This story from Minnesota appeared in my email today. I thought some of you might be interested in this project. https://www.hometownsource.com/morrison_county_record/mol-students-build-their-own-musical-instruments/article_ccf9c80c-8024-11eb-8ef3-33ff1a8b2e99.html
It would be nice to see more schools doing this.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Quick Dumb Question: It sounds like spraying might fit this plant giving it a daily mist. Does that make sense. This plant is very tiny in a tiny plastic pot sitting in the scooped out area of the previous plant's dirt. I see the tiniest of roots trying to stick out of one hole.
Thanks, John. On the back of the DVD box, mine says it includes the booklet and I see a clip inside the case that would have held it. Otherwise, I’d have had no idea that one existed. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Wendell, I have the same set of 2 DVDs that you have, but I don't recall ever getting a booklet with them.
Hi everyone, I need your help. I was fortunate enough to recently acquire a two DVD set of How to Build a Dulcimer by Keith Young. The booklet that originally came with the DVD set is missing. Does anyone know where I could possibly get one or a copy of one? I may never build a dulcimer but since I own a Keith Young dulcimer, the DVD is almost like getting to meet Mr. Young. I realize these aren’t common and would appreciate any help anyone can give me, thanks.
Ah, well the usual advice given for that double-pot situation is that you water it thoroughly like once a week or so, let it drain for a few minutes and then dump the excess water out of the outer pot... so that the potted plant is never in standing water. Think of the outer pot (with no hole) as simply a way to protect your table rather than being a water reservoir. Waterlogged soil is deadly to houseplants. I learned only recently that roots need air as well as water, otherwise they start to rot. Just like us I guess!
Yeah it's funny but all plants do have a life span. And it's amazing how you can make new baby plants from offshoots, splits, and cuttings.
@venni , that's impressive, good for you!
Many of us here never actually become highly skilled players, but hopefully we all do find joy in playing a humble instrument at home, even if we only play for our own selves. Music is such a tonic. :)
It is indeed cute. I, too, had a planter I bought a while back & knew it was over-crowded. The hardier ones have started taking over the spaces left by the ones never meant to be bunched in there. I guess it all comes down to learning what works and what doesn't. I need to double check the drainage on my Croton. For now it's in its tiny original pot inside the bigger pot. Made copies of the 2 pages about what it needs & how to troubleshoot it.
I also read about that Kalanchoe (which has a ton of common names!) &, unless I had tried to start cuttings, it lasted about the normal lifespan.
Maybe I'll stop saying "Plants quake in fear when they see me coming."
Lois good luck with your new croton plant! They are really colorful, especially if they get sun. Make sure its pot can drain any excess water so there's no chance of root rot. I think they like slightly moist soil but never waterlogged.
Here's a very little (2" diameter) Bishop's Cap cactus I've had for about four years now. It was crowded in a pot with several other succulents in a too-cool room with north light. Somehow it survived, but i just disassembled that pot and gave the little cap a new pot of its own and put it in nice warmer spot with more light. I hope it wont be too shocked by the change.
So cute the way it spirals at the very top like a dim sum dumpling...
Jim, unfortunately the dulcimer clubs around Somerset no longer exist. As you can see from the link Ken Hulme posted there is nothing close by. This is not to say there aren't any dulcimer players in the area. You just need to be creative in finding ways to invite them to play with you.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Another detail- I notice you are both embedding AND attaching your image to a post. No need to do both- just pick one method or the other. 
@rojo, Ken is correct- when you are in the window where you select an image to embed in your post, on the left side there should be a drop down box where you can choose the size- the default is set to 800 xxxl or something... if you change it to the XL instead, the image will not be so huge. Try it again with one image here, and I'll adjust or delete it afterwards if needed. :) Maybe I'll change the default size to one level smaller as well.
Another way is to go ahead and post the embedded image as is, and then click the EDIT gear icon on you post to edit it, and in that window you can click the corner of the image and DRAG it smaller. Sometimes you'd need to drag it smaller several times to get it to the size that looks reasonable. Then save your edited post by clicking the "update post" button. That's what I did just now to make your last embedded image smaller, btw.
If you are doing all this from a phone's tiny screen, then it might be trickier to see or access all these options and menus... just sayin'.
Dulcimer Crossing has this list of Pennsylvania dulcimer clubs Dulcimer Clubs in PA (dulcimercrossing.com) but shows nothing in Somerset. There is a Mountain Craft festival there where various dulcimer players of both kinds have performed.
Your Attached image -- with the file name opens up just fine. It's when you try to Embed the image that things go wrong.
When you click on the Embed Image button above what numbers do you see?
This image of my recent NC Holly Leaf Pattern shows as 1200x378px , but with a Display Size of 256-Large selected
This is the same 1200x387 image but I've changed the Display Size to 384px-Xtra Large selected.
Another factor might be the file type which you are importing. I notice yours is a .PNG where my images are always .JPG.
I'll be volunteering at a state park outside Somerset, Pa in 2021 & would like to hook up with a club/group that play the mountain dulcimer in Somerset, Pa. If anyone has any contact info for this club, please send me the contact information.
Thanks in advance
Good for you, Venni! That's awfully fast progress. I think my first song was Mary Had a Little Lamb.
UPDATE: The "non-astilbe" was a Kalanchoe or "Widow's Thrill." It looks like at times I may have over-watered it. Was tempted seeing the cheery yellow blooms, but once the one I had stopped blooming roughly 2 years ago it never did again. Went with a very tiny but colorful Croton. Maybe I'll even talk to it. It certainly will get more attention by the kitchen sink.
The non-astilbe is now gone. In its final days there wasn't enough left to identify unfortunately. I could swear I went online for that ages ago, but putting in the name of Astilbe the other day sure wasn't the little yellow flowers I saw initially. I can try to prowl again, but looking for it at the greenhouse may be easier. Two years after reading about plant life makes me think I may have had a plant with just that lifespan.
Repotting?!? YIKES!
Your bonsai sounds great but beyond me if I have any pity on that sort of house plant.
Just looked again at the email from the local greenhouse. The 25 % off ends after today. Even with further reductions I expect the selection really dwindles. Today is take my Malamutt to the Dog Park day, too. <sigh!> We'll see if I manage both.
Hello, Andi, and welcome! I know how it feels to be the only dulcimer player you know.
If you're able to attend virtual groups or classes, that might help you with learning. I've found virtual festivals to be a great help to me recently. This weekend I've been taking classes at a festival based in Albany, New York, and there are people attending from Germany and Britain.
But in any case, there are people here who will be happy to encourage you in any way we can.
Now you can simply call that plant "The non-astilbe", Lois. lolol If you could attach a photo of it here, I 'might' be able to recognize what it is.
Your mandevilla- if it's an outdoor plant likely needs to be semi dormant during the winter. If so, then don't over water, feed, or repot it until Spring. If it starts putting out lots of new baby shoots soon, then would be the time to repot it - maybe just into the same pot but with some fresh soil and a slight root trimming.
I got my ginseng ficus bonsai in the mail a couple days ago. It was well packed and with tons of insulation, and only one tiny leaf broke off in transit, and it did not seem to suffer any frost. Amazing!
What funny little 'tree'. It's got bulbous ficus roots, with little branches from a different species of ficus grafted onto the roots (to make sure it has small leaves). Reminds me of those spooky Mandrake roots, or some fertility goddess. It's not technically considered to be a 'real' bonzai, but it's fun and easy for amateurs to keep alive. The upper branches and leaf canopy is what will grow bigger now mostly, and I'll need to give it a haircut now and then. The roots will grow way more slowly than the top leafy part.
It came planted in a very nice 8" long cream colored glazed bonzai pot. You're supposed to place the pot on top of a wet bed of pebbles to create a little extra humidity near the plant. I had a blue and white Chinese platter that seemed to do the trick temporarily. It's got a bunch of teeny tiny baby leaves sprouting out all over top, so that makes me glad. 
Here it is by my desk window...
Mandevilla is indeed an outdoor plant. Each year I have 2 at the entrance to our house and 1 in the sun room (which is unheated, so normally the plant dies off.) This year I brought the sun room plant in and have it by the sliding glass door to the sun room with a light (can't be sure if it's a grow light or an aquarium light as it's quite old from sitting in our basement) suspended from the curtain rod over the sliding glass door. I keep the curtains open and it lit until 8 p.m. & have been learning to judge watering by the leaves. Some of those leaves got slightly freezer burnt when our temperatures went around zero. I also had been rotating it whenever I watered, but stopped that a month or so ago. Even under ideal summer conditions it's a plant that does a regular job of dropping off leaves no longer functioning. I've learned to help that along so those don't block the light of the active leaves. Today I notice some of the vine-y stems I might have cut off, but just wasn't sure, have tiny sprouts! I really am getting hopeful I'll have this plant able to get back to the sun room and blooming again. When I brought it inside there still were blooms, but I was hopeful this was just a time for it to recuperate and lay low. The local plant expert said it needed lots of light and water.
All in all it may call me a liar for my claims of how awful I am with plants.
The astilbe was a tiny blooming plant given 2 summers ago when my husband was in the hospital. It had cheery little blooms and it took it a while, but it's now definitely gone.
I've been looking at a few library books on houseplants, no astilbe. Just put the name in and searched. WELL! That's not the plant I had. Dunno what it was at this point. One thing I noticed is some plants' lifespan and maybe I should tell myself this one matched. Still I know I was pretty awful with it.
Have been paying particular attention to plants matching my non-astilbe's conditions. Don't want anything too big as it must share the counter space. Your snake plant gets lots of recommendations for the very reasons you mention. If I could just let myself enjoy it for its leaves and ignore its name <YECH!> Something reminded me to look further. It's also called Mother-in-Law's Tongue, so I might consider it. The book says it's often described as indestructible. Don't think I want the full-sized version in that location, but there are dwarf forms half the normal size -- if I can get them.
To show you the level of my confidence with plants, I have read about two or possibly three plants that might work in the place of the non-atilbe. The book giving specifications is The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual; Essential Know-How for Keeping (Not Killing!) More Than 160 Indoor Plants. Looking at the plants, I've had (& eventually killed) I'm considering a Croton (also called Joseph's Coat) but maybe in this window where I see it more often it will do better. I know I really like its brightly colored leaves & so it would be a plus. I wouldn't even mind re-potting it in future years (the book is aggravatingly big on that!). Two green plants are a jade plant (did I ever have one?) or an aloe which I know I had at one time, also the aloe seems to need more light, so maybe better skipped.
I know I'm not hopeless. About 3 years ago a co-worker had a humongous spider plant she needed to give away. I took it with the agreement she'd never inquire after it. Some of it has gone, but still have some doing quite well even with a baby spider. It's in a room where I catch it when some leaves shout out for water. Similarly there's another room where I water when the spider plant gets watered. Some things survive there, too. Right now the Mandevilla gives me hope I'm not a serial plant killer/torturer. I don't dare get cocky about that, but remember the plant expert I asked originally about it sounded like it was very unlikely it would survive through the winter.
The local supplier of all things green and growing has 25% off right now on houseplants. Just want something fairly indestructible and able to fit the little pot and spot where the non-astilbe sat.
Hi Andi,
Welcome to the forum. There are many friends here that will gladly help you along in your journey.
“The dulcimer is an unknown instrument in Spain.”
That might be true, but in most places in the US The dulcimer is mostly unknown, too. I live in the deep southern part of the state of Georgia. If I had not learned to play this instrument & shared it with many people, it would still be unknown in these parts.
So, Andi. Challenge yourself to learn this wonderful instrument, and introduce it to the citizens of your great country, Spain. Who knows, in 30 years they may build a statue of you, in your capital city, holding a mountain dulcimer.
Andi, your English is very good, and you write it well. Welcome to our dulcimer site!
We have something for everybody here, whether you like to play the dulcimer, want to learn to play it, or need help with dulcimer identification or wood identification. There are modern dulcimer players here as well as noter/drone players. And a few luthiers, as well! I build more than I play, but I do both. Have fun!
Welcome Andi. You are doing much better with English than I could do with Spanish. Go ahead and ask questions. We will try to help you along on your dulcimer journey.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Hi!!
My name is Andi and I'm a beginner player of mountain dulcimer from Spain.
First of all excuse my bad english or my faults, english is not my first language. I think I'm doing ok according the fotmd forum rules (please forgive me and help me if not).
I have a lot of questions, because in Spain dulcimer are an absolute unknown instrument (since I bought mine I spend more time explaining what is than playing), and I don't know anyone who play it and can help me. Mine is an european made dulcimer, don't sound as well like american crafted dulcimers but I think that is a good way to learn.
Also, i never played before an string instrument (well, i played piano when I was child -so I can read the sheets- and now I try to play the lyre, but obviously are not the same).
Thanks for this forum, I've read lot of topics and it's a beautiful community, and I'm sure I would be proud of being a part of it.
Greetings from a spanish (wannabe) player :)
I did have another thought about a benefit virtual festivals have given me--they are helping me get to know who's out there, in terms of well-known teachers and players, and giving me the chance to learn from those people.
I built my first dulcimer from a kit in '96, and attended the Southern California Harvest Festival of Dulcimers in '97 and '98. I attended some wonderful workshops with Neal Hellman, Mark Nelson, Lois Hornbostel, Ruth Barrett and Cyntia Smith. About that time my fourth child was born, and I was really busy for awhile. I still played, but I was basically the only dulcimer player I knew, except for a dear lady who lived near my parents in Kentucky.
When I went to register for the festivals in November, I had never heard of any of these people--except Lois Hornbostel, who taught at the North Georgia festival, and you can believe I attended a couple of her workshops! But it was great to realize I could go learn from this one and that one, and get to "know" them.
(Actually I was dimly aware of Robert Force, who taught at the Florida festival, and it was great to learn from him!)
Neal Hellman was on the faculty of Quarantune 3.0 (I missed the first two), and I enjoyed a wonderful class with him.
But I've been really solitary in terms of playing dulcimer for a long time, and the virtual workshops help me get back with the dulcimer community. This website is helping with that too. And I want to start dropping in on virtual jam sessions.
(and I should probably go check out the informal Zoom meetings at the Albany festival; I missed yesterday's.)
@dusty-turtle, thank you for that detailed response. Wow, thank you for taking the time!
I play fingerdance with a flatpick, mostly melody-drone; I'm getting back into playing with a noter sometimes, and I want to fingerpick more (I found a video on this site of @flint-hill fingerpicking "Wayfaring Stranger" and I was captivated). I've been really working on making the notes flow together. I want to develop my hammer-ons and pull-offs and other techniques. I agree that not letting go of the strings too quickly does a lot to make them sound connected!
I need to re-read all you wrote and let it sink in.
You're right Dusty. Very few actually carve/cut a Celtic knot soundhole. Most use a laser-cut rosette for that sort of intricate work.
@ocean-daughter, I don't want to ignore this comment. It shows what an attentive player you are that you can so easily identify an area you want to work on that is not simply about finding the "correct" notes to play. You should also feel free to ask this question in workshops, even if the workshop is on a different theme. Once the instructor has helped people through the tab, you should feel free to say "This is a pretty arrangement, but when I play it, it is not as smooth as your rendition. How can I get the notes to flow together better?" Better yet, make that request about a specific phrase rather than the piece as a whole.
Third, what is my advice? Without seeing you play and knowing whether you play with a flatpick or fingertips, I can't be that specific. But let me mention some left-hand techniques to think about.
First, work on the left-hand legato techniques of hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. When you move from one note to another using one of those left-hand techniques rather than plucking the string again, the the notes sound more connected or tied together.
Second, keep your fingers down until they have to move. This is important not only for playing the melody, but also any chording. Let's say your are playing a 3-3-3 G chord in DAd, and the melody moves up the melody string from 3 to 4 and then to 5. First, you might consider using hammer-ons or slides. Second, don't make the move to the next melody note until it is time. That is, don't let your concern about whether you can get to the next note encourage you to cut off the earlier note too early. Give it the full duration it is due and only move to the next note when it's time for the next note. And third, even if you pluck that melody string again, keep your fingers on the bass and middle strings. Most of the time, you want those harmony notes to continuing ringing as long as possible, until the next chord formation is necessary. That way the harmony creates a consistency of tone as your melody moves along.
Third, as you move from one chord position to another, try to keep at least one finger on the same string. That way you can slide into position rather than lifting up your hand entirely and re-positioning it. In the best of circumstances, you will have an open string that was part of the first chord position, and you can let that continue ringing as you move to the next position so there is no dead air. And sliding your hand will facilitate its placement in the next position so you can get there quicker.
Best of luck to you, @ocean-daughter. I'm sure just the fact that you're thinking about trying to play smoother will help you do so.
In addition to the things Ken mentions, some builders use card stock or heavy paper, even thin goatskin; basically anything that doesn't have grain like wood -- or if it does, you run the grain at right angles to the wood grain. I've also seen builders saturate the wood with glue on the underside of the top to harden it up
Bill, a lot of it depends upon the design. Some folks put a thin piece of wood under the sound hole area with the grain running perpendicular to the top grain and then cut out the hole. A friend of mine saves used dryer sheets and glues that in the area where the sound hole will be cut out. Others glue small pieces of wood around the hole to keep cracks from developing.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
I'm totally ignorant of instrument design, Bill, so I can't help you. But if you don't get good answers here, you might consider joining the Dulcimer Making Group and asking your question there.
I have seen many sound hole designs on here and was wondering what you use for reinforcement under and around those intricate designs.
I just thought natural knot and Celtic knot. But I know my limitations
When I've seen Celtic knots, they are more often rosettes that are set into a large sound hole rather than carved right out of the soundboard itself.
Celtic knots as sound holes are very difficult to pull off well, unless you have a laser engraving rig and computer set up! They don't really have that much hole space that doesn't depend on other parts of the design.
@art-s - I agree. Playing along with only the leader audible on Zoom I will try harder stuff. And it us easier to hear how I actually sound.
That's a good point, @art-s. A lot of the people who come to my online dulcimer club each month say they play more when we meet online because they know no one can hear them, so they don't fear messing up. Even advanced players often feel free to play around and improvise and stuff because they can mess up with no consequences.
However, as a teacher I will say that it's hard to teach beginner students for this reason. Intermediate students know when they're not getting something and will usually speak up and ask for help. But beginners can't always tell when they're making mistakes, and without the ability to hear them, the instructor doesn't know either. I remember once leading my dulcimer group through my arrangement of Shall We Gather at the River. During the A part everything was great and I could tell that most people were playing along. But during the B part, when the melody goes up an octave, suddenly I was the only one playing. I heard immediately that there was a problem and we stopped and went slowly over that change. If we had been online, I would not have been able to tell that no one was playing along anymore.
