Forum Activity for @studentofrhythm

Bodhran (Irish Drum)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

It's fun to compare our environments and the trees that grow there.  I like using the wood that's local to my area, though if I got the chance to use exotics that would be fun.  I have a sister in Kansas and some day maybe I'll ask her if she can bring me an osage orange branch.

Marsha, I expect you don't have to worry about the head of your drum getting tight and clangy in the air there?  Out here the air's very dry, and I usually wet the head down some before I perform, and sometimes I can hear the pitch get higher as it dries out, while I'm playing it.

Bodhran (Irish Drum)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

Mountain mahogany grows in the area where I live.  It's lovely wood, I like its properties of hardness and density, and of course it's relatively easy to get, without having to spend extra.  A few years ago I found a stand close to my mother's house; in it was a couple of dead trees.  I harvested them and from them have so far made a shillelagh, a tall walking staff, and now I'm making this tipper.

Bodhran (Irish Drum)

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

I started playing bodhran about 12 years ago, mostly solo along with recordings, though there have been some local groups that I've been playing with occasionally for the past couple of years.  My first one broke last summer and I got a new one a little while later, after carving a tipper from a cherry branch.  Now I'm carving another tipper from a mountain mahogany branch.

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Can't go wrong with Irish music.  I gave my daughter a whistle for Christmas (she's eight) and maybe I should borrow it from her more, but she has succeeded in playing a scale on it so I can't keep it away from her too much.

Frame Drums

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

I have an awful lot of respect for that sophisticated modern bodhran technique.  So far I just play the old-fashioned way, "Kerry style" I think it's called.  I still get a fair bit of tone variety by using my left hand and I like using the momentum of the back end of the tipper for triplets.  But it's wonderful to watch the modern players with their loose wrists!

Builder Mack Burton

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

Ok, I'll consider myself duly advised!

Builder Mack Burton

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

That's good to know.  I come from a drumming background and there's a lot of lore there about desirable woods and their sonic properties, with maple seeming to reign supreme.  But I tend to form attachments to certain kinds of trees and find meaning in using their wood.  Out here cottonwoods grow in river bottoms and I have a lot of fond memories of rambling around river bottoms, so the cottonwood actually means a lot to me.  Not that I wouldn't love to get - or make - one out of cherry or walnut.

For that matter, I wonder about the suitability of aspen...

Now I'm off to look up more forum posts about woods.

Builder Mack Burton

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

Apparently it's cottonwood, with natural worm holes.  Seems pretty unusual (for all that the wood's so cheap).  I'm curious to hear how it sounds.  I've made several walking sticks out of worm-tunneled branches, including a mountain mahogany shillelagh, but that's another story.

Builder Mack Burton

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

That sounds like fun.  Something to keep as a goal to prepare for.

Builder Mack Burton

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

Good to know, thanks.  I won an auction for this on ebay so when it gets here I'll be able to inspect and photograph it up close. Not surprised about the hole size: they did look quite small to me.

I recognize the risks in buying this, but at least at last I'll have an actual wooden dulcimer at a fraction of what I expected to have to spend.

Builder Mack Burton

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

Anybody heard of him?  Located in Robbins, NC, built this instrument:

updated by @studentofrhythm: 12/09/21 09:12:58PM

Dulcimer String Anchor Pins

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

When I put the thin string on the bass it wouldn't hold a pitch lower than the G below middle C but if I tuned it to the D above middle C the other strings would pull their pins and/or break.  When I put the thicker string on I just tuned it up to the same pitch - like, how did it not occur to me to just try the lower D again?  Well, now that's done with.

The DAC I'm playing in now is the D and A below middle C and then middle C itself.  That tuning I got from my old book and the old Jean Ritchie record, if I'm remembering right.  I just strummed out "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman," "Noel Nouvelet" and "Douce Dame Jolie."

Onward and upward!

Dulcimer String Anchor Pins

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

Well, heck it if I didn't get the thing tuned right finally!  I've got me a DAD tuned dulcimer at last, and it's now a cinch to get it down to DAC and play in minor!  I see I was making very silly n00b mistakes, and after paying more careful attention to octaves and gauges I've got it sorted out.  Thanks all for your discussion and your patience!

Dulcimer String Anchor Pins

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

VSL is 24" and the string gauges are 20 wound for the bass, 12 for the others.  I bought a pack of GHS dulcimer strings and broke the bass string immediately, then one of the 12 gauge.  That was when I gave up on the fourth string.  I tuned it as low as I could while still sounding clear and then compared notes with the piano and found it to be GDD.  Recently I bought another 20 wound and put it on the bass again and it sounds much better, even on that low G.  I paid more attention to how I put the string on to avoid stressing it like I did the last one.  I've been thinking about all the discussions here about how to put strings on and I'll probably try starting over with the melody string one more time.

Dulcimer String Anchor Pins

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

If I may revive this thread with a slightly different problem:

I have a cardboard-body dulcimer, like the backyard models but from a different maker.  I've had problems with the strings pulling the pins and detuning, especially the melody string.  Recently I drove a little nail in right by that pin and it doesn't pull as bad, but it still seems to pull a little bit: I can tune it to D in a GDD tuning, but if I try to tune it up to minor it seems to stop at about E and then I keep turning the peg but the pitch won't rise any.  I've broken several melody strings trying to tune it up to minor tuning before (let alone DAD) so I've always quit at this point.

You can maybe see that even the middle drone string is pulling the pin a bit, but it stays in tune so far - again, keeping it at GDD.  I'm not sure if I'm winding the string on wrong or if there's anything else I could do with the pin - replace all three with even longer nails?  These pins seem short and flimsy.

It's supposed to be a four-string, but I don't dare put any more strain on that one pin.

On the bright side, it does GDD and GDC just fine and I have a lot of fun playing medieval songs in Dorian mode.

Frame Drums

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

Yay frame drums!  Dang those are some nice ones you've all shown.  How have you all been coming along with your playing?

I started playing frame drums toward the end of my college days, looking to find more portable drums than my full kit.  I've got a few of the Remo models.  My mainstay is the 16" with the Fiberskyn head.  Lately I've been teaching myself some tambourine techniques too.  I don't know if I'll ever be as good as the Italian and Spanish women I've seen playing, but I can make some kinds of sense with them.

It was around 2000 actually when I first started and I had no idea what I was doing.  When I had regular internet access and youtube was up and running my technique took a great leap forward because there were a few Glen Velez and Layne Redmond videos.  I also have benefitted from David Kukchermann, and more recently I've found Dede Alder, who is really good, I highly recommend her channel.

I posted some really rough demo recordings of me singing and playing my 16" on Soundcloud a while back.  Some of the recordings are kind of old - in particular I'd like to re-do "Little Drummer Boy."

https://soundcloud.com/studentofrhythm/sets/solo-voice-and-frame-drum?si=765c80706c80491cbe5ebefc856739a3

updated by @studentofrhythm: 12/02/21 08:49:10AM

Native American Flutes

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

I bought a flute tuned in A at a gift shop in Torrey, UT a few summers ago.  Good basic solid flute with a nice tone.  I have fun with it.  A while ago I did a demo recording of a song I wrote with it: flute, voice and percussion:

https://soundcloud.com/studentofrhythm/to-hazel-2021-04-01?si=fdb7bb7bb9b04c258772511108d3a362

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Hi all,

I found this group after a few days of looking around the web for dulcimer stuff and practicing mine after taking it up again after - well, a few years, really.  Nine years ago I went to a yard sale and saw a cardboard-bodied dulcimer (the label on it says Double Eagle, Arkansas).  I forget how much they were selling it for but it wasn't very much.  I had seen one many years before, when someone came to my school and demonstrated folk instruments.  So I bought it.

Well, I soon found out that my dulcimer had some peculiarities: mainly, a tendency to break strings.  I went through several replacement strings trying to tune it right, and then I noticed that the pin for the melody strings was pulling up and not letting the string keep its tune.  So the poor old thing sat unused for years until recently I got it out again, replaced the pin, got new strings, broke a few, and realized that as long as I tune it 1-5-5 or 1-5-4 it'll be fine.  Currently I've got it tuned to GDD, which seems to be about as much tension as it can take.  It works for me.  I like the "Ionian" tuning and starting the scale on the 3rd fret, even though this one does have the extra 6th.  I also really really like the "Dorian" tuning - I love Dorian mode.

After fixing it up and looking at the book that it came with (Albert Gamse's Best Dulcimer Method Yet) I found Jean Ritchie's 1964 instructional record and when she started strumming and singing I felt like my soul was being welcomed back to a home it had lost.  I've been picking out hymn tunes and Christmas songs for the past couple of weeks; recently I started picking out some tunes that I've come up with on my own.  I'm excited about using it for composition and integrating it into playing in groups.

About groups: I started playing drums in 1994 and have played kit in several bands.  Recently I've joined an odd little acoustic jam band with anachronistic aspirations, playing frame drum and tambourine, and I want to work the dulcimer into it too.  I see a lot of possibilities - I particularly like Jessica Comeau's arrangements of medieval tunes.  I'm interested in learning to do chords and I'm playing around with them, but I like doing the drone style too.  I like strumming with a feather.

One of these days I'll get myself a good instrument; I'm also gonna get a strumstick.

I'm glad to find this site, I've been enjoying the recordings and pictures and discussions so far!

updated by @studentofrhythm: 12/01/21 11:16:55PM

15 string mini lap harp

Adventures with 'other' instruments...

This has been an interesting discussion.  I have one of those "Perepelochka" (transliterated from Cyrillic) models - actually it belongs to my daughter but I like to play it a lot.  Has kind of that "toy" quality for being so small and high-pitched but I enjoy the delicacy of the timbre.  It's fun to pick out songs in different modes.

updated by @studentofrhythm: 12/01/21 10:37:16PM