She suspects that the song came from Anna Berry's 'Soundings' dulcimer book. But she isn't sure. It definitely was a tab my friend was playing
That worked. Nice. What does it mean, her Soundings book? Maybe she was improvising?
My friend who played it, said it was recorded the day Anna Berry passed away and she is suspicious it came out of her 'Soundings' book. But it's packed far far away and she can't double check.
It's a very lovely melody, but I haven't heard it before. Maybe it's something from Turlough O'Carolan's pen? Could be...
It sounds to me like a blend of The Ash Grove and Ashokan Farewell. Which, sadly, does not pin down the actual title. Ash Grove is Welsh and Jay Ungar says he wrote Ashokan in the style of a Scottish lament, so those might be useful clues. Sorry, it's all I got :-)
I just uploaded it to SoundCloud let me see if I can get it on here that way
Didn't work that way on my Mac - please do record it if it's so beautiful...whenever you get back. And thanks, have a good trip.
Cynthia, I could certainly learn the tune and play it for you . . . but I'm leaving in a little bit for a 2-day business trip. If this conversation is still at a stalemate on Friday I'll give it a try.
For the record, I did not have to download it at all. I clicked on the link Dana supplied and then clicked on the song title and it played directly from Google Drive.
Dusty, can you play a short clip of it for us non-downloaders? Pretty please...
Well shoot! I've run it past Brian G., Linda B., Tull G, Billy A. No one knows it! Can someone who has Anna Berry (barry?) Soundings book check it? She thinks maybe it was hers.
Sure is pretty. 
No idea what song it is. 
Now you have me curious but I don't want to download it...hope someone IDs it.
Don't know it, but I want to!
A friend recorded this song and forgot to notate the name. I've run it past a few friends and instructors and so far, no one knows what it is. Hope you can help! Dana
Here is a google drive link. I THINK when you click on it, your computer should offer you a play with music player for google drive. That's how i"m able to hear it. First 5 seconds is quiet.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6vTwCDi-ntaZFNaZzc2T1U4eXVkQ2ZDM1k5U1RUaEV5NTZv
My two boys. Shep, the one with the mandolin, left us five years ago, but Riley is still enjoying the "Life of Riley." Love them both.
Photos will be coming soon!
Yesterday Biddy - her new name is actually Bidelia, which means 'Strong' - discovered that life with a nice big yard, windfall apples and a tennis ball was a lot of fun, and she was galloping around the yard again today. Should be nice and tired by bedtime, I hope. Didn't take to the gardener - I think somewhere in her past is a bloke with whom she did not agree. She was eventually friendly enough, but with reservations!
Have no idea about her past life other than she ended up in the pound and was then rescued in the nick of time. I think she was baled out of the pound when Tumut itself was evacuated under fire threat. Not everybody left, but the animal rescue people did get the pound evacuated - I dare say the "prisoners" ended up in rescue centres all over the place. Biddy also had to be evacuated from her rescue home, so she will have had a fair bit of upset in her short life.
She is booked in to my vet for Saturday morning for a 'meet and greet' and to have her nails trimmed - nothing traumatic! She will, whether she wants it or not, be having a bath tomorrow - running with the farm dogs has done nothing for her coat!!
Marg, I've seen explanations for the differing directions of the hearts, but darned if I can remember them. Most of the early dulcimers had the hearts with the bottom pointing to the left. One theory for the change is that they looked better hanging on a wall with the hearts pointing down.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Ken, That is so special. Why do you think Thomas did his hearts up-side down or are they up-side down now? I think I had seen some of the photos from the Berea gathering, not sure if it was the first.
Will do (check out the group). I've seen Jessica Comeau's videos. I have her book, and she says she usually uses bare fingers but also sometimes uses those fingerpick things. That woman is from another planet, such beautiful playing!
@LisavB, I second @Ferrator's suggestion below. There is a whole group here at FOTMD solely devoted to Fingerpicking . Why not join, peruse some of the conversations and maybe start one of your own?
Marg, I certainly do. This photo was taken by John Huron shortly after he finished restoring the dulcimer. Somewhere I have a video of Joe Collins playing it. I'll see if I can find it. There are photos of it from the first Berea gathering as well.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Ken,
it says, Thomas stopped making dulcimers 2 years before his death, so that is right at your date. Do you have a photo of this special dulcimer?
Nina, the 1,500 number is not absolute. It is based on a guess that he made some dulcimers before he started numbering them. I'm not saying that I have the last one that he made, but a higher number has not surfaced yet. Thomas was helpful in moving the mountain dulcimer out of the mountains. Women who worked at the settlement schools purchased instruments and gave them to friends and/or relatives in New England. It is reported that he sent one to Eleanor Roosevelt and the King of England. I'm not sure that either of those reports has been verified.
Anne, it is so good to hear positive story coming out of the Australian fires. The best of luck with your new friend.
That's one of the things I love about the dulcimer. It looks like a relatively simple instrument, but there are seemingly endless layers to playing it. Your various answers sure prove that!
I checked out videos for both Ms. Brockinton and Ms. Zanetti. Wow. That is the sound I'm looking for--it is a bit more subtle than with the pick, but the notes still ring out/articulate beautifully. I think I need to get more up on the fingertip, try some snap and perhaps some nail. The way I was doing it was dulling the sound. I'd like to also fingerpick on my guitar.
ken,
Right, I see Thomas died in 1933. I took the article as what they knew (thus far recovered)
It looks as if there were more instruments Mr. Thomas made but stopping before he died (Mr. Thomas made more than 1,500 instruments through his career until two years before his death in 1933). You are very fortune to have such a special piece of history and one of Ed Thomas last dulcimers before his stopping. His spirit lives on.
Nina,
Isn't dulcimer people wonderful, our members here, fellow dulcimer people we meet - even Dulcimer Legends like Homer Ledford. What a special memory you have of a special meeting.
To Dusty's point: Aye, more mellow it is. Dull? THAT might also be come down to the 'how' of the way you play, eh? also, to Dusty. Watch some Jessica Comeau YouTubes, especially the close ups. I would swear that she does NOT have nails, but the sound is a bright as any I have heard.
"Dull" my furry tusche...pft
I also suggest looking into the fingerpicking discussions at this site. There have got to be as many ways to fingerpick as there are ways to make a curry.
But as to pulling up on the strings? I would be afraid there might be a chance of the string 'slapping' the frets if string was pulled hard enough.
Just for the heck of it, I went looking. Finally used the 'site search' for 'fingerpicking'. HAWT DOGGIES!!! My screen lit up like I was signalling the Mothership! Meet ya there! Looks like I will be doing a lot of reading of my own now.
So, Lisa? Are y'all completely cornfuzzled yet?
Today I welcomed into my home my new pup, a rescue from one of the fire affected areas. She wasn't one of the fire affected pets, but was being cared for at the Walwa Dunroamin Pet Rescue after being saved from the pound at Tumut. I suppose that, strictly speaking she isn't a pup, being about 18 months old, but ...! It will be four years on Thursday since I lost Jack the Ripper - when I told my nephew about the new dog, he says "it's about time'!
She is probably a German Shorthaired Pointer cross, with either a whippet and/or a kelpie, being mainly black with brindle eyebrows, brindle legs and ears and Pointer white with black spots on three feet and her chest. She loves other dogs, and also loves cats - my two don't quite know what to make of her, and are very curious. She won't make full Pointer size, which is fine with me!
So, tonight is her first night in her new home. Hope she likes sleeping in the lounge room on her specially designated chair or her own mat - as this happened quite suddenly, she doesn't have her own bed yet!
The vet who had her at her place only just had her house saved - the fire came to within about 2 metres of the house, and was stopped at the house yard fence. The vet subsequently had to shoot her little flock of fifty sheep because of their injuries. Her cows were saved.
She isn't going to get any more sheep.
But I have a lovely, friendly pup who just wants to be with her human, be friends with the household cats, and anything or anyone else who comes within smooging range!
Photos will follow as I get them off the camera
For the record, many (check out Linda Brockinton and Nina Zanetti for the best examples) fingerpick without using their nails, just using the skin of the fingertips. That makes for a more mellow tone. (OK, you can call it "dull" but I find it soft and expressive.)
Yup, you got it. As to length, up to you and what works, as they say.
I have been ALL over the place. Rapiers that can slice veggies to just the barest bit of a nail that barely nips the string on the way by. The long ones can also tend to make the notes a lot 'sharper', while the shorter ones can make only a barely noticeable difference.
There is just NO objective answer to that. You have to come up with what works. And THAT means a lot of practice.
I have arrived at a place that has nails long enough to give the string a decent "clip" on the way by. So much for length...
While it is a nice vanity point to have a point in the middle of the finger. I have found that (for me) it is best for my nails to be a bit off center. ~LOL~ It is a great conversation starter '...is there something wrong with your fingers...?'...
I would like to be able to dispense some Sage Wisdom here, but it is all going to come down to a single thing. Practice. Lot's and lot's of practice...
@ferrator, I tend to slide my thumb, too. Got a small callus on the side so far, near the nail. I would love to fingerpick. I use a pick, not noter. What's the trick? Leave right-hand nails just a little longer and orient the fingers to use the nails against the strings? The finger per se leaves such a dull sound...
