this site puts life into perspective and brings a great laugh....thanks Terry....not tupid......just engaged in listening. hummmmmmmm, gotta look up that song Antioch Church Choir.
aloha, irene
All this discussion reminds me of a dear sweet older gentleman who attended my church for many years. He did not have a singing voice at all, but he sang right out with every hymn we sang. It's called making a joyful NOISE unto the Lord! I so admired his efforts and his heart. His wife sang very sweetly.
There's a a song sung by the Dixie Melody Boys called "Antioch Church Choir". About Uncle Jesse who "couldn't sing a lick, don'tcha know". The song pretty much says it all.
Interesting thoughts here. I participate in a couple of musical groups; one does a lot of singing, the other (predominantly mountain dulcimers) does not.
Learning to play is a challenge. Learning to sing while doing that is another challenge.
One of my problems is that I tend to ... well, sing off-key. Play in one key and then start out with a much higher key in my singing. Nerves? I'm not sure why. Nerves may be one reason.
When I sing, I make Bob Dylan sound good! Too many years of smoking and drinking have done their damage (children, take note!). Quit smoking about 35 years ago, quit drinking about 6 years ago...just before it became a problem. Haven't quit singing, though.
I'm smiling reading all that is said here. What a joy to read after reading for days about this CD-19. I love this site, oooooooooooops, I've said that before. Singing. My mother would carry her Martin ukulele in the car, even with it's original case and we as a family would sing together many miles on the road. My parents had wonderful voices and I learned a lot of old songs and my brother as well. We get together and SING....and when looking for a man to marry, I had on the top of my list, "he has to carry a tune".....yep. Married 55 years and 14 children. All sing and play instruments. We've loved singing as a family and with others and with our instruments. Lisa, loved the story of the banjo boy.....
When I've had others come to my house and we have "learning sessions" on the dulcimer....I've had several great singers and others that were just finding their voices. One used to sing in the Tabernacle Choir and we were in AWE when she'd sing with the dulcimer. Other women that I've known that have sung in the Tab. Choir have said that a "woman's voice is not developed fully until after the age of 40." So that should be encouraging to folks that start later on in life.
When you sing, you develop better breathing, better posture, your body has harmony within. It need not be perfect, just SING. Find words to songs you want to learn, write 'em down and put them at the sink where you do dishes. I have many stories about learning to sing....aloha, irene
We all love you Terry, we think you're perfect just as you are!
Steve, I think we are all tending to appreciate our neighbors more during this virus thing.
I had a new neighbor buy one of the houses adjacent to ours at the beginning of Winter, but it being winter I never saw her or had a chance to even say hello and introduce myself. Today was beautiful weather and i finally saw her outside putting her garbage out, so I went to the edge of my property corner and we talked for about 20 minutes catty-corner across the embankment that separates our houses, and got to know each other a little from twenty feet away. It was nice. She lives there alone with her dog so I'm sure she was happy to meet a friendly neighbor.
I wanted to spend some time out in the sun, so I pruned our blueberry bushes some more, nipping off some dead and crossed branches. And I planted some more lettuce and radish seeds. Last week's seed is now sprouting up. I love to look for the seedlings poking up.. it's hard to know which i like better: planting the seed and watching for the baby sprouts, or harvesting and eating the results.
I took the little window box outside of Brian's office window that I usually plant with flowers in the Spring, but this time I instead planted it with a seed mix of baby mesclun salad greens. 
About 5 weeks ago when all this virus crisis started, I had a half tank of gas and figured I'd fill it up when it went down to a quarter tank. Over the past five weeks I've used it to go to pick up food in town twice, gone for medicine once, and driven to a good place to go walking about eight times now. But it still shows a half tank. Must be magic gas. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Tack_Come_Again_No_More Has the lyrics & "facts" as best they're known. 
I'm so glad I opened a message yesterday. I was finally able to know what had puzzled me for years.
Hello Lois, my name is Troy Price and I reside in Indiana. I came across you by simply searching my grandfather's name in Google. You see I was up late tonight talking with my wife about my father and him being amazing carpenters and discussing how much working with wood ran in my family. Then started to tell her about my grandfather Neville Price being very good at building musical instruments, Dulcimers in particular. As well as hammer dulcimers, violins, harps ect. While I was doing a simple Google search with his name I saw a thread on dulcimers as well as the photos of one that i believe he built that you have. It was one that you had somehow tracked back to him. Neville Price of shelbyville Indiana. That you were wondering if anyone had heard of him . I can say that beyond any doubt that you are correct. He is very likely the builder of the of that you have. I know that over his life that he had built nearly 500 Dulcimers of the variety that you have. Nearly every one original in wood work and detail. That he was a very amazing man when it came to building things of such detail from furniture, to puzzles, or a house. He was a very creative and amazing man in his craft. I'm so very happy to have seen your post and being able to enjoy his dulcimer. It looks as if it has found a wonderful home! If you have any questions feel free to ask. Thank you for your time in reading this. Have a very blessed day!
LoiS(omeday I hope to let the Price family see my beloved "Swannie!")
P.S. @greg-gunner"> @greg-gunner , you win the Cryptology prize! Indiana players you definitely had Neville Price in your history & now I can correctly credit him. I suspected as much since I fell in love with its tone & unique appearance at an antique store near the Indiana/Michigan border.
Thank you, @terry-wilson , for bringing this up & thank you for tracking this down from back ten years ago, @strumelia . It's still true.
I remember a great bit from a storyteller, Barbara McBride-Smith , who has so many wonderful stories, but what stays with me, especially when I hear "Just As I Am" & "Washed in the Blood of the Lamb." Seems her mother's singing would change the songs so that it's "Just as I am without one flea" and the other would be "Washed in the blood of the lam p ." Barbara finally asked her about it & it was humility on her mom's part as she had plenty of "pleas" & similarly didn't feel ready to claim the Lamb.
That's a greatly compressed version of the story. If you ever get a chance to hear her, it's definitely worthwhile.
Though I don't sing much, I've decided I don't want my lack in abilities to stop me if I really want to go ahead. It is not easy. I sang a lot when I was young. My brother's wife was the person who, after coming into the family, became "the singer"; people wanted her to sing at their weddings, funerals, and other occasions. I let that quiet me a bit. After I married, my husband's sister was who had always been considered "the singer" in his family. I let that quiet me, too.
It is my doing that I didn't sing much for a lot of years. I compared my singing to theirs and that was a mistake. I hope to sing more now and in future! And know that to become good at anything takes practice.
I think anybody who has a song in their heart would do well to go ahead and sing it! :)
Last night I had a virtual happy hour (the beer was real) with a few friends from college. We were spread across three time zones but got together online to chat for a little while. It was nice to catch up with them and their families and to share some laughs and nostalgia. Under normal circumstances we would not have done this, but it's a good example of how collectively confronting this pandemic can bring people closer together even while we engage in social distancing.
I've always liked to sing (not exceptionally well but I enjoy it) in choirs and congregations. When I started playing dulcimer, early on I realized I wasn't a prodigy, So I had my buddy build me a big loud dulcimer that matched my big loud voice and then with lots of practice I taught myself to sing to the accompaniment. I think because I'm self taught I may have discounted "music police" and critics too much especially when they are probably trying to help (anyone who tries to help must have a good heart) . I know absolutely nothing about music theory.
I've become somewhat long winded here, but my point is, if you want to sing to your dulcimer music, all it takes is some practice. Don't worry about the critics, if you're posting here or on face book , the critics aren't paying to listen to you anyway.
It is great right now in this time of "self isolation" to be able to talk, I hope you folks are staying safe and healthy!
I still visit her blog posts often over the years. They are very informative and are really helped. Its a fun blog with all the quaint pictures that go along with each song. Great teaching on how easy and quick it is to retune so you can sing and play. Love the tabs she created for each song. A vey good pace to find some old favorites for noter drone.
Terry thank you for your kind words! 
I did enjoy writing those blog posts.
For the benefit of those wondering, here are links to the two posts on my dulcimer Blog that Terry mentioned:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-ever-happened-to-singing.html
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-have-no-musical-talent-at-all.html
"Hard Crackers Come Again No More", is a Civil War parody of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More". Attributed to the 1st Iowa Infantry, it tells of the adventures of eating hardtack.
Steven, you know too many of us have to learn the words to that! Those of us who do Civil War reenactment will surely find a way to claim we learned it!
"Hard Crackers Come Again No More", is a Civil War parody of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More". Attributed to the 1st Iowa Infantry, it tells of the adventures of eating hardtack.
I've been meaning to work up a dulcimer part for the Tom Paxton hit The Marvelous Little Toy, made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary. A local due that I sometimes sit in with at various venues around the area has that tune as part of its cover repertoire. A couple months back I sat in with them at a lunch gig at the Matlacha Fish House, and I faked my way through the tune with them. It would be nice to do it up right..
"I'm My Own Grandpa" gets everybody cogitatin' and laughin', too!
Old Bangum, learned from an album by Richard Dyer-Bennet. The chorus is made up of nonsense syllables.
“Whatever happened to singing? “
”I have no musical talent at all.”
Lisa, while surfing, I accidentally discovered these two blogs you wrote about 10 years ago. That’s about when I got started learning to play.
Finding this brought huge smiles to my face. Everything you wrote is just so very true. And. Loved the comments that others wrote.
The truth is, I don’t even know how I stumbled across this treasure.
Thanks for making my day, once again.
Terry
What a cozy-looking cradle to raise some cute little tomato seedlings.
Am seeing some seedlings coming up in the garden now- of lettuce, carrots, bunching onions, and radishes... these are things that sprout and grow well in the cold Spring weather. They can be direct-seeded in the garden in early Spring, before the date of the last frost. Exciting to see the tiny baby seedlings pushing up through the dirt! Now if only the squirrels and birds will leave them alone.
Meanwhile, I've had to get creative concerning the warm weather veggies like peppers and tomatoes. Most people either just buy started plants (like I usually do) or start ahead of time from seed in their basement under grow lights.
I realized a few weeks ago that it might be impossible to buy started plants next month at the garden store, what with the Covid-19 shortages and everybody suddenly starting "victory gardens" in their yards. So I had ordered some seed early enough to get some before online sources run out of seed.
I didn't have the typical seed starting equipment or little seedling pots, and I imagined the local garden shop would be already out of all that anyway. So I cut in half a plastic milk jug and a cardboard milk carton, and also had a tupperware shallow container. I filled them with dirt from the garden and planted the seeds of tomato, red and orange sweet peppers, and purple tomatillos.
I had an electric pet warming pad that gives very low heat (as in 85F), like the kind you can put under reptile tanks. I stole it from our cats' bed... LOL. I sandwiched the heating pad between hand towels in the large wooden tray, and put the planted containers on top and covered loosely with plastic wrap. Put it in the bright window of the guest room... the only room closed off from the cats, who would likely tear all this up if they were allowed access. ;) I think I'll get a little table lamp and put that near it as well. (update: borrowed a 60w shop lamp from Brian and set it up overhead as well.)
I think they take 10 days to 2 weeks to germinate, so I'll need to monitor it all to not be either too wet or too dry.
Anyway, here's my crazy setup- I hope I did not waste my precious seed!:
Good song, Dusty...good playing and singing, too!
Thanks @steve-smith - I guess I didn't put a contact on the blog. Oops! Most of the musicians getting involved know my e-mail details anyway. However, for the benefit of anyone on FOTMD who would like to take part please use steve@mandolinking.org.uk.
I'll have a listen to the archive stuff, though I would prefer to have people get in touch with their own recordings or videos and some background info on the songs or tunes. Cheers!
Here's a little tongue-in-cheek silliness. I put new lyrics to the old blues tune "She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule to Ride" and came up with "She Caught the 'Rona and Left Me in Quarantine."
@dusty-turtle Very nice! Adrian and I enjoyed listening to your song. I liked that it made you laugh while you sang it.
Adrian and I were just talking about our 6-9-month plan and how to move forward. Our group accommodation business is probably on the way out. We are discussing our options of renting to long-term tenants and happy to have options in that regard.
We are following the safer-at-home rules and only getting out in the world for groceries - using sanitisers and gloves trying to wash or remove packaging before we put groceries away. The Victorian government has limited gatherings to two people except for work or members of the same household.
On a more positive note.....I have been knitting for our grandchild and just had a safe-distance-visit in the garden to deliver a knitted gift. It's autumn here and currently raining, so the visit was awkward, not inviting family members in to our home, yet still exciting because we got to see our son and grandson.
Also, we normally spend 3 months here and 3 months in the U.S.A., so we don't normally keep a big pantry of groceries in either place. We actually have more food on hand than we normally do and that feels good.
I hope everyone stays safe and well!
Here's a little tongue-in-cheek silliness. I put new lyrics to the old blues tune "She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule to Ride" and came up with "She Caught the 'Rona and Left Me in Quarantine."
I don't see a way on the blog site to send you anything (without signing up, I imagine). If you'd like to use any of these tunes referencing May from our dulcimer club archives, feel free to do so! All are just dulcimer examples, though, and not sung.
Hi Bob! I really enjoyed that video, and you explain things very nicely!
Your instrument sounds just great and looks like huge fun to play. 
Hey I have a helpful tip for you concerning tremolo... I learned this back in my mandolin and and Puerto Rican cuatro playing days. I see you are moving your hand and your whole forearm when doing tremolo, as though you are trying to strum fast- that just makes it hard on your arm and makes it hard to become fast and delicate. Instead, keep your arm completely still and move ONLY your hand while tremolo-ing. You'll be rotating your hand at the wrist, best described as hiding a little cheat card in your palm and taking a quick peek at it... but doing this in rapid succession. Try practicing the tremolo on a single string only, ...trying to keep your hand relaxed and not moving your arm at all. It takes some days of practice to 'get' this, but once you do get it you'll find your tremolo to be much easier and more sweet sounding, like a kitten purr. Most mandolin players will play or strum across multiple strings but then when they get to their sweet tremolo at the end of a phrase they'll often just do it on the string that played that last melody note on, while letting the other strings continue to ring from the last chord but not tremolo on those other strings at the same time. Tremolo is more like a delicate 'tickling' of a string or maybe two strings in an interval sound, rather than fast whole-arm strumming across all strings. I hope this may be helpful in some way.
Keep up the good work Bob! Such a pretty instrument and has a sweet sound. I think the eea tuning is like a different version of the dulcimer's daa.. simply reversed because you play it upright against your body and with your hand wrapped around the neck instead of down on the lap like a dulcimer.
Thank you for all the effort, Today's task will be to sit with tuner and log what each string is "playing" at now. Once I have that info, I'll get back in touch {interesting phrase , given today's world } Not only does the music help us feel better emotionally, the forum allows us to feel connected
. My typing is interesting today...I spelled "does" as DUES!...Telling ME if I want to feel good I got to pay my DUES and play music ( and again, in my case, draw and paint)
Thank you so very much for all your effort and info, will post later today when I get the "log" done , I'll be back
Thank you,
Brian
Interesting. Nice job! I see your balalaika is a "modern" one with chromatic fretboard. You do know that they were originally diatonic like the dulcimer, right?
Finally broke down during my time at home and made a poorly produced video of myself playing the most Russian of Russian instruments, the balalaika. May follow it up with a dulcimer video since I broke my stage fright.
