Forum Activity for @wally-venable

Good dulcimer for busking?

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

I think the loudest acoustic dulcimer I have is my Tennessee Music Box (TMB). It is home-built, and I described it in the thread

https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group/42/box-dulcimers

With the 1/2 inch plywood faces it is substantial enough to survive a lot of rough treatment. It might be used as a shield It has a screen door handle on one side so it doesn't need a case

There are very few dulcimers available with proper pickups installed for electric amplification. The piezo types - either built in or attached - will pick up both any bump on the dulcimer or sometimes other sounds not associated with the instrument such as passing trains.

John Knopf built a hybrid TMB about a decade ago. If you are buying, not building your own, at least exchange messages with him.

https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/1018/electric-hybrid-tmb

Good dulcimer for busking?

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

Amplification is allowed if I get a license for it (which I assume many of the musicians who busk in the subways must be doing, there are tons of people with speakers!). Thank you both for your suggestions—I may look into a louder dulcimer.

worldwide Play Music on the Porch Day 2025

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Hoopla, I'm working on mine!

worldwide Play Music on the Porch Day 2025

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Friends, Saturday 30 August, is the date for worldwide Play Music on the Porch Day.  Please, feel free to post here about your PMOTPD adventures!  Happy strumming!  

updated by @robin-thompson: 08/30/25 11:33:36AM

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

@dan I hadn't thought that far ahead.  :)  I can start a thread. 

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 

Are you going to start a thread on this?

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

@ken-longfield I hope you both have a delightful 56th anniversary and happy strumming!  

@dulcinina It's one of the best holidays-- a day for all to celebrate the joy music can bring to our lives! 

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thank you, Lisa.

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Oh my goodness, Ken... that's both wonderful and amazing! 
Big warm congratulations to you both!  

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I'll not only be playing on the porch on Saturday, but I'll be serenading my wife as we celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary that day.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I look forward to this every year. It warms my heart to know others around the world are playing their instruments. Nina

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

This coming Saturday, 30 August, 2025 is worldwide PMOTPD!  

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I just spent nearly an hour on Nina's site. I listened to most of the videos and viewed the photos. I am familiar with black Mountain. I have family in the Asheville and Burnsville area. Yes, Damon, that is what attracted me to that style. It may be miles down the road for this old man but everyone began somewhere and it was always at the beginning. 

practicing app

Playing and jamming difficulties...HELP ME!

Very cool looks super easy to use ill definitely check that out later. Thanks for showing this

practicing app

Playing and jamming difficulties...HELP ME!

Gave it a quick look.....Sounds Amazing.....Group jam session without the guilt! We'll have to give it a go, [me n' the Mrs]

Thanks for the tip!

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I'm amazed at how finger style sounds so fluid.

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I don't play finger style, but my friend does Nina Zanetti does. Visit her website https://www.ninazanetti.com and you will find some good information on finger style playing. She has some free tabs you can download. If you try one or two of them you will get a feel for the style.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Nate, (and to anyone else that wishes to respond) I appears you have been playing the dulcimer for a while. I'm somewhat new at it. I have viewed several posts on "finger picking". I have been "note plucking" for a long time and found the finger picking sty very intriguing. It appears there are several "picking" patterns to choose as a person plays the piece. I have a ton of questions. Who or where can I get more info on the subject? 

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thanks Nate, I have been working with wood projects since the 70s, but not until the past two years making dulcimers. I am a duck hunter and carved my own decoys for years. I love fishing, so I have several fish decoys and wall decors in the den. Building dulcimers just came naturally I guess. With me, I love to stay busy. I retired in 2004 and have many interests that keep me miles away from boredom. 

practicing app

Playing and jamming difficulties...HELP ME!

Hi kids, yesterday when I was on the internet looking for information about a resonator I stumbled across this interesting app that looks like it has a lot of potential for practicing. Just thought people might want to check it out for those who don't know about it. I certainly didn't know about it till yesterday. 

Strummachine.com  

It says better than a metronome! Because it's all programmatic.

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Welcome Paul! 

The photos you have shared are super cool and i look forward to your input. 

How long have you been building instruments? The work you did looks terrific.

I have always loved fossils. My grandfather owned some land with a lot of slate and shale, and i used to have a lot of fun cracking them open.

Hope to see more creations,

Nate

updated by @nate: 08/20/25 06:00:37PM

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

This is Shop Dad, I'm slowly catching on to the FOTMD system. My name is Paul Shutes, I have lived in Florida since 1942. I have several other interests other than music. I have had an interest in fossil hunting since my kids were young. I do anywhere from four to seven digs a year. I am a guide for Creation Studies Institute. 

I also am a member of a local gym and work out on a scheduled basis. This began after some health issues myself, determined to stay healthy. 

I am a father of four of the best kids in the world, one of which is with his heavenly father. My wife and I just celebrated our sixtieth anniversary. 

Bottom line, I love life.  

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

https://www.facebook.com/groups/448674886231259

This is the link and contact information for the Central Florida dulcimer Folks...They hold a fest North East of Orlando each year in the spring time. They have well over 700 members...I'm sure they can help direct you. A few of my recent customers were from "the Villages", but I looked and they would be quite a trip for you.   Keep turning over the rocks....you are sure to find a player or two nearby.....

Introduce Yourself!

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I just joined a few months ago. I do have a question and wasn't sure where to post it. Can anyone tell me if there is a dulcimer or strings group in Central Florida? Somewhere around Brevard County or, Vero Beach, Palm Bay, Kissimmee, or Cocoa?

New to the group, several questions

Site QUESTIONS ? How do I...?

 
Just to clarify, there should easily be over 1200 tuning combinations where each string has a higher pitch tone than the next lowest string. If we assume a standard 4 string tuning like ADad, and that each note could be down tuned by three steps, or uptuned by two, that still leaves 6 individual notes that each string could be tuned to. For an A string, this could be F#, G, G#, A, A#, or B. For a D string this could be B, C, C#, D, D#, or E. 
So since 6 individual notes are available per string, 6x6x6x6=1296 tuning schemes. Of course, there are way more than 6 half steps available for string, making the number much higher than 1200, not lower. In fact, Eb, D, F#, A is not in the 1200 that I mentioned, just based off the starting point of ADAd and only 6 steps of freedom.
updated by @nate: 08/18/25 05:45:03AM

New album

FOR SALE:instruments/music items/CDs/Wanted to Buy...

Thanks so much, Robin, again!  

At the risk of hubris, there's not a whole lot in the classical world that's written for mountain dulcimer, beyond what I've written and pieces written for me.  I'm pretty sure composers avoid what they think are limitations, especially the traditional non-chromatic fretboard and three-string configuration.  But these are things I love.  I've never considered getting a chromatic dulcimer (not that I have anything against it), probably in large part because I've played guitar for decades.

It's perfectly possible to play chromatic music on a dulcimer with a traditional fingerboard, if you're interested, and it rmakes you find interesting combinations.  Three basic ways of playing chromatically:

1) non-standard tunings

2) bending notes

3) harmonics

I hope some of you will listen to the album when it starts streaming soon.  My earlier albums are easy to find online on many streaming services.

Have a wonderful week!

New album

FOR SALE:instruments/music items/CDs/Wanted to Buy...

I have this album and like it ever-so-much!  If you are musically curious about mountain dulcimer as a primary instrument in the world of classical music composition, this is a recording you'll not want to miss!  

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

I would add that the 1.5 and 8.5 frets come in handy if you play a lot of very old music, such as medieval and renaissance music. I have found that those genres tend to have 'accidentals'... occasional notes that pop in or out of major/minor key creating an unexpected edginess to the tune. I have also used those two frets for unexpected minor/modal notes in older traditional American fiddle tunes which can be wonderfully quirky.
But if you don't think you'll be playing any of the types of music mentioned by Dusty or myself, I'd say you can be pretty safe just getting the 6.5 and 13.5 pair of frets... those two frets will give you lots of future-proof options.

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

The question of extra frets comes down to what kind of music you want to play. If you are going to play traditional tunes in a drone style, you don't need extra frets.  You will get used to re-tuning your melody string to get the mode needed for each song.

If you are going to play with others, especially those who play chords, if you are going to join workshops and jams and learn songs from other people's tablature, you will want the 6.5 fret.  The 6.5 fret has been standard now for several decades, and most tablature assumes you have that fret.  The 13.5 fret is just the octave version of the 6.5. I would suggest getting it so that you have the same fret pattern in both octaves.  However, if you are getting one of Ron's small dulcimettes, the frets may be too small up high for a usable 13.5 fret.  Follow his advice on that.

If you want to play blues, jazz, ragtime, pop, rock, and other modern music, you may want a 1.5 fret (and an 8.5 as well).  That is the configuration on my main dulcimers now.  However, remember that we celebrate how easy the dulcimer is to play, and the more frets we add, the more complicated it gets.

And remember that you can always have frets added later on.  My advice would be to get the 6.5 and 13.5 but hold off on the 1.5 and 8.5 until you know for sure what you are doing and why you would want those frets.

Pluck by Linda Paulus

OFF TOPIC discussions

@salt-springs Such a lovely way to honor the life and legacy of David Schnaufer!  

I've read Pluck a couple times-- so much to learn about modern mountain dulcimer history!  Linda Paulus's work combined with Robert Force's autobiographical writings have taught me so much about how the mountain dulcimer traveled here in the U.S. and abroad.    

Play Music On The Porch Day 2019

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Worldwide Play Music On The Porch day 2025 edition is two weeks away-- 30 August 2025!  

If it's in your heart to go outdoors and make some music, I hope you'll have a lovely time!  

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

1.5, 6.5, 8.5, 13.5.  All or nothing.

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

You will occasionally encounter DAA TABs which have 6 1/2 fret notes. Don't avoid an instrument just because it has one.

A Review of my album

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Thanks again, Robin.  You're very kind.  I hope I'm making a contribution to the dulcimer world as well.  As you can probably tell, I make some different tone colors on the instrument and I'd love to have an opportunity to share them.  You can probably also tell that I use lots of different tunings and, on the album, four equidistant strings.  Four strings was a new thing for me (I have an album called Three Stings and the Truth), but I'm hooked, althougn there are virtues in three strings as well.

The album should be streaming in a few weeks.  I'll let you all know.

Thanks again and have a great weekend,

A Review of my album

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Alex, we were out in the car today and listened again.  

My knowledge of classical music is next-to-nothing and the poet & novelist Amy Levy was completely unfamiliar to me.  So, I am not equipped to give a proper review.  I know enough, though, to know I like your recording lots!  Your work on mountain dulcimer offers surprises and suits so well paired with Victoria Vargas.  Ms. Vargas's voice-- Brava!-- has a lovely timbre.

Y'all have made a wonderfully unique contribution to classical music!   

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

The most important impact of temperaments at the user level is they usually don't play well together. 

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

 A 6.5 is pretty much essential for Dad and other 1-5-8 tunings, but not needed for DAA tuning, and other 1-5-5 tunings.
In Dad tuning, the 6.5 fret corresponds to the note C#, which is an important part of the D major scale. If you're going to get a 6.5, I'd say a 13.5 is also good.
A 1.5 can also be nice, but anything more than that, I would recommend holding off until you actually have a reason to want them.

The question about temperament is pretty complicated, so this answer will be over simplified. The majority of dulcimers with a 6.5 fret are equal temperament, unless they specifically say otherwise. The goal of ET is to make compromises so that none of the intervals between notes are particularly dissonant in any key. It's basically just taking all the intervals and averaging them out to get tones that are generally inoffensive in any key. When a builder chooses a temperament other than ET, the goal is to give certain specific intervals extra harmony at the sacrifice of other intervals. Usually, this means placing the frets in such a way that is optimized for one specific key. This can lead to dissonance when chording and especially when using a capo. However, temperaments like just intonation and meantone sound GREAT in melody drone style.

Minnesota

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Hi,

I hope you're all doing well.

I haven't noticed anyone mentioning being from Minnesota (like me) and I'm wondering if anyone else is.  I know there are at least a few other dulcimer players, not sure whether they're in this group.  I live in St. Paul, so I'm especially interested in Twin Cities folk.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

"Extra" frets and JI vs ET

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

Oh,I'd go for a couple extra frets since you're already covered with the more traditional tunings.I have a chromatic that sat in the closet for years while I experimented and learned on the trad instruments.Just in the last year I dusted it off and started figuring it out.Glad I held on to it....nevertheless I'm glad I didn't start with a chromatic,I get such enjoyment out of different tunings,capo positions and string bending.

Listing A Dulcimer For Sale

Site QUESTIONS ? How do I...?

There is no waiting period for you before you can list a dulcimer for sale- you can do so right now, and posting an item for sale is free. HOWEVER there are certain site guidelines to follow-
Your for sale ad thread must only be located in our For Sale Forum . No sales promotions allowed in other parts of the site. At the top of the above linked page, please read the rules for posting an item for sale, and follow them. And if your item sells, we ask that you make a small donation to our site. If your item does not sell, no donation is asked. (though it's always appreciated)
Feel free to ask other questions if needed. Thanks for asking about this!   :)