Forum Activity for @mary-z-cox
I played in the Florida championship contest after playing a couple months in front of a large audience and judges. Played with one guitarist . Only took second place, though :) actually lost out to John Blosser who got first that year and he was a much better dulcimer player :) I did take first place the next year :)Mzc
I built up my courage by having music parties at my house, so not large crowds. I had one party last fall and another one this spring. But my first time in front of a bunch of strangers was at the open jam at a local pub two weeks ago, I had my back mostly to the audience, but I played 3 songs and played along with 3 others that the guitarist next to me did that were "dulcimer friendly". I haven't gotten the courage to go back, but I hope to again soon. 
Well....this may set the record for the longest time between learning to play and performing.
I learned how to play a dulcimer back in 1991 and faithfully practiced once or twice a year.....didn't make much progress!
In 2012, 21 years later, I finally performed as part of a quartet, filling in for an absent member. Just one tune--Greensleeves--and I couldn't decide whether to faint or throw up, so I just played the thing and survived! That was at Dulcimerville 2012 on Student Peformance Night. Now I'm thinking about permforming again--with a larger group--in a couple weeks. This will be an hour-long program, with LOTS of music to learn.
I guess the more you perform, the easier it becomes. At least that's what I've been told! 
Doug, I look forward to hearing "The Winding Banks of Nith"!
Last year, Mark and I played the open stage at Harmony Harvest dulcimer festival in Lancaster OH. How it came to be? Mark's sister, Jane, a singer/songwriter, had been asked to play a gig at Marietta College. (Thirty-plus years ago, when in college, the two of them performed together a lot.) Jane wanted to play at Marietta and wanted her big brother to play with her. Mark agreed to do so and, with that looming on his calendar, Mark said he wanted to play the open stage at Harmony Harvest. And since Harmony Harvest is, after all, a dulcimer festival, some kind of dulcimer needed to figure into it.
We practiced and played a couple tunes-- Huntin' the Buffalo and Star of the County Down -- with Mark on guitar and me on bowed dulcimer. The audience was enthusiastic and encouraging!
I'd been playing bowed dulcimer about a year and a half before getting on a stage to play. (I'd bowed a mountain dulcimer in the fashion of a bowed dulcimer for some months before getting my first bowed dulcimer.)
About 12 years ago, I convinced my good friend Lauren to play music together for a casual party as a gig. Lauren had never played as a performer for an audience before, but she nervously agreed to.
We played simple sing-along stuff like My Darling Clementine, You are my Sunshine, etc. We made some mistakes but everyone had a great time and the audience loved it and sang along.
After it was over, as Lauren and I were walking back to our car carrying our instruments, I asked her "So how do you feel?"
She said "I'm so nervous and rattled I feel like I'm about to throw up."
After a moment she added "So when do we do it again?"
Staying warm mentally or physically
OFF TOPIC discussions
Now that sounds tummy warming wonderful, but oh, what it would do to my diet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I'll have to stick to the fannel shirt and warm oatmeal with raisins.
Dennis F. Lowe said:
I bake cookies, oatmeal-raisin, molasses-spice, chocolate chip, etc. A cup of spice cider and a flannel shirt don't hurt either.
Staying warm mentally or physically
OFF TOPIC discussions
Know the FOTMD warmth feeling.
I don't wear wool, but I do have some silk long underwear that helps on the coldest of days. Then comes regular T shirt and a sweat shirt And over that one of quilted flannel jackets that my hubby got for me this year.
Strumelia said:
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.
Staying warm mentally or physically
OFF TOPIC discussions
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.
Staying warm mentally or physically
OFF TOPIC discussions
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!
Staying warm mentally or physically
OFF TOPIC discussions
I should have mentioned that Sharon Jackson, a member here at FOTMD, made these lovely scented candles. If anyone wants to have a great aroma therapy session just get a hold of her.
Staying warm mentally or physically
OFF TOPIC discussions
Due to the cold, I've recently been burning a candle in the kitchen. Now a single flame doesn't give off that much heat. However the candle I've been burning has a warm scent to it and that mentally seems to warm me up.
The cinnamon scented soy candle was made by Sharon Jackson who lives down in MO. and gives me the feeling of walking into a room that has had apple pies baking. I love cinnamon in apple pies and this candle has worked at warming me up mentally. Time to get more though. I've had this one going all day.
Anyone else have a trick for warming up mentally, or even physically???? Share please....
updated by @folkfan: 02/27/19 02:01:41PM
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
Hello Kathy,Have never played that particular model Blue Lion-- but do have 2 blue lions. One is the rosewood/cedar one with the single rose inlay & brass inserts. Don't think that model is offered anymore-- but it is a wonderful dulcimer. It's my lucky dulcimer :) and have the Robert Force model 6 string Blue Lion. It is also a dulcimer of great beauty and sound-- was just playing it on the front porch the other day and it's sweet voice attracted a hummingbird :)Don't think you can go wrong with a Blue Lion :)Best wishes,Mary Z Cox
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.
Kathy was asking about a particular model of the Blue Lion dulcimers. Not all of us have experience with that particular model. I owned a Blue Lion once for a short while many years ago. I didn't find the sound right for me so I sold it. But it wasn't one of the Jean Ritchie models.
bob atkinson said:
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.
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
My do-over would be to not drop my violin lessons. I really should have stuck with it, but I was very immature and did not practice.
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Makes yer dulcimer kinda soggy doesn't it?
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Your comment really strikes home with me. I will never be an accomplished player ... but ... I am learning to strum just the melody to some songs I like. If I don't progress any farther, I can at least enjoy the music I CAN make on my dulcimer. I'm happy with that.
folkfan said:
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.
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I wish I had started singing out loud when I started playing dulcimer 35+ years ago; rather than singing internally for 25 or 30 years first!
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Had a crushed larynx in my 20's. Voice has been all over the place since. One day I have a whisper, next gravely, next very high... once in a great while ... deep, rich and not at all bad to listen to, just can't count on it to get all the way through a song ... but brother ... 'emme tell you what ... I'm whistlin' FOOL ! ! !
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Thanks for the encouragement, Mary Z! When I was young, singing came more naturally. Now, I could have a cheap vocal coach if I'd just take the trouble to record myself singing-- when I listen to a recording I can hear when I got flat. On the one hand, I'm grateful I can tell that I'm flat. On the other hand. . .
I've got no voice to sing lead yet used to be a decent harmony singer.
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.)
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.)
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Dorene I wish I had had you as a teacher my life might be completely different now. I might have been a headliner in Vagas! LOL Really I wish I had been incouraged in stead of discouraged. You sound like a great teacher.
OH and one more thing I had a senior moment Ms. Nimix was my home ec. teacher sorry Ms. Nimmix. Ms. Gilkey was the music teacher. I can't believe I did that.
Dorene Dennie said:
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!
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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
My biggest 'do-over' wish in learning music
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
If I had it to do over again, as a girl i would have chosen to take violin in school instead of 'cello. Then i probably wouldn't have had to sell it when I moved so often- I could have taken a little violin with me easily and continued playing instead of selling my cello at age 22 and then not playing any music at all for years. Playing violin also would have enabled me to transition into old-time music as a fiddler pretty well. :) As it turned out, I sort of came into old-time music through the back door, the l-o-n-g way around instead, through mandolin, banjo, and dulcimer.