Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Welcome Atilwi!  Glad you found us.  You're in for a fabulous experience!  Always ask questions -- we're here to help.  There are no stupid or inappropriate questions, just ones that don't get answered.  

I've attached an article I wrote a few years back called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?.  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms, so we all speak the same lingo when asking and answering questions.  Plus it has answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new friend.

I Just Got A.pdf - 1MB

Hello!

I teach elementary music in Kansas and just ordered my first Dulcimer. Found this place when I was researching what to look for so I could choose a good one!

Same, John, in that, having a music education degree, I can supposedly play all of the band wind instruments, buuuuut.... I'm really a flute player. If I had access to the instrument and practice time, I have the foundational knowledge to pick any of them up.

I also do a little on soprano, alto, and sopranino recorder (mine are all plastic Yamahas, acquired for the purpose of teaching elementary children). Would love to learn pennywhistle, but haven't bought one yet.

At that price, David, I think you should start collecting!

A friend saw this AW Jeffreys dulcimer on Craigslist. Looks like the seller is about 3 minutes from my house. Too bad I'm not collecting, seems like a good price.

https://huntsville.craigslist.org/msg/d/vintage-w-jeffreys-dulcimer/6708546706.html

That's one beautiful instrument.  All but one of mine have wooden tuning pegs.  I don't find them hard to work at all -- just 'different' from mechanical pegs.  I gave you ideas for strings on your FB post.  

Posted this on the Everything Dulcimer FB page, and it was suggested I ask here (probably should have asked here first!).

I recently acquired a beautiful mountain dulcimer made in July 1975 by John Kleske of Binghamton NY, and wondered if anyone else has and plays one of his instruments. Mine is #82, and I suspect it has the original strings from 1975. All I know about him is what I found in his 2011 obituary (plus a piece about a ukelin orchestra he and John Thomson of Seneca Moon String Band put together!). Sadly, it appears that the Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering he founded in 1976 ended with the one in 2016. Any information about him or his instruments would be most welcome. I'd also appreciate any tips on what kind of strings to use; these ancient oxidized ones feel like playing a cheese slicer. Do wooden peg dulcimers require anything different than ones with geared tuners?

 Hand made folk art mountain dulcimer - John Kleske, Binghamton, NY, 1975 1 crop web.jpg - 122KB

The Wilsons are somewhat legendary in Michigan, having built dulcimers and exhibited them at festivals.  As I understand it, Richard built the dulcimers and Denise provided the inlay work, and maybe the soundholes.  They do (did?) excellent work.

That inlay on the back looks really cool, John!  

Here is my collection so far.  HighSpirits, Erik the Flutemaker, Stellar kit and recently purchased from Joe Loftin.

 NAF.jpg - 283KB

There is also a McSpadden "Sweet Song" dulcimer kit listed on the site.

I just found this listed on shopgoodwill.com!  A very pretty, high-quality dulcimer with beautiful heart and flying geese soundholes.  Flying geese inlay on the back.  Item #58634975.

Blondie - FYI - you can see the stand in my video - "Crippled Creek Osceola Aug 2012

You are VERY welcome!  Let me know if I can help you any more!  Like I said, it wasn't perfect, but is light-weight, folds up, and adjustable.  I did have a little trouble stitching the shelf liner onto the fabric, but it is helpful so you don't get the instruments slipping and sliding.

Oh my goodness, this is just awesome!  Thank you so much for sharing!

Hi Blondie! 

Ok - for my stand (which is a double-wide) I used the following:

(4) - 1"x2"x40" - for the legs

(3) - 3/4"x20" - dowel (for the outside leg and center)

(2) - 3/4"x18 1/2" - dowel (for the inside leg)

(2) - 26" lengths of chain (this makes the stand height adjustable)

(4) - hooks to attach chains to

Fabric, shelf liner and stain

While it isn't perfect, it certainly has served me well!  I made it double-wide so I could keep 2 instruments on it, and switch them easily, especially if playing out.  Let me know if you have questions.

Thanks!

 004.jpg - 163KB

I will try to get the pic and measurements this evening!

Thank you for the advice Ken & everyone else...just waiting on my strings now & keeping my fingers crossed...

Good ideas.  A waiter's tray table, how clever.  And yes Cindy, I would like a picture and some measurements.  

A keyboard stand makes a decent alternative also.  The height is adjustable.  I used a small piece of shelving covered with a piece of shelf-liner on top of the keyboard stand.  This works good, but isn't real handy if you are taking it out to play.

I also made my own stand a few years ago.  I could post a picture and some measurements if you want to make your own, or have someone that could make it for you.

I don't have a Stockard stand, but I do use a waiter's tray table like the one above, that I got at a restaurant supply store for about $25.

 Serving-Items-Miscellaneous-Waiter-Tray-Stand-Wooden.jpg - 20KB

OK.  Knowing his is a Tom Yocky and his standard dulcimers have a 27.5" VSL, the strings you need, as KenWL said, at .010 plain for the two melody strings, .014 plain for the middle drone, and a .020 wound for the bass string.  These are the gauges commonly found in most dulcimer string sets.

The notches in the frets aren't 'critical' to a good sound, but down the road you may want to get those notches frets replaced -- it looks like they are too deeply notched to just the filed and re-crowned.  

Remember, when you tune it to make sure your two D strings are in two different octaves -- the melody d string should be the same as the bass D when the bass string is fretted on the 7th fret (not the 6+ fret).

FWIW -- you've now learned a painful truth -- most music shop folks, even those who have a dulcimer or two for sale, really don't know squat about our favorite instrument!

What Dusty said,hang in there JP.

JP, I feel semi-professionally obliged to suggest that if you are indeed facing a more general feeling of malaise than merely not being inspired musically, you might want to seek expert help.  Online friends in music can only do so much.

If it is musical inspiration you seek, then perhaps we can help you.

I find that although my interest in music is pretty constant, my excitement about working on my own musicianship ebbs and flows. Sometimes I just don't have a song or technique that I want to learn or work on. I pick up my instrument and just don't know what to play.  One thing I do then--which doesn't even address the problem--is to continue playing scales and arpeggios and other exercises. In fact, I probably do more work merely on technique during the periods when I'm not inspired because I don't know what else to play and because when I am inspired, I want to play something specific.  But working on that technique means that when I do find that inspiration, I am better able to play it at a level that pleases me.

I also keep a list of "to learn" songs. When I am busy working on other stuff but discover a tune I'd like to play, I add it to a list.  Then during those periods when I'm just not feeling the inspiration, I peruse that list and sometimes a tune pops out and I rediscover what I liked about it.  If nothing pops out I sometimes force myself to start working on one of those tunes, and often once I start to "get" the tune, I also "get" what I liked about it and find my enthusiasm again.

I also keep a little file on my phone of musical ideas.  If a melody hits me as I'm leaving the grocery store, I'll record myself singing or whistling it.  A lot of that stuff never amounts to anything, but sometimes when nothing else excites me I'll listen to some of those files and find a melodic idea that I'd like to turn into a song.  It's like a repository of half-ideas that can be flushed out later on.  And when one of those half-ideas starts to become something fuller, it can be truly inspiring. 

I also seek music externally. One way to do so is to listen once again to some of the music that first inspired you.  For me, that means listening to the flatpicking guitarists who first demonstrated to me how elegant and exciting acoustic music could be: Norman Blake and Tony Rice.  But I also look for new music that I don't know yet.  Recently I've discovered the Canadian singer/banjo player Kaia Kater and the Memphis singer Valerie June.  Maybe those musicians don't speak to you.  But others will. Find them and let them reignite your inspiration.

Hi @jp

You are not alone in losing motivation or just feeling overwhelmed by it all.  

Maybe it's helpful to mention here for the benefit of anyone ... that we do have a group here on FOTMD that's focused around members needing a bit of friendly comfort, prayers, or just a hug.  It's a private Group (meaning the posts there do not show up on the main page and are not visible to non group members), but it's open to all FOTMD members to join: 
Prayers Hugs and Kindness Group

I could also mention here that I've made it a little easier here on the site to send a Private Message to any other member- just go to that person's profile page and click the "Send Message" envelope button under their member name on the left column.  It looks like this:     Later, to go to your private message Inbox where your messages are saved and responded to, hover over your name at the very top right link on any page here and the drop down menu will show a choice to go to your "Private Messages" where you'll be able to manage your messages to and from other members.

Meanwhile, a hug to you JP.  

JP,

Sometimes, just putting a mountain dulcimer on my lap and playing a bit, not focusing on a tune but just listening to the wonderful sound a string (or strings) makes, can bring something good to my spirit.  

Take care.  I wish you well! 

This stand is the one that you can lay your instrument on and play while standing.  I hope there is one out there somewhere.  Thanks.

JP, I first read "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley while in high school. It inspired me then and still resonates over fifty years later.  I share it wih you in the hope that it will resonate with you as well.

INVICTUS

By William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,

     Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatevet gods may be

     For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

     I have not winced nor cried aloud

Under the bludgeonings of chance

     My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

     Looms But the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

     Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not ho strait the gate,

     How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

     I am the captain of my soul.

Peace be with you, my friend. 

Yo!  JP  Not sure I can be a muse, but I do have a listening ear or two.  Can you figure out how to connect on here?

Sorry guys, but the software of this platform is not going allow for separating out 'coming' Events from 'past' Events into two different places. It's either show ALL events (which along with all the events' posts and images etc- would take up unnecessary server space going back 9 years now)... or I can have past events become hidden after they are over with (which is how it's set now). Neither can I move events to a 'group' once they are past- events are entirely different animals from discussions, posts, or groups- they can't be interchanged.

I encourage people who are putting on such festivals to simply list them in our Events section.  If they can't be bothered to or are only interested in FB posting, then they miss out on possibly getting a few extra attendees at no cost to them.

I won't keep collecting or organizing everyone's long past events year after year- I've got plenty of work to do in my life already. I don't intend FOTMD to be a reference archive of such things. I suggest that anyone hankering for such a reference who has the time and inclination should just 'have at it' on their own sites!     

Linda,

I agree completely with your "festival  stalking."  My own schedule -- or more  accurately lack of one -- makes this my own way of considering festivals and  workshops.   To make a comparison,  I post an email list as part of a site  I run devoted to storytelling in Michigan.  Another storyteller puts the list together each month from submissions by either storytellers about their gigs or from venues.  Space and format is limited for each event.

I don't know if the limitations of our specific instrument is comparable, but I keep access to past issues available for exactly the resource Linda requested.

Does it list everything?  Dunberidiculous!  If the event isn't submitted,  nobody goes after anyone and asks for a listing.  Clarification?  Of course,  especially for anyone new to the format.   Posting websites and ways to contact the venue also are encouraged as part of the  listing format.

What might FOTMD do differently?  Only Lisa can say, I don't know if it would be a problem, but couldn't it be handled like a group?  When an event is finished, would it be a problem to move the posting to a "group " called Past Events ?  Just as groups have introductory remarks, it could say it exists to offer an opportunity to see past events that may recur.

sigh lost all my motivation.... not only to MD and music but to everything...

anyone have any motivation for me i need a muse.

Salt Springs - yeah, maybe.  

Did that tune have the line, "Woodsmoke is calling me back home"?

I talked with my brother briefly, he told me it was called Mountain Dulcimers.  With no "The.." at the beginning of the title.  He said the first song was called Wood Smoke.  

Might this help?

No worries, @Diane-R. Looking back over my post I can see why you interpreted it the way you did. I really meant that members should post Events listings of their own events.  That's why I mentioned the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering, since I've been involved in organizing and teaching workshops at that event for several years.

It also takes a lot of work to do this well. An Event listing ought to have active links to the event's webpage, links to the instructors' pages, information about how to register, costs, lodging, and more. There is no way a single person could maintain that information for more than a handful of events unless it was a full-time job.  That's part of the reason the festivals listing at the old Everything Dulcimer website was so outdated.

I should also add that there is a festivals list toward the back of each issue of Dulcimer Players News.

Stephen, you would actually be the perfect person to create this comprehensive list that you are wanting!  You could put it on one of your websites (which would surely bring lots of good traffic).  Of anyone alive today, you probably have traveled to, attended, and taught at more dulcimer festivals than anyone else on the planet. You are a fount of knowledge about such events. It's a project that really calls your name.  

Diane- thanks for understanding! I see how you could have interpreted that as a call to arms.  ;)  Dusty is on staff at the Berkeley festival and he manages their event listing every year here on FOTMD. 
I definitely encourage anyone who is part of staff or admin of a festival to add their listing here in the Events/Festivals section - for one thing, it's FREE advertising!  

Ok, totally understand...I must've read Dusty's post incorrectly.  Sorry about that...

Diane, the problem with your plan of posting lots of other people's events into FOTMD's Event section is that the people who have something to do with running the event really should be the ones posting it here.  That's because THEY should be the ones to add information, answer member questions, and make editing changes to the event listing.  They can't do that if some other random person posted the event. 

This has happened a couple of times before- where a well meaning person has posted an event in the Events section... and later one of the people actually in charge of the event has come to me not happy because they want to post it themselves and put in the information and be able to control and edit the listing.  I then have to figure out who is the 'official' person actually in charge of that event and I then must delete the one that is not the 'official one'. 
It really is best if people in charge of promoting an event are the ones to post it here, so that they can keep the Event listing updated with changes, pictures, and be able to answer questions accurately.  They need to be able to edit their own event- and they cannot do that if they did not create the listing.  So I'd prefer it if only people who are in some administrative role of the event create the listing for it here. I hope you can understand the reason for that.