Forum Activity for @paul-certo

Fiddle tunes have been at the heart of traditional dulcimer repertoire from the beginning, along with other common music of each era. I suspect also that the term "fiddle tune" is sometimes used in error. Some of these tunes were probably first played on other instruments. Certainly anything composed by Turlough O'Carolan was composed on his harp. Here's a couple other points to ponder:

In very early times, the chord-based harmonies that are so standard in modern music were unknown. Fiddlers,harpists, and players of diatonic concertinas played drone backup or else no backup at all. When other instruments played accompaniment it was not based on chords, but harmonizing notes. This may have been parallel 3rds or 5ths, or possibly 2nds, 4ths or 6ths. By definition, a chord contains at least 3 notes. These 2 note backup parts are 'intervals', not chords.These drones above are all scale tones taken from the scale named by the root note. All, to greater or lesser degree, will harmonize with other notes from the same scale. But not all harmonize equally well with each other. The 5th is the one that harmonizes best with the greatest number of the notes in the scale. It works with any mode of that key. The ancient ones may not have understood music theory as it is taught today, or even as taught in Mozart's time, but they recognized what sounded good. I suspect they tried different combination's until found what pleased their ears.

These drones transferred from fiddles and harps to dulcimers and other stringed instruments as they were integrated into early ensembles.

The interval of a 5th above the root note D is A. This is conspicuously identical to the common I-V dulcimer drone for the key of D. And this is the common drone a fiddler would use, and still do in real Old Time fiddle playing. Bluegrass harmony, and fiddle playing, is much more chord based. Orchestra music always was composed and played by highly trained people, who understood chord harmonies. Folk musicians, especially in eras where most common people had no formal education, were based on more ancient systems. Modes instead of scales, etc. The Old Time banjo and the mountain dulcimer are throwbacks to these earlier times, and have retained much that has otherwise evolved away from drones. This is why, as a player of clawhammer banjo, we use multiple tunings, similar to dulcimer players. The tuning contains the mood the song requires to sound as it did in the early days.

Don't take this to suggest all players must embrace fiddle tunes. This is just a history lesson. You still have to play the songs that put a smile on your face. If you play fiddle tunes, with or without drones is purely up to you. Go and enjoy.

Paul

I'm a fiddle tune player! What a wonderful thing to have a huge body of music...thousands of tunes!.... to play and explore.

There are simple ones, intricate ones.Rhythmic ones, highly melodic ones. Irish, Old Time, Scottish, etc....something for everyone!

"fiddle tunes are the thread of dulcimer history"

I like that, Robin. And, agree wholeheartedly.

Michael Vickey

Great question and great replies!

Like a couple of folk here I came to fiddle tunes prior to finding the mountain dulcimer.

I was attending a beginners old time session with my partner (she had just started playing the fiddle) and I took my dobro. I quickly realised that the dobro did not really "fit" the session. The session leader (banjo player) suggested I got a mountain dulcimer as he had seen those played in OT sessions when he was in the US in the 70s. I looked "mountain dulcimer" up on google and found that clip of Stephen Seifert playing "Whisky Before Breakfast" so I ordered one.

I started playing chord/melody style at the OT sessions and the instrument fitted in quite well - but the banjo player kept on saying that I wasn't playing it like he had seen! I switched to noter/drone and "saw the light" so to speak. All the pieces came together and I realised I had an instrument with a natural "fit" to OT sessions and fiddle tunes.

Looking at the history of the MD this makes complete sense. There are lots of historic references to two (this is very simplified) styles of playing the instrument - to accompany voice, and to accompany dance. Fiddle tunes were often played with a whipped quill in a 4 srting equidistant set-up and unison tuning, which gives a shuffle bow style of rhythm. And in some areas the instrument was know as a hog fiddle. Playing the instrument to accompany voice and withtwo differing drone notes and 3 strings (or double course melody) became more well known than the 4 string unison tuningdue to the settlement schools and recording folk artists such as Jean Ritchie. The folk revival of the 60s changed playing habits further and chord/melody became the predominant way to play the instrument, as it is today.

So fiddle tunes have played a major part in the history of the instruments development. But playing fiddle tunes is by no means the only tradition for the MD - it is simply one of the threads. Fiddle tunes when played traditionally with noter and quill just seem to sound right to my ears. I particularly like the old unison tuning style of playing. And I get asked to play noter/drone style at sessions to accompany other musicians more than I do chord/melody - perhaps that is because it brings out the uniqueness of the instrument?

Fiddle tunes are older than the dulcimer, so in some respects and in certain areas the dulcimer itself was designed with the popular tunes of the day in mind. In other areas the design relects ballads and in yet others hymns (church dulcimers). We know that the fiddle itself was shunned in certain communities and it is unlikely that the dulcimer was every used for dance tunes in those areas - and different stringing, tuning and playing methods would have been adopted for religious worship. There was some cross-over playing, and there is a reference to this in "Play of a Fiddle" where Dena Knicely (1910-1994) remembers her father Samual Johnson (born 1866) using a feather to play dance tunes and a bow to play hymns on his dulcimer.

I enjoy playing fiddle tunes in dance rhythms more than I do playing ballads - so my dulcimer set-up and playing style reflect this. Some players are very adept at playing fiddle tunes in chord melody style, often as solo pieces (Mark Gilston for one!). I prefer to play in a noter/drone style and with other musicians or for dancing. It is quite something to have folk dancing around a pub to "Angeline the Baker" played noter/drone on the dulcimer as we did on New years Eve

Like I said, fiddle tunes are not the only thread of dulcimer history but certainly in some areas the design, set-up and playing style of the instrument would have been influenced by those tunes in an endeavour to create dance rhythms from this simple home-build folk instrument. And there is something about the adaption of the European fretted zithers into a new American instrument that must be linked with the needs of the music, though I'm not sure what. I see the music driving the design rather than the design coming before the music?

These are just my own thoughts from reading up on dulcimer history and from my personal playing experience.

Robin

Going back to DT's first post, got me to thinking.

I came to the dulcimer from a background of listening to Irish and Scottish folk music being sung by singers like Tommy Makem, the Corries , and listening to the 60's folk songs, The Chad Mitchell Trio, Joan Baez etc. Nary a fiddle tune in the bunch to my knowledge.

Probably 98 % of my media library is made up of folk song books, CDs, LPs, cassettes and they're all vocals, so it's natural for me to head in that direction rather than trying to learn a bunch of fiddle tunes or any tunes at all for that matter. My mind associates music primarily with vocals to the point where learning a tune not a song is almost impossible for me.

Even the dulcimer records I have from before I started playing the dulcimer are basically solo vocal albums. After I bought my dulcimer I began to gather some TAB books of tunes and performances by David Schnaufer, Stephen Seifert, etc. That's when I became aware of fiddle tunes.

You're right, Dusty. There is practical, rational explanation for 'magic'. lol

Now, my autoharps are much-neglected because dulcimers (mountain & bowed) have exerted some sort of magical power over me. :)

This has been enlightening to me, too. I didn't even own a mountain dulcimer when I got my biggest introduction to fiddle tunes at Old-Time Week at Augusta (at Davis & Elkins College in WV)-- I was there to take an autoharp class. (My husband Mark took a guitar class.) Before going to Augusta, Mark had been playing a few fiddle tunes and I'd been chording/playing rhythm behind him on the autoharp and this is how we were playing when I began to think about getting a mountain dulcimer.

Now, my autoharps are much-neglected because dulcimers (mountain & bowed) have exerted some sort of magical power over me. :)

Dusty, what a lot of good insights you posted!

This thread really makes me think about and realize little things i never formally thought out before.

This is a good question. Don't be surprised if I try to answer it on more than one occasion.

I came to fiddle tunes as a guitar player before I ever knew what a dulcimer was. Part of the attraction is the same as for any folk music. It amazes me that music dating from the seventeenth century or earlier can still resonate today. And somehow I feel a connection with people from the past by understanding the music they played, even if I hear it through modern ears. But whereas some folk tunes require the lyrics to be interesting, fiddle tunes obviously don't, so those of us unhappy with our singing voices might be drawn to fiddle tunes specifically because they are instrumental.

When I first began studying fiddle tunes,I found, as did Strumelia, that they all sounded the same. The only ones I couldeasily recognizewere those that had become standard songs, such as "Arkansas Traveler" (which, like all kids, I learned as "I'm sweeping up a baby bumble bee"), "Eight of January," (the tune for which was used in the pop/rock song "Battle of New Orleans" in the late 1950s), or even "Sailer's Hornpipe," (which my animated buddy Popeye taught me).

But the more I listened and studied, the more I learned the nuances and beauty of each song. "St. Anne's Reel" is really pretty. "Whiskey Before Breakfast" really bounces. "Red-Haired Boy" and "Salt Creek" really surprise with that VII chord.

So for those of us without good singing voices but who want to play traditional folk music, fiddle tunes offer a large repository of material.

There is also a technical reason for playing fiddle tunes. As I learned when trying to be a bluegrass guitar player, you can't fake it with fiddle tunes. Your technique has to be up to par to play these songs at a"danceable" speed. Just practicing them, in other words, helps develop your technique. In fact, a guitarist friend of mine now living in Birmingham who was the reason I took up mandolin (he was just way better on the guitar than Iand also had a killerSanta Cruz dreadnought) has since abandoned bluegrass, but still warms up by playing a large repertoire of fiddle tunes. He claims he gets the same workout as playing scales but has a lot more fun.

One final reason to play fiddle tunes: lots of people know them. I got together with a neighbor recently and while our kids played in the yard she grabbed her banjo and I grabbed my guitar. We hadn't played together inmany a moon, but we still both knew "Old Joe Clark," "The Road to Lisdoonvarna," "Jerusalem Ridge," "Red-haired Boy," "Blackberry Blossom" and so forth. Fiddle tunes serve a social role, since they represent a common repertoire that you can learn on your own and then play with others. And they are far less repetitive than the 12-bar blues!

I've written this before, but my original introduction to the dulcimer came about 18 months ago when I was surfing YouTube for variations on fiddle tunes to improve my guitar playing and found Stephen Seifert playing "Whiskey Before Breakfast." My jaw dropped and I became obsessed with the dulcimer. That something so pretty and so danceable could be played in such an inventive way on such a simple instrument is still astounding to me. When I develop a version of that song on my own dulcimer, I will indeed have reached a milestone.

This is a great question for a thread.

When I first started hearing 'fiddle tunes', I thought they all sounded a lot alike and that there wasn't much to them.

As I listened more, I began to hear the variety amongst them and appreciate their spare structure and little quirks. I grew to really enjoy them.

Aside from that though, I think there is not really a clear repertoire of 'dulcimer music' in the same way as there is 'piano music', 'guitar music', 'banjo music', 'accordion music', etc. That means that dulcimer players have to choose music from elsewhere and adapt it to the dulcimer. Since the dulcimer cannot exactly be chorded like a piano or guitar, most people attempt to adapt music to the dulcimer based first on the MELODY, and then to fill that out with either drones or chords. Traditional fiddle music is mostly chord free, and the melody is nicely laid out in a straightforward and simple way. This makes fiddle tunes very good candidates for transcribing into dulcimer tunes. so I think this has a lot to do with it too.

I'm not sure that all dulcimer players do like fiddle tunes. Personally, I don't. My preference is for Scottish, Irish, and English folk music with a mixture of Israeli songs thrown in for good measure.

As for the fiddle, it's not a favorite instrument to listen to, for me, either. I like lower sounds like the cello or a mellow bowed dulcimer.

It's sort of like Robin saying that she likes chocolate cake, and a lot of people do. But there are a lot of us that would rather have pie or another flavor of cake instead of chocolate. Personally Key Lime Pie is my favorite and if I eat cake I wouldn't pick chocolate. Carrot or Spice is more up my alley. :-)

Hi, David!

I like the sound of lots of the fiddle tunes-- they just grab me. Trying to describe why I like them would be sort of like trying to describe why I like chocolate cake. :) I'm a big fan of old-timey Appalachian music and am a 'by ear' player who doesn't play out of a fiddle songbook (although I did pick up a used one at Half Price Books last year).

PS-It's not universal, I think, that dulcimer players as a whole have a preference for fiddle tunes. ;)

Thanks, Helen. Hope to work more on melody playing in this class.

I started playing guitar in my teens and along the way picked up harmonica. Many years later I picked up banjo and mandolin. At about 40 I started playing violin/fiddle. Mountain dulcimer is pretty new to me, barely a year. For my own personal enjoyment I like fiddle and dulcimer the most. There is also a very lonely (and cold) piano in the garage. And a zither of some kind (looks like an autoharp w/o keys) that is unplayable at this point that I may yet get to.

I am looking forward to a continuing autoharp class next week taught by John Hollandsworth. It will be at John C Campbell Folk School in the beautiful North Carolina mountains. I went to a beginning class last August there taught by Ivan Stiles. The Folk School is really a wonderful place - looking forward to it!

One-string-bass. Oh! You mean my upside-down bailing bucket and oar with a length of cable???

Heck Lana, I live in a 26 ft sailboat. I don't have the dogs but I do have 7 dulcimers, a Carolingian Lyre, four or five board psalteries, a couple penny whistles, and three crossbows, over and above the usual sort of things. You've got LOTS of room for more instruments!

Here's our band with octave fiddle playing at a beer festival in Haverfordwest castle a couple of years ago with an itinerant djembe player we acquired at the gig. It was before we added a harp to the lineup and I'm afraid the fiddle is kind of drowned out a bit with all the background noise going on.

I only been playing about 6 months but so far I have an hourglass MD and a teardrop MD. I've also played the snowshovel a lot this year.

Not as much as you might think. We were always quite careful not to push the kids towards music too much in case it put them off! We did encourage them to learn an instrument at school - clarinet for Micky, trombone for Dan - all the rest they've done for themselves. Must have worked though as they've both got the bug and in fact Micky is studying music at University.

We do play in a band together though - `Estron' - specialising in Welsh traditional music. That's me and Danny on Welsh bagpipe, Micky on ukulele, a friend, Holly on octave fiddle (looks like a violin but plays an octave below one) and another, Jess, on harp. I guess we get together for a practice about once a month on average and do a few gigs on top of that.

As to the bass clarinet, I find them easier to play than a normal clarinet, but much harder to hold while you're doing it! Most orchestral types have them resting on the floor on a spike but Micky plays hers hanging from a sling round her neck and holding it more like a saxophone.

Leslie - I do miss playing the tuba. It was a battered old thing but I did enjoy playing with the brass band. It was actually a junior band, I got roped in after my daughter joined as I had to hang around anyway waiting to take her home again.

Which reminds me, Helen, I only mentioned my own instruments. I have 2 daughters, both at University now, but when they're home, the eldest, Micky, plays clarinet, bass clarinet, and ukulele while the youngest has a trombone, a set of bagpipes, two guitars and a cello.

First instrument I ever had was a stave dulcimer I made myself but no longer have. This was soon followed by an hourglass which I'm still playing 42 years after I made it. But since then I've wandered from the fold a bit.

I now have 8 sets of bagpipes from different lands, in different keys, all but one of which I made myself - these are my main instruments. I also play piano accordeon regularly, hornpipes, clarinets, a whole bunch of flutes including whistles, recorders, piccolos, Native American flutes, one in E and a NAF droneflute in G. And I used to play Eb Tuba in the local brass band but had to give it back to them after I stopped playing with them.

And now I've got a Tennessee Music Box and Swedish Humle.

Hi Helen, will you 'busk' with your new love ? lol !

John

Here's a photo of some other instruments I play (more or less) - especially instruments that are perfect for Mountain Dulcimer accompaniment...

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/photo/d-major-instruments

In addition to my quest to learn the mountain dulcimer and lap harp, I play the piano, church organ, keyboard, guitar, ukulele, recorder and the oboe.

William, I'd love see a vid of you playing bones sometime! I play some minstrel banjo too, and have an interest in mid 1800s music as well.

I sing and play clawhammer & minstrel banjo, fingerstyle guitar, upright bass & bass guitar, piano, violin (just a little), mandolin, various ethnic flutes and whistles, and various small drums. And when I really want to annoy folks at bluegrass jams, I break out the bones I keep in my banjo case.

I had the joy, for six years, to be the resident music specialist at a local history museum in Alabama. It was actually part of my job (!) to research any instrument with even a passing connection to 19th or early 20th century American music history, acquire one, learn to play at least one song on it, and demonstrate it for visitors. There is such a thing as a dream job!

Hi all, as well as dulcimer,

I "play" (make noise would be a better term) alto recorder, pennywhistle. Alternating fingerings between the 2 is a brain teaser!

Piano - but have a midi keyboard as I live upstairs.

Voice.

I'm probably most proficient as a singer, given I take voice lessons, but I bumble along on the other instruments and they make me happy. I would love to learn celtic harp someday..... And bass ocarina.... And a concertina.....And cello....

I tinker with a ukulele, lap harp & piano. On a 1-10 scale, I would say I am a 2 on ukulele, 1 on piano, and 3 on lap harp. I still own 8 dulcimers, two are on loan, and have sold 3 more on Craig's list recently. My favorite is a 6 string all walnut McSpadden. Next is the 2nd dulcimer I purchased the first week of learning to play a little over a year ago, an all cherry 4 string Cletus Penny, hand crafted in Newton, Ga. Thinking of ordering a Penny Whistle maybe today.

Whose voice are you using now?

Paul

Good for you Christine!

Aside from the mountain dulcimer, I play banjo in clawhammer and minstrel stroke style... I play a LOT of banjo, actually more banjo than dulcimer (running for cover now).

I also love to 'play' limberjacks, and I dabble in playing the bones (minstrel style), and also bowed jouhikko or tagelharpa. I'm trying to learn to play a little tambourine too, at least to play it halfway decently- it's not that easy for me, and I feel like a total klutz sometimes! But fun is the keyword here.

Leslie - you come up with 16 stuffed cats and I'll build it for you! What a hoot

I live in the Hurricane zone. My retirement home/boat contain what little I own - some clothes, a few tools and books, and my dulcimers. It is, in somevery real sense, a survival kit/lifeboat. Do I

• get the boat down river, out to sea, try to guess which way the storm will zig, and then zag the other way to avoid it?
• get the boat as far upriver and inland, as far as I can, tie up in the mangroves batten down the hatches, ride the storm out there, and pray?
• tie the boat up extra good to the dock where I am, head to Lady Sally's shuttered home, ride the storm out there, and pray?
• Grab Sally, the pets, dulcimers and whatever else we can cram in her CRV and head inland and north to ride out the storm?

I knew you where kidding Yip everyone should a paln for things like these

strange you should ask living here in tornado ally I have been thinking long and hard about this. The first thing I want out of the house in case of Fire is my dogs. they are kenneled every night in the room next to our bedroom. if I have to I'll open the front door and send them out on there own if I have to. Then make sure my wife went out with them. then back in our bedroom and grab my 12-string guitar and my six string also my dulcimers then as much sheet music as I can grab. lucky for use we are close to the ground so most of that goes out the window along with as much close as I can grab. If there is no time then my wife and hopefully the dogs.

My cat, Tigger and my tab files. In fact, the storms have had me going over my tab, and retyping it into the computer so I can get them all backed up. Lost a major portion of them a few years ago, and though I've been backing up my new ones about 80% of my work was lost, except for paper copies.

I Play several instruments

recorders

Native American Flute

Guitar

Bass Guitar

shekere, I also make them

feel like I am forgetting something.

Oh Yeah Jaw Harp,

Mouth bow

cigar box Guitar, slide (also make them)