Forum Activity for @strumelia

That's cool, Ken.  But some folks find their playing improves when they 'practice' in some manner. And if they're struggling with their playing and don't practice to improve it, then that's no fun either... it's more just frustrating.  Maybe their playing is not 'fun' to them in that case. Some types of practice just are fun for people, or at least interesting and challenging.

I don't do formal practice either- I tend to think of my playing as practice. But for many people, their normal playing can repeat poor techniques or playing habits, whereas a structured practice or exercise can help them correct poor playing habits and improve techniques. If your playing does not improve on its own over time and doesn't make you happy just as it is, then practice or exercises can help!

I never practice, I just play.  Practice is work! Dull and boring repetition without context.  Playing is fun, challenging, and interesting.  I'd rather have fun.

Hello Everyone!  I am new here and to the dulcimer.  My husband and I have finally gotten new strings on my 'new to me dulcimer'--with out breaking them.  We broke two of the earlier set.  We also had to go ahead and purchase geared tuners, and put the friction pegs safely away until I get better. We have NOT altered the original peg holes in the peg head in any way.  We refuse to damage or alter a vintage instrument in any way.

For those that don't know, my Christmas gift was a vintage 1975 Lucky Diamond Dulcimer with beautiful friction pegs.  We tried, and tried, but Mr. Salt Spring's suggestions about peg dressing failed to help.  So we decided to put the beautiful original pegs away until I learn more.  Otherwise, I could not even begin.  Now, I have mastered three or four of the first lessons and can even do scales.  Now, I can practice, and do scales.  With my piano background, I can experiment and try other things not in the book!  Yea!!

Thank you everyone and have a very Happy New Year!!!

I use Dusty's four finger scale exercise and 2 and 3 finger scale exercise to warm up.  I play a song I like and can play pretty well.  Then I go on to a piece I'm learning.  I take it a section at a time.  If I get frustrated, I stop and play something else for a while.  I keep it fun.  Sometimes I just play songs and don't actually "practice."  I mix it up.  But mostly, I don't think of it as practice.  I also keep my dulcimer out and handy.  I play something every day just because I like to.  Nina

Hi @YeahSureOK.  The first thing I'd say is that whatever you do, you have to enjoy it. If you start thinking of practicing as a chore, then you'll not play as much and just won't have much fun.  Personally, I play scales a fair amount, both up the neck and across the fretboard.  Scales help for both right- and left-hand technique, and one reason I enjoy them is that you see progress really fast.  When you practice a song, you get better at that song, but when you practice scales, arpeggios, and other exercises, you get better at all the songs you play. And you also make it easier to learn new songs, too.

If you don't know how to get started on scales, let me know. I'll point you to some exercises that I developed for my students.  I think I also developed some flatpicking exercises.  I'll see what I can dig out.

I would also recommend arpeggio exercises.  There are a couple that I do that I got out of Aaron O'Rourke's book Faster, Cleaner, Better: A Collection of Exercises and Etudes for Mountain Dulcimer.  I would also recommend Mike Casey's book Hands-On Dulcimer, which has a ton of exercises for both hands.

Once you examine the exercises that others have designed, you'll see that you could design your own as well.  I would start with a question: What technique or techniques do you want to work on? Then you can find or develop an exercise for that precise purpose. 

Are there any other brass instrument players out there? I've played the trumpet on and off since I was 12. One interest of mine, as a hardwired experimentalist, is trying to figure out jazz/classical tunes on dulcimer and folk tunes on trumpet. I'm not great at it, and it's probably not for everybody, but it's alot of fun, and I actually get some pretty cool results every once in a while. 

I'm trying to commit myself to a more faithful and effective practice regimen for this year. Out of curiosity,  I would love to hear about other people's favorite warmup and skillls/technique building exercises, or any other favorite practice tips.

Thank you, Dusty! Ah, well.

Mary, I do indeed have one of Randy Wilkinson's books, but "Blow the Candles Out" is not in it. Lo siento.

Hi Patrick, I think you will find that a great many bagpipe tunes (particularly Scotts and Irish) lend perfectly to the mountain dulcimer (though you probably already know that!)  I play the cauld wind Scottish Smallpipes (somewhat) and love to try my pipe tunes on the mountain dulcimer; seems a perfect combination.  Best wishes!

@dusty-turtle, it sounds like maybe you have the Randy Wilkinson tab? Is "Blow the Candles Out" as played here by @Dulcibard the Wilkinson arrangement? (Dulcibard mentions that he thinks it might be.)

What Dulcibard is playing here is the first sheet of tab I ever got, from a teacher some 45 years ago in Berkeley. It was written out by hand and photocopied, and didn't have an arranger's name on it.

It's a very different version of the tune than Barbara F. Gregory's, though.

If you go through the course, Greg, please give us an overview? 

I have three Warren May's.  Two have wooden peg tuners and one has mechanical tuners.  All have adjustable bridges.  What I have found is that the moveable bridges need to be angled a bit to compensate for the slightly flat string.  On one I simply made a new bridge out of a piece of chopstick and built one side up just a tad and it was spot on or at least pretty close.  I have never had much luck with Snark type tuners.  I'm sure they are fine if used properly and I'm just to numb to do it right. You might try slipping a flat toothpick under the nut closest to the melody string as that sometimes help fine tune the contraption.

On another old dulcimer that I have I noticed that when I play the melody string I can overcome the flat by moving my finger closer to the middle of the fret spacing.  I guess each of the builder's dulcimers have their own individual quirks.

I agree with Skip that it may be a problem with the slot in the nut, but also it could be a problem with the saddle/bridge as well. You may need to fill the slots and recut the slots for that one string.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

That shouldn't make a difference, I use a phone app on mine the same way and it is the same readings as the tuners I have.  The slot for the melody string may be cut so the string touches on the tuner side of the nut instead of the bridge side, effectively making the distance to the 1st fret longer. 

That makes it an interesting mechanical mystery if it has fretwire frets.

Warren uses more or less Warren Intonation, not a perfect Just Intonation.  If he says an instrument is "better in DAA", you'll get the best results tuned in DAA!!

@david-messenger Perhaps this link may be of help: 

https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/2594/just-vs-equal-temperament

I'm guessing you're wondering about the Warren May instrument. . . 

Use your tuner, then check the tuning at the 1st fret, if it's not close to what is expected, then probably just tuned. most all tuners available are set up default as equal temper. The space from the zero fret/nut to the 1st fret  is usually too big.

I have to say, my dulcimer is a really sweet instrument. I didn't think it was all that rare. Thank you Dusty and Salt. Good advice! :)

   How can you tell if an old dulcimer, all diatonic was set up for just intonation or not?

I second the advice @Salt-Springs offers to contact @Guy-Babusek.  He plays Aeolus dulcimers and has probably been in contact Dale.

I will see if I can get them and look them over. Thank you very much!

I have been working with one from Wayne Jiang.

The 2 versions of Morning Has Broken that I plan to use together are by Steve Smith  and then the flat-picked version by Tull Glazener was what I considered for the interlude.   It essentially is the same on a lot of it,  but uses the chords played and then broken into arpeggios.

Excellent! Thank you for the tips :)

It has been close to 20 years since Dale and I saw one another. Too many things turned me away from keeping up with my playing, health being a big part of it. But I am back to my dulcimer now :) I am quite happy, but SO out of practice. I am pretty much a beginner again.

Yup, that's what I found out last night, so your way ahead of me.  You might Private Message Guy Babusek whose a member here and see if he has any other contact info.  I'll keep digging through some old stuff I have around here and see what I can do to help.  Guy uses those dulcimers on many of his video's.  I think you can catch up with guy at voice-lessons.com.

Yes, but the point of contact is with Cynthia Smith through Aeolus. She taught me to play and did the inlays on my dulcimer. But if I need work on the dulcimer I will be needing to talk to Dale.

Wonderful! This is excellent stuff!

What got me thinking on this and spurred me on to ask was I had been trying playing some of Part B as an intro. (Usually just the last couple of bars).

When I first learned to play I was drilled on the idea of "keeping the left hand in a chord shape". Really good habit that one.

I am with Lois on the point of the books. If finances ever permit, it is a direction I would like to go.

I am curious, which 2 versions of Morning Has Broken are you working with Lois?

Thank you all so very much! :)

Here's a fairly comprehensive (though by no means complete) list of banjo tunings:

http://zeppmusic.com/banjo/aktuning.htm

It includes such tunings as dADAD, aADAD, aDAAD, aDADF#, and others. (in written banjo tunings, the first lower case letter is the short drone string)

The real question however is what you want to do by tuning a banjo to D and A notes.  What we think of as "dulcimer tunings" are really just notes. Usually a tuning is used to achieve a specific purpose.  It enables us to play a tune more easily, or to play it in a certain way or with certain fingering positions.

You haven't told us what your situation or your goals are, so I'm making assumptions here-  As a longtime player of both mtn dulcimers and banjos (and I'm really more a banjo player than dulcimer player), my personal advice would be this-  play your dulcimer like a dulcimer. If you want your dulcimer to have a tone like a banjo, get a dulcimer with a banjo head on it.  Learn to play and (initially) tune your banjo as a banjo, rather than trying to make it imitate a dulcimer.  Banjos are designed to be played most easily like banjos, and learning to play a 5string oldtime banjo is not all that hard, after getting past the first little learning hump of unfamiliar right hand motions. IMHO if you're tuning a banjo like a dulcimer in order to try to make it easier to learn to play (if you're a dulcimer player), you are doing yourself no favors.  It might make the first week or two seem easier, but it will make playing the banjo harder and way more limited later on, plus most banjo learning material will then be useless to you as well. 
If I've made incorrect assumptions, then forget all this.  lolol! 

Probably. I would imagine almost every tuning has been tried by somebody. An instrument with 4/5 tuners [or more] could be tuned [with string research] to just about any tuning using some, or all, of the tuners available. Would it be satisfactory? That would be up to the player.  I play a 5 string Blue Lion with only 3 strings installed and it is great.

The name applied to the tuning probably depends on which instrument is being discussed.