Forum Activity for @yeahsureok

Practice tips

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thanks all, for the great info. I actually learned to enjoy playing scales. I treat thrm like melodic walk ups, similar to what I do on bass guitar. I got Aaron O'Rourke's book Faster, Cleaner, Better for a Christmas gift. Looking forward to delving into it.
I also like the advice someone gave of breaking a song I want to learn into small sections, and focusing learning one section at a time, beginning with the hardest.

Brass instruments

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

That's cool. My dad, a piano virtuoso, recently got a Native American Flute. I tried my hand at it. That's a challenging little instrument.

Brass instruments

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

Are there any other brass instrument players out there? I've played the trumpet on and off since I was 12. One interest of mine, as a hardwired experimentalist, is trying to figure out jazz/classical tunes on dulcimer and folk tunes on trumpet. I'm not great at it, and it's probably not for everybody, but it's alot of fun, and I actually get some pretty cool results every once in a while. 

Practice tips

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I'm trying to commit myself to a more faithful and effective practice regimen for this year. Out of curiosity,  I would love to hear about other people's favorite warmup and skillls/technique building exercises, or any other favorite practice tips.

updated by @yeahsureok: 01/04/20 04:36:52PM

Your Three Favorite Songs

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

My 3 favorites that I play are
Amazing Grace
Angels We Have Heard On High
Sweet Child Of Mine (an extremely simplified version)

Another song I've been working on that's been a lot of fun trying to learn is Happy Day by David Crowder.

Low priced kits

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Who all makes a decent quality dulcimer kit for a low price, preferably under $150?

So I have been having trouble with my rhythm/strumming technique. I was going to post a question but first thought I'd search the forums.
Love this thread. It addressed my problems and then some. I know it's a 5 yr old thread now, but I wanna say thanks, anyway, to everyone who contributed here.

Techniques for accidentals

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Strumelia. Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm nowhere near the player I'd like to be. Been at it off and on for 2 yrs. I spend a lot of my down time at work studying up on theory and techniques and watching youtube videos. But I have such a hectic schedule that I don't get to practice as regularly as I'd like. I can play a lot of melodies, but I continue to stink at rhythm strumming and fills. I'm gonna keep working at it, though.

P.S. Loved the Bob Ross reference...lol.

Techniques for accidentals

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thanks for all the great advice, everyone. Most of what I play is hymnals, southern gospel, contemporary christian, and american and irish folk. To a lesser degree, I've enjoyed attempting Glenn Miller era swing/big band, classical, bluegrass and orchestral film scores. There are a few secular pop and rock songs I've added to my repoirtire but not many.
I've so far ran into accidentals mostly in film scores, specifically the themes from Back To The Future and Pirates of the Caribbean. I will be playing around with all these different approaches. I'm especially intrigued to try the turning the noter on it's edge thing.
On the subject of the chromatic issue, I wouldn't say that I care about what people think as much as I tend to get curious about how people form their opinions. Although it's not really any of my business I suppose. But, yeah, I just wondered if people found the playability especially problematic or if some people are just die hard traditionalists. Either eay, I'll probably still get me a chromatic at some point, just cause I want one to experiment with.

Techniques for accidentals

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I was wondering, some of the songs I like to play have accidentals in them, and I was wondering what different peoples approaches to getting around that.

I am familiar with different modes of tuning to get the specific notes you want. I have tried a few that have served me well, but I'm not a big fan of retuning my dulcimer so often for different songs.

I have also experimented with string bending, which I really enjoy and I love the twangy sound effect it can make. It is more difficult on the melody string, being double coursed, but I'm working on it. Anyway, I'm just curious about other people's approaches.

I like the idea of buying a fully chromatic instrument, but it isn't in my budget at the moment.....and many people condemn them, which I don't understand. I have read  some people say they tried one but the extra frets caused problems. So.....?

Also, if it's useful info, my playing style is about 25% noter drone and 75% chord melody. I also just started trying out fingerstyle.

updated by @yeahsureok: 07/15/18 01:15:06PM

Song choices for transcribing

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Just a poll, and I hope this question makes sense. When making instrumental arrangements of a vocal/lyrical song, like any given country, rock, or pop song, does anyone feel that certain types of songs, with certain compositional attributes, make for better instrumentals, or can literally anything make for a beautiful or interesting instrumental with the right arrangement?