I have thin base layers of very soft merino wool which really keep me warm and cozy all winter, without the itching associated with wool from years ago.
Reading FOTMD also makes me feel warm. 
folkfan,
Until we put in a free-standing gas stove a couple years ago I was cold a lot of the year. Now, I go to the stove to get warm and since it has a glass front (a type of ceramic, actually) if you want to sit by it to read, you can see the flame. It's really nice how, along with some other improvements made to the house to keep heat in/cold out, last winter our highest heating bill was about $140 and we were warm.
Sharon's candles sound wonderful!
Congratulations on your new BL Sharna! I love my Jean Ritchie model...I think it has an even better tone than my rosewood BL....very sweet as you said.
Robin,
You have to add dings to your dulcimers.....adds character and makes it your own! :) I just put a good ding in my Martin taking it out of the case and banging into my quilt frame...grrrrr.
Here are my BL dulcimers...Jean Ritchie on left
I'm not on line every day, so this is the first I've seen the discussion.
I don't have a Jean Ritchie style, but I do own 2 Blue Lions. One is a tear drop walnut and the other is a custom hour glass in rosewood.
Janita Baker was good at helping me get the dulcimer that I wanted. She also gently questioned me when I was making requests that weren't in my own best interests.
I love her instruments. Easy to play, a pleasure to listen to and great looking, especially for a traditionalist like me.
Bob, I can only recall knowing of one other person who has a Jean Ritchie model BL.
As far as quality of instrument goes, a Blue Lion is of high quality. I know of one well-respected luthier who, when building his own personal instrument, sent a piece of it to Janita Baker (of Blue Lion) so she could do his inlay work.
may i comment howsurprisedi was apart from one kind member on the lack ofresponse to the subject Blue Lion.Was this perhaps in the wrong forum ?Living thousands of KMs away from the USA choosing a MD becomes almost an act of faith as we can only see a photo at best and if we are lucky a small sound track of the MD we wish to purchase.This is how FOMD is a great source of advice and knowledge .Any advice welcome.
When glancing at this thread while passing by, I didn't realize that Kathy doesn't live in the US. We Americans are rather clueless about making such assumptions. My apologies!!
Blue Lion dulcimers have an excellent reputation here in the US. Whatever dulcimer you might get from them Kathy is sure to be very well made, will have a good sound and be smooth to play, and will retain its value for resale as well.
I'm not really sure what makes the jean Ritchie model different from Blue Lion's other models though.
Are you choosing the Jean R. model for a particular reason?- to fill a particular playing need, or just because you like the looks of it? (either are good reasons of course).
Is there anything unusual about your playing style or your situation that effects your playing choices? things like arthritis, tiny hands, wanting to play chords or not, whether you play with a noter, etc?
Do you know how long a scale (VSL) the Jean Ritchie model has? That could be an important thing, depending.
Kathy,
I own a Blue Lion Jean Ritchie model. I, luckily, came by it used though in like-new condition. And the instrument was a custom order so is not exactly what you will see on the Blue Lion website. I play noter-drone style music on it and like its ease of play. For fit and finish, the quality of the instrument is very very good.
A photo of my BLJRitchie dulcimer can be seen here:
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/photo/blue-lion-jean-ritchie-model?context=user
The dulcimer can be seen & heard on the videos of Old Joe Clark , Spotted Pony , and Arkansas Traveler from my FOTMD page here:
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profile/RobinThompson
Hope this helps, Kathy! If you have specific questions, I'm happy to answer them as best as I can.
It's not the destination that matters, it's the journey. I have been playing guitar since 1966, and there still isn't time to learn all the songs I want to learn. Dividing my time among several instruments doesn't make it simpler, but even if I concentrated on one, there are always new things to learn.Just enjoy every minute of it.
Paul
I wish I'd discovered the dulcimer earlier since it is an instrument that I can play in spite of the way my brain is wired. In grade school, I pretty much gave up on the idea of actually learning to play an instrument and now there isn't enough time to learn all the songs I'd like to learn, but I do enjoy what I have learned.
I had a thing called Singers Node, which is a tear in a vocal chord. Caused by over stressing the vocal chord, without a proper warm up. In my case, our girls were small, and delighted to hear Dad sing about Little Red Riding Hood. They especially liked the Big Bad Wolf howling parts.Until it caught up with me. One thing I was told was you need to warm up your voice like an athlete warms up their muscles before running, or whatever. Singers node makes it hard to hit the high notes, and gives you a really raspy voice, VERY much like Louis Armstrong. I have often wondered if he had it, and was stuck with it. In my case, it was repaired with a laser surgery. That was a 20-something years ago. Here's some info on warm ups :
http://www.nyee.edu/pdf/voice-vocal-warm-ups.pdf
Paul
I've got no voice to sing lead yet used to be a decent harmony singer.
Believe it or not--I've actually "done over" my biggest musical do over--and found it's never too late to do it over. :)
When I was younger, I mistakenly felt that you could only have one good banjo or one good dulcimer at a time.
I wish now that I had just gone ahead and bought every banjo or dulcimer that appealed to me, brought it home, played it, enjoyed it, and just laughed about all the fun it is to just buy any old instrument you want and not feel guilty.
I used to feel that I didn't deserve a bunch of beautiful instruments--but now I don't feel that way anymore. Instrument builders don't build them for folks as rewards--they build them for folks who will play them and enjoy them. :)
And yes--it's wonderful to have the instruments you really want to play.
The other thing that I have "done over" is that it is okay to just let an instrument "go" to someone else. I've sold and given away and traded perfectly good instruments because sometimes it just seems that the new person and that instrument are right for each other now. And it isn't painful and I've never felt any regret.
That "do over" started with a man who just called me up and told me he had been wanting to buy my old bass for over 30 years and it was never for sale and he was wondering if I might finally sell it to him. I almost said no just on a reflex--but stopped--and glanced over at that bass--standing in a corner--with a light coat of dust--and it looked kind of sad--so I said "okay--why not?" I gave him a fair price--he came and got that bass the next day--took it directly to a job in a chicken wire bar--they looked so happy together and I never missed it once!
Best wishes,
Mary Z. Cox
Robin,
You can still sing--but you have to approach it as another instrument. I recently heard Joan Baez on NPR and she said that although she was able to "just sing" and sound wonderful when she was young--as she has got older--she has a voice coach and does voice exercises everyday just to be able to maintain some pitch, tone, and volume.
If professional singers have to do all this to keep up their voices--regular singers most definitely would also have to exercise and train to keep up their voices too. :)
Best wishes,
Mary Z. Cox
Robin Thompson said:
As a teenager I sang a lot and have sung very little as an adult. I wish I would've kept singing because it's fun and I can read music for singing. My ear for singing is no longer good. I go flat a lot, doggone it.
PS-(I can't sight read for playing dulcimer-- either mountain or bowed. Wish I could. Though I am glad I can play by ear.)
As a teenager I sang a lot and have sung very little as an adult. I wish I would've kept singing because it's fun and I can read music for singing. My ear for singing is no longer good. I go flat a lot, doggone it.
PS-(I can't sight read for playing dulcimer-- either mountain or bowed. Wish I could. Though I am glad I can play by ear.)
I teach choir in a middle school...I once had a girl who passionately loved to sing and was completely off pitch and loud. What an opportunity! I will make this short, but it is a long story. Bottom line is that I worked with her a lot and within a few months, she was finding pitches. By the end of two years, she went to our state's solo/ensemble competition and got gold...in the highest division. A teacher had told her to give up music before she got to me, but she didn't listen. I'm sure she's out there today somewhere and singing every day. I'm glad you found the music in your life again!! No one should ever take that from someone...especially not a music teacher!
As far as what I would do different...I wish I would have had the opportunity to learn to play by ear. I am classically trained, but I'm launching an adventure in folk music to see if I can reclaim my natural abilities to play by ear. It was pounded out of me from the very beginning. I am grateful for my career in music, but I'm also excited about exporing this whole new approach!!
Dana R. McCall said:When I was in Jr High I wanted to be in the chorous ok I no spelling sorry. I loved to sit in my room and sing along to the little GE record player mom had gotten me. So when in music class (Ms. Nimmix) the baine of my existance said there were going to be tryouts I was thrilled. She had us all line up and we were to sing a song can't remember what, as she walked along and sorted us in to different groups alto, suprano, tenor or whatever. I was whatever. She kept moving me from one end to the other and back again. I have the same prob today changing keys to much starting in one and jumping to another. Finally she threw the hands up and gave up on me. She said in front of everyone she just didn't think music was my thing. I was devestated. I really did give up on music didn't even listen to the radio much. My kids would get mad because I didnt like to listen while I was driving in the car. Then I found the Mt. Dulcimer Music is once more the happiness in my life. The kids get upset now because they can't shut me up. LOL Ms. Nimmix
Sorry forgot the point. If I could do it all over again I wouldn't have listened to Ms. Nimmix and give up I'd kept on then till I found my nitch . Never give up!
In the words of John Lee Hooker," Let that boy boogie-woogie. It's in him, and it's got to come out!"
I hate to see see someone stifle another person's creativity. My brother tried hard to play trumpet in school, but gave it up when told his mouth wasn't shaped right. The teacher told him he could do well if he put the effort he was making into a clarinet or sax. He had no interest in those, so he stopped music altogether. But he can imitate a trumpet with his mouth, so how wrong could it be?
Paul
Since it's only been a very few months ... that's easy. I would have started asking questions sooner here at FOTMD. I knew so little that it was difficult to even ask anything. I still don't know much, but I do know to go ahead and ask and then we'll work it out in the ensuing discussions.
That would be my advice to any one new to music, the mountain dulcimer or FOTMD.
Sam
When I was in Jr High I wanted to be in the chorous ok I no spelling sorry. I loved to sit in my room and sing along to the little GE record player mom had gotten me. So when in music class (Ms. Nimmix) the baine of my existance said there were going to be tryouts I was thrilled. She had us all line up and we were to sing a song can't remember what, as she walked along and sorted us in to different groups alto, suprano, tenor or whatever. I was whatever. She kept moving me from one end to the other and back again. I have the same prob today changing keys to much starting in one and jumping to another. Finally she threw the hands up and gave up on me. She said in front of everyone she just didn't think music was my thing. I was devestated. I really did give up on music didn't even listen to the radio much. My kids would get mad because I didnt like to listen while I was driving in the car. Then I found the Mt. Dulcimer Music is once more the happiness in my life. The kids get upset now because they can't shut me up. LOL Ms. Nimmix
Sorry forgot the point. If I could do it all over again I wouldn't have listened to Ms. Nimmix and give up I'd kept on then till I found my nitch . Never give up!
I often think about things I might have done differently over the years if I could start to learn to play music all over again from the beginning.
I don't mean the most obvious thing of "I wish i had started playing music earlier in my life"- that's too easy.
I mean something like "I wish I had gotten a guitar instead of that flute I started on", or "I wish I had joined that choir in school like I had wanted to", or "I wish I hadn't listened to that teacher", or "I should have bought that accordion!" (ok maybe not that one...lol!)
There are doubtless also some of us who would not wish to have done anything differently at all!
What would you do differently now if you could go back in time to when you started playing music?
As for your tuner, in the USA, the standard for A is 440. Not all countries use this standard. When playing with other people, this ensures that your notes will match theirs. Any where in the US A is 440, so we all can play together. If you play in other countries, you reset the tuner to that country's standard.
Paul
Hello Dana,
I haven't been anywhere yet where I could hear different dulcimers. I have read some about the barritones. I'd like to hear one. I hope to make it up to Black Mountain or Boone NC soon and visit the shops there. Thanks for the info.
Dana R. McCall said:Charles my group plays everything in CGC you play it just like DAD tab. Chords are all the same. If you really sing low you might want to get you a baritone dulcimer later. You can tune to AEA it is really low and mellow. Some dulicmers you can put heavier strings on and tune to AEA . AEA plays just like DAD and CGC DAD tab works for each of these tunings.
Charles E. Jones said:
Thanks. Are you able to play everything in CGC that you could play in DAD?
folkfan said:I'm with everyone else on this. For singing go lower. CGc would be only one step down from your DAd tuning, and does make for easier singing. I don't even tune up to D anymore as I always want to sing with my instrument. I'm in CGG or lower for everything.
Thanks. Are you able to play everything in CGC that you could play in DAD?
Yes. Just tune down to CGC and pretend you are still in DAd. (Just remember you are now playing in the key of C- in case you ever want to play with others this will make a difference.)
Sam says:
I too know more less.
Well Sam, you know what the definition of an expert is:
Someone who knows more and more about less and less until finally they know everything about nothing.
