It was so fun to wake up here on the west coast and find so many people had already been posting such good music on the first ever IADD. Thanks @robin-thompson, @ariane, @gordon-hardy, and @slate-creek-dulcimers, for sharing good tunes on our favorite instrument.
My online dulcimer club met today. We were over 20, and several mentioned that they had already posted something for IADD. We played 5 songs together: Green Grow the Lilacs, Harlequein Air, Marche Nuptiale, Rickett's Hornpipe, and Southwind.
And separately I also posted a cover of a Lucinda Williams tune: Lake Charles .
Here's a screen shot one of the participants sent me:
Hey Carolyn, the standard for fret numbers with a capo on a dulcimer is that all the frets retain their original number except for the one with the capo. So if you capo at 1, that capo-ed fret is referred to as 0, but the next one up is 2 and then 3. If you capo at 4, that fourth fret becomes 0 and the next one up is 5 and then 6.
This is different than guitars and banjos, which causes a lot of confusion. At least it did for me when I first started on the dulcimer.
It's so cool that this is taking off. Tull Glazener will be posting as well and just sent out an email with @steve-c's poster and offering tab for an original composition, available only on IADD!
@Strumelia, don't you mean Suzette should tune to DAC? Your link mentions "aeolian," after all.
Suzette, in the drone style, you never fret the bass or middle strings. They are always left to drone, and you will play the melody on the melody string.
You will sometimes run across tablature that places the melody across all the strings. That tab is just not for you, so ignore it. But whenever the melody can be played solely on the melody string, you can ignore the chording indications on the bass and middle strings. Over time you'll discover that a lot of traditional tunes sound great in that style, but some more modern pieces don't.
Make sure you join the Old Style Noter & Drone Group . You'll find lots of guidance there.
This is not the easiest tab to read, so don't feel bad.
The song is given in two sections. In each there are three lines. The top line refers to the bass string. The second to the middle string. And the bottom line to the melody string. So in that first section, you start by playing 1-1-1, meaning you fret the first fret on all three strings. You end that line playing 3-3-5, meaning the third fret on the bass and middle strings and the 5th fret on the melody string.
However, if you are a beginner or if you want to play in the traditional drone style, tune DAC and only play the bottom line (melody string) of each section, letting the bass and middle strings drone.
The description on the page indicates how to read note duration, but if you know the melody, I would just follow the rhythm in your head.
For the record, there are plenty of examples of tab for this song that are easier to follow, so if you can't figure this out, I'm sure people can help you find other tab to use.
To explain the confusion, I turned Leo's Word file into a pdf and posted it in his thread. I was trying to be helpful 
, but this appears to have caused enormous confusion
. Just call me an agitator 
(or maybe a gremlin).
Hi Linda. Congratulations on your new hybrid baby.
By all means, put steel strings on the banjammer. I would offer to do that for you, but if you sent it to me you might never get it back! Those gauges you list are about right. You can buy them at any guitar shop.
If the floating bridge is in the right place now, then just change one string at a time without moving the bridge. If it's not, then my suggestion is to put on the middle string first and adjust that one. Guess where the bridge should be and tune up the middle string using a tuner. Then fret that string at the 7th fret, which should be about halfway between the nut and the bridge. You should get an octave. If it's off, you need to adjust the bridge by moving it further from the nut if the octave was sharp and closer to the nut if it was flat. Once you have the middle string done, do the same for one of the other strings, but this time instead of moving the entire bridge to adjust it, angle it, keeping the middle of the bridge where it was when you set the middle string.
This sounds harder than it is. Just take your time and use your head and you can figure it out.
Congrats on your new baby, Megan! What a beautiful dulcimer.
The IADD stickers arrived today. The coloring came out significantly darker than I had expected, but they're perfectly fine otherwise. The yellow lettering is easy to read against the background, but you have to look closely to see that the background shows the soundholes and fretboard of a dulcimer.
If anyone wants one (or a few), contact me by PM.
I am looking forward to the latest episode, Patricia. 
Of course, @robin-thompson. I'm sharing the image specifically so that others might make use of it.
I just ordered some square stickers using this design. Shipping costs may prevent me from sending them around to everyone, but feel free to download the image yourselves.
I have one of Ron Ewing's baritone dulcimettes and I absolutely love it. Tight construction, low action, crisp, clear sound. However, it is tuned usually to G or A rather than D, and the VSL is only about 21 inches, so it may not be perfect for this case. That's why I recommended a McSpadden Ginger.
The McSpadden Ginger is the obvious choice. The VSL is just over 23 inches. McSpadden will set it up either to tune like a standard dulcimer to the key of D or a 4th or 5th higher to G or A.
Susie mentioned the " Little Dulcimers Little List " that I put together several years ago. It needs to be updated, since some of those luthiers are no longer active and there may be some new kids in town. But it's still a good place to start.
Randy makes a good point. Diatonic frets create bumps just as much as chromatic frets do, and decent noter players seem to adjust just fine.
When you slide with a finger--which flatpickers and chorders do all the time--those bumps also exist. But what's cool about the technique is that our ears play a trick on us. Instead of hearing each of the notes that correspond to each fret, our ears hear those slides as genuine slides, filling in all the microtones as thought there were no frets at all. That is why a hammer-on sounds so different than a slide. For example, when you slide from 3 to 4 and when you hammer on from three to four, you are just playing two notes. But when you slide, our ears hear an infinite number of tones in between those two. (Having said all this, one can slide in a precise and deliberate manner to approximate the sound of a hammer-on or pull-off, but now we're getting into nerdy nuances.)
As a flatpicking and chording player, I use extra frets all the time and wouldn't want it any other way. But I understand the history of the instrument and respect deeply those who play truly diatonic instruments in the traditional ways. That alone is a reason not to add extra frets. The argument about "bumps" is less convincing to me, for I think you can adjust when you want to slide over the frets you don't need in a particular passage.
Steven, if you plan to play traditional music on the dulcimer in the traditional drone style, you don't need a 6+ fret. You will get used to re-tuning your melody string to get the appropriate mode for each song.
If you plan to play modern music, if you plan to play chords, and even if you just plan to play a lot of tablature written by others, you will probably want the 6+ fret, which has been standard for about 50 years now.
So is it important? No. But you might want it.
FOTMD member @david-bennett is the one who maintains that heritage dulcimer material, and he provides links to the relevant pages in the Mountain Dulcimer History and Traditions Group. I would encourage everyone to join that group and give that compelling stuff a read, not only in March but all year long.
OK, here's the latest version using @leo-kretzner's photo. I had some square stickers made of something else a while back, and I as soon as I can get a discounted rate, I'll have some of these printed up.
Yes, Leo, the other photo is one of my own. It's a John Stockard baritone.
Here's another potential sticker. Still playing around with the possibilities.
Leo, I stole the image from among your soundhole photos, It was made by James A. Tranthum.
I changed the coloring and some other details, but it was pretty red in your original.
Yeah, we should probably get @leo-kretzner's permission before we start circulating that pic. I'm trying to come up with something that can easily be made into a sticker or slapped onto a website.
It's good to know word is getting out there! Here's another simple image some folks might like.
I held my monthly online dulcimer club today and told everyone about IADD. About 20 people attended and they're all excited. We meet next on the last Saturday in March, so we'll be celebrating together. I'll try to get a screen shot and post it here.
Well I'm a child of the 70s, so this is the ad I imagine:
I wish Bruce Cockburn had played the dulcimer when I saw him in concert in the early 80s. I would have discovered the dulcimer as a teenager 
instead of as a tired, middle-aged man
.
Yes, the link works now, Robin. I deleted my post since it wasn't needed anymore.
Thanks for doing all you do! 
The hashtag will only accomplish anything if your comments are public and if others start using it. By all means, @robin-thompson, go for it, and encourage others to do so. So at the end of your short explanation (which you italicize below) perhaps you could ask that people use the hashtag when they share their stories, videos, etc.
That's really cool. I saw Bruce Cockburn play show many years ago, but his only instrument was the guitar. Had he pulled out a dulcimer I wouldn't have known what it was.
By the way, I moved this discussion to the General Mountain Dulcimer category since the Site Questions forum is for questions about how this site works. I hope that makes sense.
That's a nice description, Robin. It captures the spirit of the day perfectly.
And I'm not the right person to ask about hashtags. I can check with my teenage daughter, though.
Well, my belly shakes when I move like that dancing smiley!
Hey friends, I created a new discussion entitled International Appalachian Dulcimer Day in the General Mountain Dulcimer Forum. Let's move our discussion (especially the posters!!) over there and leave this space for other positive news.
Thanks.
In the positive thread, FOTMD members came to a consensus that there ought to be a day dedicated to the celebration of our favorite instrument, and we arrived at the last Saturday in March as International Appalachian Dulcimer Day.
Let's use this space to share resources, outreach ideas, and photos, video, and text descriptions of celebrations of this new and special day.
Hey everyone, I just want to say how wonderful it is that an off-the-cuff comment I made on National Guitar Day has led to a consensus here about International Appalachian Dulcimer Day. When I get a chance (and recover from a long day at work) I'll create a new discussion somewhere else on FOTMD specific to IADD. We can share resources like Steve C's poster and, when the day arrives, share photos, videos, or just descriptions of what we do on that day. (IF someone wants to do that before I get a chance, please go ahead.)
This is a positive outcome of a discussion on the positive thread!
Looks great, Robin!
P.S. Someone should copyright the name "grassroots celebration" before some corporation does.
OK, folks. I think this conversation has wound down. Perhaps it's time for a vote. Before we go there, how 'bout this:
International Appalachian Dulcimer Day: the last Saturday in March
What think ye? If there are serious objections, we can isolate some variables and have Strumelia set up a poll. But I wonder if we might reach a consensus.
Mostly just eye candy, Steven. Surely the shape of the dulcimer has some effect on the sound, but it's probably so negligible no one would notice. The type of wood also has an effect on sound, but on the list of variables that effect sound, it is way down there. I'm sure I can tell the difference between a Pritchard replica and a Blue Lion, but I doubt I could tell the difference between a Blue Lion with walnut body and a Blue Lion with a cherry body. Certainly whether the wood is figured or has beautiful grain patterns influences its looks, but not necessarily the sound or playability of the instrument.
Scroll pegheads look romantic but are a pain the arse to use. Flat heads are much more practical. A scroll head can increase substantially the time it takes to change strings. If you like the look of scroll heads, that's a compromise you have to make, although some luthiers such as Terry McCafferty try to create the best of both worlds by combining the two .
So much of this kind of thing is in the eye of the beholder. I like the look of ebony (or those artificial versions like micarta) overlay on the fretboard. I think the contrast between the dark black of the ebony and the lighter color of the other woods is striking. But I also find ebony easier to fret since it's so hard. And it's also resistant to scratches, which means something to aggressive flatpickers. So to me, anyway, ebony overlay enhances both the aesthetics and the performance of the dulcimer.
Your question isn't dumb at all. On some level, it's something we all have to address when buying an instrument or any product, really. That early 1960s Dodge Dart might look better with the stripes on the side, but that paint doesn't make the engine any smoother or more powerful. However, whether you have a slant 6 or a V8 engine probably does. Some years ago I bought an octave dulcimer from David Beede. He used to offer the option of adding turquoise purfling on the soundboard , and I thought it looked great. But when discussing with him whether I wanted to add it, he referred to it as "jewelry." And as soon I started thinking of it as "bling" with no purpose, I decided against it.
