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Entries will be closed at midnight tonight Wednesday the 31st!

I cut many of my picks from plastic lids/containers.  This shape offers a very comfortable loose hold and works nicely on even a fast tune. 

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Sally Ann plays scheitholt!  :)

Sally Ann

If you want info on homeopathic treatments for tick bites, let me know!

Time flies when you are having fun!  And fun is definitely here!

Happy 10th Birthday FOTMD

Silverstrings, I'm glad I could be of help.  I and everyone else on this forum was once at the same place you are at in learning the dulcimer.

Continue to ask questions when you feel the need.  Someone on this forum is ready and willing to help you discover the answers.  This forum is home to a great bunch of people.  They freely share what they have learned during their own journey with the mountain dulcimer.

Thanks for all the great insight and advice. I realized once I got to my Dulcimer Group, that my technique was the problem.  Greg Gunner, I think you nailed it. I am new at this so I am actually glad it was not my instrument. I even tried my bad technique on my Teacher’s standard McSpadden and realized I did the same thing! I appreciate all of you at FOTMD! Great site.

By all means, make use of our additional verse.  When I sing the song there is a horse named Pinto, a dog named Chili, A fish named Jelly, and a friend named Yuman.  

He gets jealous & wants attention. 

At least he doesn't get as upset as when I try to play the concertina.  I presume it, my Native American flutes, my ocarinas all hurt his ears.  I try to not play when he's in the house, but really need to get back to the concertina.  (Held off while my wrist recuperated -- see the discussion on the thumb -- & forgot it.  Need to start all over, especially as it will exercise my wrist.)

(I notice he doesn't mind my husband's banjo playing.)

Just went down to the start of this discussion & see we should give "And where did you learn them from?"  Beans came along with waaaay too many songs from being a camper & camp counselor.  Folklorists might be able to pry the sources out from me further, but then there's all the additional years as a children's librarian. 

Guess I should contribute something to the discussion.  If I'm strictly honest about how my dulcimer was used, just this past summer (many libraries are cooperatively doing an astronomical Summer Reading program theme to celebrate the moon landing anniversary) I told an Australian story about the sun that ended with the Kookaburra.  I then did the song's 2 verses that are more standard & added the 1 an Australian friend told me years ago about:

Kookaburra sits on the electric wire

Setting all his tail on fire

Stop, Kookaburra,

Stop, Kookaburra,

Hot your tail must be.  (ouch, ouch, ouch!) -- do those ouches with your hands off the dulcimer as if they're burning up.

* * *

See your children's librarian for LOTS more material.

@Dusty Turtle, I like your addition & trust it's given as Creative Commons for all of us to use.  I learned the song as the dog's name was Porkin.  Chili & Jelly are actually a bit neater as you don't have the problem wanting to change to the plural.

The version I knew went:

My dog Porkin loves to roam,

One day he came roaming home,

Full of fleas and very unclean,

Where in the world has Porkin Bean?

Finally got a chance to look the book up -- you may be able to borrow it depending on your library's inter-library loan situation.  I got the title slightly wrong <Gasp!>  It should be Caring for the Painful Thumb by Jan Albrecht & if you go to Amazon it's 35.99!  You see why I recommend borrowing it if possible?

I have a few exercises I do when my thumbs get sore & so far haven't needed more.  My time in therapy is due to breaking my wrist 2 years in a row, so I try for every other day on that & my thumbs as needed.

Terry, I'm very grateful for the blessings I have in life, at least at this point in time.   :)

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

MY GUESS      33  

Do you think the cobbler could survive being mailed to the west coast? I'll gladly take some off your hands.

Still picking tons of blueberries.  I'm making a blueberry cobbler (8x8 glass pan) almost every day.  The bushes look like maybe another two weeks to go. Somehow my husband and I are just managing to keep up with eating them without having to preserve any.  I guess we can get back to less fattening stuff after the blueberries finish.  That's when the tomatoes kick in.  :)  We feel like bears during berry season, gorging ourselves. 
I'm also having bowls of yogurt with our own blueberries and raspberries, topped with walnuts.  Eating extra yogurt to recover my gut from having taken doxycycline for 5 days after a tick bite.  Dang ticks ruin all the fun!  We never walk in the woods or fields anymore due to ticks, but sometimes they get us even in our small backyard, like when I work in the veggie garden or pick our raspberries, or work near the beehives. 

I went to a Cajun 2-step dance party at a local pub, with pretty good cajun band.  A new experience for me, a little outside my comfort zone. I didn't expect to see more than 1 person I knew, but several people i know, and also a few contra dancers I know showed up.  I guess we were all there in order to get some dancing in.  They gave a modest lesson beforehand for a few minutes, and it was all real casual, so I didn't feel too embarrassed.  Everybody danced with everyone there...all nice folks.  It definitely wasn't as much movement as a zumba class (or as contra dancing either) but it was more fun than zumba for me, and my pedometer claimed i did about 6,000 steps during the dancing.
I'm going this Saturday to an all day outdoor festival that features a huge dance tent with contra dancing almost all day and night.  I'll get there before lunch and leave around 11pm or so like last year.  HUUUUUGE workout, which is why I'm trying to get a few zumba classes and other dancing under my belt  beforehand.

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Huzzah!  Huzzah!  

TODAY July 29th, 2019 is FOTMD's 10th anniversary!!!!

Only 3 days left to enter the contest- don't miss out!!  FIVE chances to win prizes!

(please enter only ONE time)

Ah so deska...  Thanx.

If anyone here would like to get on the Farcebook EverythingDulcimer page, send me a PM here at FOTMD.

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In the center under the Everything Dulcimer banner is a box you click on. It says "Invite Members" .

Bob -- that's more info than I got when I posted about the Secret page a month or more back.  How do we Invite people?

Strumelia, I posted this concern as a new topic there today and got several responses: if anyone is in FB, a member can invite them.

Unfortunately it seems the ED facebook group continues to be secret/hidden from public view. It's been almost two months now. 

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Well there is a ton of good advice here that will obviously help.  One thing I would do is check my tuner and make sure that is accurate or at least reasonably accurate and that it is set to A440.  Some folk say that does not make any difference but it seems to do so if it is far enough off. (I use a Korg tuner, those clip on just never worked well for me).

Another thing you might do is make sure the tuning keys are tight and not slipping when you press down on the strings.  I had one that after a few years the screw that held them firm had loosened and every time I pressed a string it would loosen just enough to throw the contraption out of whack.  This really good to know if the action is a bit to high and the pressure on the string puts enough tension on the string to move the tuner gear. It gets worse the further up the board you go.

I always tune strings when the string is vibrating....it is easier to see where you are at, just make sure that you give it a good solid strum.  Wimpy strums will make it impossible to tune accurately.

And last, put some new strings on it if you have not already done so.  

The explanation between different temperaments below is primo.........if it is just temperment, the tuner can help but it will be next to impossible to get 100% in tune from the tuner.  

And do post a pic of your dulcimer, I would love to see it since old dulcimers are becoming my thing lately.