Forum Activity for @rob-n-lackey

Shoot, just call it the biggest until someone proves you wrong!

Talk about the long & the short of it.... oh and the big dulcimer and little dulcimer make a nice contrast, too. LOL Sorry, Kevin, if I were taller than you then I might be picking on you. Looks great; sure y'all had a lot to talk about.

Stephanie, I love the look of that Presnell, but I'd rather hear it .

I'm with Dusty! That thing's absolutely beautiful!

• Large hourglass, 4 string with scruggs tuners on a flat head. butternut top with either walnut or mahogany back & sides. Actually Scruggs tuners may not be a necessity. I sure would like to try them though.

• By large... I really mean deep

• full frets, 6 1/2

• soundholes... top - star; bottom - weeping hearts.
• Natural, matte, satin (whatever you call it) finish

Never heard of a proper name for the bunch of dulcimers. So may I suggest a "strum" of dulcimers.

Rob

Helen..... I have no idea what the woods are, but the turquoise is inlaid on the head, fingerboard and the spacers for the double back. If you look at the pictures on my page, you'll see it there. It needs a little work on the nut to be where I like them, so I'm thinking, just thinking mind you, about letting it go.

Oh, and my Indian flutes don't bother the dog as much as it does some of the cats LOL

Like that Heatherwood, do you, CD? It's a head-turner all right. I should play it more, but I think I want to have the nut and bridge notched for 4 equidistant. It hadn't been played much at all when I got it, so I don't think it really has opened up yet. Oh yeah, 3 Indian flutes... one cedar and 2 traditional Cherokee reed flutes, 1 six hole, 1 5 hole.

Well, I guess I'll join in:

1. Fred Martin all mahongany teardrop, my first (and only one) bought new from the maker.

2. William Wylie hourglass (in my avatar) my 2nd bought at the Patty Looman estate auction.

3. Paul Denk all poplar (I think) my 1st ebay purchase. The rest are in no particular order

4-6 Hughes Dulcimer Company... 2 full size, one small one.

7. Dixon, Korean, Very well made, I think, on the "Shellnut pattern."

8. Jim Good, 5 string, Walnut hourglass with pegs from 1976, pawn shop find

9. Jim Good, Butternut carved archtop, no serial number, may be the 1st one, music/antique shop find.

10. Heatherwood... 4 string, sassafras and walnut, ship on the "medallion"

11. Keith Young standard 4 string hourglass... believe it's spruce & walnut, my go-to, absolute favorite.

12. Hourglass only signed with initials, back & sides may be mahogany.

13. Folkcraft cherry teardrop

14. Capritaurus... very early has pegs not geared tuners

15. Turquoise inlayed 3 string unsigned

16. John D Tignor... Old cumberland style 3 string

17. John D Tignor... Later, larger style 4 string (doubled melody.)

18. Unknown Maker... small hourglass supposedly WV made.

19. Unknown Maker.... had partial fret for 6 1/2, so had Kevin Messenger add the partial 1/2 frets John Molineux uses.

20. Dulcimer Factory

21. Herbert Marsh - from Philippi WV

22. Keith Johnson poplar & walnut small hourglass

23. Don Gardner redwood & Cherry Teardrop

24. Bob Edson all walnut hourglass

26-30. Various unknown makers.

31. Paul Pyle, "Mockingbird" small, walnut hourglass

I also have 18 guitars, 7 steel guitars, 3 banjos (tenor, gourd, open-back with pegs,) 3 mandolins, 1 fiddle, various harmonicas, etc, a 2 row diatonic, button accordion. I think this is it.

I started out with GAS and have ended up with DAD. Anyone want to buy a dulcimer LOL

Well, DGd tuning didn't sound too good with a noter. Not bad with chords tho'. So I got out the Jim Good archtop, put it Jim's G tuning (high b G d dd) and tried it and it's not bad. So, I bow to the wisdom of Randy and Dave using the 155 tuning!

Abby, there have been at least 3 books of fiddle tunes: 2 by Lois Hornbostel (a member here,) and one by the late Jean Schilling. I'll check them tonight and see if that tune is in either of them. There are a lot of books which have some fiddle tunes, Neal Hellman has several, Leo Kretzner, and others.

Rob

Ok... I found the sheet music on-line, in G. So I'm going to try to tab it out in DGd tuning.

I just keep an old metal folding chair in the trunk of the car. lt works

That's great, Terry. Keep up the good work!

Well, that's a shame. It's hard to imagine such an established company as they had having to close.

The hourglass one looks really nice. Not a bad price but shipping is a touch high. I think the teardrop is way too high, because, I think, and I'm not sure, it's what they call their beginner model, which wasn't that expensive new (If I remember correctly.)

Beth, If you go to www.robertforce.com you can download his book In Search of the Wild Dulcimer in pdf format. It's a great book and one which will help add to the explanations you have already gotten here. Keep pickin'

Rob

I guess the question is, is D too high or too low for you? C is only 1 step lower than D or 5 1/2 steps higher. Try this for an experiment. If you're in DAd, tune the middle string down to G. You can then see if G is a better key for you than D. We can have a better idea of where to go after that.

Rob

Dusty,

That was one of the most beautiful duet arrangements I've ever heard! (Just for the record, I had typed beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful and amazing before settling on beautiful.) I'd love to have someone with which to try something like that. I can't say thank you enough. Yep, Carrie, you're not an original on that 3 finger, no thumb style. :( I had thought you were.

That's really great, Scott.

That is one beautiful instrument, Lisa! I'd love to pluck a little on it!

Robin, I think the influence and "mixing" of Black & White music predates the recording industry. Indeed there are some (and I think I'm one of them,) who believe the recording industry is what separated the music. They recorded black artists and wanted blues for their "race records" division. There were a few black string bands who were recorded, but, for the most part, string band music was recorded for a white audience. The Mississippi Sheiks, Papa Charlie Jackson, Henry Thomas and Uncle Dave Macon have similar "sounds" on a lot of songs. I believe songs like "Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy," "Georgia Buck," "Pallet on the Floor," "Sandy Boys," "Reuben's Train" are representative of that tradition I like to call (as I read it somewhere) proto-blues: that common music of black and white which predates the recording industry. We play a lot of it in the old time music world, without thinking about it, or even without knowing it in some cases. The recording industry and early record producers have done any of us interested in the history of "folk" music a disservice by dividing up music along racial lines. Wouldn't you love to have a black fiddler's rendition of "Turkey in the Straw" from about 1920?

As a listener, player and researcher in early country blues, I'd say that was either Blind Lemon Clark or Barbeque Robin on a 6 string. Seriously, Robin, that's a great sounding instrument and you play it well. I've been hoping to rescue one of those myself, but haven't found one cheap enough that is restorable. Most that I find are warped quite badly. That's great

Weissenborn guitars were some of the 1st made to be played exclusively Hawaiian style, with a bar. They have a longer body that comes up the neck (which I believe is hollow.)

Here's a video of Cindy Cashdollar playing one made in 1927.

What it seems you have in a dulciborn is that type body with a dulcimer fingerboard with frets. You get the deeper sound of the guitar with the fretting of a dulcimer.

Rob

Right behind the fret without touching it is the ideal.

Pretty! Next must come the sound file so we all can drool over its sound as well as its beauty.

Mike, you do have a piece of history there and a fine instrument as well. I have one of the earliest ones with pegs (pics on my page) and love it's tone (though I don't play it as much as I should.) Enjoy!

Rob

The B part is on Jean Ritchie's "The Most Dulcimer" album, "Aunt Rhodie R I P."

Thank you, Peter. This is very good of you to make available. One of the fellows who plays in our classical guitar ensemble (and is Chemistry Professor here at Fairmont State University) is from Germany. He has shared some folk song arrangements for guitar with us. I think I'll share these with him since I've been trying to get him interested in the dulcimer. LOL

Lisa, I've had some audiences in the past who acted like they were the ones charging. LOL Particularly the "Red Hat Ladies," the worst tippers in the world.

Depends on how long you want to play and how much the audience changes. If you have a steady stream of passersby then I'd say 12 is a good number with which to start. Play them through then when a different group of folks are around, play 'em all again. I'd guess that 12 songs with a little pause or talk in between them would be at least 45 minutes, so if your audience changes that quickly you're good to go!

Play on, Brother!

Dusty, A hearty AMEN to your thoughts on tab. I have always hated tab for the guitar, and, though I use it some on the dulcimer, if I can't get it just right by ear I'd rather have the music. Back in the "day" most blues/folk guitar books were only in tab. I bought them, but it took me much longer to figure out the tunes if the book didn't have the SMN as well.

John and Mandy, I also agree about getting out of the "comfort zone." However, I prefer workshops that focus on technique or musicality (for of a better term.) I take a lot of beginner's workshops to try to see if I can polish up the basics of different techniques, and to see how others teach. I can learn "Haste to the Wedding" by listening or looking at the music. Now, if someone wants to teach "different" harmonic voicings and are using "Haste to the Wedding" as the basis, then I'll be there! Though I'm mainly a fingerpicker, I've taken flatpicking workshops because I figured I could learn something. I hadn't played much with a noter even tho' I've had one for a long time. So when a noter workshop was scheduled at Ft New Salem, I was right there.

Dusty, I also agree with you about the number of workshops at festivals. I would rather see half as many workshops but 2 hours long, even if I would only care to take 1 or 2. I took all the Mt Dulcimer workshops at the Spring Fling in Lancaster, Ohio, last year. All I can tell you now it that Doug Berch has an amazing left hand, and Butch Ross barely got into the subject of his 2nd workshop. Somewhere around here I have the tab from it.

Well enough rambling. Let's get to playing!

I, too, think you've hit the proverbial nail right square on the head, Stephen. You have a lot more experience with workshops/festivals than I do; I've only been attending them for about 2 years now. You see what's happening and what other players are doing with the instrument. There does seem to be a marked increase in noter players. I think you're right: there are more players in general, so there are more in every style. In this area, the players who have been playing a while all play DAA (with the fingers not a noter.) Many of them have their tab memorized, but ear playing isn't done too much. That I use DGd along with DAd and other tunings is strange to most of them. They play on the bass string if they need to play in the key of G. That's what they were taught, and they see no reason to go beyond it. However we know DAA tuning is not for sissies if you want to go beyond into chords a al John Blosser. I've been told he was criticized by the DAd folks for not using the "accepted" tuning.

Jerry Rockwell gave a workshop at Ft New Salem, WV, last year, on fingerpicking with the noter. I attended and it was great. Am I going to go exclusively noter/drone, probably not. Do I have noter songs/tunes in my repertoire, I do.

Now here's a question for you. Can you teach playing by ear, particularly in a 1 hour workshop? I've got a good ear (no brag; just fact (you're probably too young to remember that from tv)) and taught in adult education for 10 years but I don't think I could teach playing by ear in that short a time.

Well, we're all playing our music and, hopefully, we're all happy with it. I hope you'll continue to muse on this subject and if you have other thoughts you'll share them.

No waist or knee strap for me. Although I do use a shoulder strap sometimes.

Rob

Stephen, interesting observations. I came to the dulcimer after years of playing country/folk/blues/jazz/classical guitar. I can't limit myself to any one genre of music either. I also had no other dulcimer players to influence me, except on recordings. Until 2011, I had taken one afternoon workshop with Leo Kretzner in 1989 (I think.) I wasn't interested in playing a lot of the things I heard on the available recordings. I changed tunings a lot and figured things out by ear to play what felt "right" to me. No one said, "you have to play in [pick a tuning]" or "you have to play [insert overplayed jam tune here.]" So now I've come to WV and am associating with other dulcimer players and jamming with them instead of just being a solo artist. 'Til recently, the dulcimer came out around St Paddy's Day for coffeehouse gigs and back in the back for another year. I didn't know many of the common "jam" tunes. I'm learning them and having a blast doing it. Sure it's sometimes the same tunes every jam, but that's ok, I need the repetition to learn 'em. Sure, I want to call out "59th Street Bridge Song," but I don't. Come on to WV and I'll cook up a big bowl of grits and make some red-eye gravy and if we can move afterward maybe we can find something we can pick around on as well.

On a more serious note, sorry to have missed you at Laura Elder's Spring Fling in Lancaster OH. Just couldn't make it. Hope you'll be close again!

I think almost everyone in the dulcimer community is humble about their playing abilities. I take a lot of beginner's workshops for several different reasons. 1) Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. In music, like in sports, having the best grasp possible of the fundamentals of technique is necessitous. 2) How material is presented. If, someday, I ever teach a workshop or two, I like to see how players/instructors I respect present their material to get ideas I can borrow for myself. 3) Learn a new tune, simply, so I can add my own "take" to it later.

Intermediate workshops are for the challenge. I took one last year just for that reason. Wasn't sure about the tune, but I wanted to push the envelope a little (maybe a lot) and get out of my "comfort zone."

An "expert/advanced" workshop, to me, would be a master class where the student and instructor (usually a pro) work on one piece to make it the "best it can be." These are quite common in the classical music world and I've been pleased to see them starting to catch on in our musical world as well.

So, if there's a problem, it could be with people's perceptions of their own abilities and their desire to stay in their comfort zones rather than the terminology regarding the workshop.

My 2 centavos

When I got my 1st instrument in Dec 1986, there were quite a few books available. I had Jean Ritchie's Dulcimer Book , and a few others. I knew of no others on the Eastern Shore of Maryland or in lower Delaware who played, so I was on my own. Like Ken, I listened to records of players I liked and players I didn't like. I took something from all. I had one afternoon workshop with Leo Kretzner right after I got my dulcimer. That was all the instruction I'd had 'til 18 months ago. I laid the instrument down for several years, playing maybe once or twice a year at most. I have been playing seriously now for about 18 months. Were I able to go back I would buy the one book I specifically rejected because it didn't have songs in it: In Search of the Wild Dulcimer by Robert Force and Al D'ossche. This is now available from www.robertforce.com as a free download along with its companion: The Wild Dulcimer Songbook . Reading it after I bought a copy at a thrift shop on Mercer Island, Washington, made me want to play the dulcimer again. So I have, and I've increased my instrument collection and, most importantly, I've increased my friends.

Very pretty, Susie. Though I don't own any of his instruments, he does make some nice ones!

Good for you, Robin. Nice to see someone unafraid to take on a new instrument. I'm sure you'll be posting video of your mandolin technique really soon! Oh... have you heard the Baldissari/Schnaufer Appalachian Mandolin/Dulcimer album? I'm sure you have, but just in case

Very nice, Phil.