Forum Activity for @ken-longfield

My experience with Black Mountain dulcimers is that they are good instruments. They are not fancy, but are well built, play well, and sound good. Back in the 1970s and 80s I considered them an excellent entry level instrument which could become a lifetime instrument. Whether or not it is an upgrade from your current dulcimer you will have to determine from playing it. They have a very comfortable VSL and in my opinion make very nice chording dulcimers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

You should consider taking your current instrument to the shop and playing both side by side. The important thing is which one suits your ear better.

I am exploring options locally to upgrade my current dulcimer. A shop locally has one from Black Mountain for sale. They look nice but could not find anything about them searching the forums (could be user error on my part). 

https://blackmtninstruments.com/about/

many thanks

Sound Clip

This was a fun piece. It is loosely based on an instrument made by Dale London back in the 90's. The piece needed some repair work done and I had the opportunity to "see" the inside. I changed what didn't work and replicated what did. It has a floating tail piece and suspended staple board. All Black Walnut Ebonized with an oil and wax finish. 28 inch VSL set to Diatonic DAA with 15 music wire staples. Ebony nut and bridge, Walnut tuners and nickel string anchors.

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@strumelia We were happy she learned the little tune and made it a little cello tune.   (a very little cello emoji haha)  

@robin-thompson , that is so wonderful!

Thanks for this.  




Dusty Turtle"]

Kurt Vonnegut in a letter to high school students:

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

You can hear James Earl Jones read the entire letter here.   

Too funny!!  

Pretty funny there, John!    It begs the question, though, if I have a shell, why do I need a hat?

Hey Dusty

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Very interesting contributions, thanks so much.

For the most part, we declare ourselves right or left handed depending on how we write.  The only other such declarations that come to mind as being in common parlance are how we play string instruments and baseball (or, I suppose, cricket).  Notably, Ringo Starr was forced to write right handed but calls himself left handed and says that it informs his playing.

I read an interesting article some years ago that refers to "mixed handedness" when folk do different tasks different ways.  Besides playing right handed, I (used to) bat right handed.  Another article I read on the subject reported that there's no relationship between the hand we use to write and how we hold a shovel, rake, or similar implements.

On guitar, many players who fret mostly with their left hand also fret or "tap" with the right.  I occasionally do this on dulcimer 1) for certain harmonics 2) for effect, if I do it really hard, or 3) to play a pitch while I'm holding down another string with my left.

Have a great day!

An interesting side effect of changing the roles of right and left hands is renewed facility on the original configuration...when I started playing button accordion,my fiddling changed for the better.On accordion the bellows is the driver(left hand),on the fiddle it's the bow(right hand)..perhaps it has something to with the sides of the brain!.Likewise,learning dulcimer(on the lap,the high strings opposite to the guitar,the droniness) changed my guitar playing.

As a rightie who does everything rightie, I'm not sure what I can add here. In general, lefties are better with their right hands than righties are with their lefts.

I can imagine fretting strings with my right hand and yet I would not be able to strum or pick with any fluidity with my left hand.

The general consensus is that strumming and picking is more important for the making of music than is fretting strings, which is why most of us strum and pick with our strong hand.  Let's all remember that when people ask for tab to learn songs as though all that matters is the fretting hand.

I would give my left arm to be ambidextrous.

Thanks, Nate.  I couldn't agree more.  It's one of the things I love about the dulcimer world is a sense of choice that differs so much from the classical music world where I've made my living all these years (while mostly playing folk instruments).  Even guitar feels to me like there are more fixed ideas about technique.

Things I do that I think might be easier for a lefty include bends (especially before I play a note, getting a chromatic pitch just right), harmonics (ones I've never heard anyone else play), and making big jumps all over the fingerboard.  OTOH (pun intended), I'm often blown away by right hand stuff other folk do that's way beyond me.

Have a great day.

Alex, i think it definitely depends on what kind of music is being played. Personally, i dont play very complex rhythms or strum patterns, and to me it feels like my fretting hand is dong a lot more precise movement compared to the strumming hand. It makes sense to me, though, that plucking would be more strenuous than fretting at a high level.

No apologies needed, Alex!  

According to published research I've read, when the right hand plucks and/or bows, it's doing the more difficult task.  That may well seem counter-intuitive, but it also explains why it's the norm on every instrument everywhere.  That seems particularly remarkable on instruments without frets, although manipulating a bow with finesse is tricky.

That being said, as a very lefty lefty, I've struggled all my playing life with developing a facile right hand on quite a few instruments (this despite having earned my living in music all my life).  But I also agree that that are really interesting things one can do playing right handed while having a particularly deft left hand.  I'm pretty sure this is what led me to composing my own music (or my own parts) that allows me to use my left hand to its best advantage.  It's also why I wouldn't think of teaching any of my instruments, since my technique is pretty idiosyncratic.  (I've taught classical composition and related courses for almost fifty years.)

I've shared a few pieces, but you can hear a bunch on nearly all the major streaming services, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.  New album dropping any day now.

Thanks!

Everyone,

I think I now understand how to post to the General Forum.  My apologies for the confusion.

Thanks.  Forgive me, but I'm fairly new to this group and confused about how to post on the General Forum.  Please advise, thanks.

Hi, I'm a leftie who plays musical instruments as right-handed. I knit right handed as well. It just makes everything easier, and both hands are doing important things anyway.

BTW I moved this discussion from our 'For Sale' forum to this General forum.

I'm also a leftie that plays right-handed and started on guitar as a teenager. I've always thought of it as an advantage since my most dexterous hand is the one forming the chords. Someone told me once that on a dulcimer your strumming hand is the meat and potatoes. Your fretting hand is just the gravy!

Hi All,

I'm curious about folk who, like me, are lefties who play right handed.  Do you think it's affected your style?  Has it held you back in any way?

I started guitar about sixty years ago and at the time, at least for me, playing left handed was not an option, although I suspect I would have if I could have.  (My wife is also a lefty, but not as much as me, and she says it's never been an issue.  She plays drums, guitar, and flute.)

Have a great day.

I'm glad that was helpful. Often it takes it a little experimenting to get right action for your playing style.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

If a bridge is simply too high, you can lower it by taking it out and sanding or filing the bottom a bit. Do it a little at a time and tune and play it after each reduction.

If you have measured the bridge height and know about how much too high it is, you first pass may be a larger one, then do it a bit by bit.

Okay.  I replaced the bridge and thanks for telling me where to find those. I've put new strings on it. I'll play it awhile and see if I like it. I'm going to try replacements on that Dulcimer Factory one that I started out with. The action is too high and it's worth a try. Thanks for all the help!

Thank you @kevin-r

But little Johnny used hide glue, broom wire and milk paint, why use modern materials to replicate it? No one worries if a sharp chisel, knife or maybe a hand plane was used, we will never know method, but we can pretty well figure out the materials!

Here is a link to another video of this instrument.

John, as I unerstand it, Yes! Another way to remember the half steps on the scale from E to F and B to C: E at F ish B efore C hicken. I learned that years ago years ago and it has stuck in my head forever!

Lots of modern mountain dulcimer history and David's connections to so many players and places-- loved it!  I think I've read it twice.  

Just finished reading this, which is about the life of David Schnaufer but also about the dulcimer community. I found it interesting. Got a Kindle copy through Amazon. 

If you are a "DAA" player, you tune the Bass string down the half note, then use the same "4th fret" on the Bass to get the others. (Relative tuning works similarly for other tunings.)

If you go back to Jean Ritchie's Dulcimer Book, the basic tunings were a whole step lower - Cggg, CGcc and so on, so lower tunings are more traditional. 

Yes, that's correct.
To sound good, you'll need to tune your other strings down the same amount (a half step, or a whole step).

Keep in mind that some note intervals have only a half step between them to begin with:  E to F, and B to C. Thus for example a whole step lower than C is Bflat. I find it helps me to remember which are the half-step intervals by thinking " E at F ood, B e C ool". Also, in most music situations, people call "Dflat" Csharp... different name for basically the same note.

Unless you are playing with other people, or practicing along with a recording in a certain pitch, there's no reason you can't tune your whole dulcimer down a step, for various reasons.

What are you up to?  

Hello kids. I know I know not Jon again. I have a tuning question. For example, let's say You want to tune your Bass string down a half step. Do you tune it to D flat ? And tune it to C for a full step down?

But....but.....then it wouldn't be a dulcimer.....[or would it?]  ..ahh, the circle continues....

no need for replies...just kill'n time between mowing in the heat...

Not to mention a table saw, bandsaw, jointer/planer, drill press, belt/disc sander, etc., etc... And electricity, of course.

Thank you, Dan, for the bit of history and insight. "guarded secrets" reminds me of my old trapping days swapping recipes for beaver lure....

I know it's been discussed elsewhere...but I really do think that if little Johnny living in the mountains had access to baltic birch plywood, machine tuners and shellac....he'd a used 'em....

Have a Happy Independence Day!

john

I have looked at and joined groups, thanks, and I'll check out Joellen Lapidus.

I'm interested in the idea of "advantage" that Lapidus brings up.  Igor Stravinsky said that he could not create without having limitations.  I think limitations are one of the things that attracts many of us to the dulcimer and that having less strings and less frets than, for example, a guitar can be what inspires us.  And having more resources doesn't necessarily make music or anything else better.  I don't necessarily agree with those who very much preferred Bob Dylan with just his guitar and harmonica to Bob Dylan with an amplified band, but, as anyone who's seen "A Complete Unknown" knows, there were -= and remain -- plenty of folk whose musical preferences run that way.

I'm just one of those folk who are inspired by the limitations of my 6.5 fret dulcimers, but also the "advantages" of four equidistant strings.  To each one's own and all are welcome. 

Have a great week.

Thank you for asking John,

1) the staples are set by hand so there will be a little variance, yes the proper VSL at that staple is what is important

2) the Thomas pieces had the hearts pointed that way as did most early pieces (Edd Presnell made reference to "hands and hearts to God" was the reason they pointed them that way)

3) there are a thousand YouTube videos about this...

• skim milk to white vinegar 8/1 let set in warm place over night (makes quark)
• rinse quark through cheese cloth three times to remove the acid
• slake hydrated lime and mix with quark about 4/1 quark/lime
• let this set in fridge over night
• warm to room temperature and add color pigment (depends on the color pigment?)
• I use an electric stirrer to keep the mix from settling

You don't have to let the mix set over night. Some folks mix it up and go with it right then but I like to give it time to wet out properly. Yes I have some guarded secrets in my mix and method beyond this recipe! 

Some folks take issue with the methods I use. I have electricity, they didn't. I take issue with folks who take liberty with modern materials and call it traditional. I have heat and air conditioning in the Dulcimore Den but the materials in my replications are authentic! I'm very proud of this...