Forum Activity for @lisa-golladay

Ironically, the reason I recommend "In Search of..." to beginners is because it gets them tuned up and making music right away. No tab, hardly any theory -- just strum and listen while you play. Not until Chapter 6 do alternate modal tunings show up. So this is a point on which Force and d'Ossche agree with our own Ken H (and also me). Put down the book and play

I speak from experience, since I am another person who likes to gobble up information. It's fun to plunge into the deep end, but the only way to really grasp how a dulcimer works is to play it. The modes will make sense eventually, but not until you've been playing for a while. This is especially true for guitarists, most of whom need to let go of their prior training and allow the dulcimer to lead them down some winding roads that don't seem to be going anywhere... yet.

A lot of the old books have "creative" ways to describe tunings. We didn't have electronic tuners and you couldn't always count on having a piano, tuning fork or pitchpipe when you needed it. The "X+3" stuff is confusing and I'm glad we don't need it nowadays. CFCC is a reverse Ionian tuning that puts you in the key of F.

The Beethoven version of the t-shirt would be Bim Bim Bim BOM, wouldn't it?

Every chromatic dulcimer comes with a free diatonic hidden in plain sight. Ignore the extra frets until you need them. For some people this is no problem at all. For others it's confusing and it sounds wrong and they just don't like it. Either opinion is perfectly valid. It's your dulcimer.

I play chromatic. I play diatonic. I play half-breeds with 1.5 and 6.5 frets. Since you asked why NOT buy chromatic, here's what I got:

Chromatic is harder to play. It has wrong notes. This is not insurmountable. Think about the guitar players you know; are they all rocket scientists? If they can manage a chromatic fretboard, so can you. However, if you hate to practice scales you will probably be happier with a diatonic.

Noter speed bumps. Do you play with a noter? Can't stand the idea of your dulcimer sounding like a slide guitar? This is a dealbreaker for some. And some could not care less. Know thyself.

Lack of instructional materials. This is a big one. There are a few books and videos for learning chromatic dulcimer, but not nearly as many resources as diatonic. When an absolute beginner asks me about dulcimers, I usually steer them toward diatonic.

Modal scales get difficult. Dorian is my favorite mode for improvising, and it's so easy on a diatonic! Dial in the right tuning and off you go. Whereas learning all the scales on chromatic is a major learning curve.

Other dulcimer players fly into a panic. Seriously. A friend gets a dulcimer and wants to play together. Bring out a chromatic and they'll yelp in terror. It doesn't look the same. It's too complicated! I have to keep a diatonic around or I won't have any dulcimer friends.

It's not traditional. This matters to many people. And sometimes (living history events? tapping into your personal memories of dulcimers past?) it may matter to you. If the sound you fell in love with is the sound of a traditional silvery noter/drone modal dulcimer, a chromatic is unnecessary and will make it harder to replicate that old-time sound.

That said, if you already have a diatonic dulcimer and you're considering chromatic, and if you have the time and inclination to learn something new, then my advice is go for it.

Folkcraft will build your choice of scale: 23", 24", 25" and up.

A McSpadden Ginger sings beautifully in DAD or DAA with the strings they recommend for D tuning.

A Ron Ewing dulcimette (not the baritone dulcimette) is designed for DAD tuning one octave higher than standard. The string tension in D is higher than I like, so I usually tune mine down to C or lower. I, too, am toying with the idea of a baritone dulcimette because the little Ewing dulcimers are marvelous :-)

We can make as many holidays as we want

While we iron out the details of International Day of the Appalachian Dulcimer, let's start another celebration while we're at it. When did the FOTMD site go live?

I propose we celebrate FOTMD's Birthday! Cake for everybody!!

If the purpose of Dulcimer Day is to introduce more people to the dulcimer, I vote for December 8 to commemorate Jean Ritchie's birthday. Here's why:

It's true December is a busy time that doesn't need more holidays. However, the dulcimer fits nicely into a lot of existing events that involve music and history. It's easy to get the general public interested in an evening of Christmas carols and folk music at this time of year.  December 8 is early enough that most schools, clubs, community centers and park districts are still open, while special holiday events are always looking for music.

Jean Ritchie's life story connects us to the entire history of the dulcimer. From her family's musical roots in the 19th Century... to the folk revival... to the many people she inspired who make music today. She has gifted us with a story that explains the dulcimer in a way that is far more compelling than reciting the history of wooden boxes with strings. You could mention her in a few brief sentences or build the entire presentation around her, but either way you have a great starting point.

Jean is not well-known to the general public, but folk musicians know her. This could open the doors to music venues that otherwise don't often (or ever) feature dulcimers.

Let's face it, it's hard for a modern audience to feel a connection to anyone who died 100 years ago and didn't leave behind any video or audio recordings. The history can come later, but first we have to get people to listen. I don't want to make Dulcimer Day primarily about Kentucky, or the 19th Century, or our Scots-Irish ancestors way up in the hollows. That excludes so many people! Jean's music came from those roots, and then she brought the dulcimer to New York City and gave it to everybody. We can honor her roots and her courage to welcome all people, everywhere, to the music she loved. 

Thinking of school presentations, Jean was a kind mentor and humanitarian who makes a wonderful role model. I would close by leading the kids in singing Jean's Peace Round. What could be better?

Or else, you know, talk me into something else :-)

Let me put on my marketing consultant hat (ow! ow! I thought I retired from this!) You can take this with as many grains of salt as you want but here goes:

1. You can declare any date a "holiday" on social media. The date does not need any significance. However, having a reason why this date was chosen makes a convenient hook for starting the conversation and getting peoples' attention.

2. You can almost certainly convince a member of Congress to introduce a resolution declaring anything an official national holiday, and it will be approved as routine. A representative from Kentucky would be an obvious person to ask.

3. Pick a date that works for your objectives. Are you looking for a good date to hold a festival (summer or early fall)? A date for scholars to argue about (the first documented dulcimer build)? Do you want to trigger an immediate deep dive into history (Ed Thomas)? Or introduce dulcimers to schoolchildren and community groups in a way that's not too intimidating and feels relevant?

4. Birthdays make people feel good. Nobody celebrates the day somebody died unless it's the Wicked Witch of the East. Whom nobody remembers.

5. Piggybacking an established related event, like Music on The Porch Day, will gain you no visibility. Somebody playing dulcimer on a day when lots of people are playing lots of other instruments will not make the dulcimer stand out.

6. Stepping into a season crowded with other holidays will gain you no visibility -- unless you can incorporate your event into other events that would otherwise not have dulcimers. This is leveraging our synergies -- or synergizing our leverage, depending on the preferred buzzword of the moment. Like I said, marketing.

That's my consulting advice, since consultants never tell you what to do, they only spout generalities and ask questions!  Now returning to my preferred persona as a civilian member of FOTMD, I will write a post about why December 8 is a perfect date for Dulcimer Day.

It's good to know the correct terminology, so thanks for clarifying that. I would add, however, for the sake of beginners who might worry about getting it wrong, that for practical purposes when playing music in a jam session, it does not matter what you call it. A dyad works perfectly as well as a chord.

The dulcimer doesn't always provide all the notes you need for a chord, but that is no problem when you are playing in a group. You can count on the guitar, mandolin, banjo, uke and bass players to provide the missing notes. Or maybe they won't... as long as it sounds good it won't matter what notes are missing.

In other words DGD is A-OK when it's time to play a G chord ;-)

As I recall from a conversation at the New Harmony booth at Gebhard Woods a few years back, the hole in the head is so you can hang the dulcimer from a peg.

If only the hole in my head was so convenient :-)

Marketing always boils down to three questions:

Who are the people ready and willing to become your customers?

Where/how do you find them and get their attention?

What can you offer to meet their needs/wants?

You want to target beginners, but that's a big group and not clearly defined. Let's do some market differentiation.

Total newbies: Do not play an instrument, do not own a dulcimer. They show up at festivals or club meetings because a friend brought them, or they stumbled across an event that looked interesting. Where are they?  Everywhere, but it's hard to find a lot of them at once. What do they want? They want to see, hear and (ideally) get their hands on a dulcimer. They haven't fully bought into this, so they can be scared away if you make dulcimers look too difficult or too expensive.

What can you offer them? Maybe an online concert. Maybe a 1-hour class where you show a few dulcimers, play a few tunes, talk a little about how to play, and answer questions. Make it free and easy to register. This audience is not motivated to scroll through a half-dozen web pages about festival schedules, workshop descriptions and registration forms. The kiss of death: "This is too hard, I'll just skip it."

Folkies: Whether they play, sing or just listen, we know they are actively interested in folk music. Where are they? Folk festivals and websites. What do they want? They probably have a vague idea what a dulcimer is. The message they need to hear is 1) they can learn to play one and 2) they can use it to play music they like.

What can you offer? They might pay to attend online concerts, especially with name performers and a mix of instruments. I've met a lot of folk music fans who profess no interest in dulcimer because they think it's too limited and can't play with other instruments. I would be sure to show them a wide range of playing styles and mixed ensembles. After the concert, point them to an online festival where they can learn how to play. The kiss of death: "I should learn guitar instead."

Musicians: They already play other instruments. Where are they? At the music store, the coffeehouse, online forums for their instruments and music genres. What do they want? A new instrument that's fun to learn... or expands their musical horizons... or ideally both.

What can you offer? As noted, the usual beginning dulcimer class isn't a great fit. At the Old Town School of Folk Music here in Chicago, they offered (pre-Covid) a popular one-session class called "Fear of Commitment Mandolin Workshop" for guitar players. Attendees borrow a mandolin for the duration of the workshop -- and they can buy mandolins after class ;-) Lots of people sign up because what have they got to lose? A few bucks and an afternoon, and it might be fun. The kiss of death: "This is a waste of time."

Unfortunately, all of these groups share a big problem: They Do Not Have a Dulcimer. What can they gain attending an online workshop? In live classes you can provide loaners, but how do you put a dulcimer into their hands over Zoom? It's relatively easy for people to find a guitar to borrow, and a beginner ukulele costs 50 bucks. Dulcimer availability is a major issue that limits how much outreach you can accomplish online. This leaves one more group of beginners who are, I believe, your best target audience:

People who have a dulcimer but aren't playing it. They bought it on a whim, they inherited it, or a roommate has one that looks good on the wall. Where are they? Could be anywhere, start with the folkies and musicians and maybe retirees. Contact sellers and ask who their buyers are. What do they want? Encouragement and a path to follow.

What can you offer? Super-easy classes and a supportive environment. Not a huge time commitment; if they were motivated to spend time on dulcimer, they'd know how to play by now. A single-afternoon workshop?  A four-week introductory session? Drop-in play-alongs that do not require advance signup? The on-ramp can't be steep or they'll go away. The kiss of death: "Nah, this is for real musicians, not a duffer like me."

If you've managed to read this far, you're probably noticed I didn't recommend a full online festival for any of these audiences. I might be wrong, but I suspect that newbies are overwhelmed by the usual festival offerings. It's one thing to navigate a busy festival in person; online everything looks harder. The website, the downloads, the class schedule grid, how will this work, do I need a webcam, will my internet connection be up to snuff, am I a "beginner" or a "novice" and can I trust this site with my credit card number? Really it's a lot to handle.

I think it's possible to design a beginner-friendly online festival. It would need a super-simple website and registration process. Heavy promotion on well-targeted social media and websites. Great instructors (of course). At ukulele festivals, full membership can be expensive but there's usually a beginner class that's free and does not require advance registration. Just show up and we'll get you started. That's probably the best promise we can make.

A baritone dulcimer is built to be tuned about a 5th lower than a standard dulcimer, AEE or GDD. The difference is not so much about VSL (27" baritones are common) as string gauge, action and building a body that resonates well at the lower pitch.

An alternative is to go a fifth higher than standard. McSpadden's Ginger model is an example of a dulcimer built to tune AEE or GDD an octave above baritone. These models often have a shorter VSL (23"-25") and a smaller body. They are convenient for travel and the higher pitch is a contrast you can hear when playing with standard dulcimers or guitars. For me the Ginger/alto range has the "high silvery" sound of a traditional dulcimer, while a baritone has more of a guitar sound. Just my opinion of course.

The shock of moving from a 30" VSL to a 23" inch VSL might be overwhelming. Or it might be fun, depending how much you enjoy a challenge! 

It's entirely up to you whether you'd prefer to go up or down in pitch from the standard DAA/CGG tuning. Within reason, any dulcimer of any size could be set up for the tuning you want. Certainly a 30" VSL could be set up as a baritone.Talk to your favorite builders and ask what they recommend.

I know someone who plays noter/drone on a Ginger (without the 6.5 fret) and is well pleased, but he does use an overhand grip on the noter. I have my eye on the Ed Thomas replicas, thinking their relatively small, shallow bodies might sing beautifully in the alto range, but that is merely speculation (and dulcimer acquisition disease).

Sorry, I can't claim to be an "organized" player!  My warmup is simple.  I play a song or two that I know well.  The first one fairly easy (like "Corinna, Corinna") and the next more challenging ("Si Bheag, Si Mhor" -- which is a challenge to spell, too).  It's enough to get my fingers moving.  I don't often play scales or chord progressions unless there's a particular tricky bit in the tune I'm working on. 

There is value in playing the same warmup every day.  It helps to get your mind focused.  Not unlike meditation or prayer.  As an actor, I still use the same vocal warmups I learned in college (in a year I prefer not to mention) and I can feel my mind snap to attention the moment I start.  That would be a good discipline for me to develop on dulcimer, I am looking forward to reading other peoples' responses on this thread.

The song that snaps me into shape on dulcimer is the song I play at the end of a session, especially when I'm frustrated.  "Simple Gifts," drone style.  Reminds me I like this instrument and it is not an implement of torture.

If we all had the same hearing, the same playing skills, the same music repertoire, and identical artistic taste, then we could come to a joint conclusion about how much the tone woods matter.  We could even declare, once and for all, which combination of woods makes the "best" dulcimer.  While we're at it, we could pick the single best luthier and let everybody else build furniture.

The chances of this happening are, thank goodness, exactly zero.

Let's enjoy the wide variety of sounds and instruments available to us, and realize that what I'm hearing is not necessarily what you're hearing.

I only know two things about McSpadden wood choices:

1.  A vendor I trust quit stocking the Ginger model in any wood combo except redwood/cherry.  He said when customers played all the Gingers, they always chose redwood/cherry and he couldn't sell the others.  Ginger is a short-scale (23" VSL) model and it seems logical that players would prefer a bright (but not too bright) sound.

2.  At a festival I found a vendor who set out an array of standard 4-string, 27" VSL McSpaddens in different woods.  Playing them side by side, I heard very strong differences in tone but it was the top wood that mattered most. 

Everybody has different taste, different playing techniques, and different ears.  I know people who hear no difference between an all-walnut McS versus all-cherry, whereas to me they are like night and day.  Since you like a warmer sound, and you like the sound of Jessica's dulcimer, I think the redwood/walnut combo would be a good choice for you.  The redwood/cherry won't sound much different (the redwood top is what drives the sound) but it might be a tad brighter.  Personally I prefer redwood/cherry, but my "ring" might be your "tinny."

It's certainly true that a luthier can make any wood combo work, but we're talking about production-model McSpaddens and not a custom build.

It sounds to me like a blend of The Ash Grove and Ashokan Farewell.  Which, sadly, does not pin down the actual title.  Ash Grove is Welsh and Jay Ungar says he wrote Ashokan in the style of a Scottish lament, so those might be useful clues.  Sorry, it's all I got :-)

Our house in Chicago was built in 1923 and has radiators, not forced air.  We run two room humidifiers 24x7 and keep the houseplants well-watered.  Still, the cats throw sparks when we pet them.  Which is kinda entertaining for us... but it puts the cats in a worse mood than usual.

You better believe my dulcimers spend the winter inside their cases.  I try to remember to re-fill the case humidifiers every couple of weeks. 

Hi Geezer, do you play other instruments or will dulcimer be your first?

Celtic music works beautifully on dulcimer. Many tab books are available (look for Irish, Celtic, O'Carolan in the titles) and you can download free tabs here to get started: https://www.dulcimer.net/dulcimer-celtic-tabs/

Blues is also surprisingly well suited to dulcimer.  Bing Futch has the book you need.  The festival you need is coming in April: https://fotmd.com/carla-maxwell/event/221/delta-blues-dulcimer-revival-clarksdale-ms#cm165388

A 1-1/2 fret is very useful for blues players.  Not mandatory, but it makes life easier.

Jazz standards are tricky.  They require notes you can't easily find on a traditional dulcimer fretboard.  If that's your music, I suggest you start with a chromatically-fretted dulcimer and check out Stephen Seifert's books and online classes. There is another option: use a regular diatonic fretboard and try Janita Baker's four-string chromatic tunings from her Blues and Ragtime book: https://www.bluelioninstruments.com/books_cds.html

Neither of those options is particularly easy.  Quite frankly, if you are a beginning musician and your heart's set on playing Gershwin as soon as possible, then I am honor-bound to tell you it'd be easier on ukulele.  There are tons of books and lessons for learning the Great American Songbook on uke. It's hard to find similar materials for dulcimer.  

Of course, hard-to-find is not the same as impossible.  Here's Misty on dulcimer: https://www.tullglazener.com/instruction-packets/misty

As Albert Einstein never said (although this quote has often been attributed to him) "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

If you're happy "just playing" that's fine.  For me, I never make progress without spending some serious time focused on the tune or technique I want to learn.  I call that "practice" but I do not consider it evil drudgery.  It is how I accomplish what I want to accomplish and that is a good thing!

I agree with Dusty that it's good to target specific areas where you want to improve.  It's hard to "become a better player" all at once, but you can break it down into smaller goals.  This is a good time of year for making resolutions! 

Another good idea (which I rarely follow myself, I must admit) is to record yourself now and listen again a few months later.  Sometimes this can be encouraging and other times it can be dis-heartening, but it's the one surefire way to see how much progress you're making.  It also tells me, with painful clarity, what I need to practice next.

Well, the second-easiest way to find out is take one of the melody strings off your dulcimer and see how you like it. You can always put the string back (or use this as a opportunity to replace all the strings, which is usually a good idea).  See if you can loosen the string that's closest to you and drop it down off the side of the fretboard.  Some dulcimers have a tiny nail where you can tuck the string to keep it out of the way -- then you don't have to remove the string entirely and you can switch between 3 and 4 strings whenever you like.

The most-lazy way (and therefore my favorite!) is next time you're at a group meeting ask someone with a 3-string setup if you can borrow their dulcimer for a song or two.  Try to borrow a dulcimer that's similar to your own so it's a fair comparison.

My own preference is double-melody for drone-style in DAA or DAG tuning.  I don't have a problem with hammer-ons or pull-offs because my McSpadden's melody strings are placed very close together, the action is not ridiculously low nor too high, and the string tension is fairly tight.  Floppy strings or strings that are far apart can be a problem.  I have met some ducimers that are not good with double-melody strings and I don't blame the strings, I blame the dulcimer.

I prefer a single-melody string for chords, fingerpicking and tunings like DAD that often require melody notes on the middle string.  In these situations I don't want the melody string(s) to sound vastly different from the other strings.

But that's just me.  Try it and see what works for you.  As you continue to explore the dulcimer, you'll want to try a lot of different setups (try 4-equidistant next!)  Strings are (relatively) cheap and easy ways to experiment.

When you say "guitar tab" do you mean six-string note-by-note tablature?  Or are you looking at the leadsheets and chords-with-lyrics sheets that people on the internet call "tab"?  The chordsheets are no problem.  As Ken said, a G chord is a G chord.  We can explain more if that's what you're looking for.

Actual tablature is tricky.  It's not just that a guitar has 6 strings tuned different from a dulcimer.  It's the chromatic frets.  Unless your dulcimer is chromatic, you could figure out how to map every note on the tab to the corresponding note on dulcimer and still not be able to play it because you don't have frets in the right place. 

Look into tab software like TablEdit.  I think there's a way to enter guitar tab and convert it to standard notation.  Maybe there's a way to convert guitar tab to dulcimer tab.  Hopefully a TablEdit guru will check in here.

You might get somewhere with ukulele tab (4 strings) if you set your dulcimer up with 4 equi-distant strings and tune them DGBE. 

Another option, and perhaps the most fruitful one, is to buy all the dulcimer tab books you can find that have contemporary music (there are some).  After you've played enough tab, you'll get a better idea of how this works and you'll have more success at figuring songs out by ear. 

If the songs in G require only the four chords you mentioned, you don't need a capo.  Chances are you already know how to play two (maybe three) of these chords:

G = 013 or 335

C = 666 or 346 -- if you have a 1.5 fret then 1-1.5-3

D = 234 or any of the other D chords you know

Em = 113 or 545

For me it's easier to learn new chords without the capo, rather than transposing in my head with the capo.  When the sheet music says play a G chord, I play a G chord -- no matter what key the song is in.  But the capo/transposing chart approach works, too.  I guess the only problem is forgetting which method you're using in the middle of a song!  Not that I have ever done that...

I never did understand it when people say if you put extra frets on a dulcimer, it sounds like a guitar.  If you put extra frets on a mandolin does it sound like a guitar?  Oh wait... the mandolin already has extra frets!  So do banjos and ukuleles.  None of them sound like guitars to me. 

Now if somebody wants to make the argument that playing chords instead of drones makes the dulcimer sound like a guitar, well I still disagree but I can understand where they're coming from.

No matter what the key of the song is, the chords stay in the same place as long as you do not re-tune. 

Beginning dulcimer players are often told to re-tune every time they want to play in a different key.  But this is not necessary and it's simply not practical if you're spending an evening playing with chromatic instruments like ukes.  The better answer is to pick ONE tuning and stay there.

Most chord players choose DAD tuning and this is good for the keys of D and G, but less convenient for the uke-friendly keys of C and G.  If you intend to play with ukes often, you might consider abandoning DAD and concentrate on learning the chords for CGC or GDG instead.

Or... stay in DAD and add a 1-1/2 fret, which makes it feasible to play chords for the keys of D, G, C, F and their relative minor keys.  

As for the capo, it actually does not change where notes are located.  If you play a G chord at 3-3-5, you still play a G chord on those same frets even when there's a capo on the first fret. 

Contact the club and ask if they welcome other instruments.  A few clubs are doctrinaire about ukes-only; you wouldn't want to join them anyway, they're no fun!  Then ask for a copy of the songbook.  Like Dusty says, you'll want to study up in advance.  Look at the chords you'll need... and DO NOT PANIC.  You don't have to play on every song.  And you don't have to play every chord; you can mute the strings when there's a chord you don't know.

A beginner-friendly club in the US (where ukes are generally tuned GCEA) will mostly play in the keys of C and G.  If you show up ready to play these six chords you should be in good shape:

C major
G major
F major
D major
A minor
E minor

It's nice to add the 7th chords (C7, G7, Em7 and so on) but really they are optional.  The uke players will be adding a 7th note to some of their chords and it won't matter if you do; the notes you're playing are compatible.  You could learn the theory behind this or just take my word for it.

I play all of these chords on an MD tuned DAd with a 1-1/2 fret and 6-1/2 fret.  If you don't have a 1-1/2 fret, you can tune to CGC as Ken suggests.  Another option is to tune a short-scale dulcimer(or a baritone) to GDG which puts you in the key of G; capo at the 3rd fret for the key of C.    

We're all assuming you play chords.  When in Rome... strum chords and sing like the uke players.  It would be difficult (not impossible) to fit noter/drone into a uke club.  If you ever try it and the drones aren't working -- which they probably aren't -- you can stop playing the drone strings and play single-note melody or harmony.

If this all seems too overwhelming at first, go visit a uke club just to listen and sing along.  Talk to people and you may find others who play dulcimer (or would like to learn).  Even if you decide the club isn't a good fit for you, it can still be a good place to meet other musicians. 

CAUTION:  No matter how much you protest, they will force a uke into your hands and show you how to play a C-major chord.  My local club has two loaner ukes and we force them on restaurant customers, passersby, wait staff and children.  I swear there are neighborhood dogs who know how to play a C-major.  Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome (UAS) is a dangerous malady made even worse in conjunction with DAD/DAA.  Do not ask me how I know this.  Save yourself.

I've been dreaming of an Olympia Walkabout dulcimer for years, but I haven't sprung for one yet. https://olympiadulcimercompany.com/products/

Many "cigar box guitars" have 3 strings and a diatonic fret pattern.  The easiest ones to build have no frets at all and you play them with a slide.  Anything is possible!  http://cigarboxguitars.com/

There are a lot of decent and inexpensive baritone ukuleles on the market now.  I got a Kala "Makala" for 80 bucks at Sam Ash and it plays great.  Warm tone, nothing like a banjo-ish strumming stick.  Four strings, 19-20" VSL.  Normally tuned DGBE (like 2/3rds of a guitar) but the strings will take DGAD and (usually) DAAD tunings.  Or just remove the G string and tune it DAD.  Nylon strings instead of steel, which is a plus ergonomically. 

The chromatic fretboard is a dealbreaker for some folks, but creative use of masking tape can mark the frets to ignore (or the frets to use) and sometimes that works well enough.  I think it's worth a try, given that diatonic guitar-neck instruments with a rich sound are hard to find, while bari ukes are everywhere.

There are two ways to reach DAD from GDG. 

You can use heavier strings to go DOWN to standard DAd tuning.  A McSpadden Ginger has a 23 and 6/15" VSL.  With the recommended string sizes of .012, .016 and .026  it tunes very nicely to DAd in the same octave as a standard-sized dulcimer. 

Or you can go UP to the higher octave.  A Ron Ewing dulcimette has an 18" VSL.  With .010, .012 and .020 strings it can tune to DAD one octave above standard.  But that's high tension -- I usually tune my dulcimette down to C or Bb instead of D -- so I have doubts about taking a 22-inch VSL to the high octave unless you use very light strings (.009?).

At 22 and 1/8 inches, your backpacker can probably take Ginger strings and tuning.  I suppose I should ask the obvious questions: have you tried taking your current strings and tuning them down to DAd?  What happens?  Are they a little floppy or a total disaster?  Have you contacted Cedar Creek and asked them about strings for DAd?

ETA:  Folkcraft's FolkRoots Travel Dulcimer has a 22" VSL and uses .012, .015 and .024 for DAD in the standard octave.  There you go.

The plan:  Everything has been scanned and saved as a PDF.  Loaded into MobileSheets (Android) and the MobileSheets library has been backed up up to Dropbox.

The reality:  Some of it like that.  Some of it in 3-ring binders.  Some of it in books.  Some of it folded inside gig bags.  Some of it sitting in a pile to the left of this keyboard waiting to be scanned (where it has sat for several years).  Some of it just a browser bookmark.  Some of it heaven knows where.

The irony is, I mostly play MD by ear.  But the stuff I've been meaning to learn and the gigbooks I don't have time to memorize and the music for club meetings... well it does accumulate, doesn't it?

I need way more than 1200 pieces of music.  The uke club alone plays more than 1200 different songs in a year of weekly meetings.  And now here come the holidays!

Never hurts to ask.  Besides, won't mandolin players pay any price for an instrument?  Heheehee

That sure is a nice-looking dulcimer, though.  I wouldn't mind if a clerical error put it on my doorstep this Christmas.  I sometimes wonder if we MD players sell our instruments (and ourselves) short.  I know we're a smaller market, but asking $2 grand for a vintage handmade guitar or even an ukulele is not at all unusual.

Page 4 of this PDF has a chart showing all of the notes on all of the frets in DAC tuning.  Please note this is for some strumsticky thing so the positions of the bass vs melody string are reversed.  Still, it will show you where to find the notes to build chords up to the 11th fret:  https://www.harpkit.com/mm5/pdf/Strumbly-Chords.pdf

There are lots of DAC chords in this book, the one book that is always in my gig bag.  Don't leave home without it: https://www.melbay.com/Products/94662/dulcimer-chord-book.aspx

Or you can cheat like me.  I don't use a separate chart for DAC because I know the DAD chords pretty well.  The only difference between DAD and DAC is the melody string being tuned one step down.  Therefore, look at any DAD chord diagram, finger the bass and middle strings the same, and finger the melody string one fret higher.  Hope this helps.

Do your pets (such as a sophisticated Vizsla -- which is a good title for a song) care about the mode you're in?  Seriously!

I had a small, loyal and intense tabby cat who would lie next to me in perfect contentment when I played dulcimer.  As long as it was Ionian or Mixolydian.  If I re-tuned to Aeolian or Dorian she would stiffen up, lay her ears back in fighting position, crouch there stubbornly for a few minutes waiting for me to reconsider the error of my ways, and eventually give up on me and leave the room in a snit.  No minor modes for her!

This year I'm delegating to the next generation.  Our son's band is playing an outdoor festival this evening and we'll go to cheer him on (the fact that it is a Food Truck Festival and I'm getting hungry has absolutely nothing to do with this). 

Unfortunately, this means we're missing the block party here at home.  There's too much stuff happening in August!!  Last year the uke club declared our hangout's beer garden to be a "porch" and we played all afternoon.  But this year we played a gig Wednesday and there's a uke festival tomorrow so we were too overwhelmed to try anything today.

I may declare a local Play Music On The Porch Day in September.  I'll claim it has something to do with daylight savings time.  Come to think of it, maybe I should declare a Porch Music day every month as penance for abandoning the block party.  I feel guilty but I gotta run.  I'm gunning for a caprese grilled cheese with fresh basil, tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto mayo.  But Tamale Spaceship has confit-style duck with dried fruit mole and cranberries.  Too many events and too much food!!!  Did I mention I love August?

I hope everybody has a great Saturday night.  On the porch or elsewhere. :-)

Oops, I answered off the top of my head.  It's true the 4+ is relatively the same fret as the 1+ for your tuning.  But I forgot about how the rest of the scale maps out.  Today I got out a dulcimer and studied the modal charts here .  Assuming my poor muddled brain has it right this time, if you want to play a Dorian scale starting at the 3rd fret you will need both a 4+ fret and an 8+ fret.   

Many tunes don't use the 7th note of the scale, and it's pretty easy to bend a note in the middle of the fretboard, so you could play a lot of Dorian tunes without the 8+ fret.  Still, the 4+ fret is not as magical for CGG tuning as the 1+ is for CGC.  I see several paths forward depending on where you want to go: 

1) You could order a dulcimer with 1+, 4+ and 8+ frets (6+ optional).  This dulcimer would be specialized for Ionian 1-5-5 tunings like CGG.  You might never be able to re-sell it, but it would be quite the conversation piece. 

2) You could get a dulcimer with 1+, 6+ and 8+ frets, which is not uncommon.  Play it in CGG and see what happens.  You'd always have the option to re-tune CGC.  It's not your favorite tuning, but CGC would give you Ionian (with 6+ fret), Mixolydian (no extra frets) and Dorian (with 1+ fret) ready to go.  Not Aeolian though: for that you'd also need... here it comes... the 4+ fret!

3) Get a chromatic fretboard.  Beyond a certain point it is easier to have all the frets and be done with it. 

4) Give up on extra frets and re-tune for Dorian mode (CGF). 

5) Experiment and see which extra frets work for you.  Straighten out a paper clip and use masking tape to hold it in place where the extra fret should be.  A total kludge, but it can be fun. 

I play using 2) and 3) and 4) above on different dulcimers, in different playing styles, as the mood strikes.

Short answer: The equivalent frets for CGG tuning would be 4+ and 11+.  However, depending on the scales and chords you want to play, you might prefer 1+ and 8+ anyway.

Long answer:  For people who play in DAD/CGC tuning, the scale starts at the open 0 fret.  Adding the 1+ fret gives them a flatted 3rd note.  That note is critical for playing minor scales and very handy if you are lazy like me and you don't want to re-tune or capo every time you want to play the blues.

In DAA/CGG tuning, your scale starts at the 3rd fret.  The 1+ and 8+ frets give you flatted 7th notes.  This lets you play a Mixolydian scale without re-tuning.  If you wanted a flatted 3rd note instead, you'd need the 4+ fret.

So... do you want to add a flat 3rd or a flat 7th?  Would you rather play Dorian and blues -- or Old Joe Clark?  The easier question is how often do you wish you had a fret at 8+?  Compared to how often you wish you had a fret at 4+?  If you've never wished you had either, maybe you don't need extra frets.  How often do you re-tune now, and why?

That was all about scales.  I can't help much with chords in CGG but you get these additional notes for building chords:

E-flat and B-flat with a 1+ fret

A-flat and E-flat with a 4+ fret

Another factor to consider is the 1+ and 8+ frets are fairly common now.  You can find tab and chord charts (though mostly in DAd) and it won't be hard to re-sell a dulcimer with those frets.  The 4+ fret is less common and it will be harder to find resources and harder to re-sell.

With a noter, the slant thing like John said.

Without a noter, I pinch the string between my thumb and forefinger in the place where I wish I had a fret.  This works well if you've got fingernails that are neither too long nor too short (experiment).

As Ken said, you can skip the note or substitute another.  Try a note that harmonizes with the missing accidental -- often two frets up or down.  Whatever sounds good is good.

When in doubt, strum the chord and sing.  Your voice is chromatic :-)

If your dulcimer has high-enough action, get a metal or glass slide and play without letting the strings touch the frets -- now it doesn't matter how many frets you've got! 

If you can set your dulcimer up with 4 equi-distant strings, you can try a chromatic tuning.  I use D-A-d-c#.  This works like a piano: the white keys are on the "d" string and the black keys on the "c#."  The disadvantage is you can no longer simply strum across all the strings.  My solution is to make the chromatic string the one closest to me, so I can mute it with the heel of my thumb while fretting the other strings.  Or fingerpick without touching the chromatic string except on the accidentals.  I have done this successfully, but it is a bother and my preferred solution is...

Play a chromatically-fretted dulcimer.  Not the cheapest option and maybe not possible for you right now, but long-term it SOLVES the problem while all these other techniques are just work-arounds.  If your favorite music includes a lot of accidentals, it makes sense to use the right tool for the job.

I took a dulcimer to Uke Club last week.  It was one of our 3-chord-song nights... although we are fast and loose with the number 3.  The songs were in several keys.  I tuned Ginger to D-A-d-d (it would have worked just as well with a three-string setup) and made extensive use of the 1.5 fret. 

I played every chord in every song with no capo and no retuning.  With one exception.  I could not find a true G-minor chord (no B-flat in this tuning) so I substituted a G power chord barring the 3rd fret.  Since this was a proof of concept, I made extensive notes.  The setlist (in alphabetical order from the song packet, although we did not play them in this order):

All Shook Up (key of A)
Big Yellow Taxi (C)
Brown-Eyed Girl (G)
Chapel of Love (D)
Feeling Alright (D)

Get Back (A) -- try these barre chords...
                       4th fret for 8 counts (Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner...)
                       0 (open) for 4 counts (but he knew it couldn't...)
                       4th fret for 2 counts (last...)
                       3rd fret for 1 count
                       2nd fret for 1 count

Hound Dog (D)
Jambalaya (G)
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (C)
Love Me Do (G)

Memphis (A) -- A chord 101 and walk the bass string 1-2-3-2-1
                       E7 chord 111 and walk the middle string 1-2-3-2-1

Moonlight Bay (C)
Old Time Rock and Roll (C)
On Top of Spaghetti (G)
Pink Cadillac (G) -- Play G 013 and walk the bass between 0 and 1.5 frets
Spooky (Gm) -- Cheat the Gm as 333, play Am 446 and C-diminished is 656
Takin' Care of Business (A)
Twenty Flight Rock (A)
When Will I Be Loved? (D)
You Are My Sunshine (C)
The uke club theme song is basically Movin' On Over (G)

I did put in a few hours' practice on the days before the club meeting.  I consulted two chord books (Neal Hellman's little one and the gigantic Mel Bay spiral-bound one).  And I very deliberately chose a night when the setlist was manageable.  Tin pan alley night would require a chromatic fretboard... or the patience of a saint.

Sandi, under the circumstances, I don't have any business judging you too harshly! 

Heeheehee... us profezional editers love it anytime we can solve a problem by proofreading!  It happens so seldom...

As Ken mentioned, the Hawaiian pronunciation is different from what we typically say on the mainland.  Ooo-koo-lay-lay (like the cow says "Moo").  If you pronounce it like a Hawaiian it's easier to spell.  This is a good place for me to admit I typed "pronounciation" and would not have noticed except for the spellcheck squiggly line ;-) 

I've been on the UU forum so long, I don't remember whether it was hard for me to get approved.  "Junior Member" merely means you haven't posted much yet.  Beware UAS (ukulele acquisition syndrome) -- there are a lot of enablers on that site. 

Lyon & Healy marketed a "tenor ukulele" in 1923.  No baritone is documented before 1948, though you could plausibly argue about tiples and taro-patch guitars.  The classic 1920s sound is a soprano uke with re-entrant tuning gCEA or aDF#B.  Any uke would pass for most audiences.  I've pulled off some ren faire living history with my MD that only looks like a scheitholt if you're not a scheitholt expert -- because the only scheitholt experts I've ever met are MD players who would never out one of their own!  I have to assume there are very few people who would notice a bari uke is out of period -- and they are probably fellow travelers.

Don't worry about matching your singing voice to the uke.  If anything, contrast is good.  I sing soprano and prefer a uke that can fill in my missing low-end resonance, like a concert Fluke or a warm mahogany tenor.  My alto-singing friends often prefer a bright soprano/concert uke that adds some ringing high tones. 

Please keep us in the loop about your prohibition storytelling.  That sounds like a blast!  You know... you could add a character who makes moonshine in Kentucky, fends off the revenuers and plays... a mountain dulcimer!

I could swear we've been talking about ukuleles recently on FOTMD, maybe off in a group discussion that not everybody sees.  There are a bunch of uke players around here.  Welcome to the underground.

Somebody leads.  Different people can lead different songs if you like, but figure it out before the gig.  There's nothing worse than a bunch of musicians looking at each other like deer in the headlights, waiting for somebody, anybody to count them in.  Do not ask me how I know this!  I got so fed up with one group that I made buttons saying:

I'M THE ONE WHO CAN COUNT TO 4

and handed one out before every gig.  The leader must be fearless, ready to jump in and count the beats and name the chords like Dusty says.  "Back to the A part, three, four, here we go..."  Leading a group is a skill that takes practice, like any other skill.  Following a leader is also a skill to practice.  This could be a goal for club meetings.

One option is to get a bass player... or a drummer (one drummer)... to keep the tempo.  You need an instrument with a sound that stands out from the rest of the group so everyone can hear it.  A banjo (or a dulci-banjo) might do the trick.  If all else fails, sit someone down in the middle of the group with a 5-gallon plastic bucket and pound the beat.  Then the problem is to find the right bass/drum/banjo player.  I've been stuck with bassists who can't keep a steady rhythm and bassists who play the wrong rhythm (this is a waltz, you idiot).  If the bass has the wrong tempo there's nothing anyone else can do to save the tune because in a group with 3 dulcimers and one bass, the bass wins. 

Once you get more than 6 MD players, as Bill describes, I think you've reached the point where somebody has to conduct.  If one side is getting ahead of the other, that means they can't all hear each other.  Which means they need a visual indication -- tapping foot, waving hand.  I think pulling out a conductor's baton would be a funny bit of shtick for the audience. 

I have played gigs where we had to watch each others' strumming hands because nobody could hear the beat.  That doesn't work so well for beginners who still need to look at their fretboards, and it's hard to manage if people are using tab.  At least be sure you're sitting close together and in a semi-circle so you can all see each other.

There's a huge factor in the sound of a dulcimer that often gets overlooked: the PLAYER!  I'm not talking about skill level here (although we all know somebody who can take a $50 toy guitar and make it sound better than most people playing a Martin).  I'm talking about the wonderful variety of playing styles that make each of us unique.

Do you fret with a noter or your fingers?  Strum with a quill or a pick?  Flatpicking?  Fingerpicking?  Fingernails or pads?  At what angle does your pick/quill/finger strike the strings?  Do you have a light touch or are you digging in?  Do you play at a consistent volume or do you want a wide dynamic range?

Drones? Chords? Up the fretboard in the 2nd octave? Scale boxes across all the strings? Old time? Jazz?   

If we took one dulcimer and passed it around, each of us would make that dulcimer sound different.  Plus we all have different taste (and different ears).  Sometimes at a festival I'll play two dulcimers and hear a whole world of difference between them, while my poor husband (who does not play dulcimer) does not discern any difference at all (and hence does not understand the objective fact that I need to buy just one more).

I am sure there are people who think a Carol sounds 4X better than a Gibson... maybe 100X better... and people who think the Gibson sounds better. Depending on how you play and what you're listening for, there might not be any significant difference between them.

The often-inconvenient truth is that nobody else can tell you what a dulcimer sounds like.  You have to play it and hear it for yourself. 

I bet "DAA is really Mixolydian" was a typo and they meant to say DAD.   

As for SOUND, I don't get why people think DAd sounds fundamentally different from DAA.  Think about it.  The drones are D and A no matter which tuning you've got.  The melody, which you're playing in the key of D, has the SAME notes.  You find the notes on different frets, but a C# is a C#.

In DAA you start the scale fretting the melody string at the 3rd fret; you are playing the notes D, A and d (one octave up from the bass string).  Now tune the dulcimer to DAd.  The scale starts at the open fret and once again you are playing the notes D, A and d.  The only reasons why DAA and DAd might sound different are:

1) the melody string tension is tighter when tuned up to d (if you use a different string gauge this becomes less of an issue)

2) a fretted note sounds different from an open one (particularly when using the noter to slide up into the note)

3) some dulcimers have intonation problems between open and fretted notes (fix the dulcimer)

4) the melody dips down onto the middle string more often in DAd than DAA

So OK, it sounds a little different, but not much.  I don't believe most listeners could tell the difference between DAA and DAd.  If anybody tried to tell me DAd "sounds" more traditional, I would call hogwash. 

It's worth noting that someone who's been building dulcimers for 30 years started in 1988.  They don't necessarily know beans about tradition. 

What Dusty said.  Blend in, have fun, join the songs you can play and sit out the songs you can't. 

Since you know your jam partners, it should be easy to ask them what songs they like to play and what keys they play most often :-)  Pick a few songs and practice them before the jam.  If you can only play along on one or two songs the first time you sit in, that's still a good start!

How are the ukuleles tuned?  If they're in GCEA, chances are they're playing most songs in the keys of C and G.  Those are the keys a beginner learns first.  The key of D is only a little harder; beginners won't be happy if you keep calling songs in D but intermediate players should be able to cope.

My solution for playing with ukes is to bring one dulcimer tuned GDG for the key of G and capo at the 3rd fret for the key of C.  If I didn't have a dulcimer that tunes easily to GDG, then I would tune a standard dulcimer down to CGC and capo on the 4th fret for the key of G. 

If the song's not in C or G, I'd sit it out ;-)  Or pick up a uke.  You know those ukes are going to suck you in eventually

Maybe this helps?  http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/2010/05/18/3-smooth-ways-to-change-key/

What I'm getting from it, essentially, is the chord sequence C  G  Am  C7  F

Although to my ears it sounds fine to play the tune in C, strum the C chord for a measure, strum an F chord for a measure, and then start playing the tune in F.  The C and F chords are common to both keys.