Forum Activity for @jennifer-landry

How Many Dulcimers Do You Own?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

As of this past Thursday, 2. Christmas came early this year. While I still love my vintage Berg dulcimer from Mountain Made Music (the teardrop shaped one on the left in the first pic) and play it with a noter regularly, I was finding the VSL (vibrating string length, the length between the bridge and the nut) of 27+ inches to be too long for my hands to manage chords. So, on the advice of my dulcimer teacher, I started looking into shorter VSL instruments. 

After much research and discussion, I got on a zoom with Joe Collins at New Harmony Dulcimers and expected that I would be waiting 3 months for a new dulcimer as they build to spec, usually. But they showed me this one just as an example of what the short scale Pudge Pro (24”) looked like and the second I clapped eyes on it I knew it needed to come live with me. It was originally set up to be a baritone but they just changed the strings for me to be a standard DAd tuning. The back and sides are Peruvian walnut and the top is swamp ash and it’s just gorgeous. And I can make chords with it far better than with the Berg. My goal is to have a couple of songs ready to go on stage next summer at Ferry Beach, right now I’m mostly working the basics of scales and chord shapes and stuff like that. Y’all might get a video in the new year!

Playing with hand issues

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Was just now on Reddit and had a person pop up in the Mountain Dulcimer community there with questions about playing the Mountain Dulcimer with health issues in his hands that he’s working on a diagnosis for. I wanted to share the answer I gave him here, and would welcome any other insight folks might have for future reference:

” I’ve got some kind of general connective tissue disorder that runs in my family that resembles hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but comes with a side of Dupuytren’s contracture, which I have in my right hand, so far not in my left but I suspect it will arrive eventually. I also have congenital MCP joint lock in the thumbs of both hands. So, my hands have reduced strength and flexibility all around and yet dulcimer is a dream instrument because it matches my ergonomic needs better than any other instrument I’ve tried. Some info I’ve figured out as a still beginner player:

Picking/strumming hand: I’ve got a whole collection of different picks as I’ve tried to find what works for me, as my hand flexibility decreases over time. I find I like a pick with good flexibility as it compensates for my lack of same. Dunlop nylon .46 mm are my go-to for flat picking, but they might be too small for some folks. Blue Mountain blue thumb picks for finger picking are great, and I’ve been playing around a bit with Oud picks for fast strumming, which isn’t something I do much of, as their length and flexibility makes for less hand/wrist strain for me.

Chord/noter hand: Set up of the instrument is key. I had a previous dulcimer with high action, among other problems, and it was a complete life changer when I got a dulcimer with lower, easier action. Depending on your playing style you might find a three string (no doubled melody string) easier to manage. VSL is also key - don’t overstrain your hands by trying to play an instrument that’s VSL is just too long. My dulcimer at the moment has doubled strings and it’s VSL is a little too long for me to chord easily so it’s going to be my noter/drone dulcimer and I’ll be getting a New Harmony Pudge Pro soon, which has the VSL and three string setup I need, on the advice of my dulcimer teacher.

Hope this helps!”

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Hi everyone! I’ve actually been a member for years, and may have introduced myself years ago. But it’s been a long time since I played dulcimer as the one I had was, well, more of a wall decoration than a playable instrument. I’ve been looking for a better one for a long time that I could afford, and finally found one that arrived on my doorstep just a few hours ago. It’s a beautiful Bill Berg teardrop, that has the ability to have 5 strings but it was restored by John Keeton to have a conventional 4 string setup, with doubled melody strings and just the one bass string. You can see it in my profile pic. I’m so happy with this beautiful instrument. The action is gorgeous. I’ve only ever tried to play with a noter because of some hand health issues but the action on this is so nice and easy I may actually be able to learn some chords too! I’ll be around the forums, gleaning the wisdom of all of you more advanced players!

Jen Landry, Gardner MA