Forum Activity for @jost

German folk song tabs

Dulcimer Resources:TABS/Books/websites/DVDs

Another lovely song from the Zupfgeigenhansl is this one "Dunkle Wolk". Originally it was a song of traveling journeymen. Most verses were lost for a long time thus Hans Breuer assumed it was about the thirty year's year since his source was a print of the first verse from 1646. He wrote a second verse and added a third from a song of moravian journeymen thus creating the most known version today. This version was recorded by Hamburg folk group Liederjan in the 1970s . Another version was made by singer/songwriter Hannes Wader. A quite nice touch is in the version of actor/singer Manfred Krug with lute accompiement.

I used the tune printed in the songbook "Kein schöner Land in dieser Zeit" of Thomas Friz and Erich Schmeckenbecher. The tune is identical to Breuers version, they give some different chords for the guitar though. Since the tune is the traditional tune they might be typos or other errors. 

Tuning is DAg or any other dorian tuning (CGF,DGC etc)
As with "Wenn alle Brünnlein fließen" I still have to practice so no sound file at the moment.

Have fun :)

updated by @jost: 10/17/21 12:52:05PM

German folk song tabs

Dulcimer Resources:TABS/Books/websites/DVDs

Here is the variant with the changes by Friz/Schmeckenbecher, dear moderators please remove if you consider the legal risk to high. 

updated by @jost: 10/17/21 09:34:36AM

German folk song tabs

Dulcimer Resources:TABS/Books/websites/DVDs

Hello everybody,

some might remember I tried to arrange transsylvanian saxons folk song "Klein wild vögelein" for mountain dulcimer. In the end it didn't worked out so I'm still playing it on guitar.

In the process however I discovered some other German folk songs who work a lot better. Although I still need to practice them (so no sound files at the moment) I'm ready to upload my tabs now. 
One caveat though: Although I think the songs are in public domain it might be they are actually not. I took versions from several songbooks. Although the songs are traditional the tune in the song books might be a newer arrangement. I'll flag these versions so moderators might remove them, if they feel that they are not ok.

The first song i want to provide you with is the charming love song "Wenn alle Brünnlein" fließen. 
There are several great recordings, one by German folk duo Zupfgeigenhansl:

Zupfgeigenhansl-Wenn alle Brünnlein fließen

They changed the tune a little bit to fit the mandolin accompaniment of Erich Schmeckenbecher. 

Austrian-American Singer Martha Schlamme recorded it with Pete Seeger on Banjo:
Martha Schlamme/Pete Seeger-Wenn alle Brünnlein fließen

Seeger also did it in a concert in East Berlin, there is a nice video of his performance (including audience partizipation ;))

The songs lyrics are like this: 

1. Wenn alle Brünnlein fließen, / so muss man trinken, / wenn ich mein Schatz nicht rufen darf, / tu ich ihm winken, / wenn ich mein Schatz nicht rufen darf, / ju ja, rufen darf, / tu ich ihm winken.

2. Ja, winken mit den Äugelein / und treten auf den Fuß! / 's ist eine in der Stube drin, / die meine werden muss, /  's ist eine in der Stube drin, / ju ja, Stube drin, / die meine werden muss.

3. Warum sollt sie's nicht werden, / ich hab sie ja so gern; / sie hat zwei braune Äugelein, / die leuchten wie zwei Stern', /  sie hat zwei braune Äugelein, / ju ja, Äugelein, / die leuchten wie zwei Stern'.

4. Sie hat zwei rote Wängelein, / sind röter als der Wein; / ein solches Mädel find'st du nicht / wohl unterm Sonnenschein. / Ein solches Mädel find'st du nicht / ju ja, find'st du nicht, / wohl unterm Sonnenschein.

5. So herzlich wie mein Lieselein / ist keine auf der Welt, / vom Köpfchen bis zum Füßelein / ist alles wohl bestellt. /    Vom Köpfchen bis zum Füßelein / ju ja, Füßelein, / ist alles wohl bestellt.

6. Ach herzger Schatz, ich bitte dich, / ach, lass mich gehen! / Denn deine Leut die schmähen mich, / ich muss mich schämen. /    Denn deine Leut die schmähen mich, / ju ja, schmähen mich, / ich muss mich schämen.

7. Was frag ich nach den Leuten, / die mich tun schmähen? / Ich liebe ja ganz ewiglich / dies schöne Mädchen! /    Ich liebe ja ganz ewiglich / ju ja, ewiglich / dies schöne Mädchen!


A rough English translation provided by deepl:
1. When all the fountains are flowing, / you have to drink, / if I'm not allowed to call my sweetheart / I'll wave at it, / 
if  I'm not allowed to call my sweetheart, l'll wave at it.
2. Ses, wave with the eyes / and step on the foot! / There's one in the parlor, / that must become mine, / 
There's one in the parlor,  in the parlor, / that must become mine.
3. Why shouldn't she be, / I like her so much, / she has two brown eyes, / that shine like two stars, / 
she has two brown eyes, / that shine like two stars.
4. She has two red cheeks, / redder than the wine; / you won't find such a girl / under the sunshine. /
 you won't find such a girl   under the sunshine.
5. As hearty as my Lieselein / is none in the world, / from the head to the feet / everything is well ordered. / 
From the little head to the little feet / ju ja, little feet /  everything is well ordered.
6. Oh dear darling, I beg you, / oh, let me go! / For your people revile me, / I must be ashamed. / 
For your people revile me, / yes, revile me, / I must be ashamed.
7. What do I ask of the people who revile me? / I love forever / this beautiful girl! / I love forever / yes, forever / this beautiful 


The most prominent version was collected by German folklorist Hans Breuer in his book "Der Zupfgeigenhansl" in 1910, which features just the first four verses. The verses 5-7 are regional variants collected by the Bavarian folk art center of the states government.

Since Breuer was killed in action in world war 1 it's safe to assume that his version is in public domain now. 
Thus I will add it as attachment to his post.

Thomas Fritz and Erich Schmeckenbecher founded the folk group "Zupfgeigenhansel" (obviouvsly a reference to Breuers collection) in the 1970s. They took several songs from Breuers and other folklorists songbooks. Sometimes (when the tune got lost) they made up their own tune or changed it to better fit their style. They also published song books with their versions. I also adopted their versions (they mainly changed the D7 chords to D, propably  for the mandolin) but I'm not sure whether it's considered fair use or not. Thus I will upload it in a answer, so it can be removed if a moderator has obligations. 

You can use any ionian tuning for Noter/Drone playing. The original key is G-major thus I use DGd-tuning on my Dulcimer and the G ionian tuning on my hummel. Up to now my playing is not fit for recording. 

Have fun and best regards, Jost
Edit: Fixed some wrong chords.

updated by @jost: 10/17/21 09:35:08AM

Help with possible identification of my Dulcimer

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

That's a beauty. The bridge reminds me of bowed dulcimers or cellos. Maybe the builder was inspired by them?

I wish you big suchen with your move and building the dulcimer case.

Help with info on a Flat Creek Box Dulcimer

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

The link leads to an "online casino", are you sure it's correct?

updated by @jost: 08/09/21 05:41:27PM

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

Yeah some of my friends got their shots too, so we are looking forward for meeting the first time after one year.

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

Got my Johnson & Johnson shot today. Up to now without side effects.

Leonard Bernstein explaining the mixolydian mode

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

That's just fabulous, thanks Dusty

Making a dulcimer humidity resistant?

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

I agree with Lisa and Ken that the instrument needs to adapt to it's environment. In fact I think that more humidtiy is better than the opposite: One of my gutiars lost it's bridge due to the winter room climate (coming from the gas oven). The luthier, who fixed it explained to me, that wood continues to "work" (means changing depending on it's environment). He even gave me a handout exlaining how different degrees of humidity influencing the wood:  Although it's for guitars I guess it's not much different for dulcimers, it's still a plucked wood instrument too :)

I will try to give the most important things from it (Text is from Tobias Ahlke Luthier at Essence Guitars, Oberwinter-Remagen, Germany, translated with DeepL by me). If somebody here understands German I can also post a scan from it.
Although it might sound a bit scary I also agree with Ken that you are overthinking it. Even if the dulcimer might suffer a bit from the climate at your sisters place, it should be fixable and in the worst case  she can always get a new instrument. But now to the wise words of Mr. Ahlke:

"Wood is hygroscopic. This means that even after decades of storage and in the installed state, it can still absorb moisture from the air or release it into the air. If it absorbs moisture, it increases in dimensions; if it releases moisture, it shrinks.  

The ideal humidity for guitars made of solid wood is about 50% relative humidity at a normal room temperature of about 21%. The woods of your guitar are stored and processed in my workshop at a controlled humidity between 45% and 50%. In this range your instrument can be played great and sounds best. If the humidity deviates, typical symptoms quickly appear and massive irrversible damage can occur:

• 60% relative humidity and above: The  string action  may increase, the curvatures of the top and back are exaggerated, glue bindings may break, frets and tuners are dull and tarnished, uncoated strings oxidize excessively fast.
• 40% relative humidity and below: The fingerboard shrinks, which is noticeable protruding fret edges. If necessary, the string action decreases. The wood is under tension
• 35% relative humidity and below: The grain of the wood is clearly formed through the varnish (e.g. the ceiling looks streaky). Cracks may appear in the ceiling and floor
• 30% relative humidity and below: Glue joints can break, cracks become larger and larger, the statics of the instrument are in danger!
• 25% relative humidity: glue joints can break, frets become loose, the instrument unplayable, maybe forever!

Humidity can be easily controlled with commercially available electric hygrometers, which are either stored in the instrument's case or placed at the instrument's location. If you do not want to or cannot regulate the humidity in the whole room, it is recommended to place a humidifier or dehumidifier near the instrument in the closed head. From our point of view, the "Humidipak" from D'Addario/Planet Waves has proven itself here, as this can keep the relative humidity constant at 48%, regardless of whether humidification or dehumidification is required.

Climate and temperature

A guitar feels at home where the player also feels at home: Neither does one like to sit in the blazing sunlight, in the middle of a draft, nor in front of the turned-up heater or in a damp cellar.
Temperatures between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius (32 - 104 ° F) are usually no problem for your guitar, although you should make sure that the guitar can slowly get used to the new temperature. Otherwise, fine cracks may appear in the wood and varnish and glue joints may be damaged.
40 degrees Celsisus (104 °F) and above: the woods begin to bend with the string tension, deformation occurs. The varnish may soften, feel sticky, or develop pressure marks under light loads.
0 degrees Celsius (32 ° F) and below: wood, varnish and glue joints are cold, hard and brittle, cracks and breaks are likely to occur with stress."

So I think a high humidity might less a problem than the other extrems (lower humidity and to much heat): At least the potential results sounds fixable. If the climate is really to much for the dulcimers storing them in a case with a Humidipak or a simmiliar system ( https://www.daddario.com/products/accessories/humidification/automatic-humidipak/humidipak-maintain/ ) should help. Note: As said above this tool and the hints from Mr Ahlke are for guitars, but since dulcimers are made of wood too, I thought, they might be helpful :) 

If somebody asks for it I can scan Mr Ahlkes handout.

Regards, Jost.

updated by @jost: 05/24/21 01:32:10PM

What is this instrument?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

It reminds me  of psalters like this ones: https://www.klangwerkstatt.de/psalterien

Edit audio descriptions without spamming the Home site

Site QUESTIONS ? How do I...?

Thanks Dusty and Strumelia. I think I will use the comments section and stop worrying :)

As somebody, who maintains servers for a living I can understand your attitude. My coworkers and I have to to some regular maintenance work (e.g. before the hard drive of the server gets full). Most of this stuff isn't a real hassle or just doesn't happen too often. If tasks  tends to repeats a lot we are looking for a way to make the server do the work for us :)

So: Although I think it would be good to hide the boxes it's propably not worth the hassle If they are not used by most people anyway. 

Regards, Jost.

Edit audio descriptions without spamming the Home site

Site QUESTIONS ? How do I...?

Hello everybody,

I uploaded an audio file and noticed that no lyrics where shown. I also noticed an typo in my description. Thus I edited the description and tried to move the lyrics to "audio text". Lyrics are still not displayed I guess that's just the way it is. I can live with it but will not enter the lyrics the next time. 

I'm however shocked that every edit ended up on the Home screen of fotmd. Is there any way I can  disable this kind of spam from me? If not might some of the moderators or admins remove them? 

I'm quite ashamed since this looks like a scream for attention (which it's not I assure you!) 

Best regards, Jost.

Do you feel limited by the diatonic scale?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

You are welcome :) I messed one link up, so here another go:

https://www.dulcimerstore.de/c/dulcimershop/dulcimus-standard

How Many Dulcimers Do You Own?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Up to now just one dulcimer ( I plan to get another one spontan though) but I already have a mild case of Instrument acquisation  sydrome:

- One dulcimer ( beginner level)

- two classical guitars and one lute guitar ( not a beginner but no Bert Jansch either)

- Two tin whistles ( D and C tuning, beginner) 

- One mandolin ( my latest addition, still struggling with the first song after one month)

The Positive Thread...

OFF TOPIC discussions

@venni That's great news, welcome back

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

Both of my parents  and one of my siblings got their first vaccination dose now, it's a big relief. 

My other brother and I will have to wait though most likely up to autumn. But at least it's making progress and I can visist my family without fearing to bring the virus to them

Do you feel limited by the diatonic scale?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I got my dulcimer from the Klangwerkstatt in Markt Wald,Germany. I don't know whether they ship to other countries but asking never hurts: Although their dulcimer lacks extra frets it should be possible to ask them to add them without costing to much (they build every instrument for every order and the beginning price is quite affordable even with the porto):  https://www.klangwerkstatt.de/dulcimer

And fellow FOTMD forum member Martin Osterles student models in his shop  have the 6+ fret If  I don't see anything wrong:
https://www.dulcimerstore.de/c/dulcimershop/dulcimus-standard 

He delivers inside the EU: https://www.dulcimerstore.de/l/shipping 

Regards, jost

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

@venni Go to the hospital as fast as possible. Covid-19 can get seriously dangerous very fast, very soon. Take care and I hope you get better soon!

The Positive Thread...

OFF TOPIC discussions

A sunny spring day in Bonn and I got out of home office at 2 pm. I spent the afternoon on the grass near the Rhine promenade of the Beuel district playing dulcimer. Some people even asked (while maintaining social distancing) what kind of instrument I played and asked "So you play it like a guitar?" 

So this was quite cheerful, wish you all have a good time

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

Great news Ken.

Venni: I wish you a good and speedy recovery

Do you know benjo ?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

According to Ulricus the japanese instruments are actually examples of good craftmanship, the indian not so much. The idea to use piano keys and make them portable by making them their own suitcase is quite nice though.



Thanks, thats a cool video

Do you know benjo ?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

That's cool. Thanks for the video. Some photos of these instruments and it's japanese precedessor can be found on the page  of fellow FOTMD member Wilfried "ulricus" Ullrich: http://www.ulrich-instrumente.de/die-hummel/

According to him in 1906 japanese luthier/musician Goro Morita got funding by the imperial government for a research trip in Europe for western instruments (imho some kind of musical industrial espionage ;) ). Back home he started to build a kind of hummel/dulcimer by using typewriter keys: The  Taishokoto. Later these instruments came to India and Pakistan and evolved to the benjo and after second world war  to the bulbul tarang (sounding nightingale, these instruments have piano case and an integrated suitcase, quite handy, sadly the sound not so good according to ulricus).
If you can read German you find the details on Wilfrieds website with many photos.

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

My sympathy goes to Kusani and everybody else who lost somebody because of the virus.
The problem with different local government sounds familiar, it's the same here in Germany and also quite frustrating. At least some learnt the hard way after the numbers in their state sky rocketed. 
Still quite sad and frustrating for everybody who lost somebody because of this mess.

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

A word concerning reactions to vaccines: They are annoying but actually a sign, that the vaccines is working. The reactions are a reaction of our immune system, so they mean that the vaccines managed to provoke the immune system to do something about the potential threat. Ergo: Building anti-bodys. So they shouldn't be anything to worry about.  And quite tame in relation to the real virus/sickness. No reaction doesn't mean however, that the vaccine is not working. Probably your immune system was quite good at the start, but will profit from the shot non the less.

As I wrote here multiple times starting to play guitar again and starting to play dulcimer the first time at all :)

And it seems I'm not alone in this regard. The owner of the local instrument store told me  after the first lockdown that he got a lot of new customers as a result of the lockdown.
I guess people missed live music and decided to do it on their own.

Sadly not enough to compensate his losses from the first and later lockdowns but it's a start at least.
updated by @jost: 02/09/21 03:58:07PM

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

The father of a friend of my brother just died from COVID. He got it on work (he was a MD at a rehab hospital). The sad thing is, that he would got his first vaccination shot two days after his test result was positive

I didn't know him and neither his family (friend of my brother not mine) but I can imagine this must be quite hard on the family.

How is the COVID-19 coronavirus affecting you?

OFF TOPIC discussions

I'm quite lucky since I'm working in the IT department of one of Germanys workers compensation agencys. Thus I'm not affected by the economy crisis (due to being public servant) and I'm also quite lucky that I'm able to work from home. It's quite a privilege since many people suffer from the economic impact of Covid-19 or need to work every day in factory halls or crowded open plan offices (even as public servants, we are just lucky that our agency is a kind of early adaptor in terms of E-Government).

I was never a big fan of home office (since I prefer to seperate work and private life), but actually I prefer it now not just because of Covid. Less time in rush hour traffic and I'm getting more things done due to having no interruptions

During the first lockdown last year I started to relearn guitar (since my first try as a teen wasn't so good due to not practricing) and ended up with getting a dulcimer too. So that was actually the one good thing I got from this mess.

Playing the instruments now also keeps me from going cracy because frankly: I miss family (christmas was an exception, I visited my parents then)  and friends a lot.  Two  friends of mine and I use to go together for a walk from time time but it's not the same. We need maintain the safety distance and we don't see anyone else, so the situation is  quite annoying.

I'm really looking forward when we can go see each other again.

It will take some time though since vaccination rate is quite low in Germany at the moment. Some vaccinces are still awaiting for their approval. And the manufactures can't produce as much as were expected.
So we are in a long run too here
At least there is a good chance my mother might get it soon, since she is working in the administration of a hospital. I'm quite relieved

@strumelia This board game might be something for your next gaming sessions with your husband: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_(board_game)
The players need to cooperate to wipe out a pandemic. If they win, everybody wins, if they lose, the pandemic (aka the game) wins. I used to play it with friends on university. It's quite a challenge but big fun.
And it's kind of fitting for the current situation in our lives :)

What Are You Working On?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thanks Ken. I already wondered why their guesses for modes and tunings seemed quite odd. Luckily their dulcimer tabs have a function to enter your own tuning for "melody, middle and bass string". I'm sticking with that for now

Thanks for the hint to www.contemplator.com.

What Are You Working On?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I try to play Cam Ye O'er Frae France on dulcimer. I discovered a site which has a kind of tab (although it's auto generated thus might be wrong): http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiCAMFRANC;ttCAMFRANC.html

Nontheless the tune sounds good, but I need practice, practice, pratice :)

updated by @jost: 01/26/21 05:05:41PM

Any body have an idea what this is ?

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

The look reminds me on epinettes but since they are basically in the same class as dulcimers that doesn't need to mean anything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinette_des_Vosges

My voyage to the lute guitar (and mountain dulcimer as well)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

To give you an impression of the sound I just uploaded my take on Greensleeves on lute guitar:
Greensleeves on lute guitar

The recording is quite rough and my playing has room for improvement but it should be sufficient to get an idea.

Spambots on soundcloud

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Well I also share my noise on other social networks and I'm a kind of number nerd (no wonder I studied Computer Science) so I'm intigrued to find out how many of my Facebook-Friends etc actually molest their ears with them

For fotmd I just uploaded the files via Audio upload. A small inconvenience but it could be worse.

Spambots on soundcloud

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thanks Robin, this explains a lot. I got 150 plays for my tracks during the first day. Would be quite flattering If it had any real meaning. So it just shows that sound cloud is better in attracting spammers then actually do something against them.
I changed the privacy setting to get more realistic stats. Sadly this resulted in invalid soundcloud links here And I can't change the url here to the new ones, so I will have to delete and readd them.
Thanks again for the answer

Spambots on soundcloud

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Hello everybody,

I don't know whether this forum is the appropriate one, feel free to move this to off topic.

Yesterday I started uploading sound files to Soundboard. Quite soon I got comments/mails from people who liked them/offered to give them more distribution.

Since the sound and musical quality is quite limited (due to my recording equipment and I'm just a starter) I got puzzled and looked on their profiles. Everybody of them belongs to a kind of spam network who offers "500 likes for free" or something like this.

So in my opinion they are spam bots and I reported  them to Soundcloud before blocking them.

I'm now considering limiting the message function for Soundcloud to save me the hassle in dealing with this crap. However I fear, that I might miss some legitimate messages.

So: Have anyone of you similiar experiences with soundclouds messaging? Or are people actually using the messages for communicating?

Best regards, jost.

updated by @jost: 01/09/21 10:53:08PM

My voyage to the lute guitar (and mountain dulcimer as well)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

Hello Wilfried,

nice to see you here. I'm not just a big fan of your hummel videos but I remember now I saw your announcement of your master piece (lyra guitar) on the pin board of Musikschule Norden back in 2005. I was raised in Ostfriesland, but moved away for college and work 12 years ago.

I agree however I can't afford more instruments at the moment for lack of money and space in my appartment. The lack of money also means I can't move to a bigger appartment at the moment :)
This year I'l visit my parents during chrismast but not going anywhere else due to the pandemic situation. I plan another visist next summer though and will drop you a note then.

Best Regards, Jost.
updated by @jost: 12/06/20 03:41:59PM

My voyage to the lute guitar (and mountain dulcimer as well)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

Well technically  many instruments are lutes (even guitars), to quote wikipedia:
"A lute ( / lj uː t / [1] or / l uː t / ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.

More specifically, the term "lute" can refer to an instrument from the family of European lutes . The term also refers generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table (in the Hornbostel–Sachs system)." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lute )


Actually I talked about  the  baroque lutes like in this video of Focus guitarist Jan Akkerman playing Dowlands Fantasia on it It look's a lot like the one on the album cover of Ronn McFarlane.

It was developed from the arabian oud,  youtube has a video of a player doing a cover of a russian folk tune on an oud , also covered by Pete Seeger on banjo.

You can see in both videos, that these instruments used double courses instead of single strings. I freak out every time I see Akkerman doing his delicate picking on the double courses.

Thanks Richard. I'm happy to be here.
updated by @jost: 12/05/20 08:14:01PM

My voyage to the lute guitar (and mountain dulcimer as well)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

Hello everybody,

in this post I will talk how I got to learn my main instrument, what's special about it and how doing it actually led to purchasing my mountain dulcimer too.
It's a kind of a long read so I can't blame you if you are dropping out right now or later
As you can see in my profile I'm from Germany so English isn't my first language. I'm not very good in it, so I'm happy about any feedback If something sounds odd or just incomprehensible.

I used to learn guitar during my teenhood years. I had a quite good Ibanez classical guitar (used from my mother during her times as volunteer for church youth work) and good teacher, but lacked practice. I think I never practiced more than one hour a week and as soon I know a song I would take another one, forgetting the old one. I'm  feeling sorry for my teacher now to be honest and appreciate that he was always a kind, nice and patient man.

When I moved out to go to college the guitar stayed at my parents  home and I never bothered to continue. That was more than ten years ago.

This year during the first lockdown I got kind of bored so I thought about learning guitar again, this time with a instruction book and an own instrument. Thus I went to a local store, got a student classical guitar and started. Since this time I actually practiced (comparing my play to the CD/DVD from the book) it worked somehow. I'm still not a very good player, but my neighbours are not complaining so I think it's bearable

However somehow I encountered a strange instrument, the so called  lute guitar (also called German Lute or Bastard lute) in some youtube videos.  It looks like a lute, but it's played like a guitar. And it has a quite unique sound, as can be heard t his medley a youtuber uploaded some years ago.

I quickly learned (some nice guy from Germanys musiker-board.de forum with nom de guerre "El lute" wrote a whole essay about it's history, how to get one and how to repair old ones) that it's actually not very old but a quite modern instrument, bending elements of guitar and mandora. The first lute-guitars first were actually built in the 1850's.

It was quite popular in the German youth movement Wandervogel at the beginning of the 20th century for it's look (just like a old lute) and sound (not quite lute, not quite guitar, something between).

It's easier to play than a real lute (since it lacks double courses),  much cheaper and louder than classical lutes (they were mainly for chamber or court music). Since the Wandervögel did a kind of early medivial reenactment (like todays Renaissance fairs)  they actually didn't realy recreate the medival age but their own version of) and thought of themselves as traveling scholars (like medivial students) for their love of camping, wandering around and collecting and singing old German folklore, this combination greatly appealed to them. A part of their song collections also included a lot of soldier songs, thus when world war one started they saw it just another kind of adventure, volunteered,  taking their guitars, lute-guitars and songbook Zupfgeigenhansel with them ( called "Der Zupfgeigenhansl" ). Many fell, including the editor of the Zupfgeigenhansel.

Although I have no interest in going to war any time soon I also got hooked by the look and sound of the instrument. However according to el lutes essay getting an used instrument via ebay can end with  a lot of trouble or loss of money, since it propably needs some work. Either by the buyer (if he is good in woodworking or from a luthier).  
This was out of question, I was never good in woodwork and I didn't wanted to buy a used instrument and pay even more money to get it working.
In the essay el lute recommended to go to an luthier for getting a playable used (the ones from the former GDR are surprising cheap since they are not so antique, but often actually more playable then the older from Wandervogel times) or commission a custom built.
Again: Out of question for lack of money and patience (you need to wait until some affordable appears in the online offers of luthiers)..
However: As a kind of compromise there are also new ones from companys, although el lute thought of them not so high "They are ok  for beginners, but if you want a good instrument you will need to go to a luthier" (roughly translated by myself)
I can  unterstand his point of view (he repaired  around 10 of older instruments including a beautiful ones with additional bass strings for drone sounds, these Basslauten used to be quite common but were never so popular like normal lute guitars. Some spanish (?) guy did  a nice video featuring one ). but since actually I'm still a starter in playing  I decided that one of these "beginner instruments"  should to.

In the end I bought  one from the German music store Folkfriends and I'm quite happy with it. The wooden head in my avatar is actually a part of the instrument. Here a full view:

I love the sound and look of it. And it's true: If you can play guitar, you can play lute guitar too after getting used to the lute corpus. I'm still struggling with holding it so I got myself a leather strap which fit's well with the pseudohistorical look of it

So I think I will have a lot of fun with it, as long as I don't do two things:
1. Using picks since (like classical guitars), it lacks a pickboard
2. Using steelstrings (again same like classical guitar). I kind of cringed when I read a review of my model at the store before buying it. A  LARP-roleplayer replaced the strings with steel strings and wrote something like "It's a great instrument, but has some damages. But that's ok I'm quite rough"  Poor little thing

Since I mostly try to learn folk tunes (mainly Irish and british folk but some american too) I look a lot of youtube videos. Somehow I encountered Jean Ritchies version of Nottamun Town and loved the drone sounds. I learnt, that she played a so called mountain dulcimer. I also learnt, that this instrument had it's origin in older ones, even one used to played in Northern Germany (Hummel). I was hooked by the drone sounds , even more when I saw more videos ( my favourite so far is a rendition of a poem by German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe on a hummel ).
Now the question was how to get one? I didn't wanted one cheap for 80 Euro (since I guessed that it propably woudn't be good in a long term).
I found a  forum thread, where somebody  recommended building one in a building workshop of Bavarian luthier André Schuberth. It turned out, that Schuberts workshops are on hiatus due to Corona, but that he offers prebuild versions of his workshop kits. So I commisioned one, he said it would propably take to new year. Fine with me, a nice late christmas present.
So I was kind of thrilled, when this monday  I got a mail from Mr Schuberths wife, that my instrument is ready and she just sent out the delivery package.

You can understand how happy I was when it arrived yesterday and I opened the package:

So now the hardest (but most fun) part begins: Learning how to play the dulcimer in noter/drone style. The instrument came tuned to DAAA tuning, I changed it to CGGG according to Jean Ritchies Dulcimer book.  

I'm happy to be part of this community (got some welcomes on my profile already, thanks guys!) and looking forward to learn from.

Thanks for bearing my babbling, have a nice day