I got the opportunity to play an autoharp once. It belonged to a family friend who would play it and sing when my father was a kid. A couple of the pads had been damaged over time, and it took QUITE a while to tune up, but the ethereal brightness of the sound is unlike any other instrument I've heard. Such a beautiful sound.
Nate
Hi, Nate, I'm the other Ken. Here is a link to an NPR segment on the Lego dulcimer made by Peter Alway: https://www.npr.org/2005/02/06/4487244/lego-my-dulcimer As far as I know Peter was the first person to build a mountain dulcimer out of Lego blocks.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song.:
Cardboard dulcimers have been around close to 20 years, I'd guess. They sound remarkably good and are a great inexpensive choice as an entry level dulcimer for folks who aren't sure whether the dulcimer is right for them... The important thing is that the frets are set true, the body material is of secondary consideration. In fact the fretboards can be easily transferred to an 'after-market' wooden body which almost anyone can easily construct. I've played plexiglass and Lego(tm) dulcimers that sound good as well.
Hi everyone, looking to buy some strings for my Warren May dulcimer, takes ball end. In his papers that came with the dulcimer he notes .012, .012, .014 and .022 for the string sizes. Most of the “sets” I’m seeing are different gauges or are loop end. I went to d’addario web site to look at just getting individual strings but the options were a bit overwhelming. Any suggestions?
As I have noted before, there is still a culture of "cigar box" instrument makers, many of whom are now making instruments with electric pickups. I suspect that wood from shipping boxes for various imports was used because it was available in usable "thinnesses."
Nate said "I assume the original developers of dulcimers were very innovative folks who were applying the concepts of older zithers to the materials they had in the Appalachians. This makes it hard for me to tell the difference between deliberate choices made by the 'masters of old' and choices made purely out of necessity. It's hard for me to imagine that they would have used staple frets if they had access to fretwire."
You have to remember that those "innovative folks...applying the concepts of older zithers...": were not consciously doing anything.
They were random, scattered individuals who heard and/or saw an instrument someone had -- who in turn had seen/heard someone else's instrument... back through time to the zitters which came over in the late 1500s/early 1600s. There probably were no Euro-trained luthiers among the Moravians, the builders to follow were trying to replicate instruments that had come from the old country. -- out of necessity. Staple frets of the early 19th century were the high-tech of the time. prior to that there were wood/bone/ivory inlaid frets or the tied gut frets of Lutes. Mushroom frets weren't invented until the mid 1800s in Europe.
This is a terrific thread and I remember reading it a few years ago when I first started dulcimer. I thought I had small hands when I first started playing, just because I couldn't make chord shapes.
It also didnt help anything that my first dulcimer had a 29" vsl. Still, I played it and got used to big stretches and then I started making dulcimers with smaller VSLs. I was able to make much bigger stretches much more comfortably.
So is the lesson that playing on a hard instrument makes easy ones easier? Or is it that I could have had much less struggle and discomfort by only playing on a smaller dulcimer?
It brings up the question of how much I want to physically challenge myself vs how much I just want to enjoy playing.
Now, I'm convinced I have pretty big hands, but I still prefer a 23" VSL to anything longer. I have a couple years of practice stretching my hands, but there are still really long stretches that I wouldn't want to try on a 29" VSL.
At one point I really wanted to play more challenging music, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of having an easy, comfortable time playing less challenging music. Obviously both are valid. 
I think the big thing is that no one should ever convince themselves that they can't play a longer VSL instrument because of small hands, but making stretches on a shorter VSL instrument is still a lot more comfortable.
Nate
I have a CD of Sona Jobarte playing the Kora. It's really beautiful, but looks incredibly difficult!
Robin, I have gotten value from your posts and am glad to see you back. Merry Christmas to you, as well.
Nate
I have been working on a dulcimer made from goodwill materials only. Metal cans and trays plus wooden cigar boxes for the body, toothpicks frets, and eye bolt tuners. The fingerboard is just a 1/4" thick and 1.5" across strip of poplar. I am out of town but plan on finishing it as soon as I return. The whole thing will end up costing about 5$ and wont require any actual instrument parts. I've been having a lot of fun lately learning ways to make very accessible dulcimers that can be built without many tools and hardware, and with very little knowledge or skill.
[quote="shanonmilan"]
[/quote] Does it also make it sound better that you use a specially coated string?
[/quote]
Shanon, each material sounds slightly different, but I don't personally think any sound better than any others.Some are magnetic, which is useful for a dulcimer with electric pickups. Some use fancier metals under the premise that they sound better, but I personally like the different sounds of all string types. Maybe a more refined ear would hear more of a difference.
Nate
My uncle just gave me one of his banjos! It's something I've always wanted to learn.
I have no evidence for this, but I suspect that many things we might consider 'traditional' now were done out of necessity at the time. This has always been a bit of a paradox for me. I assume the original developers of dulcimers were very innovative folks who were applying the concepts of older zithers to the materials they had in the Appalachians. This makes it hard for me to tell the difference between deliberate choices made by the 'masters of old' and choices made purely out of necessity. It's hard for me to imagine that they would have used staple frets if they had access to fretwire. Similarly, I have a personal hypothesis that noters were invented to allow a player to keep playing on super old grimy strings.
In both cases, the choices they made then shape what we consider to be the "dulcimer sound" and the "role of the dulcimer." I imagine that over 100 years ago, people may have made themselves all sorts of improvised zithers based on concepts they learned from European instruments. Probably what we consider 'traditional' are the ones that lasted long enough to be documented, but I suspect that with a time machine, we could go back and see all sorts of different 'dulcimers' with different features and roles. Mostly I think it's human nature to evolve and adapt, and I suspect that if you could bring those innovative inventors to the modern day, they would probably be ecstatic to hear how much the instrument has developed and grown.
It is interesting to think that at a time when European antecedents were 'traditional,' at one point the dulcimer was probably considered an innovative new thing. I wonder if there were once epinette players who saw new fancy zitters shaped like violins with heart shaped soundholes and looked down on them for not being traditional.
Your real question is too big for me to answer, but I'm sure some folks on here definitely could. If you havent already I recommend joining the Dulcimer History group
https://fotmd.com/ken-longfield/group/38/mountain-dulcimer-history-traditions
and the Dulcimer Ancestors group
https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group/14/dulcimer-ancestors
You can test if it is sulfur based oxidation by doing this, (it works primarily on sterling but you can give it a try...........)
You need.......
a ceramic bowl lined with aluminum foil, shiny side up
a tablespoon of baking soda
a tablespoon of salt and some hot water.
Put just enough water in the bowl to dissolve the baking soda and salt and cover the item you want to clean up.
stick the silver thing in it and see if the sulfur flakes off after a few minutes and moves to the aluminum foil. Dry whatever you stuck in there with a towel and see what you have. I know some jewelry folk put the soda and salt on the item and then pour the water on it.......my sister used to add tiny bit of dish soap on her sterling Native American Jewelry at the shop she had years ago, then buffed it up. She said it takes a bit of practice to get the consistency correct but it works after about 5-15 minutes of soaking as I recall.
Is a dulcimer with maple top, sides and back considered to be a good sounding, durable dulcimer?
Well Ken, I'd suppose that is 6 years of skill developed!
Dusty - Thank you! That works for me. Off to pick up a capo.
Hey Brad, don't forget that dulcimer capos work a bit differently than guitar capos. Plenty of folks make nice dulcimer capos, but you can also use a pencil/chopstick/crochet hook fastened to the fretboard with a piece of string tied around the box of the dulcimer. I personally use a C clamp with a wine bottle cork super glued to the side of it
Nate
6 strings provide a fuller "choral" sound. In my opinion, if you are doing a lot of chording, it is much more comfortable with three strings. If you are playing noter drone, more strings often make for a fuller sound. If you are mostly fretting on the melody string, you might consider leaving "courses" (aka 2 strings right next to eachother) for the middle and bass string, or just a "course" for the bass string. I usually play with three strings, and a lot of other folks do as well, but I personally prefer the sound of the extra strings, though it is more difficult. I hope you have a lot of fun exploring this instrument, and there is no harm in removing strings if you prefer to play that way.
Nate
I have always found the appropriation of dream catchers pretty amusing. Many tribes believe that spider web charms need to be periodically purged through ritual, as they attract and accumulate negative spirits. In Hupa culture, 'dreamcatchers' are associated with a protective spider spirit who is also a moon spirit, and therefore, spiderweb charms are purged through a ritual once every full moon.
I suspect most people who buy them at tchotchke shops are not aware of these sorts of details and are effectively just attracting negative energy to themselves, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Of course, most "dreamcatchers" are just woven mandalas with some feathers and beads glued to the edges and couldn't even be used as a spider web charm. For example, most tribes believe that a spider web charm needs to have a specific number of terminating points along its hoop, typically 12.
I suspect most people who buy them don't actually subscribe to any sort of native american spiritualism, and don't really care one way or the other.
That is a cool tip Dusty, thanks for sharing.
I'd like to develop a better ear for tuning. If I use my keyboard to tune my dulcimer then check it with a tuner, I can get the bass string pretty close, but the higher pitches are up to 35 cents off. And thats after spending a few minutes plucking back and forth. I can usually hear the 'beating' of the frequencies being slightly different, but can't really tell whether I need to tune up or down to fix it
I've wondered a lot if the music that I listens to "untrains" my ears. I listen to quite a bit of blues from 1920-1950 and a LOT of it is only "relative tuned" from the top string down. I've never been good at all at knowing whether a note is flat or sharp, and if a note is flat or sharp it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the music. Starting to think I might have permanently screwed up my pitch perception
The seller accepted my offer, and it should be here someitime next week. It’s thought to be an M8, built somewhere in the neighborhood of 1984 from walnut (back and sides) with a spruce top.
https://fotmd.com/image/image/image_file/312/original>
Nate -- build a dulcimer out of 1/8" plexiglass... I played one once -- sounded decent anyway.
At the risk of making light of a serious situation, a dulcimer full of muddy water sounds like something I'd like to try playing. I have been wanting to try to make a dulcimer that is entirely coated in a waterproof finish, inside and out, and let it "soak" to see if anything happens.
Thank you very much shanon! I'm already having a lot of fun with it :)
Thats pretty interesting. Does the red rub off on your finders while practicing?
That is super cool Salt. I couldn't find one that was Hupa or Wiyot, but this Yurok flute may have been similar to the ones my ancestors heard, since there was a lot of cultural overlap.
I hadn't heard of the
"Aquila 11B red series" but the product description says "Nylgut made firstly elastic and then added with red copper powder in order to increase the density to about twice that of standard white Nylgut"
which I found really interesting. Id be curious to know whether they feel like metal or plastic to the touch.
Thanks for sharing salt, these are cool. To my sensibilities, different tribes had different flutes and "Native American flute" is just a general term for one style of flute that some tribes made, which has been adapted into a western instrument.. Obviously pre-colombian flutes were not in A440, so that makes most "native American flutes" I've seen "cultural appropriation." The flutes I've seen in tribal museums, as well as the Musical Instrument Museum were often visually and functionally very different from each other. If it were built traditionally, I would expect the name of a tribe and not just "native American."
And Irene, I really look forward to seeing that dulcimer!
That is interesting Steve. It seems pretty silly to me but this is America and we do love to sue. As I was trying to look into it more, it seems like the native American flute got loopholed into being included as an "American Indian craft" just due to its name, since the instrument was called such for quite a while before that law was written. Still silly to me though, that someone would see the descriptor "native American" and directly assume that it must have been made by a real one, let alone it happening so often they passed a law lol. The flute herself does not know or care whether she is native American or native American style. Either way that law is interesting.
Nate
I often use mandolin strings on my dulcimer, which are phosphor bronze. At my local music shop, they are only a dollar more than the pack of dulcimer strings but come with 2 of each gauge. They are basically the same gauge as dulcimer strings, and the extra 2 thickest strings can be tuned a fifth lower than the root note, so with one pack you could string up a 4 string dulcimer Dadd and a 3 string dulcimer AEa, or whatever tunings suit your VSL.
Nate
Steve, I believe "native American flute" just denotes the origin of the style of the flute, not that specific flute. To me it's a bit like saying you have to be French to build a French horn, English to build an English concertina, or Appalachian to build an Appalachian dulcimer.
Some people might actually agree with that last one
In general an instrument built for steel strings will have less volume and sustain when using nylon strings. This is because nylon strings are typically at a much lower tension, and dulcimers made for nylon strings are typically lighter, in order to be more responsive. The strings will eventually stop stretching and will keep their tune. If youre not happy with the tone you might be best off sticking to metal strings. I do like silver coated strings, as well as plain steel. I dont know much about nickel allergies and how careful you have to be, but I also used cobalt strings one time and gold coated strings another and found the tone nice for both.
Thanks a ton to both of you for the positive encouragement! So far I've been keeping the headstock tuner turned on while I practice scales, so I can adjust. Ive never been great at knowing if I'm in tune so this will be a big challenge for me.
Ken, I've become a bit of an instrument hoarder and I probably own more instruments than anyone could master in a lifetime, so I get what you mean. The fiddle is one that I feel more motivation for than other instruments so I finally bought myself a beginner model. I am hoping some stuff I learned on mandolin can transfer over
Nate
Haha I like that dusty. I must be a fast learner because it only took me about 30 seconds to be bad at it
Ive just started learning fiddle! It's the one instrument that Ive always wished I was really good at, if I could pick one. Guess it's finally time to get that ball rolling!
Nate
