned to whistle, you couldn't do "I've Been Working on the Railroad" right away; your brain how to learn to associate the opening of your mouth with different pitches. It took some practice.  The dulcimer takes practice, too.  One reason I don't like to look at tab is that I want to see where on the fretboard I am getting different tones, so that my brain can learn those distances. Sometimes I sing the fret numbers while I play to reinforce the connection between the fretboard and the notes that are in my brain. And I spend a lot of time just trying to find simple melodies on the dulcimer.  Not to learn the songs, but to practice letting my brain figure out where to find the right pitch. The more you do it, the better you get.

A few years ago I went to a Christmas show at Slim's (a club in San Francisco owned by Boz Scaggs) that featured El Vez, the Mexican Elvis impersonator.

For the first song, the band was playing a cover of the Stones's tune "Sympathy for the Devil," you know with the female backup singers doing the "woo woo," and El Vez coming out doing Mick Jagger gangly dance positions and stuff.  He then approached the microphone and everyone expected "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and fame," but instead, El Vez switched into Elvis impersonator mode and sang "Blue Christmas" while the band (including the back-up singers) kept playing "Sympathy for the Devil."

You can't find kitsch like that everyday! The band is called the Memphis Mariachis and the back-up singers are called the Lovely Elvettes. The first time I saw them, at a winery in Napa, the Elvettes wore sombreros over their breasts.

Here is a less elaborate version of what I'm talking about:

One way to hasten the development of calluses is to soak your fingertips in vinegar or olive brine or something like that.  Old school baseball players used to urinate on their hands to toughen up the skin. If you do that, though, please don't play my dulcimers. 

Some people's personalities have similarly marinated in vinegar, which hastens the development of callousness.  Certainly no one here at FOTMD, though.

A victory for people and a strike against corporate greed!

I wonder if Warner will be obligated to pay back all those royalties they demanded over the years.

Wout, I think you have the main idea, but you might be thinking too literally.  In common American parlance, a "game changer" is an idea, technique, or event that significantly changes the manner of doing something.

So Jan was asking people what they had discovered in their own dulcimer development that significantly changed in a positive manner how they were playing and learning the dulcimer.  So yes, indeed, it is a matter of growth. But not the slow, incremental type of growth that you might get from practicing scales every day, but the growth that comes from a specific change that leads to a big leap in your understanding or ability.

First of all, this is a great question, Jan.  Thanks.

Second, I have two responses, one physical and one mental.

 When I first started playing, I had trouble controlling the dulcimer. It would slip all over my lap and sometimes even sort of tip over.  To keep the dulcimer in place I used to use the moveable arms of my office chair to hold the dulcimer on my lap. But that meant I could only play in my office.  Eventually I got up the courage to drill small holes in my precious instrument and install strap buttons.  Immediately the dulcimer became mine. I know not everyone plays with a strap, but I have found that physically attaching the instrument to my body gives me much more control over it and a much more intimate relationship with it.

 I had a mental epiphany one day trying to fingerpick, but it is something that works for any modern style of playing.   I was trying to add little filler in between melody notes and I realized that as long as my left hand was fretting a chord, any note I played would be OK. So I tried to make sure that as I played the melody I was always ready to play a chord, and then I let my fingerpicking hand just pluck strings almost randomly. I now do that when I play with flatpick, too. I'll just throw a basenote in whenever there is a break in the melody, or play a quick arpeggio, or whatever. You don't have to plan it ahead of time or even think about what you're doing.  As long as your left hand is fretting a chord, any string can be played. It's really liberating not to have to worry about hitting a wrong string. And sometimes starting with one or two strings will lead to a short idea for a melodic filler.  But it all starts with knowing that playing a chord makes any string safe to play at any time.

Nice story, Robert. I'm sure it's gratifying to finally "free" your dulcimer and let her sing.

Great news, Dana!  Woohoo!  It's time for a happy dance! 

Check out this discussion at Everything Dulcimer . You will find links to audio versions, video versions, and also tablature both for noter/drone play and for chorded play.

Jan is sorta kinda probably correct, or not.  The West Virginia fiddler Ernie Carpenter wrote the song (in the 1950s, I think) and you would expect it to be under copyright. However, I have not found any evidence that the song is copyrighted, and everyone (not just dulcimer players) seems to both credit Carpenter for its composition and also post music and tablature freely.

Vicki, you might contact folkcraft to see if they sell possum boards custom fitted for their dulcimers.

But all you really need is a board.  Peter Tommerup just uses a board originally intended for a bookself, and he puts whatever dulcimer he is playing on it.  Here he is in a duet with his wife Leann: https://youtu.be/DWfnkcGS1Y0?t=4m53s .

Seamas, one of the members of my local dulcimer group shared a pretty and simple arrangement with us. I normally wouldn't feel fre to share his arrangments, but he did give me permission to post it on our website. You can find it on the RCD Songlist page at www.rivercitydulcimers.com .

C'est super cool, ça!  Thanks for letting us know about that, Pierre!  I obviously need to get to know Malicorne better, huh?

Archie, if you are just looking for strings, you don't need a dulcimer store. Dulcimer strings are no different than guitar or mandolin or banjo strings. Steel is steel.  All you need to know is the gauge of the strings you want and whether you need ball or loop ends.  Then you can buy strings from any music store.

And the 26" is probably the vibrating string length, meaning the distance from the nut to the bridge, not the total length of the instrument, so your instrument and the other one are probably about the same size.

Lots of people seem confused about how to create a new forum discussion.  It is easy.

First, within the Forum you want to take part in, click on the "+" button to "create" a new discussion.

Second, choose a descriptive title for your discussion. The title should have enough information that others can tell what the topic is.  Titles such as "Two quick questions" or "friendly advice" are not very informative. Instead, "questions about noter technique" or "how do I use a capo" are much more helpful.  

Third, describe your question or comments in the text box, where you can embed pictures, or link to other sites or other pages on this one, insert smilies, and more.  

Fourth, click "Create New Topic."

Fifth, don't forget to "follow" your own discussion to receive notifications when others reply.

Sandra, to post an instrument for sale, start a new discussion in the For Sale Forum by clicking the "+" button.

Then you need to add the relevent information. The title should include the type of dulcimer and the words "For Sale."  Then describe the dulcimer, including details such as your asking price, and include a picture or two if you can. Click "create new topic" when you're done.

I played guitar for most of my life (not always very seriously) before discovering the dulcimer in my mid-40s.  The diatonic fretboard was very hard to understand coming from a chromatic instrument (and I still find it maddening) in ways that it wouldn't if the dulcimer were your first instrument.  But what did carry over and made me an intermediate player within an hour of holding a dulcimer was technique.  My right hand was already very advanced, and even my left hand understood fully how to fret strings, how to employ slides and hammer-ons and pull-offs and that stuff. So a lot of the technique carries over between the two instruments.  In terms of understanding the fretboard, well that's a different question.

If I get frustrated with the dulcimer (my main instrument now), I will take a break and play another one (guitar, ukulele, etc). Sometimes I'll play something on one of those instruments and try to find it on the dulcimer, thus reinvigorating my dulcimer playing, even if that lick or that song has to be altered to fit on the dulcimer.

Here is the video Dan refers to above:

Patricia, guitars were always there in my life.  I do not have a genesis story of the moment I discovered the guitar. Or the piano. Or almost any other instrument.  But the dulcimer is different. I can tell you when I first heard the dulcimer and how it affected (infected?) me.  Most dulcimer players have similar stories.  It might be nice if you began collecting those stories and shared them periodically on your Podcast.  You could ask people to send you emails that you could edit and recite, people could share audio files directly, or you could interview folks as you visit different dulcimer festivals.  It could be a recurring part of your podcasts.  Many people wax poetic when talking about their first exposure to the dulcimer. And for you guys it would be like crowdsourcing but for content instead of finances.

Ken, was just reading through some of the recipes you posted. Definitely made me hungry.  Lady Sally is lucky to have you catering (literally) to her desires.

One thought: if you find the walnuts in the Waldorf Failure to be too bitter, perhaps you could use candied walnuts. It might mean less apple or mandarin or other of the sweet stuff, but it would be a way to increase the use of one of the required ingredients. Just a thought.

 Kimberly, I responded earlier today to your identical question in the Ask the Moderators forum, where I posted a link to the DPN article.  Check it out here .

The link Lisa points us to looks good to me.

Let me also suggest that you can alwasy download the free trial version of Tabledit, which lets you do digital tab up to 16 or 24 measures, I think.  You have to pay if you want more than that. But you can always just print out a blank page from that software.

Please, call me Dusty.  Mr. Turtle is my dad. 

Travis, I play fairly often in a multi-instrument jam and move very easily among the keys of C, D, G, and A, as well as their relative minors of Am, Bm, Em, and F#m.

I tune CGc to get the keys of C and Am.  The rest I get out of a DAd tuning with the use of a capo.  The capo at the third fret gives you G and Em and the fret at the fourth fret gives you A and F#m. 

The advantage to this is that you are playing in a 1-5-8 tuning the whole time, so everything you have learned in that tuning can be used in any of those keys, and your playing can be more versatile than limiting yourself to chords, as you would have to do if you stayed in DAd and used a lot of barre chords.

And by this same system you could get the key of F (or Dm) by tuning CGc and putting the capo at the third fret.  So that gives you 10 keys already without having to carry around more than one dulcimer.

You're a good man, Rob N. Lackey.

Hey rwarren.

Over the years I've used several items from the Happy Traum and the folks at Homespun.  They are all really good.  I used a couple of bluegrass packages (including the 4-hour bluegrass workout, which I highly recommend) and one harmony singing course (by Robin and Linda Williams) as well.

I don't know the Lorrain Lee Hammond dulcimer course, but she was a pioneer in the modern dulcimer and if you are a beginner, that is probably a good product.

I have a copy of the David Schnaufer DVD and can say that it's very good, but he doesn't teach a general approach to the dulcimer as much as teach a series of songs.  I think the only general information he provides is some stuff on playing the major scale both up the fretboard and across the strings. But then he just goes into the songs.  So the Schnaufer DVD would be good only if you want to learn those songs, whereas the Hammond CD set is probably a more coherent introduction to the dulcimer.

Those are the only two dulcimer items I know of offered by Happy Traum.

I think Stephen made the important points, eli.  McSpaddens are consistently good instruments and hold their value well.

At some point in the past--perhaps Ken could tell us when--they stopped using plywood for the backs and started making all solid wood dulcimers.

They also sell kits, and I would not suggest buying one made from a kit unless you could hold it and play it first.  Just ask what the label inside the dulcimer says; it will indicate if it were made in the shop or was a kit that someone bought and made for themselves.

Lots of folks name their dulcimers.  I never named any of my guitars or mandolins, but most of my dulcimers have names. The first one I ever bought has rosebud soundholes and I named her Rosita.  Later I obtained a baritone teardrop with rose soundholes and named that one Tia Rosa.  I got my Blue Lion from FOTMD member Jeannie in Paradise and named it Queenie, partly in honor of Jeannie and partly because my daughter insisted that since female lions do the hunting they should be considered the queens of the jungle.  I have another named Lucinda and my daughter named her octave dulcimer with dolphin soundholes Splash.  But oddly, the the dulcimer I play most often is just my dulcimer.  No name.  

And I mean no offense, but dulcimers have such beautiful curves, they have to have female names.  I guess Lexie and I just don't agree on that.  Maybe a Tennessee music box could be called Fred or Barney, but an hourglass has to be female, especially if its voice is as alluring as the sirens' song.

Having those two options of how to join a forum is excellent. If you've been following it regularly, you would only want to see the most recent posts. Otherwise, you can join in the beginning and catch up. Some of these changes will be second nature to us all once we get used to the nuances of our new home.

It all makes sense. (But that doesn't mean that I'm not scared by the way Strumelia wields that red pen -- like an English teacher on a warpath!)

John, I am confused. Why would you want to make your screen narrower and narrower?  Instead of changing the shape of your screen, use CTRL - to decrease its size and CTRL + to increase it. That way the aspect ratio stays the same.

On my laptop, I can reduce the size of the screen as much as I want and it all stays visible and functional.  When I increase its size, it works until 150%, when it looks like Dan's screenshot above. But no matter how the site is laid out, if you increase more and more eventually you will run out of space. You can break the laws of man, but not the laws of physics.

I don't see any differences between IE, Firefox, and Chrome in terms of the size of the screen.

Dan, I'm sorry you're having trouble here, but your anger seems misplaced.  As testified to by others, the site is working on iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and both tablets and phones using Adroid. So your insistence that there is a coding problem with the site is suspect at best.  Not only that, but Strumelia, myself, and others have spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to help you.

I will say this as plainly as I can. The toolbar should not be there. Instead, on mobile devices, you get the mobile menu icon, which is that series of 6 white squares and rectangles. I can see it on your screenshot, so I know it's there. When you click that, you get a menu that has all the options of the toolbar. Please give it a try.

Dan, if you purposefully zoomed in, then the only issue is that the tool bar that would show up on a website viewed from a pc is now in the mobile menu icon, meaning those white squares and rectangles.  Click on that and a new toolbar will appear with all the options you would normally see. It did not exist on the old site because that site was not enabled for tablets and smartphones. This one is.  The mobile interface is not identical to the regular website view, but once you get used to it, it should function better.  (For the record, I still use my pc whenever I actually want to do anything other than listen to tunes.)