Will do (check out the group). I've seen Jessica Comeau's videos. I have her book, and she says she usually uses bare fingers but also sometimes uses those fingerpick things. That woman is from another planet, such beautiful playing!
That's one of the things I love about the dulcimer. It looks like a relatively simple instrument, but there are seemingly endless layers to playing it. Your various answers sure prove that!
I checked out videos for both Ms. Brockinton and Ms. Zanetti. Wow. That is the sound I'm looking for--it is a bit more subtle than with the pick, but the notes still ring out/articulate beautifully. I think I need to get more up on the fingertip, try some snap and perhaps some nail. The way I was doing it was dulling the sound. I'd like to also fingerpick on my guitar.
@ferrator, I tend to slide my thumb, too. Got a small callus on the side so far, near the nail. I would love to fingerpick. I use a pick, not noter. What's the trick? Leave right-hand nails just a little longer and orient the fingers to use the nails against the strings? The finger per se leaves such a dull sound...
This thread is cracking me up, too! @ferrator, how did you acquire the "callus stripe"? Just years of use, or some specific event not unlike a frying pan?
We were trapped for several days last week with snow and ice. Not a huge amount of snow, but the ice... This is a bad place for snow (Seattle and suburbs), with all the hills and bridges. And our street is not maintained by the city, so it's dig, dig, dig. I used to live in Minnesota--at least it's built for snow there.
Love days where I have nowhere I must go and can hang around the house and do what I enjoy--like today. I do not love days where I *can't* get out. That just scares me.
The iron skillet trick--now that is harsh. I'm starting to feel calluses building on my left fingertips from playing the guitar I got last month. Already sacrificed my long nails for the dulcimer a year ago...
It's getting so I feel frustrated/cheated on days I can't get to my dulcimer, or can only get to it for a few minutes!
Thanks! Only a little over a year ago, I decided to make a cardboard dulcimer more as an art/craft project, and if it was fun/easy to play, bonus. Who knew it would lead to all this? I'm having SO MUCH FUN!
So, I could just barely manage a 1-2-4 on my first dulcimer, the cardboard one. On my second dulcimer, the Cedar Creek walnut kit I built, the VSL is longer, and so a 1-2-4 was pretty much impossible. I got an acoustic guitar a few weeks ago and have been learning that. I was idly noodling on the walnut dulcimer while waiting for something, and was doing some chord shapes from a Bing Futch video I'd watched. And I landed the 1-2-4! Shocked, I tried again. Yep, I can make it now! I've found that the guitar requires more strength/agility in my left/fretting hand than I previously had, and I think the additional strength I've already gained gave me the ability to open my hand that wide and land the 1-2-4. Exciting! As a side note, I'm finding that learning the guitar has given me new revelations about the dulcimer, and coming to the guitar from the dulcimer has helped me pick up the guitar more readily than I think would have happened otherwise. It's all good!
YOWZA! Vicious table saw! I'm doing much better already. I tend to heal fast, and now I have a nice coating of NewSkin on there. That stuff is great! It did not sting, probably partly due to the fact that it was no longer a fresh wound, and also b/c I found a formula that also claimed to have a topical analgesic in it.
LOL! I'm on the computer a lot for work, and I am very, very swift at typing. That first morning, I had a really clumsy/hasty attempt at a bandage and so the finger was knocking into other keys when I typed. Annoying! Slimmed down the bandage and got my speed back. But no way could I have fretted with that tip. Best to not damage ones hands in the first place! 
Thanks! I'm going to get some of that skin glue. The slice is on a really difficult spot to try to bandage. If anyone would understand or know what to do, it's you all!
So I was getting ready for work yesterday, and then I sliced the tip of my ring finger on the edge of a crisp file folder. Sliced it real good. Amid frantically trying to stop the bleeding so I could get out and make my bus, I thought to myself, thank heavens it's not on my fretting hand.
You know that dulcimer's got a grip on you when you start thinking like that!
Not only that, I recently bought a lovely black Fender acoustic guitar for when I want "all the notes." Trying to learn that as well.
Can't disappoint my stringed friends by not being able to play!
Was a nice day, weatherwise, for PMOTPD here just east of Seattle. I got out on the deck and went through all the music I have that I can even remotely play, then improvised for a bit. Saved enough juice to jam with my parrot Waldo indoors a little later, before it was time to start dinner. I had no idea this existed--fun excuse to get out there and play in the fresh air (while we still have nice weather)!
Thanks, Skip--now I can rest, knowing that I've not lost my marbles or that I'm missing something. Space saver makes total sense. I was trying to study one of my instruction books and realized hey, wait, that should be lower, and thought I had totally misunderstood where I was supposed to be on the scale. Phew!
Ann, no, I meant when there is tab that also has the musical notes displayed, the notes in the treble clef have the D above middle C as the note you're playing when you play the bass D string open. So it's like the notes are an octave higher for printing purposes than they truly are...make more sense?
Ken, thanks for confirming the D3, A3, D4 notation. I have a tuner app on my phone that has a dial-like (circular) interface, but uses that notation to depict octaves.That was hard for me to get used to, since I picture octaves linearly, like a piano.
The thing that confuses me is that most tab will show open D on the bass as the D right above middle C, so an octave higher than I would expect. This confuses me when I'm trying to adapt other music to the dulcimer and make my own tab. I am going to presume this is done for visual ease as opposed to absolute accuracy??? And I should just "center" any music within the octaves I have and go for it, if that makes sense.
Hi, I'm Lisa. I fell into the dulcimer completely by accident, and fairly recently. I like making things and my BF keeps teasing me about making a harpsichord for him when I/he retire. Last November, I thought it wise to start with something smaller, and looked on the Internet. Hah, I could make a cardboard dulcimer! Not costly, and I could paint it with my own design. If something terrible happened, not a lot lost. Oh, and they said it was easy to play, so maybe I could try playing it.
So I made one from Backyard Music. Sounds pretty good for a basic cardboard guy. Painted it with an art deco motif, forest green and peach. And I started to play. And it was fun...and...
Then I wanted to try building a solid wood one. Finally gave in and ordered a black walnut kit from Cedar Creek Dulcimers. I was terrified--such nice wood to screw up! But I did it, and I love it! And wow, the sustain with solid walnut.
I love the dulcimer because there are so many ways to play it (noter, pick, fingers, melody string only, strum only, pick individual notes, chords), seems like you can keep learning and trying new things nearly endlessly. Took the cardboard one on vacation to Canada recently. Got to sit by the side of a lake we had all to ourselves (camping) and just improvise. Wonderful! (Cardboard one is good to take where there is a chance of getting a ding...)
Hello all,
This is my first post--I'm very excited to be here! The dulcimer bug has me firmly in its grasp...
I have a Backyard Music cardboard dulcimer I made several months ago, as well as a Cedar Creek Walnut Classic I built more recently. I initially strung up the walnut one in DAD, and found the melody strings very, very hard to press down. Tuned it down to DAA and that's much better. I got several different sets of strings in different gauges with the intent of optimizing the cardboard guy to DAA and the walnut to DAD (has 6 1/2 fret, so better to take advantage of that for DAD).
While I'm not afraid of restringing, I don't want to do it every 10 minutes, either. The question I have is whether I can swap strings between the two or, more generally, if it's OK to reuse strings if they aren't too old, or if once you string them, you should not attempt to restring them. (And while I'm at it, how old is old?)
Thanks!
