Forum Activity for @dusty

I personally have to know what a song sounds like before I can make any sense of tablature or music. In that sense, I learn by ear. But even better is watching someone play something. I can pick up a song much more easily if I can hear it and watch someone play it. In that sense, the visual and the aural go together.

But I would suggest that a lot of folks who think they cannot play by ear and yet use simple tablature to learn songs are in fact playing by ear. A lot of tab does not indicate how long you hold each note or where you pause in between phrases. You succeed nonetheless at playing songs correctly precisely because you know what the song is supposed to sound like and can play that even though the tab does not indicate all that stuff. In other words, you are indeed playing (in part at least) by ear.

I think a great way to learn your instrument is to put it on your lap and try to find the melodies to simple songs that you know really well. I bet you can pick out Mary Had a Little Lamb or This Land is Your Land or whatever. Start with kids songs not only because the melodies are usually simpler, but also because you know those really well. As you get better at "hearing" the difference between a note on the second fret and a note on the third fret, for example, you will get faster at picking out those tunes, and soon you'll be able to work on more complex tunes.

And if you work with chords, those simple songs only have two or three chords. And you know the chord will be one that contains the note you are playing for the melody. That generally means that you will only have two choices for any given melody note. I bet you can figure out which one sounds best.

Of course, more complicated music is . . . well . . . more complicated, but playing by ear is not something that is innate or genetic. It is something you learn. I can do it pretty well because I started playing the guitar at age 9 and did it mostly with no instruction, so I spent years of my life trying to figure out songs that I wanted to play. I wasn't always successful, and I am not always successful today either, but I have gotten better at it, and you can too!

We all have our dorky moments, Phil. As long as the harmonica tab is for the 10-hole diatonic harp, you should be able to use Tom's charts no matter what key the song is written in.

Phil since harmonica tab shows which holes to blow in or draw from, it doesn't matter what key the harmonica is in. You can use the very helpful charts Tom posted earlier to convert that harmonic tab to dulcimer tab.

On the other hand, there is plenty of dulcimer tab for that song already. Here is Steve Smith's arrangement in DAA and DAD from the Everything Dulcimer Tab Archive.

Phil, I find all music theory is made easier if you can look at a piano keyboard. From C to D is one whole tone, or two half tones. From C to C# is a half tone, and from C# to D is a half tone.

So if music is written in the key of C, then every note and every chord has to move up that same amount: one whole tone or two half tones. An F note becomes a G note. A G note becomes an A note. A B note becomes a C# note.

For a visual aid you can also use the Circle of Fifths instead of a piano keyboard.

All you need to know to transpose is the key the music is written in and the key you want to play it in. In this case, the big red C is at the very top, and the D is two steps in the clockwise direction. So for every note or chord in they key of C, you move two steps in the clockwise direction to get the corresponding note or chord in D. We see again, an F becomes a G, a G becomes an A, and so forth.

The basic idea is that the relationships among all the notes have to remain the same, so the interval between the original key and the new key will be the same as the interval between any note or chord in that original key and the corresponding note or chord in the new key.

This stuff is hard if you try to do it in your head, but if you can look at a piano keyboard or the Circle of Fifths, it is much easier.

phil said:

I think I under stand that. but the problem I have is how do you change something form the key of C to the Key D I seem to can't get a handle on how to do that.

Since I have ESP, it would not be appropriate for me to "guess."

That's remarkable. You have a really special dulcimer there.

John, I'm not sure there is a reason to change that setup. In the first response above I described the standard way dulcimers are strung, but I don't know if there is a reason for that other than the benefits of standardization.

However, if you haven't changed strings in 40 years, I would definitely suggest doing so.

Ain't it the truth! Just a few years ago I was asking questions like would my fretboard get warped if I put on slightly heavier gauge strings. Now I'm an old timer tellin' the youguns you much tougher it was in my day.

Dan Goad said:

there ain't no "betters" around here. Some of us have just been playing around with them for a tad longer than you have. You'll be giving out advice before you know it.

Cute toes.

You are correct. That is not right.

The strings should feed over the top of the pins.

Additionally, the pin on the top right in the picture should be for the bass string. The pin on the top left in the picture should be for the middle string. The pin on the bottom left should be for the melody string furthest from you, and the pin on the bottom right should be for the melody string closest to you.

I suggest getting on new strings. But replace one at a time in case the bridge is moveable. Otherwise you'll have to post a question about how to position a bridge, and then we all have to learn physics together. (Actually, it's not that hard, but it does take a few minutes working with a tuner.)

My suggestion would be to change the way you think about the question itself. When folks sing in harmony, they are singing the notes of a chord. One of those notes is the melody part. So instead of thinking in terms of harmony parts, why not think in terms of melody and chord. If your wife is figuring out the chords that back up the melody, then all you have to do is find the right voicing for that chord on your dulcimer so that you are playing the melody note.

What I mean by that is best explained by an example. Let's say your melody note is the F# that is round on the second fret of your dulcimer tuned DAd, and the chord is a D. You might choose to play 0-0-2, for that gives you the melody note and two notes of harmony. But you might also choose 4-3-2, or 032, or 232. And those chords are D chords (or 2-note approximations of D chords) and you should play around with your arrangement and see which one sounds best.

Or if the melody note is the A on the fourth fret of your DAd dulcimer and the chord is a D, you might try 0-0-4, 2-3-4, 4-4-4, 6+-4-4, and so forth. Play around with those different chord voicings and you will find the harmony notes that you think sound best. And then maybe the second time through you could change chord voicings for a different arrangement.

I don't think it is a bad idea to study harmony arrangements, but I know that those arrangements are based on the chord structures of the songs. To me it makes more sense to learn those chord structures themselves rather than learning one or more harmony parts that stem from those chords.

Peter, the book looks very informative and well organized. I just sent you a personal message, too.

It happens to the best of us. Just tell people it's a rattlesnake rattle given to you by a blind shaman when you played a rendition of Shady Grove that cured him of gout during the blizzard of '78. Hey, it's a better story than "I dropped my pick."

Having spent lots of time in Jersey (and more to come later this summer) I think it fair to say that there are a lot more guns than there are dulcimers.

Some of those guns might be for hunting in the Pine Barrens or Poconos, but those in the Meadowlands have less noble functions.

Maryann Lang said:

guns and dulcimers - yup I think this former Jersey family is thoroughly redneck now! (and lovin it!)

Well you can imagine me installing strap buttons on my own on my very first dulcimer. I was drilling holes and covering my face in tears at the same time!

But that strap made all the difference in the world. The instrument "became mine" immediately. I can position it exactly the way I want regardless of how high my chair is or how far my legs are apart. And I can play more vigorously, not worrying about moving my precious instrument. I would have given up on the dulcimer had I not found the courage to install strap buttons.

If I were a dulcimer, I would say, "Strap me down and tickle my strings!"

Seriously, I had so much trouble getting my dulcimer to stay in one place until I installed a strap. I know it's not for everyone, but with a strap you don't have to worry about sitting at the exact same height to create a flat lap or anything like that. You can adjust the dulcimer anyway you like it, even tilting it up ever so slightly to allow the back to vibrate more (thus obviating the need for a false back or possum board). And tilting the dulcimer also solved the tennis elbow (strummer's elbow?) I was developing early on.

By the way, how do you make a possum bored? Just read him War and Peace !

Good point, Jan! David is a remarkably innovative luthier. Check out this video where he demonstrates the warm, mellow sound he gets with a "decoupled" tailpiece and how sticking something as simple as a credit card underneath the tailpiece results in a more traditional dulcimer sound.

Armsmere, a few years ago I tried to get people at Everything Dulcimer to start rating luthiers. I wanted to buy a really nice dulcimer and needed some guidance. But there was great resistance. The dulcimer community is very close-knit, and no one wanted to hurt anyone's feelings by stating formally in a discussion somewhere that one person's dulcimers were better than another.

It was suggested to me that I simply watch videos by people whose playing I enjoyed and whose dulcimers sounded good and ask them what they were playing and why. Eventually, I ordered a dulcimer from Ron Ewing and bought used dulcimers by Blue Lion and Modern Mountain Dulcimer. I also acquired but had to part with a Laurel Mountain dulcimer and a John Stockard dulcimer. All--though especially the Blue Lion and MMD--fall into the modern loud, mellow guitar sound category rather than the traditional high silvery sound, but all are great instruments. There are others, too. My suggestion is just to pay attention to what is being played in videos and if you are lucky enough to attend a dulcimer festival, just ask people if you can play their dulcimers for a moment. There are lots of great instruments out there and I'm sure you'll fin more than several that will please you.

By the way, I would add Laurel Mountain to Ken's list. Mary used to work for Folkcraft when they were in Connecticut but decided to stay behind when the company relocated to Indiana. Her standard models resemble Folkcraft in size and basic design with only minor differences. But she does really nice work. I miss the beautiful Laurel Mountain I was obliged to sell in order to partially pay for my Modern Mountain Dulcimer.

Terry, can you tell us what style of dulcimer you play? Do you play melody/drone, do you chord, do you play across all the strings?

If you you play melody/drone, I would suggest Going to Boston. It lets you slide up and down the fretboard just like you do in Wildwood Flower.

Wow, Ruth, you are just a font of autoharp knowledge!

Thanks for that link! I don't know if I'll be making a banjo out of groundhog skin any time soon, but I'd sure like to!

The hardanger fiddle looked like one of the more interesting instruments in the documentary, perhaps because it is so recognizable as a modern violin with the exception of the sympathetic strings that echo a former era.

What a treat that must have been for you, Robin!

Very cool. It's amazing how great she can play all those various instruments.

Great suggestions, Ken, in part because I know all those tunes. I already added "You are my Sunshine" and will probably add the two "Valley" tunes as well. Maybe the rest will make next year's list.

Kenneth W. Longfield said:

Dusty, a few we do here in the east are Down In The Valley, Red River Valley and You Are My Sunshine. There is also Clementine, Rocky Top and Tom Dooley.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Geekling, when you speak of the "jam in front of the festival" do you mean the small group that plays right in the entry to the church grounds? That jam is indeed intimidating and is not really a jam; it is more like a group of friends who already play together. But the festival holds another all-instrument jam towards the end of the day in which people sit in a big circle in that big room where they have lunch. People of a variety of levels join in, and Leo Kretzner leads the whole thing in a really inclusive manner. When I first joined I passed when it was my turn to call a tune, but the next time around I called out Southwind or Rosin the Beau or some tune I knew pretty well. I also just listened during a bunch of tunes I didn't know, and played chords for those whose structure I could figure out but whose melody was too fast to learn on the spot. But as I mentioned, I did learn two or three tunes over the course of the jam and for my first one, I was happy with the number of tunes I was able to play along. Now here we are two or three years later, and I've created my own list of 40+ jam tunes and I know them all! It's amazing how many tunes I've picked up over the last few years!

You two would look so cute playing a courting dulcimer! I can certainly see why that would be on your wish list.

Geekling, I think you give us too much credit when you say our Sacramento group is "well thought out." It has taken us over a year-and-a-half to evolve to the structure I describe above. But now I think it works really well.

I'm not surprised that you say you need to have a tune in your head even if you use tab. After all, tablature doesn't give us very much. Especially that sparse tab that just provides fret numbers tells us nothing about how long to play each note, for example, so the tab assumes you already know the song.

Robin makes some good observations about ensuring that beginners are encouraged to join jams even if they don't know most of the songs. There is nothing wrong with muting the strings with your left hand and just strumming for rhythm. There is nothing wrong with just playing the easy parts of songs. I often join only by playing chords and not playing any melody at all (though I understand that as a guitar player for the last 40 years hearing chord changes comes easier to me than most). As Robin suggests, these ways of joining without fully knowing a song accomplish a central goal of getting people comfortable just playing with their instruments. Beginners need to know that it is encouraged to join in these ways.

Here and there online are several guides to jam etiquette, but what is not really found is advice on how to join jams if you don't already know the music.

Two surprises: I forgot "Shady Grove" until Robin reminded me (it is in my mind the quintessential mountain folk song) and no one mentioned "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." I know that's not really a dulcimer tune so much, but it seems to be central to the whole notion of a tradition shared among generations.

I decided to create a page on the River City Dulcimers website for my list and links to tab available online: common dulcimer jam tunes . It's still a work on progress, but I thank you all for your comments so far and welcome any others you have.

Robin, I, too, have been starting to "read" SMN, although I am not very proficient at playing directly from it. But following my daughter's beginning piano lessons over the last few years has been a nice refresher course. When I was a kid I could read SMN but in a very practical manner. I played trumpet one year but was switched to the baritone tuba the next. Baritone music was written in the bass clef rather than the treble clef, but what made the transition easy was that the fingering on the valves was the same between the two instruments -- well, almost the same. I think the baritone plays a fourth or fifth below a trumpet. So the fingering I had learned still played a major scale, but in a different key. I never actually learned what the key was and never really learned the note names on the bass clef (I knew how to figure them out, but could never identify them quickly enough). But I learned the play the baritone from SMN only by noting the distances between notes on the staff and the corresponding distances in the notes I would play. It's possible that way of playing hearkens back to the days when the musical staffs were not standardized and could be centered on any note. But I also think that method is close to the way some professional musicians play.

As you suggest, they do not see a note on the staff, translate it to the corresponding letter, and then look for that note on their instrument. I think they see relationships among notes on the staff and also see those relationships on their instruments. (I would think that visualization is easier on keyboards and fingerboards, but I bet brass and woodwind players see them, too.)

The other comment you make that I think is especially useful for everyone learning to play is that you concentrate on phrases rather than individual notes. We learn language that way, after all, why not music, too? And little by little we start to notice that certain phrases repeat in various songs, just as chord shapes do.

Thanks so much for your comments.

Geekling, I think I remember that beginners jam. I walked briefly through the room and could see some difficulties there. In my opinion, a jam with experienced players can exist with no leader, with players taking turns calling a tune and starting it off. But beginners are exactly those who need a leader, someone familiar with the songs who can play them correctly and at a steady tempo so that others can follow along. Obviously, the leader in a beginners jam needs to be patient and play really slowly, but a bunch of beginners unsure of their own playing trying to make a go of it on their own just asks for trouble.

But your comments also reveal the different ways we learn. I honestly cannot learn songs from tablature. I need to hear a song played and get it into my head. During the jam at the Harvest Festival I probably learned three or four songs. The first time through I would just listen, getting a sense for the song's structure (AABB, ABC, whatever). The second time through I would try to find some of the important notes or phrases in each section. By the fourth or fifth time through I could get most of the melody. Then after that, I could go off on my own, use tab, and fill in the blanks. But I always fail to learn songs at workshops when everyone is handed a piece of tab and then they go through it slowly one note at a time. I never get the feel for a song that way.

In my opinion, the best scenario is an all-inclusive, beginners-welcome jam in which people go around a circle calling out tunes. The person calling the tune should ideally set the tempo and start playing. So a really advanced player might indeed start playing pretty fast, leaving others to just strum chords, play percussion on the backs of their dulcimers, or pick out a note here or there. But others will start playing at a slower, more approachable pace, allowing beginners to follow along. And there should be a leader to step in, so if someone starts a song but then gets a little lost, the leader can step in and take over. A lot of learning how to play with others is learning how to keep time and skip notes or whole sections of songs. When you play by yourself and you get stuck on the fourth note of a song, you can just stop and take your time to get it. But in a jam, the song keeps moving, and it's important to learn to play such that when you get stuck you skip a few notes or a whole section and pick a point in the future when you can jump in with everyone else. (Supposedly the great hockey player Wayne Gretsky used to say you should not skate to where the puck is, but to where the puck will be.)

At the local dulcimer group here in Sac that I started about 18 months ago, we now divide our time into three sections. The first is a beginners lesson in which the beginners get together in a very small group of two or four with a more experienced player and go over some basics. During the second section we all get together and play through our small but growing repertoire of songs, mostly arrangements by Ron Beardslee, Paul Furnas, or myself, which are pedagogical in nature, meaning we arranged a tune in order to work on some aspect of playing. (For example, I arranged a version of "Shall We Gather at the River" specifically to work on slow, steady, back-and-forth strumming. My arrangement of "Beach Spring" centers on the use of left-handed techniques such as slides, pull-offs and hammer-ons. Ron has arranged several songs that teach chord positions, so each song is based on a single chord shape that moves up and down the fretboard.) We all play those songs together, and usually between 4 and perhaps 10 times each one. The idea is to play them long enough that people can really start to learn them. But we also stop and talk about how to play difficult sections so that there is some clear learning going on. And the third section of our gathering is a true song circle where we take turns playing songs. Some choose songs for everyone to join in, but this section of our gathering is also for more advanced players to "show off" the more complex stuff they're working on. The advanced players get practice performing in front of a small (and adoring ) group and the beginners get exposed to music and playing techniques that they would never see if they only stayed in beginner groups. Interestingly, it was the beginners who requested the song circle, for they wanted to see what Ron and I were playing when we were not teaching them songs, but I have to say I've really gotten a lot out of it, and knowing that I'll have that small audience encourages me to keep working on new stuff and really try to get whole songs down pat.

Maybe this is a long-winded way of saying that I think beginners would get a lot more out of a jam with patient leaders rather than a jam with no leaders and only other beginners.

Wow, you guys are great! The challenge for me has been to resist just listing songs that I know and like to play. And as I said, I've only once been to a dedicated dulcimer jam but have a lot more experience with bluegrass jams, old timey jams, and just plain old campfire sing-a-longs. It is likely that some tunes (Saint Anne's Reel? Whiskey Before Breakfast?) are on the list for their ubiquity more at bluegrass jams than at dulcimer jams. But I like most of your suggestions (there are a couple that I never heard of!), and all of them that I already know will be added to the list. A few (June Apple, John Stinson #2, Columbus Stockade) will be added to my "to learn" list and may get promoted if I learn the tune in time.

My plan right now is basically to do what Robin and Ken suggest: to list the tunes with links to the main two or three websites (ED most obviously) that contain tab. There is also a copy machine at the venue, and I think it might be good to have some hard copies of tab for people who don't plan ahead or drop in at the last minute or can't play at all by ear. If I get super-ambitious I might make several copies of tabs for each of the songs, but I can do that at work and pass the cost on to my employer. Since I mostly telecommute I end up using my own cash for ink and paper and stuff like that on a regular basis, so it seems like a fair trade.

Rob, I am sure you are right about regional variations, but the list I've come up with was based on my sense of common tunes that I've seen online either here or on a couple of the jam tunes lists at various other websites from around the country. It's kind of funny, but I think here in Northern California the only regional variation is that every jam has to include a Grateful Dead tune or two. Seriously, last year at this same event I attended a song circle at the end of the day. A few of us were playing many of the songs on the list above, but there was also a group of listeners who just sat quietly with smiles on their faces. Then someone started playing and singing "Ripple" and everyone in the crowd began singing. I mean these are old (and yes, I mean old) deadheads who probably can't remember what they had for breakfast, but they know every word to "Ripple" and have been singing it for 40 or more years! (I commented elsewhere that they used to take acid and now take antacid, but the song remains the same!And for the record, I'm not knocking the Dead; I attended more than my fair share of shows, too, and especially like their acoustic stuff, not surprisingly.)

Thanks, everyone, for your advice and suggestions!

Thanks for the suggestion, Geekling. Since "Rhody" is one of the songs that people sometimes learn as their first one, it makes sense to add that. To be honest, I don't expect a whole lot of beginners. The jam I am running will be concurrent with one of the workshop sessions, so I would think that most beginners would be more comfortable in an actual beginner workshop rather than an open jam. But later in the day will be a formal song circle, so maybe this list can help guide both sessions.

I initially got the idea for a song list from the Harvest Festival of Dulcimers. Before the one year I went (when I met you and Keith) I worked specifically on some of the songs on their list.But that Festival includes hammered dulcimers and the jam was open to other instruments. The Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering is only for mountain dulcimers and I doubt other instruments will show up. I don't plan on linking each song to a specific tab arrangement, but I will provide links to two or three websites where people can find tab for almost all the songs there, and if I get really ambitious, I'll try to show up with several copies of tab for at least some of the songs. When I was at the Harvest Festival, the person who sat next to me at that jam had gone through their list of songs with a copy of Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam book, and flagged each song on the appropriate page, so when people called out songs she just flipped to the right page in the book and had her own tablature.

Patty, I already added "Turkey in the Straw," as a matter of fact, and "Sourwood Mountain" is a good one, too. I think I learned that from a video that Robin T posted here, so I'll review that video, re-learn the song, and add it to the list.

I'm sure the jam will include some singing, too, so I know we'll be singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene," The Grateful Dead's "Ripple," John Prine's "Paradise," and more. But I wanted to provide a list of some of the more typical dulcimer jam tunes. And I've been really surprised how many of these tunes I already knew even if I don't play them regularly.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Robin. I am trying to stay focused on typical tunes for dulcimer jams rather than just list tunes that I like to play.

I have been asked to host a jam room at the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering on May 17. It was suggested that I provide a list of common dulcimer jam tunes that people might expect to play there. I plan on keeping things open and letting folks "call the tune," but I still thought it would be helpful to create a list.

The problem? I've been to only one true dulcimer jam. Most of the jams I've attended included other instruments and involved people singing from Rise up Singing as much as playing standard old timey fare. So I need help creating the list. Below is what I wrote down off the top of my head. Since I am the host, I probably need to know each song listed, and so far I either know the song or have a close enough idea that I can prepare adequately in the couple of weeks before the event.

My question to you: am I missing any obvious tunes that one would expect to hear at a dulcimer jam? I am not interested at this point in an exhaustive list (I would just copy the contents of Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam if I were) but the most common tunes played.

Amazing Grace
Angelina Baker
Arkansas Traveler
Ashokan Farewell
Bile Dem Cabbage Down
Black Mountain Rag
Bonaparte's Retreat
Cripple Creek
Elk River Blues
Going to Boston
Golden Slippers
Gray Cat on a Tennessee Farm
Hangman's Reel
Liberty
Liza Jane
Mississippi Sawyer
Old Joe Clark
Redwing
Rosin the Beau
Saint Anne's Reel
Shall We Gather at the River
Si Beag Si Mor
Simple Gifts
Soldier's Joy
Southwind
Westphalia Waltz
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Wildwood Flower

Well that's just great, Greg! It's great to see homemade music and craftsmanship getting some publicity. You represent the folk traditions well!

I would put money down that the song is in the key of C. The only chord that doesn't quite fit is C#. Regardless of the key you play the song in, that C# chord is likely to cause some difficulty on a diatonic instrument. If you tune CGc or CGG you will be able to get the other chords with little difficulty. But that C# might be something you have to fake by just playing a note or two rather than a full chord.

Glenda, if you are really a beginner, I would suggest beginningwith easier songs that only have three or four chords. You might want to put this one on the "to learn" list for next month or whenever you get more comfortable playing a variety of chords. But if you already have experience chording on the dulcimer or other instruments, then by all means, forge ahead!

You are right, Jean. The only difference between the two is the way the string connects to the instrument. There is no difference in tone or functionality. In general ball end strings are easier to find because they fit guitars that use end pins. If ball end strings fit over the little brad nails on your dulcimer, or if you have a dulcimer with end pins, then go ahead and use them. If not, loop end strings are the only option.

Richard, I have no experience with competitions personally, so I can't give you the specific advice you seem to be after. I can tell you that there are no age limits, but the dulcimer national champions of the last several years seem to all be pretty young. I think that is probably due to a couple of factors. One might be that some young folks out there are playing pretty darn good dulcimer. Another might be that once you win you lose the drive to do so again, so many of the best dulcimer players simply aren't interested in competing or no longer feel the need for such accolades. Another might be that judges like to pretend the demographic data for dulcimer players does not skew pretty old, so they are consciously or unconsciously biased towards young folks.

If you are serious about the competitions, you should look into the specific rules and prepare yourself to work for a year or so gearing up for one. Some might mandate that you play a traditional song, for example, or there might be specific categories in which you can compete. I personally enjoy your playing a lot, but you have a very unique style of play. I seem to remember what feels like a lot of original material (and a lot of bending on the middle string!) in your playing. That might work for some competitions and not others.

But if your reason for seeking a competition is only to give your playing a little kick in the pants, I might ask why it has to be a competition. Do you ever play open mics? It might be that preparing for a performance is all you need to get back in the proverbial saddle. Additionally, although initially developing material for a competition might involve some creative playing, you will also spend a lot of time just playing over and over the same arrangements. Even if those arrangements are really good, you are likely to feel bored by them after the second or third month of playing them ad infinitum.

Lots of FOTMD members have been national dulcimer champions: Linda Brockinton, Sarah Morgan, Aaron O'Rourke, Erin Rogers, Nina Zanetti, Larry Conger, and some others whom I am forgetting right now. You might consider contacting them directly and asking for advice.

Q: How many dulcimer players does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: We'll never know; they keep arguing about modes even in the dark.

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When tyrants tremble thick with fear

And hear their death knells ringing

When friends rejoice both far and near

How can I keep from singing?

-- traditional American hymn

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"And when one person taps out a beat, while another leads into the melody, or when three people discover a harmony they never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few feet higher, then they also know there is hope for the world.

-- Pete Seeger

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And I have this one on my home page:

New arts shall bloom of loftier mould,

And mightier music thrill the skies,

And every life shall be a song,

When all the earth is paradise.

-- John Addington Symonds from "These Things Shall Be"

If you wipe down your strings before and after playing, you will get a lot of the grime and finger grease off and they'll last longer, as Cindy suggests. I find that as soon as strings start to feel at all hard or brittle I change them. New strings are much softer on the fingers. They also sound better, but since the sound deterioration is so slow, I never notice that my strings don't sound so hot until I change them and I realize how much better the new strings sound.

Since I like the feel, sound, and look of new strings, I think of it as a treat rather than a chore to change strings.

Ellen, if you wait until the cues that your strings need changing, you've probably waited too long. If you've waited a year, I bet you'll find new strings just feel much softer on your fingers and you'll want to start changing them more frequently. Professional musicians change strings at least every 2-3 months, as Guy does. I have a friend who plays gypsy jazz guitar in the SF Bay Area and has several regular gigs. One is the first Thursday of every month, and he changes strings before that gig, so he changes strings religiously once a month. I have more instruments than I play regularly, but on the dulcimers that I play regularly and on my six string guitar, I try to change strings every three months. The others I leave until I'm going to be playing one of them for a spell.

If you get the right tools, changing strings is easier. Make sure you have a string winder, a tuner, and a wire cutter handy.

Dean, I change strings regularly, too, but not quite as often as Ken. I probably do it about every three months on the instruments I play regularly. Not only do dirt and oil from your hands accumulate on the strings, but the metal begins to oxidize too, and they become more rigid over time. I think if you change strings you will notice that they sound, look, and feel much better.

I even changed the strings on my autoharp once. Once!

Larry, you've received good advice so far. As you can see, one way of playing in G is to tune DGD.

I don't do that, but I don't have as much experience with different tunings as Robin and Rob do. I mostly tune to DAd for 90 percent of what I play. But that does allow me--with the aid of a capo--to play in most common keys.

I play semi-regularly in a multi-instrument jam. At most bluegrass, folk, and old-timey jams, the most common keys are C, D, G, and A.

To get the key of C, I just tune to CGc.

To get D, I tune DAd. And then in that tuning I use a capo at the 3rd fret for the key of G and a capo at the 4th fret for the key of A.

You can play in G and A out of a DAd tuning, but it takes a better understanding of the fretboard than I have. But using a capo enables me to play everything I know and forget about what key we're in.