Forum Activity for @susie

I had a $10 guitar stand that I thought would make a great project to convert to a nice dulcimer stand. I have sewing skills and my husband has a welding torch. So, here's what we did. The bottom support (normally for the lower bout of a guitar) was converted by adding a "sling" (this is where my sewing skills came into play) to support the bottom of the dulcimer. I also sewed a hole for the strap button to rest through. This also serves the purpose of not letting the dulcimer slide off the sling. I also put some one wrap velcro on the bottom support to keep it stable from rotating (which is how they are made for guitars). Then, the top support (normally for the neck of the guitar) was converted by using the welding torch to reshape it to accomodate the wider area needed for the dulcimer. The steel is "hardened", so we couldn't just bend it by hand. Wa-la......a dulcimer stand is born. I'm really happy with how it turned out. And it is still adjustable to accomodate the height of all my dulcimers. Here are some pictures. 

 dulcimerstand1.jpg - 154KB

How many strings does that thing have?  I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that.  Without looking at it and playing it, I'd be hard pressed to give a figure on what I'd give for it.  Sure does look interesting though.

Patricia, I truly enjoy your pod-casts, how you introduce people and their creative ways of enjoying our magical dulcimer and the variety of music it brings us.

Thank you for your strong support of the mountain dulcimer.

Does anyone recognize this dulcimer, and if so, what’s a fair asking price? 

 1.jpg - 46KB

Hearts Of The Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 6

Rick Scott - Canada’s premier dulcimer player

  http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast

We had fun talking with Rick, who is a dulcimer player, storyteller, actor, and singer songwriter. Rick has been playing the dulcimer for more than four decades and has received several awards and honors for his work with children’s music. This episode has lots of great music as well as entertaining stories about being a dulcimer player.

If you listened to our episode about Joni Mitchell, you heard Rick tell his story about getting picked up by Joni while hitchhiking in Canada in the 1970s.

Listen to the Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast on your favorite podcast app, in iTunes, or on our website. And be sure to check out the episode resource page on  http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/006.html  for lots more!

I have a retail store where I ship items daily.  In the past 6 months, UPS and the USPS have become brutal in their treatment of packages.  It took me a while and a lot of broken glass, to figure out what the problem is. No matter what kind of stickers or fragile messages you put on the outside of the box, a lot of weight is often piled on top of the box.  Your box needs to be able to withstand hundreds of pounds of weight in order to arrive safely.  Hard dulcimer cases, would be of great help.  Lots of vertical cardboard would help in preventing the dulcimer from being crushed. 

I double and sometimes triple box items that I send. 

Hi James,

Here's some sheet music for C Major, so no sharps or flats. This should make it easy to work out for yourself (the first note is on the open string).

I play it both Daa and Ddd. Sounds great both ways... Robert

Beating the straws, beaters, fiddlesticks,  ....it's an old fiddle percussion technique.  No need to associate it with anything negative, any more so than beating a drum.  Here's a great thread on fotmd about it:

http://fotmd.com/forums/forum/general-mountain-dulcimer-or-music-discussions/4572/fiddlesticks

Dusty...you ain't right lol!  Robin, rumor has it that you just may be correct.    Jan, that sound like about the coolest trip ever!

I saw, maybe I should have clarified Ionian tuning, so I will print out one of these tabs and add 3 save for the jump to the middle string parts.  

John Keane, that dredges up quite a few memories from almost 50 years ago: 30+ teenagers on a 3-week bus trip through 2 countries, stopping at a World's Fair, 2 capitals, seeing the ocean, getting lost on the NYC subway, visiting the major cities of the northeast coast and every historic site we could cram in--with multiple verses to this tune added every day, including verses about every person on the bus.  I remember my verse was about me and a particular boy on the trip with whom I had fallen madly in love...I married him 5 years later!

 James, as you can see, Frank linked to two versions of the song, both in DAd.  The melody goes down (in fact starts on) the middle A string.  So if you want to play melody drone, you will need to tune DAA and adjust the tab accordingly.

http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/dogwood/alltunes/Home%20On%20The%20Range%20(D).pdf"> http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/dogwood/alltunes/Home%20On%20The%20Range%20(D).pdf

 or

http://www.threeriversdulcimersociety.net/Music/Home%20on%20the%20Range%20092911.pdf

I have a song request for a tab that I don't have in a book, or have scene on ED, Home on the Range.  If someone has a melody line tab that they could send me, I would greatly appreciate it.  

Hey, Hey! Mr. Keane ain't monkeyin' around!

John, I'm thinking our own Ken Bloom did studio work on Monkees' music back in the day. . . 

It was just there (and cheap).  I held my enthusiasm in check until we paid and left lol. 

John, that brings back some memories!

Hand me that hickory wife beater, Rob,  I think it'll make MacLaren's March sound just right!

Ken, for some reason I figured you'd get the reference.     I still think beater is the best name for it, although I have heard it called a hammer.

Seems to work well on Old Joe Clark. I vote for Sticks for the name.

Very cool, John!

Being a non native speaker has some advantage, so is being naive

Oh I got the reference!   I've always called them Strikers or Hammers.  I've used the technique for years, but IMHO there aren't many songs where the technique is appropriate -- Little Drummer Boy, and some of the Irish march tunes of the 1916 rebellion come to mind...

That was really interesting.  I'm too old to have much hope of reaching that level but maybe my kids could approach it with a lot of practice. 

In this day and age when people are easily offended knockers, .  Stick would be about as bland and non-offensive as you could get and somebody would still probably be offended.

Oh my!  I can hear me doing a workshop on this technique and saying, "Ok, now, knockers up."

Anyone get the reference       Think 60s.

One of my wall hanging oddities (flea market find). 

Sticks?

Chinese pick?

Ticker?

Mallet?

Hammer?

Rhythm Beater?

Snare drum or String durm?

Dulcimer bone?

I have a String drum bass hommel, which is played using a beater. Have to restring it, so no pictures yet. It plays a two or three tone very low drone. The thing which hit the strings is called a 'klopper' in Dutch, which should be translate as 'knocker'.

 That was inspirational! After hearing, seeing and reading I ran to our pantry, found some chopsticks and started practicing. I think we all should come up with a new name, beater sounds too violent for such a wonderful sound.

 Shawn, try going to your profile page, and then hover over your name link at top right to view the drop-down menu, which should include "Groups I Belong To"- there you can see a list of the groups you are a member of.  If you don't get that menu item, try refreshing the page.  The Groups you are a member of does not show publicly on your profile.

I had joined a couple of groups but none of them are showing up in my profile now.  Did I miss doing something I needed to do?

Any cyano-acrylate glue ("superglue") will work. "Superglue" was invented for surgeons who needs a fast acting adhesive to hold bits of internal organs, blood vessels and such together/closed while they applied teenie-tiny stitches.

He's probably been busy on the Festival circuit.

Very usefull playing chord/melody style. It leaves the melody string diatonic, which is nice playing noter/drone style.

I also like the possum board using the transporting case.

The beater... There goes my free weekend ;-)

I may have to wait a bit longer.  Hubby just bought me a Fender bass guitar and we are taking a trip at the end of the month to see Mom-in-law in Ft Worth, Tx.  It may have to wait until we retire in a couple  of years because I will have to devote a lot of time playing it so I can get real good and take my tin cup out on tour to pay for it. 

I use a beater I got from Jean & Lee Schilling's shop about 30 years ago.  I thought it was a noter when I bought it.  I later got a noter from them as well as many books and records.  Anyway...  here's a little thing I did with a beater a few years ago.  They can be quite fun.

http://fotmd.com/rob-n-lackey/uploaded_video/260/green-grow-the-laurel-lilacs

Don't forget the three ways to produce sound: the pick (I use a stiff one); the thumb (plucking down or slap: thump up and hit the snare with the first thumb knockel) and the fingertips of the index and middle finger. That's all at the right hand...

I was at a workshop on Saturday and the instructor was handing out little patches of moleskin for our thumbs because some of the beginners didn't have callouses on their thumbs yet. That's not my problem; I may need bigger gloves to accommodate my callouses! Just kidding. 

Tumbleweed, I guess we'll be learning the bass at the same time.  If you've got any tips, pass them along.

Wout, I put on the tapewound strings yesterday and really love the sound.  The tone is wonderful, reminiscent of an upright bass fiddle.  Thanks so much for that suggestion!