Forum Activity for @mike-keller

Two guitars - one is a Washburn travel guitar

Hammer Dulcimer - a Songbird by Chris Foss. my wife plays it

Mountain Dulcimer - Folkroots D series I play it

Ukulele - Oscar Schmidt Tenor Spalted Mango

Piano

Two Recorders

Hi - I posted this also on the Everything Dulcimer forum....
  I just purchased a Folkroots/Folkcraft Model: D550s-520, Dated: 2-10-2004, from a member of Everything Dulcimer. I have ordered some appropriate strings to put on this instrument to enable me to play it as a baritone. This dulcimer has a deeper (3") body and has a nice throaty sound. Would it harm the instrument in anyway if I put larger gauge strings (.022, .022, .036 and .052.) on this instrument to try playing as a bass also? The owners of the music store I spoke with asked this question and I do not know the answer. Is the structure of a purpose-made bass dulcimer more reinforced than a standard mountain dulcimer? The string notchs in the nut and bridge might have to be altered?

Sheryl mentioned this tune in a recent post.  I had never heard it, so I went looking.  Here's what I found tabbed out 3 ways.  Please check it out and see if it's playable, etc.

Cherokee Waltz.pdf - 78KB

Good for you Sheryl!   

We often share photos of our dulcimers, but our overworked music stands seem to go un-noticed. I recently 'upgraded' the fabric on my music stand with leftover fabric from curtains I made last year. That got me thinking, do others do this too ? Do you have a 'skirt' for your stand? Did you make your own stand, or buy one from one of the few mountain dulcimer music stand suppliers? Please share your photos, and story, and let's give thanks to this support accessory. 

 DulcimerMusic Stand-2.jpg - 239KB

Pass the Bacon!

Got the banjo bug. Just bought a 1930's 4 string tenor banjo. Should get it one day this week. I'll post some pictures, and hopefully a tune or two in the not too distant future. 

Thanks Jill.  Arkladulcifest takes place in Benton, Arkansas (in the Little Rock area).  It is hosted by Linda Brockinton, Karen, and myself.  2015 was our inaugural event.  We are delighted that Richard Ash and Duane Porterfield are returning in 2016 as instructors and vendors as well.  We had several "east coasters" this year, so we would love to see the west represented as well. 

Thanks Dusty! (I used to live in Alameda :-) I just might do that! Usually I'm busy with work/school in the beginning of May - but 2016 might be different. Taking the train would be fun!

J

Charles, if those dings and scratches were earned in the line of duty, then they only add to the character of the instrument.

Well perhaps as a warm-up to your week-long summer festival, you might take a weekend this spring and come up the coast to the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering. I think it's the first weekend in May this year. You could probably take Amtrak and jam the whole ride up!

My first dulcimer was an Applecreek teardrop. In 2008 my wife bought it for my birthday. She was a middle school art teacher and she saw it in a catalog of classroom musical instruments. I had never seen anything like it before, 4 strings?...why are only two close together?... what the heck is the wooden stick for? Thank heavens for the internet! I found the "Everything Dulcimer" website and Ken Hulme's article "I Just Got A Dulcimer-Now What?" and I was on my way. Shortly afterwards I found this site, Strumelia's blogs and Robin Clark's video lessons were invaluable. My Applecreek is now hanging proudly on my wall, frets a bit worn, a few dings and scratches.   

T.K O'Brien student model. I really liked it but ended up selling it at a festival when I felt like I needed to thin the herd. Still miss it a bit, as it was a great instrument to start out on.

Hi  rob-n-lackey ,

Yes, I have David's/Butch's album. It's wonderful! The baroque period is my favorite - please arrange baroque for the MD and let me know! I know what you mean with Festivals - so many great teachers and options it can be overwhelming!

John K, I'm not familiar with your festival (but I am familiar with your music!). Thanks.

Jill

After playing Erin Roger's dulcimer after a Scenic Roots concert, I had to find one! My parents moved from Kansas to Missouri, and live in a town between Branson and Springfield. For my birthday, my mom surprised me by taking me out and we stopped by this little music shop called Cedar Creek Dulcimers... 

 IMG_20151029_070310449.jpg - 95KB

This is probably heresy but I play a drum in our group. It allows the new/not as fast/proficient players to set the speed, helps all players to get used to playing, adjusting to a metronome, helps tremendously in learning those songs with out of the ordinary, difficult, timing and every one usually starts/finishes at the same time.

A bass or guitar could do the same thing.

A Jenny Wiley dulcimer we got for the family to learn.  I played trumpet and a little piano years ago and my wife played guitar.  We haven't taught the kids either but we way this at a festival and figured it would work well in the homeschooling curriculum.  My son is playing it now.

The dulcimer jams I've attended mostly played fiddle tunes, which do tend to accelerate faster and faster until there's only one player left standing.  Maybe the solution is to mix in some ballads -- how fast can they play Barbr'y Allen?  Do we really want to find out?  Well OK, yes, I would love to watch a competitive high-speed Barbr'y Allen, but only once. 

I wish I knew more dulcimer groups that encouraged people to sing along.  Lots of people find it hard to play and sing at the same time, but in a group they could just sing, just play, do both at once, or take turns, whatever is comfortable for them.  When a tune is too hard for beginners to play, they could sing.  Or strum chords.  Or strum drones.  Or tap rhythm.  I think it's more fun when people don't feel like they all have to play every note, in every song, exactly the same way everyone else does.

Eureka!  I just had my genius idea for the day: Everybody gets a kazoo!  If that doesn't loosen them up, I don't know what will.

With the holidays coming, this is a great time to play songs that everybody knows.  Chances are, you'll not only have singers, you'll get harmonies.  Surely they won't accelerate to breakneck speed on Oh Come, All Ye Faithful.  Will they?  Maybe the kazoos were a mistake...

Kimberly, I would second the idea of announcing ahead of time some of the tunes you are going to play. Some groups choose a song book together that everyone buys. In my group I post a list of our songs with tab on our website so people can practice before coming to the group.

In general you will want to play much slower than feels right, assuming you have lots of beginners.  It is standard in Irish sessions to play each song three times, but when people are trying to learn, that may not be enough.  When teaching songs, you may have to play more than that.

And although it isn't common enough in dulcimer circles, I spend some time demonstrating and discussing how to join the jam even when you don't know the song.  It was not written in stone on Mount Sinai that everyone has to play the melody all the time.  Teaching people how to add rhythmic or other types of accompaniment when they don't know the song will help everyone feel included.  Most people in my group play across all the strings, so I teach them how to isolate the chord changes and just play those as backup until they learn the entire melody. That also allows us to play some songs up-to-speed some of the time and still include everyone.

Strumelia, thanks for posting on this.  I am forming a new uke group, and hopefully dulcimer, and the advice you have offered is very valuable.  Answers a ton of questions.  I almost feel like I have highjacked the thread, since this was for Kimberly. 

Thanks for posting Kimberly.  Great question.  For me personally, you couldn't have timed it any better.

And Rob, I appreciate what you had to say too.  Good stuff. 

First of all....Kimberly i'm so pleased to see you posting!-  I'm a big fan of yours.  

Rob has given some great tips already.

My 2 cents-   If you are 'leading' the jam you may have a certain short set list in mind that perhaps you have let the group members know about in advance.  Still, it's good to also allow folks to go around the circle at least once and be able to choose a favorite tune for everyone to play.  Two hours should certainly allow for all this.  

The important thing about that is that it can allow a relative beginner to start a tune they know, at a tempo that is do-able for them.  I feel that when someone at a beginner level chooses a tune, they should be allowed to have it NOT speed up.  I remember how bad i felt long ago at my very first club setting when I was a beginner player -- every single tune would eventually speed up so that I had to drop out.  I certainly understood this and everyone knew I was a rank beginner, but I looked forward to being able to start my one tune at my pace when it was my turn.  It was finally my turn to pick a tune.  I began the tune very slowly, as that was the best I could do.  Several more advanced players very quickly sped it up and half way through the first time through it, I couldn't keep up with my own beginner tune, and had to drop out.  That felt really bad.
As the group leader, you can prevent this from happening.   You could handle it by starting the jam with a welcome to the new beginners, and by assuring them that if they start their own tune slowly, everyone will follow and respect THEIR tempo and not speed it up.  Indeed, if others speed it up anyway, you can after the tune ends then say "OK let's play that tune one more time through but SLOWLY this time so we can all play together".

This is also the reasoning behind having some time set aside for a slooow beginner session or a beginner teaching help session.  No one should go home from a jam without being able to play through even one tune to the end.  A separate beginner help time would accomplish much the same goal, HOWEVER I still think it's important for seasoned members to be able to adapt to different tempos set by whoever starts a tune, and learn to not run roughshod over others simply because they themselves 'can' play everything fast. Playing well in a group is a SKILL that requires the ability to adapt to others in order for the group as a whole to succeed and sound good, after all.      Tunes can be at varied tempos...some can be expressive and slow while others can be fast and lively.  Then everyone can have a good time!

Two hours can get eaten up pretty quickly by pre-socializing, late arrivals, announcements, tuning issues and broken strings, book/stand/chair shuffling, and misc talk.  If you add a half hour of slow/beginner help, I think it should not be a part of that 2 hours, but rather come first and be in a different spot to the side if possible, to discourage seasoned players from joining in or disrupting it.

If I had a week to devote to a festival, I believe it would be Kentucky Music Week.  The variety of workshops and instructors is my reason, although I don't know if I'd take more than 3.  I used to think if I wasn't involved every hour in some sort of workshop I wasn't doing it right.  Now I'm more selective and think I learn more or at least retain more. 

Classical mandolin, eh?  I'm arranging some baroque tunes for dulcimer.  Maybe I should write a mandolin part?  Have you heard David Schnaufer & Butch Baldassari's album "Appalachian Dulcimer & Mandolin?"  Just the 2 instruments in the hands of 2 modern masters.

Pick tunes that most people know to start, even if they have to use the tab.  Keep a steady rhythm.  Don't go too fast, at least the 1st couple of time through.  Sometimes up here in the club jams they play a song through twice at a slower tempo for the beginners then play it up to speed the last 2 times.  Encourage the more advanced players to play a harmony part or chords if they can.  Let everyone have a turn picking out a tune to play.  For me, 4 times through each is enough, although if it's short or you're trying to learn it more times would be fine.  Lastly, just because everyone doesn't "know" the tune that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it.  If 4 or 5 folks do know then the others can watch the hands of those that do and try to pick it up.

Hope this helps

Jill, we would love to see you at Arkladulcifest!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/arkladulcifest/

Thanks everyone!  I have printed out your responses and made many notes.  I can't thank you all enough for your great advice.  We have tried to meet several times and the weather has been against us.  One time, there were dereche-type winds that prevented many from coming out.  Another time, flooding rains.  Now that winter is approaching, we will probably have massive snow storms!  LOL!!!!

I suspect that this information may already be on this site somewhere and I am not as familiar as I should be with how to do an effective search.  So, please, if it is available, just point me in the right direction!

I got so much great advice on starting a dulcimer group that I wanted to ask you all another question.  Even though I have been playing the dulcimer for over 30 years, I have very seldom played with others.  Now that I am starting this group, I need some tips on how to lead jams.  ANY information on leading a fun and effective jam would be greatly appreciated!!

(The few times that i have played with more than one other dulcimer, I have a horrible time hearing the sound coming from my dulcimer because it seems that I can hear everyone but my dulcimer.  That usually makes me quit playing because I can't tell what I am playing.)  

Dana, I imagine the vacation you, Jan, and Gail have had has been good for each of you girls!  Hugs from me! 

Hi everyone,

I would like to start thinking and planning for a good MD festival next summer (2016). I'd appreciate your thoughts. I went to WCU to Larry and Elaine Conger's about 5 years ago - my first. Loved it! But it's really a challenge for me to get to WCU from San Diego! I have family in Kentucky - any thoughts on Kentucky Music Week? What about Swannona (sp)? I particularly enjoy Celtic and harp-like playing, but I'm also starting to learn Old Timey music on the MD as well. For what it's worth I have a background in bluegrass (mandolin) - and also play classical mandolin as well. But I'd like to focus on the MD this year and I probably can only get to one Festival.

Thanks for your help!

Jill Geary

San Diego

Condolences, Dana.

Dana, I also (key word) am a survivor of stage 4 NHL Agressive B Cell cancer. In remission for 7 years by GODS Grace. My wife and I are praying for you healing and fears put to rest. Lord touch Dana. Give her peace and Faith.    

I haven't responded to a lot of the wonderful heartfelt comments I have gotten through this thread. I would love to thank each and everyone. Thank you so much. I am getting ready to start a new journey now. Some of you might not know but my dad affectionately known as the bell ringer passed away on the 17th of October. He has been a very BIG part of my life for the last five years. It's not going to be easy adjusting to not hearing the bell ring all the time. But I can get back to a normal life or as normal as it gets for me. I can travel now and go to festivals which I am looking forward too. Well that's it for this thread. Thanks again everyone for all the well wishes.

About a year ago I tried to start a dulcimer club here in Albany, Ga.  I advertised in the paper (free section) and hung up flyers the two local music stores.  Two wanna be dulcimer players responded, but found it impossible to ever get together.

Fast forward a year later:  I am forming a ukulele club in this area, the first one of its kind, and our first meeting is Nov. 10th.  Two hours on a Tues. night from 06:00pm until 07:45pm.  The library closes at 08:00 pm.  

I began advertising in the community section of our paper (free) back in late August., and again put up posters in the two stores.  

As of today, I am expecting 6 to attend, including me.  As I am, all are pretty new to ukulele, and they all own a ukulele.  I emailed them a list of 6 beginner songs, no more than 3 chord songs, in the key of C.  I encouraged all to please at least be acquainted with these songs, which should prove to move us along and have some fun.  I've also stressed that I am not in charge, just the one forming the group.  We will work as a group.

After the first meeting, I plan to suggest that the first 30 min. of future meetings be dedicated to instruction and discussion, and then the jam.

Also, I have since discovered that three (3) of are are dulcimer players.  So I have discussed with them how neat it would be to work in dulcimer into our jam sessions, as time goes on.  

So, with fingers spread apart, I feel that this time around things will be much different.  And I am excited about the prospects of it all.  

Terry

I recently started a new dulcimer club in Leesburg, Florida called the Celebration Dulcimer Club. We are dedicated to only playing Gospel Hymns with Christmas music thrown in. It took me almost a year to get the club up and going. Our main obstacle was finding a location for the club. After much searching we have a permanent home. The second issue was when to meet. I belong to two other regular clubs that meet on Saturdays so I did not want to do another Saturday club. We choose a day during the week. Since I still work I had to select that we would meet in the evening. We do once a month on the First Thursday of the Month from 6 pm to 8 pm. Since we are playing gospel hymns we started out by creating enough folders with a starter selection of gospel music that we have given to each member. As we progress we will add new hymns. We have a sign up sheet where they list their name and phone number and email address if they have it. We also set up a club facebook page as another way to keep in contact with our members. Our goal is to not only meet as a group monthly but to perform in public as opportunities arise. We are already set to give a Christmas performance the day after Thanksgving. We do a meet in greet at the beginning of our playing and play for about 1 1/2 hours, then we serve refreshments and have an opportunity for our members to mingle and talk about whatever is on their mind.

Dennis

Rob N Lackey, Thanks for sharing. This is a goal for me; I think I will be ready having watched and learned from others, in 2016. There are many fun places in the Raleigh where we could do this. I'd also like to try different days, hence the Meetup platform, because that mixes it up a bit too. Some venues will be better on a Saturday afternoon, some on a Friday night, or whatever. 

Sheryl, we do our Wartz'n'All gatherings here in different places every time.  We've gotten some interest from folks who see us playing and wondering "what in the heck are those things."  It also helps make travel time easier for some, i.e. you don't have to drive the same distance all the time.  We find a park, cheap building, etc and try to advertise it here, on ED, sometimes in the newspapers, flyers in the local music stores and announcements at dulcimer club meetings.  You need a core of 3 or 4 folks is all to start.  If you do it, they will come.

I gave up on the d'Addario calculator when I got to the part where I needed to enter tension. 

Rob N Lackey, I really like your idea about having the beginner part 1^st. Since the advanced players have the option of arriving later, it takes the guilt out holding them up by us beginners.

Do any of you have experience with running a Meetup group for dulcimer jams? Our many groups in Carolina have good, reliable, meeting places, like community centers and churches, but maybe moving around to places like bottle shops, and country stores would help to recruit new players. 

I still have my first dulcimer, though I don't play it very often.  Still, I can't get bear to part with dear Rosa.

When I decided to buy a dulcimer I checked all the local music stores.  None sold dulcimers.  But one told me (on perhaps my fourth or fifth inquiry) that they sometimes stock one or two.  About a month later there was one on the shelf, but it was unplayable.  I could tell it was cheap and crappy and what some would call not an instrument but a "dulcimer shaped object."  So I began scouring the internet for luthiers who were nearby.  I found one --Johny Nicholson of Unicorn Woodworks--whose phone number indicated he was in Northern California. But when I called it turned out that he had moved to Idaho.  I was stumped, for I wanted a decent dulcimer but I was afraid to buy one without seeing and playing it first, and on the west coast, dulcimers are few and far between. But when I explained all this, Johny told me that he still bought his wood from a shop in Berkeley, meaning twice a year he drove his little car along the highway a few miles from my house.  So on his next trip, we made a date.  I literally met him off the highway, where he got out of his car and opened his trunk, revealing not a bunch of illegal drugs, but three dulcimers. I chose the one with the rosebud soundholes, partly because the mahogany back and sides made it the least expensive of the three. But I played them all, enough to know that the intonation was good, the sustain was great, and this was a real instrument and not a mere collector's item.

On my drive home I propped the instrument up in the back seat so that I could see it in the rear view mirror, even though I had also bought a soft case. But I was so eager to play, I couldn't complete the 20-minute drive home. I pulled off the highway and into a fast food joint's parking lot, jumped in the back seat, and started to play.  In the three or four months from the time I first saw a dulcimer on YouTube to the time I bought my sweet Rosa, I had watched Bing Futch's demonstration of "Rosin the Beau" so much that I was able to play it (not very well, of course) from memory that very first day!

That was over 6 years ago.  Since then I have purchased more expensive and fancier-sounding dulcimers, but I still have Rosa.  Because so few people know of Johny Nicholson and Unicorn Woodworks, were I to sell it, I would not get close to what the quality of the dulcimer is worth, and for that reason as well as pure sentimentality, I still have it.  The tone may not be as big and round as my other dulcimers costing three or four times what Rosa cost, but Rosa still has that precise intonation, the great sustain, and a pop or punch that many fancier dulcimers lack.  Plus, she was my first.

Thanks, Robin. Every now and then I see a Sunhearth for sale. I know they are very well respected dulcimers.  There was one I should have scooped up on Ebay, for it had a very low asking price, but the seller didn't know who the maker was.  In my dumb honesty, I sent him a message telling him in was a Sunhearth, and suddenly the asking price went way up, beyond my means at the time.

And a lot of people praise their Jerry Rockwell dulcimers. I wish I could hear one live.

I have one of the late-Walt Martin's Sunhearth dulcimers-- a Lorraine Lee model-- and it's wonderful instrument.  The tone is lovely, it's easy to play, and the craftsmanship is impeccable.  

Also, I have a cool little instrument-- a small Kentucky hourglass with a diatonic fretboard-- built by Jerry Rockwell.  The noter sounds so fine on this small-waisted instrument.  

This was my first dulcimer - a TK O'Brian.  I played it for a couple of years and then used it as a loaner.  Eventually, someone I loaned it to fell in love with it and bought it from me.  I found out that the dulcimer was actually built for TK O'Brian by the Hagan family in Ozark.  That dulcimer had proved such a good starting instrument for me that I asked the Hagen's to make the Red Kite model for my shop.  I think we are up around 120 folks having now started out their own dulcimer playing journey over here in the UK with Red Kites.