Forum Activity for @dusty

I would transpose to Bm. Then your chords would be Bm, D, and A.  You'd be all set in either DAd or DAA.  No need for a capo.

6+ is exactly right, @melvoid.  We use the + for extra frets so that someone with a true diatonic fretboard and someone with extra frets can still refer to frets using the same numbers.

Just noticed this post, @jost.  How's the 12-string been treating you?  I have a 12-string guitar made in Canada by Seagull that I bought several years ago, just before I discovered the dulcimer.  It's fun to play something with such a full sound, isn't it?

Well the bluegrass version is a lot faster, certainly, than @jessica-comeau's version, and fiddle players generally play a lot more notes than do dulcimer players, but those two versions sound like the same tune to me.  The underlying chord progression and basic melody seem the same.

I often find it hard to arrange tunes for the dulcimer based on fiddle versions of tunes.  They just play so many notes that the basic melody is often hidden in an overgrown forest of chromatic notes.

There are tons of dulcimer versions of this tune on YouTube.  I would watch about a dozen of them and then you'll get a feel for what parts of the song are essential and what parts are up to individual interpretation.

One thing is clear, though: you will want to tune to DAC or use a capo at 1 to get the minor tone of this one.

Welcome to FOTMD, @canadian-dulcimer-boy, and congratulations on your find.  The best dulcimer journeys begin with a unique discovery like yours.

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.

 IADD for stickers.jpg - 144KB

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.

 square IADD with yellow letters.jpg - 138KB

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.

 IADD on Stockard with red lettering.jpg - 121KB

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.

Strumelia: Dusty, you are a mover and a shaker! 

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.