Forum Activity for @robin-thompson

I only knew of Carol (I believe she was connected to the Smithsonian some way) so it is good to know about the work she and Mark did together.  His instruments are beauties!  

@ken-longfield , you never fail to amaze me with how much you know about dulcimers and their makers.

Mark Blair made some wonderful dulcimers. He, along with his wife Carol, wrote a couple of books of music for Appalachian dulcimer. One is a book of hymns, Best Loved Hymns for Appalachian Dulcimer and the other was a book of Christmas hymns. I think the latter might have been self published. Back in November, 2024 I spent some time with his wife, Carol, and their son. We had a good time reminiscing about the dulcimer community around Washington, D.C. in the lat 1960s and 1970s. Looking at the Facebook page John suggested I see that he made 700 dulcimers. I would consider him one of the "revival" builders.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Look up "Mark Blair Dulcimers" on Facebook.  There is a page there of photos of Mark's work.  He passed away several years ago according to the posts there.

Thanks for the on finding the info. There are two stickers inside.  The first one says it was custom built especially for my mother and father in law. The second has the maker

525.       11-83

Blair Dulcimers

Handcrafted Mountain Dulcimers

1704 Trenton Drive

Alexandria,  Virginia 22308

My father in law pastors a Baptist church in Alexandria. 

Vicrich, you have a beautiful dulcimer there! 

I don't recognize it right off, either, but it seems to be well-designed and assembled by somebody.  The soundhole patterns intrigue me.  They remind me somewhat of Ben Seymour's hole patterns on his Galax dulcimers.

Robin, it is a possibility. I don't have the Foxfire plans in front of me to compare, but from the photos posted there are differences from the Mize dulcimers I've seen. The tuning pegs are not quite the same shape and the end block is different from Mize dulcimers. I can't see the peg head well enough to make a comparison. Folks who use plans like Mize's are known to make modifications that appeal to the builder. If the owner of this dulcimer does find a label inside we will know for sure.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

@ken-longfield Elements of the instrument remind me of a Mize-- what do you think?  I'm wondering whether a highly skilled woodworker built it based on Bob Mize's piece in Foxfire and/or patterned this one off an actual Mize instrument.  The tuning pegs look to be nicely hand-carved (and Bob Mize's carved pegs were lovely).  I could be way off track with this line of thinking, though.  

I agree- use a flashlight to really look inside there, peering in at various angles. It happens, but it's rare that a dulcimer that nice would have no label inside at all.

Perhaps this is too obvious, akin to telling you to turn your computer off and then on again, but have you looked into the soundholes to see if there is any information about the luthier?  You might have to shine a flashlight in there to see.

FWIW, the wood is beautiful, and the instrument appears to be in pristine condition. Barring any new information, @ken-longfield's estimates about its value are likely pretty accurate.

The dulcimer looks familiar but I can't place it with a builder at the moment. It appears to be well built and the wood is very nice. I think the to is butternut and the rest of the dulcimer is walnut. It has a 6 1/2 fret but not 13 1/2 fret (octave). Wood tuning pegs are not something most players appreciate these days. On a good day you might be able to sell it for $300 - $350 but without the builder's name that could be a very optimistic. In reality it may only bring between $200 - $300.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I have no ideal what this dulcimer is valued. I found it in my deceased mother in laws house. Any help would be appreciated.  Pictures are attached but I couldn't find any name or label on it.

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Hi All,

This is the ad for my new album on Neuma Records.  I'm not trying to sell it (although I wouldn't object), I just like the ad a lot.  It should start streaming sometime next month.

https://neumarecords.org/home/ols/products/alex-lubet-amy-levy---songs-of-love-and-loss

It's quite different from anything else I've heard for dulcimer.  As I've said before, I've been a classically trained composer and professor for over fifty years, but have also always played folk and popular music instruments and taught the history of rock music.  The album consists of songs with texts by Victoria era, Anglo-Jewish poet Amy Levy, beautifully sung by my colleague, operatic mezzo soprano Victoria Vargas.  It's an unusual combination, borne first out of our friendship and then our musical instruments.  I could have written for a more conventional accompanying instrument, but Victoria really liked the dulcimer and the idea of performing together.

Thanks and have a great day.

Alex, in general I think the more experience with music of any sort, the easier it is to learn any instrument.  There may be challenges, but they pale in comparison to the challenges faced by someone with no musical experience.

I came to the dulcimer from the guitar and mandolin, and yes, it took a little bit to get used to the bass string being on the other end of the fretboard.  But I found the diatonic fretboard the real obstacle.  There were notes in my head that did not exist on the instrument.  And whereas on the mandolin, for example, once you learned a G major chord, you could slide up a fret to get an Ab, another fret to get an A, another fret to get a Bb, and so forth, moveable chords do not work as simply as that on the dulcimer.  It was indeed confusing.

However, the techniques I had developed for right-hand fingerpicking and flatpicking both transferred over with minor adjustments, and even my left hand, though resembling more piano than guitar technique, was also more advanced than that of a beginner.  No one had to teach me what a hammer-on is, for example, or how to bend a string or get harmonics, or how to strum to get a waltz rhythm, and so forth.

Learning a new instrument is difficult, but experience with one instrument makes learning the next one that much easier.

As challenging as it may have been to understand the diatonic fretboard, some people come to the dulcimer with no knowledge of music at all. They don't know what a note is or what a key is.  They ask questions like "how do I know when to strum?" which is not something someone who has already played another string instrument would ever ask.

Hi All,

Greetings from Minnesota and a good week to you.

Mostly for curiosity, I'm asking those of you who teach dulcimer whether it's generally easier to teach someone with prior string instrument or none.  Although I don't teach dulcimer, as a teacher of music composition, I often assign students to write for it, as it's a challenging instrument to learn in that capacity.  On occasion, I've noticed that guitarists struggle with the "reverse" order of the strings, while non-string players don't have that issue.

In an analogous way, I have a colleague from Ghana who teaches West African music, both non-music and music majors, the latter mostly classical musicians.  He often finds the former take to African rhythms more readily, not being nearly as acclimated to the very different rhythms of classical music.

Thoughts?

Many thanks in advance,

I've just acquired a New Harmony Command performance Dulcimer. I spent about an hour auditioning it.

Now, All my other Dulcimers have 1 1/2 " wide fret boards which work for me because of my pudgy fingers. In the hour during auditioning the new one I didn't really pay attention to this (to busy enjoying the sound of it).

I had a really long session with yesterday and found that more times then not when playing something a first position G chord the finger fretting the middle string will impinge on the melody string giving a bum note to it. The was happening quite often and with similar bass & middle string fretting.

So my question is thus do dulcimer players supposed be able to just pick up any dulcimer fret board width and play it ok?

I am what I suppose you call an advance beginner or starter intermediate. I can play the New Harmony albeit completely changing my fretting technique for this shorter width. Will learning to cope with a 13/8ths wide board help improve my playing? The New Harmony is very unforgiving as it is.

Due i stick with it or change it for a 1 1/2" like all my others?

Many thanks for any advice

Richard

In reference to bowed dulcimers, I know there are a lot of types and styles. Personally I just add a radius to the bridge, with the middle string being physically higher than the melody and bass, and call it good there. It makes the intonation a bit trickier, but it solves the challenge of bowing (or plucking) the middle string individually.

I would think that overall, a radiused fingerboard on dulcimer would have a small benefit, but wouldn't be worth the effort. When I made one just out of curiosity, I found that since I wasn't already used to barring chords, it didn't have any immediate benefit for me.

The main purpose of a radiused fretboard is to facilitate barring across all the strings with a single finger. Aaron O'Rourke uses his pinky for that purpose.  Stephen Seifert uses his ring finger.  Barring with a single finger instead of using three fingers allows more fingers to fret strings above the barre, enabling the playing of more notes while not losing chord tones. To my knowledge, the first luthier to build a dulcimer with a radiused fretboard was David Beede when he designed a dulcimer customized to Aaron's specifications.

A second reason a radiused fretboard might be useful is in playing single-note runs on the middle string.  It is easy enough to angle a flatpick upwards to play single notes only on the melody string or downwards to do so on the bass string without hitting the other strings.  But the middle string is more challenging.  A radiused fretboard essentially raises that middle string up a bit relative to the melody and bass strings, making it easier to play by itself.

I have not opted for a radiused fretboard because I rarely barre with a single finger and also because I'm afraid that I would get used to it and never want to play all my dulcimers with flat fretboards.  But this discussion would benefit from comments by someone who uses a radiused fretboard rather than all of us who don't.

That's the only type of dulcimer I can think of that would need one of those --  a bowed dulcimer.

A bowed dulcimer?

As far as I know (which isn't much), a radiused fingerboard is intended to be helpful in making chord stretched and barred chords when your hand is curving around the neck, as in a necked stringed instrument. But on a dulcimer, you are coming down from above with your hand, not wrapping your hand completely around a neck from the far side and then fretting. I don't see any advantage myself- it would be kinda like suggesting a radiused fingerboard/keyboard for a piano. Just my guess.

Personally, i tried making a radiused fretboard once years ago. As far as I understand it, the main benefit of a radiused fretboard is that its easier to apply pressure for things like barre chords. I dont think this matters as much on a dulcimer as on a guitar, since it takes a lot less force to fret a dulcimer in the first place.

My guess is that if you play in modern finger picking style it would be helpful, but I've never played a mountain dulcimer with a radiused fret board. I see that some banjos which have traditionally had flat fret boards are now being made with radiused fret boards. There are some dulcimer makers who are doing fret boards with a radius, but I can't remember who they are. As to pros and cons, I have no idea.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Someone did one years ago, one of the luthier fellows. If you are a picker it would make an ideal set up with a four string. I can't imagine any reason it would be detrimental, but the sages haven't spoke!lol

As in all things here, try it and let us know how it turns out...I would but I can assure you it "won't" work with staples!  

Hello everybody, question about radius fret-board.

 Pros.?

cons.? 

@peter-harklau Hey, Re-Pete!  Good to see you.  I still have one of the t-shirts you designed.  

My experience with Black Mountain dulcimers is that they are good instruments. They are not fancy, but are well built, play well, and sound good. Back in the 1970s and 80s I considered them an excellent entry level instrument which could become a lifetime instrument. Whether or not it is an upgrade from your current dulcimer you will have to determine from playing it. They have a very comfortable VSL and in my opinion make very nice chording dulcimers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

You should consider taking your current instrument to the shop and playing both side by side. The important thing is which one suits your ear better.

I am exploring options locally to upgrade my current dulcimer. A shop locally has one from Black Mountain for sale. They look nice but could not find anything about them searching the forums (could be user error on my part). 

https://blackmtninstruments.com/about/

many thanks

Sound Clip

This was a fun piece. It is loosely based on an instrument made by Dale London back in the 90's. The piece needed some repair work done and I had the opportunity to "see" the inside. I changed what didn't work and replicated what did. It has a floating tail piece and suspended staple board. All Black Walnut Ebonized with an oil and wax finish. 28 inch VSL set to Diatonic DAA with 15 music wire staples. Ebony nut and bridge, Walnut tuners and nickel string anchors.

 front crop.jpg - 266KB

@strumelia We were happy she learned the little tune and made it a little cello tune.   (a very little cello emoji haha)  

@robin-thompson , that is so wonderful!

Thanks for this.  




Dusty Turtle"]

Kurt Vonnegut in a letter to high school students:

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

You can hear James Earl Jones read the entire letter here.   

Too funny!!  

Pretty funny there, John!    It begs the question, though, if I have a shell, why do I need a hat?

Hey Dusty

 Dusty-T.jpg - 94KB

Very interesting contributions, thanks so much.

For the most part, we declare ourselves right or left handed depending on how we write.  The only other such declarations that come to mind as being in common parlance are how we play string instruments and baseball (or, I suppose, cricket).  Notably, Ringo Starr was forced to write right handed but calls himself left handed and says that it informs his playing.

I read an interesting article some years ago that refers to "mixed handedness" when folk do different tasks different ways.  Besides playing right handed, I (used to) bat right handed.  Another article I read on the subject reported that there's no relationship between the hand we use to write and how we hold a shovel, rake, or similar implements.

On guitar, many players who fret mostly with their left hand also fret or "tap" with the right.  I occasionally do this on dulcimer 1) for certain harmonics 2) for effect, if I do it really hard, or 3) to play a pitch while I'm holding down another string with my left.

Have a great day!

An interesting side effect of changing the roles of right and left hands is renewed facility on the original configuration...when I started playing button accordion,my fiddling changed for the better.On accordion the bellows is the driver(left hand),on the fiddle it's the bow(right hand)..perhaps it has something to with the sides of the brain!.Likewise,learning dulcimer(on the lap,the high strings opposite to the guitar,the droniness) changed my guitar playing.

As a rightie who does everything rightie, I'm not sure what I can add here. In general, lefties are better with their right hands than righties are with their lefts.

I can imagine fretting strings with my right hand and yet I would not be able to strum or pick with any fluidity with my left hand.

The general consensus is that strumming and picking is more important for the making of music than is fretting strings, which is why most of us strum and pick with our strong hand.  Let's all remember that when people ask for tab to learn songs as though all that matters is the fretting hand.

I would give my left arm to be ambidextrous.