Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hi, everyone! I just wanted to drop a note here to say hello.
I'm brand new and rather spontaneously picked up a MacSpadden dulcimer a few days ago after watching some videos that had showed up in my YouTube side bar. I live in Germany where dulcimers are pretty rare beasts, though luckily I found the dulcimer store by Martin Oesterle (I believe he's a member here too) who set aside quite a bit of time to talk to me about dulcimers on the phone and answer my numerous questions. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, I just knew I didn't want the laminated dulcimer-shaped objects that a big box store sold.
I somewhat play the banjo, ukulele, and the kalimba, and in a way it is surprising that it took me so long to get into the mountain dulcimer. It had shown up on my radar a few years ago, but for some reason I didn't look further into it. I think I saw "three strings" and that sort of lowered my interest a little, thinking it might be too limited. I also believed it was just for accompaniment, not for solo instrumentals, and I felt I already had enough instruments. If I had known how versatile and downright beautiful sounding dulcimers are, I'd probably have been here years ago already. Well, there is a time for everything! :)
I'm still all over the place, absorbing information and experimenting with everything, so I don't really have any preferences yet. I do like the chord melody style quite a bit, but also played a little with that tiny noter that came with my dulcimer. Flatpicks are a relatively new experience for me as I've always fingerpicked the ukulele and the banjo (I play it with fingerpicks sometimes, but I prefer the "old time" styles of picking with bare fingers for the more organic sound). I quite enjoy the flatpick so far and bought "a few" different ones already. Fingerstyle on the dulcimer hasn't called out to me yet, though in time I'll no doubt try that out too. But I do have these other instruments for fingerpicking and it's nice to learn something new.
Anyway, I'm glad to be here and hope to learn from you all. Here are a handful photos of my dulcimer . I took them outside for the better light. It's just the standard walnut model, though it does have a pick up in case I ever want to plug in or toy around with effect pedals. I have little doubt that this dulcimer will eventually be joined by a friend or two -- but not before I've practiced and improved for some time! If I learned one thing from the Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome that I suffered from a decade ago and successfully recovered from, it is the importance of first practicing and learning before shopping for more!