Forum Activity for @dusty

Thanks for that link, Strumelia. I read that article this morning. I have to admit I never thought to connect Joni's Blue with Miles's Kind of Blue , though I've loved both albums for years.

There's also a piece in the NY Times today: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/20/arts/music/joni-mitchell-blue.html?searchResultPosition=1 .

Both articles are worth exploring on a screen bigger than a phone since there's lots of pictures and interactive content.

Unfortunately, after a comment by Roseanne Cash about the "weird sound" of James Taylor's guitar, the editors inserted an audio excerpt of Joni's dulcimer.  D'oh!

There's also an NPR "listening party" on YouTube on June 22 .  Not sure what that will be like. Thousands of people listening to the album and chatting about it?

Here's a wonderful NPR article about Joni's Blue and her music- it includes some interesting references to dulcimer and guitars in Joni's music. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/20/1008271419/joni-mitchell-masterpiece-at-50-her-kind-of-blue

Yes, @dusty-turtle, that's the collection.  After all these years, I'll get to listen to Blue straight through. 

Dusty's call of Bonaparte's Retreat sounds right to me.  If memory serves, I think I heard Don Pedi say some years back that he thought that "snake charmer" part was a later addition to the tune.  

Great video, Dan-- so glad you shared it!   

Thank you sir. One of those tunes I know, but I couldn't place it!

@robin-thompson, is that the collection that has Joni's first four Reprise albums?  It looks interesting, but since I already have all of those CDs, I'm not sure what I'd gain from "newly remastered" versions.

Every time I listen to Blue carefully, I notice something new.  For example, I had long thought that "A Case of You" was just a love song, but now I rethink the lines "I could drink a case of you and still be on my feet" to mean that she can't be swept off her feet by anyone. I hear it now more as a statement of her own independence. And that website I link to below explains that "Little Green" is about her giving up a baby for adoption.  Now I understand the words and just find it heartbreaking.

I've wanted Blue yet don't have it.  Yet.  I've pre-ordered a new collection coming out from JM in a few weeks and it includes Blue.  

I've had Blue since it first came out. Love it! And love the other album's of Joni's that I have, too.

Bonaparte's Retreat, methinks.

Edit: Today people usually play Bonaparte's Retreat with three parts.  The version in the documentary only has two of them.  The missing part is what defines the tune to us as mixolydian since it relies on the lowered 7th. If you skip that part, you can probably play it in either ionian or mixolydian.

I know this video has been around a time or two, found it again the other night and can't quite make out the tune for the second segment on Edd Presnell, (time 9:24)

Thank you in advance.

Music From The Hills

Joni Mitchell's Blue album, which introduced the dulcimer to millions of pop music fans, is 50 years old.  Check out CBC Radio's celebration of the album , which includes commentary and artwork inspired by the music.  The importance of the dulcimer is highlighted clearly:

The album’s distinctive sound comes from the dulcimer, which is the main instrument on four of Blue‘s songs. “I took off to Europe carrying a flute and this dulcimer because it was very light for backpacking around Europe,” [Joni] said. “I wrote most of Blue  on it.”

I don't have to tell you what a phenomenal combination of vulnerability and strength Joni's songs embody. And no one has ever matched the melodic playfulness of her soprano vocals.

Keep in mind that once you get residue of rosin on your strings, they can be a bit sticky, especially if you play with a flatpick. Clean rosin residue off your strings with a soft cloth that's damp with a little rubbing alcohol. Avoid getting alcohol on your instrument's wood or on the fretboard.

Demo of Hammered dulcimer with Jimbow

A dose of rosin should certainly last more than 8 measures, even on a Mountain Dulcimer!  Could be you're not dosing with enough rosin; or pressing down too hard are wearing it off too quick. 

Hammered Dulcimers are going to be nearly impossible to bow. 

Bows used on Bowed Psalteries certainly last for more than one song!

How long should the rosin work before you need to reapply. I am trying one out on a MT. dulcimer and the rosin wears off the bow & it wont sound after about 8 measures.

Any ideas?

Do they work better with H. dulcimers (the bow are a bit bigger)

 Jim Bow Rosewood.jpg - 100KB

Somewhere around a baker's dozen, @kevin-r yet I have about 5 of them promised to a couple young players.  In addition, I have 3 bowed dulcimers and one of Michael Fox's Dulcijos (which is a little 3-string banjo).    

Duckslammer, fence scorpion, waterswivel....my new favorites!...I especially like duckslammer! Thanks, Dusty!

In the folk tradition, we generally agree that isolating "who" originally did something is pretty tough indeed.  Instead we talk about different regional traditions that developed over time. As @dan and @ken-hulme have explained, today, people sometimes use the term "dulcimore" to refer to traditional, pre-revival (1940s) instruments or replicas of those instruments.

Just for kicks, a few years ago I collected the attached list of the various names that have been given to our beloved instrument.

a dulcimer by any other name.pdf - 44KB

"Exact" is such a hard word!   As Dan sez, back in the day there was no standard spelling for dulcimer/dulcimore/dulcemore, and there were numerous regional names for the instrument as well. 

Today many of us use the dulcimore/dulcemore spelling to distinguish instruments made in a more traditional, less modern way.  Our "bible" as it were is L. Allen Smith's landmark book Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers.  Hundreds of traditional designs to replicate or emulate.

Here are a few characteristics which a number of us use to distinguish between a modern and traditional "dulcimer".

• With few exceptions, Traditional instruments have partial width staple frets, not full-width modern 'mushroom' frets.
• Traditional instruments use woods native to the Eastern US (notablyu polar) ,  not the Western US or 'exotic' woods
• With few exceptions, Traditional instruments do not have mechanical tuners; they use violin type tuners or autoharp type tuning pins
• Traditional instruments have purely diatonic fret layouts -- no "plus" frets at all,
• Traditional instruments have full-length fretboards.
• Traditional instruments have no wound strings
• Traditional instruments almost always have overhanging 'fiddle edges' rather than flush top/side joints
• Traditional instruments were almost invariably played in the Noter & Drone or Fingerdancing styles, without fingerpicking, three-finger chords, or DAd tuning (unless the song absolutely required Mixolydian tuning).
• The most common tunings seem to have been Unison (all strings the same gauge and same high note -- d-d-d) or Bagpipe (middle and melody strings an octave higher than the bass string D-d-d), with 1-5-5 tunings a close third. 

Don't know there is any thing exact in the tradition. Some (I included) use the term Dulcimore to differentiate the traditional  pieces from the contemporary pieces. "Dulcimore" was just one of several regional names assigned to an Appalachian folk instrument some 150 year ago? Hog fiddle, scantlin', music box, harmonium to name a few, and those had varying regional mountain pronunciations too! There will be several sages to enlighten you to the origins of the terms!

You might be better suited to ask the difference between the traditional piece and a contemporary?

From the pictures I've seen they both seem to be extremely similar indeed. Do you know who invented the word dulcimore, and who invented the word dulcimer?

Ooops, the other one is Steve Taylor, our bass section leader ... my shirt is red.plaid. HIs hair is grey, and if you could hear him individually you would hear a North of England accent.

Great photo John and great dulcimore given to Diane. Contrats Diane. Enjoy your dulcimore

The return to gatherings with family and friends is so wonderful. Scrabble, Banagrams, or just sharing a bottle of wine.

I just booked tickets for the family to visit my folks, whom we haven't seen in nearly two years, since the summer before the pandemic.  And we're attending a neighborhood party this evening, when we've all pitched in to hire a pizza truck, two guys with a wood-fired oven that they tow around from their van.  All the adults and kids over 12 in the neighborhood have been vaccinated, and we'll be outdoors anyway.  It will be so nice to hang out with people again.

John, with one exception, I am in the process of thinning the herd here.  We're thinking we're going to get a much smaller house (and no steps/next to none) someday.  Even if I don't own one of your beauties, I admire them greatly.  

Thanks, Robin!  

There's one somewhere here in my stack of poplar with your name on it (maybe?).

James that is so nice... enjoy your lovely visit!
I played Bananagrams at the kitchen table with my daughter and my son in law. So 'normal'  and so fun! This is their first time visiting anyone since Feb 2020.

John, that Will Singleton dulcimer is a treasure!  

@james-phillips Have fun catching up with your mom and playing Scrabble!  

I can honestly say, the one thing about all this is, at least among the people I know, is the sense of community and that we are all in this together.  We've been been vax'd since April (with working at Dart Container we fell into Phase 1B of the roll-out here in IL) and for the first time since March of 2020 tonight we'll be going to my Mom's for dinner and Scrabble.  It's been tough not doing anything together in person with my Mom so am looking forward to it.

@susie I'm glad Nightbirde touched your heart-- she touched my heart, too.  

Hey B.Ross, there are two bearded guys with plaid shirts in that video.

This morning i was sitting my MY daughter in the outdoor patio of our neighborhood cafe too Dusty!.  :)
Yes it does feel strange to be out and about without a mask on next to people outdoors. (like a lot of folks I know, we still feel better wearing masks when indoors with strangers, and when in stores)   I'm especially grateful the weather in our part of the world allows us to eat in outside restaurants.
I'm beginning to feel much safer near others. This mental adjustment does take a little time. When outdoors, i no longer wear mask at all, indoors I still do unless i know everyone has been vaxilated.  ;D  Us 'human magnets' gotta stick together, after all... ahahahah!!!  I find it so handy to just stick my car keys on my forehead now... i never lose track of them anymore. 

Got my second dose of Moderna yesterday. Sandie is on track to get her second Pfizer shot in about two weeks. Ontario is opening up gradually ... patios opened last night just after midnight for al fresco dining, and so  forth.

Our community choir released our 2021 final concert video on Youtube about a week ago ... I'm the bearded guy wearing a plaid shirt in the three new songs recorded remotely.

The link is also posted on our website  www.commonthreadchorus.ca

I'm sitting with my daughter in the outdoor patio of a neighborhood café.  It feels so strange to be in public with no mask on.  Here in California, where the state is approaching that magical 70 percent vaccination rate, the pandemic restrictions are going to be lifted in about a week.  This café is even hosting its first ever open mic night a few days after the state re-opens.  A return to normal?  I wonder how long it will be before I'm comfortable with no mask on.

Wow, what an amazing prize!! 

Lucky lucky lucky lady Diane. 

Congratulations to Diane.  And what a nice gesture on your part, John.

Each year we have the Berea Traditional Dulcimore Gathering, one of the founding members builds a dulcimore to be given away at the gathering.  Two years ago, Bobby Ratliff of Grundy, VA built a traditional Virginia dulcimore out of 9 native woods. This year I built the giveaway dulcimore for the event.  Actually there was a choice this year: the winner could select a J. E. Thomas replica dulcimore or a Will Singleton replica dulcimore that I built.  Both of these were old Kentucky designs, but few have ever seen a Will Singleton dulcimore in person.  The winning attendee, Diane Peacock, chose the Singleton.  Here's a photo of the presentation.

 berea wins.jpg - 226KB

With or without the video, The-5-easiest-houseplants-for-beginners is for those of us who claim a "Black Thumb." 

For my continuing adventure, I patted myself on the back for getting a Mandevilla through the winter.  (The local greenhouse didn't think I could do it.)  Next I was careful taking it in & out of our sun room during times when it got cold at night -- having it on a rolling platform helped.  Once that danger was past, however, I figured it was just a case of give it lots of water & let it enjoy that sun.  WOOPS!  The poor baby's looking dehydrated even with lots of water flowing through it daily.  Fortunately there's still plenty of green, so it's now rolled over to a shady corner of that sun room & I'm just hoping I can again bring it around.  (Bought my usual 2 for the front entrance.  Won't let my hold-over Mandevilla see them -- too painful seeing what greenhouses produce.)

Have some other adventures with indoor houseplants (& outdoors), am even occasionally feeling like my thumb is getting "gray", but it's a long way to Tipperary & a long, long way to green.

Yeah some of my friends got their shots too, so we are looking forward for meeting the first time after one year.