I started playing about two months ago, and so far I play a combination of fingerdancing and chord-melody, depending on how well I know a song and what I feel like doing. Since I mostly play Appalachian tunes this works well for me. I use a pick, though I'm still experimenting with which one is right for me.
Thank you for your eloquent words, Salt Springs. I went to school with two people who were killed in the Towers that dreadful day.
Today we remember so many who lost their lives some 18 years ago. I remember the phone call that came from my son who was working at the American Stock Exchange that morning. He told me how he and a few others managed to get through the dust and general chaos that ensued. He also related some of the details of what he saw, sights that young men and women should not have to see nor remember.
I remember speaking with a young woman who lost her brother in one of the towers. Both he and his wife worked for the same company and she was home that day taking care of a newborn baby. She told me how he had called his wife while trapped and then silence.
I spoke with the wife of a rescuer who told me how her husband suffered after being exposed to who knows what.....I hope he is well.
And this evening I read how school children whose schools were in the area may yet fall victim to various life threatening illnesses.
So perhaps we should all think about this for a moment if we have not done so. It is easy to forget things as we run about generally doing things that matter very little. Or, focus on insignificant things going on in our lives that will have little or no significance in the days ahead.
Somehow I have to force myself to remember to keep things in proper perspective. It is not always easy to do that, but when I think of all the sorrow that event caused, and others such as mass shootings, school shootings, incidents of domestic violence, child abuse and all the other things that we tend to ignore to keep our sanity intact I can honestly say that I have much to be thankful for and hope to heaven that that perspective never gives way to the petty things that characterize so much of our days.
So we remember that day and the lives that were lost.........
Where ever it was made, all the joints are tight and looks great that way. Good you replaced the tuning gears and strings. Now the "taste is in the tasting"....of the pudding. HOW does she sound? Have you checked with a tuner? first fret and 7th fret octave in tune the same? that's a good indicator that it's done good in the "fret department". I've gotten a few dulcimers that frets are NOT TRUE...and I'm going to rip out those frets and make new fret board and put 'em on it....making sure the VSL fits the frets and be in tune. a project for another day. This dulcimer would be really cute some added flowers and tole painting. aloha, irene
Finger picking, usually in the late evening when the kids are asleep and it's time to wind-down. Generally though, I'd rather be building one than playing one.
Being able to play a tune the first time I picked up a dulcimer is what attracted me to it and is still why I like playing it noter or finger and drone style. I have a 3 string, diatonically fretted dulcimer which I've had for 52 years. Until a couple of years ago I was unaware that anyone played a dulcimer any other way! I've learned more in the last year and a half since joining this group than I'd learned in all of the previous years combined. I usually play in Ionian, Bagpipe tuning, or Aeolian and sometimes Dorian. I also have a chromatically fretted dulcimer which I play noter/drone style as well. While I don't play it as often, it certainly is handy for comparing how a tune sounds in 2 different modes.
NOTERS AND DRONERS.....YEAH, you all expressed how I feel about what I love to do on the dulcimer. I'm soooooooooo grateful to have found others that like playing this "traditional style". Thank you for sharing your thoughts here and expressed so well. Today I just finished, and tuned him up, another Box Dulcimer. yep, I made only 3 strings on him because I only had 3 banjo tuning thingies in my shop. Ha. I like playing both 2 or one melody string. (I'll have to try a bacon sandwich.) personally, I don't like playing in Dad because I lose those 3 lower notes. there's so much I love about dulcimer and playing it....aloha, irene
I only play noter/drone style. I love the sound and also the "feel" of playing in this style. I also have, in the last few years, fallen in love with playing the traditional 3-string, diatonically fretted dulcimore, with staple frets under the melody string only (I have 3 of these instruments each tuned to DAC, DAA, DAD).
Hi @tatts. If you hover your cursor over your username in the upper right corner a drop-down menu will appear. Click on the first option, "Account Settings." Under your profile picture you will see an option to "Upload a New Image."
I think it was a decent buy for $50. Very strange setup, that for certain. Not "old style fret placement", just a plain Diatonic layout, but with a HUGE blank run at the head from the Nut to the break over the edge of the tuning head!!
Almost looks like the wrong fretboard was installed on the body. Or the wrong VSL scale was used to cut the frets -- that board could have a much long VSL... Maybe the strum hollow was cut and the frets installed from the wrong end. The sound holes are a strange mishmash too, with the trefoil between two round holes.
The body appears to be mahogany veneer, and heavily braced inside.
I take it there is no maker's label visible through the holes. I'd say YES it's a commercial build, probably from Asia (just a hunch) or at least somewhere that did/does not understand how the fretboard is supposed to be on a dulcimer.
Most of my playing these days is a combination of finger-dancing the melody with my left hand and fingerpicking with my right hand, although I can, and do, strum chords to accompany my singing or to accompany another dulcimer playing the melody. I've tinkered with the chord-melody style, but I can't say I use it much. I prefer finger-dancing with my left hand or using a noter held in my left hand (thumb on top if the fretboard is high enough) for lining out the melody and fingerpicking or strumming with the right hand to get the strings to ring out and establish rhythm.
Since most of my repertoire is old ballads of Appalachia and the British Isles, I play mostly in 1-5-5 tuning (Ionian) and 1-5-7 tuning (Aeolian). The actual tuning varies with the instrument I'm using at the time. My 1-5-5 tunings include D-A-A, C-G-G, G-D-D, and A-E-E. My 1-5-7 tunings include D-A-C, C-G-Bb, and B-F#-A. Since most of my playing these days is done at home for my own satisfaction, the actual tuning is what I perceive as the best tuning for that particular instrument.
Although I have played in 1-5-8 (D-A-d) tuning on occasion, I seldom use it these days. I've found that the vast majority of melodies written for D-A-d tuning (which is a traditional Mixolydian mode tuning) are actually Ionian melodies more suited to 1-5-5 tunings, such as D-A-A. Although D-A-d tuning is the predominant tuning these days, I find it more suited to the chord-melody style. Since I prefer to play in a melody-drone style, the various 1-5-5 tunings are more useful to me.
The tuning and style you choose to use is a matter of personal preference. There are those who swear by the chord-melody style. I happen to prefer a melody-drone style. All styles are valid, and I make no value judgements concerning which style is better. The only thing that really matters is which style brings you the most satisfaction.
Hi all, how do I change my account picture?
Thanks
Greetings Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. I have just acquired a used mountain dulcimer. It would not stay in tune so switched over to the geared tuners from Folkcraft and also a set of new strings. I think the instrument had been sitting for a long time. I feel its older but hardly used. I am looking for some kind of marking inside the instrument to see if I can tell who made it. No signs of any kind of ID on the dulcimer. Seems like a quality build and seems in excellent shape. Old style fret placement. Thought I would share the photos to see if anyone can give input on the possible value of the instrument and if others feel its a commercially manufactured piece. Intonation is good and no signs of any damage of any kind. I paid $50 bucks for it and then another 40 for the tuners and strings.
I play, nearly exclusively, Noter&Drone, with a bit of Fingerdancing (a.k.a. Melody Drone) when I'm picking out a new tune and writing my own tab. Why? It is the old traditional 'high silver' sound with drones that I fell in love with 40 years ago. Something about the drones "strikes a chord" in me, as it were!
No need to try and find or remember a bunch of complicated chord shapes, the melody is right there as I walk my finger or Noter up and down the melody string. Left-hand wise, I strum more or less of the three strings depending on the mood of the tune -- usually to the rhythm of the words rather than some metronomic fixed beat.
I play mostly American Roots music and the Scots/Irish/English folk songs that those tunes derived from -- Shady Grove and the ancestral tune it derived from, Matty Groves a.k.a. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, for example.
FYI -- in the dulcimer world we don't talk about "scale length". We use the term Vibrating String Length -- VSL.
Hi all, I discovered the mountain dulcimer last year whilst building a cigar box guitar. In March I built myself a 26” scale length box dulcimer but only really started playing it about a month or two ago. I’m loving the ease in which you can play chord melody and the beauty of the sound that the instrument makes (even my rudimental one)! The simplicity and beauty of the instrument has made it a real joy to have discovered!
I play a bunch of other instruments (guitar, bass, ukulele, learning the fiddle) and my main go-to style wise is playing the chords and melody together, finger picking almost exclusively. Occaionsally I throw in a claw hammer bum-ditty for variance.
Being from the uk I don’t really know any classic US bluegrass style tunes (although I’ve learnt Wild Rose and Arkansas traveller, I’d like to learn more) so I mostly stick to hymns,carols and other Worship songs. !
I was wondering what style everyone else prefers, particularly what the appeal is for noted/drone style? Because I’m interested and it’s so unusual to me.
Gorgeous Thomas style walnut dulcimore, John! The matching possum board is icing on the cake.
I lived there myself and have family there. There were more than a few dulcimers around there. I have one that is supposed to come my way, it was built in the 1940’s and is fully fretted. Chet lived outside of town, not sure exactly where. He said his first one wasn’t very good. Didn’t start building seriously until he moved to Dayton.
If life allows, it'd be fun to go to Chillicothe and try to find any early instrument(s) Chet Hines built. (I have deep family roots in Ross County, Ohio.)
Thanks Skip....I will explore your idea with some other very good carpenters in this area. aloha, irene
Great find! I own two of Chet’s instruments. Yours was called his Masterpiece dulcimer. Ron Ewing apprenticed under Chet and can tell you more about him. There is a bio of Chet in Jean Ritchie’s book Dulcimer People. He built his first dulcimer in 1935 as a teenager in Chillicothe, Ohio.
I wouldn't recommend a heat gun, really high risk of burning the top especially around the sound holes and head/tailstock. Been there, done that. Heat works good when the pieces are pretty much the same thickness, not so much when the are so different
A wide drum sander [panel sander] may work. I've tried leveling wood using a hand held belt sander, doesn't work real well too often.
A 7"-8" long hand plane may give the best results [long up, around 18"/ 20", planes are what the old time cabinet makers used to level or flatten a board].
OH I LOVE THIS SITE....that is what I need to two dulcimers that I got at weird places. Now that I know how to tune dulcmers...and hear and SEE it with my phone tuner....I want them ALL in tune. nope...some were never fretted properly. Great suggestions here and one of them is going to work. THEN I can loan out these dulcimers with happiness that my students will be playing in tune. aloha, irene
Ken's right-- I'll sometimes use a Harbor Freight Tools heat gun to soften some Titebond glue enough to reposition something. It works quite well.
Haha! Molly, I used to say of one of our dogs how she was spoiled-- just smell her.
@molly-mccurdy Those pups look like they're living the good life! :) Great pics!
@john-c-knopf I'm not one bit surprised the buyer loves it. 
IFF you used Titebond (or hide glue) in the glue-up, you may be able to use a heat gun, aimed at the fretboard/top junction along both sides, to soften the glue (even after years) and gently pull the fretboard off.
UPDATE: He just received it a couple hours ago, and he loves it! Sentiments to brighten a poor luthier's heart!
Thanks, John. I’ll give that a try, maybe with a hand planer or sander.
Molly, I can't see what you're dealing with, but in most cases you should be able to surface the topside of the fretboard level, then either refinish it and install frets, or glue a 1/8" thick fingerboard over the fretboard and cut your fret slots in that.
The trick is getting the fretboard flat. You could use a belt sander with a coarse grit belt, or a hand plane, or if you feel really lucky, run it through a power planer, a little cut at a time.
My two weenie girls, Emmy and Cricket, and my Granddaughter, Ariana, with my one-eyed demon weenie, Daisy, who now lives with Ariana because Daisy likes her best.
What is the best method of removing a fretboard from a dulcimer? I built a dulcimer years ago that I thought was firewood because the fretboard was warped. A friend suggested I remove the fretboard, make a new one and put another top on the dulcimer if it gets damaged in the process. Any suggestions?
Thank you all for the comments. The new owner should have it in a couple of days now.
ahhhhhhhhhh, like it very much!!! Possum board is not permanently attached. So depending on the group playing with, in need of a louder sound....the "board" is there. I wanted to look at it up close, but that option was not there. I still like playing my dulcimers on a little low table, but I'm a chunky granny....so I have more control of what I can do with a dulcimer on the table....instead of on my lap. ha. Beautiful luthery!!! (I don't know how to spell it, but I can sure recognize good work when I see it here or in person) aloha, irene
