Forum Activity for @nightingale

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Just an update as I haven't posted here in awhile.  My banjo and guitar have been languishing since I picked up dulcimer.  I ordered a new one from McSpadden and got a cherry with spruce top.  It sounds wonderful!  I thought I would go for walnut, which to me has a wonderful, almost flute like tone to it, but every time I heard the cherry/spruce combo on youtube it reached out to me.  My self-taught learning is coming along and I am enjoying both fingerstyle and drone type playing.  I really like the Aeolian and bagpipe tunings.  So, its a learning curve, but fingerstyle for softer songs like Scarborough Fair and the strum/drone/bagpipe sound for more celtic and scottish tunes.  Something about that drone tuning I really love.

Great job on the Cigar box!  Also, Buckeye67, that's a beautiful walnut dulcimer you have.  I'm a Buckeye too.  Go Bucks!

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

They were the soundtrack of my high school years.  I love this song.  They wrote such beautiful, melodious songs.

I was stopped at a light a couple of summers ago and I heard a Simon & Garfunkel tune coming from the jeep next to me driven by two young teenage high school boys.  I said, I can't believe you are listening to that, I though only us old folk still love them.  They told me how much they loved their music.  Simon & Garfunkel are timeless, their music will go on as new generations discover them.

updated by @nightingale: 10/15/23 12:45:37AM

Reasons NOT To Get a Chromatic

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

I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but - oh well.  I play guitar, clawhammer banjo and am now learning dulcimer.  When I learn a mountain instrument, such as clawhammer banjo or dulcimer, I want to learn and play it the way the the original players played it.  I guess I want to learn the tradition, keep it, and maybe add a personal touch here and there.  But "old school" tradition is very important to me.  So, if I want chromatic, guitar or banjo is the way to go for me. With clawhammer banjo, I thought of transferring it to guitar - but why?  It was made for banjo. With a dulcimer I want that lovely sweet sound of the mountains and to keep the tradition alive as best I can.  I don't want to make them into something modern and into something they are not.  There are plenty of hybrids instruments - banjo dulcimers, guitar banjos, etc. out there if you want to come into the up to date modern world.

So, in my mind, let a guitar be a guitar, let a banjo be a banjo and let a dulcime be a dulcimer.

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thank you for your kind words everyone.  I think this would make a great noter dulcimer and will look more into that style.  Right now I am going through Patterns and Patchwork fingerpicking.  I really like this book, as besides the picking she starts out simply using simple songs getting used to the I, IV, and V chords going up and down the fretboard with the IIm and VIm thrown in.  I feel like I'm getting basic building blocks for the future.  I will say, the 28.5 is a bit of a stretch for me.  I see a 26 VSL in my future and that's a good thing!

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Ken, I have downloaded you article and will read shortly - Strumelia, thanks for pointing it out to me.

Nate, it was great reburbing it.  After 51 years in the basement it was dusty, dried out, grimy, etc.  I'll post some pics of it cleaned and ready to go.  Since its a 70 or 71 or so I have no idea who made it.  Once it was cleaned up and oiled and I strung it up - I held my breath - will it sound good or no?  Well it sounds lovely.  Action is high, no 6.5 fret but I'll have the action fixed, I'm still having fun with it.

Here are a couple of pics all cleaned up with a new lustrous finish.

I have a feeling this won't be my only one as time goes on!

updated by @nightingale: 08/27/23 11:47:16AM

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Hello everyone, I am new here and happy to be here.  I've played stringed instruments for decades (guitar, acoustic and banjo - clawhammer and two-finger thumb lead style) and after seeing some amazing videos on Youtube, thought - that is one of the most lovely instruments I've ever heard, I must learn how to play it.  My mother, back in '71 gave me a lovely mountain dulcimer out of the blue.  Me and my friends were, well, that's cool, why did she give it to you and what do you do with it?  So I recently pulled it out of the basement, reburbished it (I used to refinish wood many years ago) and its beautiful.  One piece walnut back and sides, 28.5 scale, and I am loving it.

I look forward to learning from all of you, so, thanks for putting up with a newbie!