Benjamin,
My main dulcimer has no 6-1/2 fret. I use DAA as my home base tuning. For A tunes, I put a false nut under the bass string at the first fret-- a quick way to change tuning to EAA. For G tunes, I go to DGG. Some tunes won't lay-out right in these tunings, so I can either sit them out or just play some basic back-up rhythms.
Benjamin,
You can play rhythm when playing back-up. I love to do this in a jam! And it's fun to get creative with rhythms. Since the dulcimer isn't loud, you can experiment. . .
Hey, I"m still here too! I'll follow this thread as long as I can draw breath. :)
How about Dock Boggs's "Calvary" ? It's about the grimmest Easter song I know. Lyrics are here , The Carter Family and lots of others, Ralph Stanley among the, recorded it as "On a Hill Lone and Gray" with a different and far less spooky tune.
It's also out there in an earlier and greatly lengthened version as "There's a Hill Lone and Grey". Beverly Francis Carradine published it in 1896 with a tune that resembles the one that the Carters used later.
Dock's version reads like a classical murder ballad. In the first few bars, Dock's tune resembles the one he used for "Reuben's Train". I'd love to find out more about the tune if anyone knows.
Dock's tuning is supposed to bef#CGAD (according to Don Zepp).
Ouch! (but maybe true Robin)
John
or minor repairs, you might as well 
it 
! 
And I want to hear her play that Ledford!
If he takes down Dirge for Dana, we just might have to head across the ocean-- we can either fly
or swim
--and persuade him
to put it back up.
Cool, Robin!
For old-time Appalachian tunes, Dwight Diller's play does something for me. Although I don't own a banjo, I have 2 of his cd's and 2 dvd's; one of the dvd's is instructional and it's about rhythm.
Although I'm a Reds' fan, I'm happy for the Tribe.
Although I don't think of playing dulcimer as competitive sport, contests have been a part of community musical get-togethers for a long time. So, I think of contests as being part of a tradition.
I've never competed and don't know whether I would or not. If the atmosphere of a given competition was light-hearted, friendly, maybe. . .
Kendra,
Yup, Amazing Grace or Southwind. . . Please let me know the preferred keys for the tunes and I'll see what I can do.
Wish you could come, Stephanie!
Got it, Kendra! I'll fiddle around with Old Joe Clark & Golden Slippers on the BD and make some kind of noise.
Mark and I will probably play together (guitar & BD) for my demo if that's okay. (I've been struggling with neck problems for months and that's curtailed my music play of late, doggone it.
)
I think you all had it worse in far southern Ohio than we did, Kendra. Our satellite internet goes out when there's heavy rain and, surprisingly, we had working internet through most of April and May.
Won't be long 'til Coshocton!
Jim, we were at the shop a couple hours. Randall did a little shopping before he left and we did, too. (I love my Snark tuner and I got a neat jamming stool that Gary built.)
Yup, we've got to meet somewhere down the road. And get in some jamming.
Sounds like a great meet Robin (now where have I seen a tee shirt similar to yours before..............LOL)
John
It was so neat to meet Randall! He, Gary Sager, Mark and I jammed for awhile upstairs at Gary's shop-- what fun. (I feel lucky to have gotten to jam with such good players!) Not only that, Randall took a couple of requests; talk about a beautiful, smooth baritone voice. . .
Mark took this picture before Gary got to the shop:
I hope it does, anyway.
Great photo, Jim! You two guys look like you just got everything you'd circled in the Sears Wish Book for Christmas. 
Tomorrow it's mine and Mark's turn to meet Randall.
! I love that it's so sensitive.
I can't go wrong with red or blue. And I'll be at Gary's Prussia Valley shop tomorrow-- I get to meet Randall McKinnon there!
My biggest complaints about the tuner I use most now (Tune Tech clip-on) are a rattling button and the tuner's not as sensitive as I'd like it to be 
.
Thanks, everybody!
I appreciate the replies, friends!
Mark and I are thinking we'd like to get Snarks. For my part, the tuners we have just aren't sensitive enough. It's not bad when you're in a quiet place so can fine tune by ear. But lots of places aren't quiet . . .lol
Red or blue?
Hmm. Seems like I can't go wrong either way. I'll be using the tuner on both mountain dulcimer and bowed dulcimers.
That looks like so much fun! (I've only watched the first video and will watch the second one some other time-- line speed tonight's not all that great.) It was impressive that so many people knew what they were doing-- and if they didn't they made it look good.
It'd be neat to learn to dance. I was raised in a church where dancing was a no-no.
I learned lots of great hymns, though. And I wish I could dance. Maybe someday!
John,
I'm afraid you're on your own with this one! Perhaps you & John K should arm wrestle to settle this.
John Henry said:
WHO..... ME ? What have I done? (except use a noter !) I try to help people where possible......... sometimes complement them on their dress sense......... always apologise for my inept use of the computer, and yet get landed with the troublemaker label !!! I really must find out who the moderators on this site are.........!
JohnH
One thing about moderating is it's a job we want to be boring. Free exchange of ideas and musical friendships are what we want to flourish here!
It's been really fun to see the site develop. I stumbled onto FOTMD very soon after Strumelia put it up-- if I remember right, there were yet no discussions (or maybe one), no groups, no videos.
PS-FOTMD is a Great Group!
Doug, I look forward to hearing "The Winding Banks of Nith"!
Last year, Mark and I played the open stage at Harmony Harvest dulcimer festival in Lancaster OH. How it came to be? Mark's sister, Jane, a singer/songwriter, had been asked to play a gig at Marietta College. (Thirty-plus years ago, when in college, the two of them performed together a lot.) Jane wanted to play at Marietta and wanted her big brother to play with her. Mark agreed to do so and, with that looming on his calendar, Mark said he wanted to play the open stage at Harmony Harvest. And since Harmony Harvest is, after all, a dulcimer festival, some kind of dulcimer needed to figure into it.
We practiced and played a couple tunes-- Huntin' the Buffalo and Star of the County Down -- with Mark on guitar and me on bowed dulcimer. The audience was enthusiastic and encouraging!
I'd been playing bowed dulcimer about a year and a half before getting on a stage to play. (I'd bowed a mountain dulcimer in the fashion of a bowed dulcimer for some months before getting my first bowed dulcimer.)
folkfan,
Until we put in a free-standing gas stove a couple years ago I was cold a lot of the year. Now, I go to the stove to get warm and since it has a glass front (a type of ceramic, actually) if you want to sit by it to read, you can see the flame. It's really nice how, along with some other improvements made to the house to keep heat in/cold out, last winter our highest heating bill was about $140 and we were warm.
Sharon's candles sound wonderful!
