I will add one more benefit to @dusty-turtle 's list. On Zoom, those of us without the confidence or talent to go out in public (yet) can hide behind our mute button. I took Erin Mae's chord shapes workshop this morning and got horribly twisted up on occasion, but no one could hear me, so I just kept smiling.
...and: here's that discussion! :D
I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to tech. I'm using a old iPad but I'm sure you are right. I'll get one of the grandkids to teach me.
anyway I've attached the back and am going to take your advice about hole position. A Celtic knot would be appropriate but too complicated
for me. So round holes it'll be.
There is usually some ability to adjust photo size in your phone. Or better yet, download your phone pix to a graphic editor where you can crop, adjust color. size, and other attributes.
@dusty-turtle - Your response is great and maybe the best description of festival success in a pandemic (and post-pandemic) world. To some extent it addresses my complaint - the lack of sitting around playing and talking.
I have so much to say about this, I'm not sure where to start. @ocean-daughter, I will address your issue of "making the notes sound connected" in separate comments, since I have too much to say about virtual festivals.
Just last night was the inaugural event of the virtual dulcimer festival of the Dulcimer Association of Albany. There were no workshops, performances, or jams. Instead, it was just a kick-off Zoom session, when anyone who wanted to joined in to say "Hi." It was a two-hour event, and at its height about 40 people were in there just chatting away. That is only a little more than 1/10 of the number of people registered for the event, but it shows, I think, one of the main reasons we go to dulcimer festivals: camaraderie. We attend dulcimer festivals as much to meet other dulcimer players as to get formal instruction on playing. This is important to remember, especially for festival organizers.
I had the good fortune of being part of the first ever online dulcimer festival, the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering. That event happens in May, and it was the first festival last spring to choose to go on Zoom rather than just cancel. Although I would like to think that the workshops were successful (especially the couple that I taught! 
) our main success, I think, was structuring in lots of time for people to just hang out. There was a homeroom (meaning a Zoom link) where we all met in the morning just to chat and go over some festival logistics, but it was consciously treated as a social experience. The "homeroom teacher" was Erin Mae, and two or three times she broke us into small groups of 5 or 6 and put us in little breakout rooms so we could interact in a more intimate settings. We talked about where we were from, what instruments we were using that day, and so forth. After the morning workshops we again met in the homeroom for a lunchtime Q & A, when people could just ask questions of others. Some asked questions specifically of certain instructors and some just posed questions to the group at large. But some really interesting conversations ensued. At the end of the day of workshops, we met again in the homeroom for a song circle. And throughout the day, the homeroom was open for anyone who wanted to pop in. During one slot when I was not teaching I joined the homeroom to see how Erin Mae was doing and there were a handful of people there just chatting. One of them asked me a question about a particular technique I used in a video I had posted, and rather than inflict our conversation on everyone else, Erin Mae put us in a breakout room where we could have a private conversation, after which we just clicked into the homeroom again.
These kinds of informal interactions are an essential part of the festival experience, and we have to work on ways to incorporate them into virtual festivals. It takes a little work, and it is not exactly the same as sitting next to someone, but if virtual festivals are going to strengthen the dulcimer community and not just help us become slightly better players, they are essential.
So that community building, that room for social interaction is, IMHO, what's missing from many dulcimer festivals, especially the biggest ones.
What do the virtual festivals do well?
First and most obviously, the virtual festivals provide support for dulcimer teachers. How many of them freaked out a year ago when all their gigs got canceled? The online festivals have allowed dulcimer teachers and performers to continue as musicians and not take jobs driving for Grub Hub or whatever other jobs might exist in the middle of a pandemic. Many of them have adapted quite well to the virtual world and have started offering a range of different kinds of workshops and interactive concerts and stuff. Just last night night, Aubrey Atwater, who had never used Zoom before the Dutchland DulciZoom festival last summer, proclaimed "I will never be without a gig again." When she has an open date, she can just prepare a workshop or concert or some other kind of online event, put the word out, and easily get enough people from around the world to make it worthwhile.
And that brings up a second great benefit to both teachers and players: the lack of geographical boundaries. I have a job. And I have a family. And I don't have a lot of time or money. I would never have been able to drop my responsibilities and fly to Albany, NY to join the Dulcimer Association of Albany for an in-person festival. But I can click a Zoom link and join with others from around the world. @ocean-daughter has joked that she has "been" to Florida and Georgia for virtual festivals. I, too, have "been" to Pennsylvania and New York and LA and elsewhere for virtual festivals. I have been able to meet dulcimer players that I would never be able to meet any other way.
My own local dulcimer club is also no longer local. Although we started with those who had been meeting in person, more than half people of those who join my online group monthly come from some distance away, from Tennessee and Oregon, Texas and Maine, Ireland and New Zealand. One woman told me that she lives in a pretty desolate area, is not fully mobile, and had never been able to attend a dulcimer group or festival in person. But she joins our group every month and is having a blast. And when the North Georgia Foothills folks asked me to teach at their next virtual festival, they explained that many of their 400+ members have "aged out" of in-person festivals, meaning they have reached an age when traveling to a state park or other location, carrying around their instruments and music stands, and so forth, is too difficult. But they can sit down in their living room and turn on their computers. So a third benefit of virtual festivals is that they include people who could never attend in-person festivals.
By the same token, they can allow workshops on pretty esoteric topics, a fourth benefit. At a local or regional dulcimer festival, workshop teachers have to come up with topics that enough people will find interesting. When I proposed a workshop on Songs of the American West (I thought I was clever and called it Dulci-Ki-Yi-Yo), Neal Hellman, the festival organizer, expressed skepticism that I would garner enough attendees. But once the decision was made to go virtual, the question of popularity disappeared. In the end, the workshop got plenty of attendees to run (although my workshop on Irish ballads had twice the enrollments). That concern Neal expressed does not exist with large virtual festivals since the pool of potential attendees is so much larger. I took an advanced workshop taught by Bill Collins on Icelandic tunes. The music was pretty strange, I have to say, and I doubt that such a workshop would draw many people at a regional dulcimer festival. But we were online, so he was able to garner enough people from around the world to make it worth it. Workshops on bizarre tunings (beyond the main 4 or 5) or specific, niche techniques, or some little known corpus of music might be hard to justify at regional, in-person festivals, but they can thrive online.
A fifth and final advantage of online festivals that I'll mention now (the list goes on, of course), is that everyone has a front-row seat. Perhaps you've seen how Stephen Seifert teaches his online workshops. He uses three separate cameras. One shows a line or so of tablature, and one shows a close-up of his face. But the main part of the screen shows an overhead view of his dulcimer fretboard, so you can see exactly what his fingers are doing. If you've taken an intermediate workshop with him live at a big even such as Kentucky Music Week, you most likely had to sit so far away from him that you could barely see his fingers. I only use two cameras when teach online, one on my face and one angled from above on my fretboard, which I also flip around so you get the "player's view." I made that last adjustment at the request of students who love to see the dulcimer on the screen exactly the way it looks on their lap. The wonders of technology make it appear you are behind me with your head resting on my shoulder with a close-up view of the dulcimer, and yet, you might be thousands of miles away. What a world we live in!
I'll stop now. I've outlined a major piece missing from the large festival (the social experience) and highlighted several of the obvious advantages of virtual festivals. A big question confronting us all is what things will look like when we can gather together again. How can we enjoy gathering in-person without excluding those unable to travel to the location? Will regional, in-person festivals disappear as they're getting used to the extra registrants and the lack of venue costs? What will hybrid dulcimer festivals look like? Will our venues change from churches and community centers to conference settings better equipped with wifi? Will workshops join together people live and people online or will there be separate in-person and online workshops at each festival?
Pondoro, that makes sense to me. At the smaller festivals, like the Stephen Foster Dulcimer Retreat last November, they had several informal sessions and they had a "jam" every day. Of course we all couldn't have our microphones all at once, but we could jam along with whoever was leading. At the bigger ones they don't seem to do that as much.
Done it again. Picture too big, that's the top half of my first attempt at a dulcimer.
Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the advice. 
If the cracks really bother you, wick a drop or two of slo-set Superglue into them...
No problemo, I just couldn't see! Thanx Lisa.
I would say YES you need more sound hole area to get good volume. I would center the knotholes on the length of the instrument, and add 4 more round sound holes about the same size, half way between the knotholes and the ends of the instrument. Generally speaking you want at least as much sound hole area as 4 US quarters -- about 2-3 square inches.
Virtual Festivals - what I like is concerts and lessons, they are very effective in the virtual realm. What I miss is looking at instruments, sitting around jamming, and eating/drinking with other people who I know from past years. I understand the limits but those are the things I miss.
Many thanks for sorting the picture size.
i new to this site and am not finding it easy to navigate.
I'll persevere but apologies in advance for my basic errors.
OceanD, that thing about "making the notes sound connected" is actually a big deal, and it's not all that common that people really think about it. It's sort of the equivalent of if you are playing penny whistle and making a separate blow out for every note, rather than doing sometimes two or three notes on one breath. Same with fiddling- some fiddlers make a separate back/forth stroke of the bow on each note. I find that becomes irritating to listen to after a while, like ratt-a-tat, ratt-a-tat....
With the dulcimer, it takes some conscious effort to sound more than one note per strum or pick motion. And it's not all about sliding. Lots of folks never get into such things because it's hard to change how you play once you've gotten used to something. The fact that you are aware of this and are taking technique workshops to improve your playing skills rather than to simply learn more tunes, is admirable!
I think maybe @dusty-turtle can say something here about players wanting to actually have some enjoyable conversational time with each other during virtual zoom festivals... Dusty?
Pondoro, maybe you could elaborate a bit on why the virtual festival experience does not feel satisfying to you?- such input might really help those who organize such events. :)
I've been to virtual festivals and they did not do a lot for me. I do enjoy virtual play-alongs with friends who I already knew, and I've enjoyed virtual concerts. Also some Zoom lessons. But the "festival" or "conference" experience seems lacking (to me).
Well I don't see any knotholes in the pictures as you posted them. The photos are far too large. Try reposting them smaller so we can see the entire picture.
All I see is a portion of woven basket, the butt ends of two planks that appear to be walnut, and one end of what appears to be a glue up of walnut and something else troughly trimmed to a dulcimer head or tail shape.|
Knot holes but do I need to add extra holes? 
Good idea. I think it will be an active discussion. I was tempted to do start one myself, but it was your idea!
I've done it, come on over! :)
I've been getting back into playing dulcimer after a hiatus of several years, and one thing I've done is to "go" to several virtual festivals. I've "been" to Florida, Georgia, and wherever Quarantune is based, and tomorrow I'll be "in" Albany.
I've found it to be a really good boost for me personally. I was already familiar with Zoom, so that wasn't a problem. And I've gotten to learn some wonderful music from some amazing teachers. I couldn't have traveled to all those places.
It's also helped me think about my own goals in playing. One thing I've wanted is to develop technique--to make the notes sound connected, and to find the way I like playing. I keep taking workshops on embellishments. Maybe I've nearly reached saturation point...
I admit that one problem is that it's harder to connect with fellow students. There's not as much opportunity for casual conversation. So being able to go to a live festival will be great, when we're able to do that.
Have you been to any virtual festivals yet? What do you think?
Good idea. I think it will be an active discussion. I was tempted to do start one myself, but it was your idea!
I've been getting back into playing after a hiatus of several years, and I've found the virtual festivals to be helpful to me in getting back into the swing. Not every workshop is a perfect match, but sometimes you strike gold.
I think I'll start that thread in the General forum so we can continue the discussion there. ;)
I will be "in" Albany this weekend. I have booked two Beginner workshops and the Saturday concert, and will be lurking at the jam sessions. Looking forward to it.
Those tuners look like planetary ones-- the best.
Lois, it occurs to me that a snake plant (SANSEVIERIA) sounds like it might be just the thing for your low-ish light counter. It's fine with erratic watering schedules, like to dry out sometimes completely. Loves the sun but survives just fine in low light too. It gets tall and elegant and puts out lots of leaves and 'pups' to give away, but won't take up lots of horizontal counter space. It's not very expensive, and there are many beautiful different varieties of sansevieria to choose from. Look up some google pictures of snake plant varieties.
I have a nice unassuming snake plant that loves it on my low light desk next to my computer- I bought it cheap at the supermarket about 6 months ago, and it's been putting out several healthy new spears:
Those look like good quality tuners, whether original or not. It's true Bob like his wooden tuning pegs, but that doesn't mean he didn't fit these pegs to that instrument. I would certainly go ahead and use them. If they have trouble holding tune, there is a tiny screw in the end of each knob which can be tightened say 1/8 of a turn at a time with a small screwdriver to tighten things up.
I thought Astilbe and mandevilla were strictly outdoor garden plants, and get really big in size? They may need to be dormant during the winter, but I don't know much about them. Can you maybe take cuttings and root them?
I too have used aquarium water on my plants. I'm sure they love it! I've allowed my aquarium fish to naturally die off over time, without buying new ones. Soon I'll dismantle the (12 gallon) aquarium and take over that prime window spot for my plants. :)
I went to this discussion hoping for HELP! Are there members able to make suggestions to somebody I'm sure makes plants quake with fear? Right now I'm wondering what might replace an Astilbe that has finally almost surrendered to my "care." It took 2 1/2 years, but this plant on my kitchen counter gets some light, but not enough to be truly sunny. My watering tendencies also are sporadic. The one good thing is I use water from cleaning my aquarium.
Also in my defense, it looks like I kept the Mandevilla from the sunroom alive in the house. I usually just buy 3, 2 for the entrance & 1 to be a real plant in that sunroom. The local garden store didn't think I could do it. Right now it's far from luxuriant, but hope to see it bounce back in warmer weather.
While I feel like I torture plants, I guess I'm not as hopeless as I claim, but at the other end of the spectrum from all posting here so far.
Virtually sounds good. I've hiked portions of the AT in Maine, NH, Vermont, NY, PA, Maryland, and VA.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
It's great to hear this news, Ken! Now we can both hike the Appalachian Trail from Canada to Georgia! (virtually).
As long as you promise to carry me all the way.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
VIRTUALLY, Ken. It's the only way either of us would survive it.
Lisa, enjoy your beautiful Mize!
My little ginseng ficus bonsai tree is supposed to come today. I'm both worried and excited, hoping it didn't suffer from any freezes during its 3 day fedex journey from Mississippi to me in freezing NY.
Yesterday I noticed several new leaf shoots emerging on my big split leaf philodendron (monstera deliciosa). I love how the bebe leaves on it are all tightly furled up like a green burrito. Then as it slowly gets bigger and unfurls each day you can see whether that leaf has splits or not. I look forward to it getting big enough for me to make cuttings to give to my two grown daughters. :)
It's great to hear this news, Ken! Now we can both hike the Appalachian Trail from Canada to Georgia! (virtually).
As long as you promise to carry me all the way.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
It's great to hear this news, Ken! Now we can both hike the Appalachian Trail from Canada to Georgia! (virtually).
Lois, I do have a bass dulcimer on loan from a friend. It is a Blue Lion and not much heavier than my Blue Lion dulcimer.
Lisa, it certainly does feel good.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
