Forum Activity for @strumelia

"...to the naw..."  Too funny! 

Thank you, @Robin-Thompson!  That feeling is mutual, and I am grateful for you!

@Strumelia, OH friend!  HA HA HA!  Eric had been copying the original Zumba VHS to DVD for me when he came in and blurted, "WHAT is this you brought into my house?!!" and accused me of having porn.  I had never done the advanced ones, and apparently Beto is dancing behind two of the girls with his "eyes on their onions" as Eric says, licks on hand and slaps a bottom, licks the other hand and slaps the other in the same way.  He was horrified!  LOL...  But it gets even better:  Then there was a whole sting operation around a Zumba place in Florida that was actually a prostitution ring.  So when our community center started offering Zumba to the little, old ladies in the neighborhood, I said I was going.  His immediate response was, "Oh HELL to the naw!"  HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!  

You really have to hear him tell it~everyone splits a gut.  SO FUNNY!  And the Zumba class, of course, was great.  

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Sandi, swimming is a good way to exercise/move without overheating during the Summer. It's been so hot around here lately! Even my honeybees are too hot to stay in their hive- at midday, there are great BEARDS of thousands of them hanging from the fronts of their hives, keeping cooler than going inside. I should take a photo, it would scare most folks to death to see but they are pretty peaceful, just 'hangin' and 'chillin'.  lolol   We are blessed to have air conditioning in our house- especially needed as we get older i think.

Sandi I reeeally want to hear the funny zumba story!  Are you willing to post it here or will you PM me?

Entries now closed

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Guess the winning number!

Enter FOTMD's 10th Anniversary

Pickled Dulcimer CONTEST!!

  FOTMD is 10 years old!    

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It's hard to believe, but Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer site was born on July 29, 2009... a whole DECADE ago!!

In honor of the fast approaching day of FOTMD's 10 th anniversary , July 29 2019...

All members are invited to participate in

FOTMD's 10th birthday Pickled Dulcimer Contest !

Please READ the rules and conditions below carefully BEFORE entering....

Make your GUESS for the number of pickled dulcimers in the giant pickle jar !!!

--> Please note that the picture above is merely symbolic - so it's no use at all trying to count the dulcimers in the picture.

I will give you a hint though- the answer is a random number I will pick that is more than 10 and less than 500 . (thus, it could be any number from 11 to 499)  You can make only ONE guess. And it's perfectly ok if two or more people guess the same number, though that might produce tied winners. I've already told one non-participating FOTMD moderator the secret winning number , for safe keeping. ...and don't try bribing them for the answer! lol!

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The following prizes will awarded to the closest guesses:

FIRST PRIZE:

A $20 gift certificate towards any purchase on Larry Conger's dulcimer site !

PLUS! : a genuine hand carved and painted 'mountain gal' LIMBERJACK! :

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SECOND PRIZE:

Dusty Turtle's new "Lullabies From Around the World" dulcimer tab book !:

PLUS! : a brand new CD of "Rehab Reunion"  ...Bruce Hornsby's album where he wrote every song on the mountain dulcimer!

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THIRD PRIZE:

Redwood Mountain Dulcimer All-Star Collection:

PLUS! :  Dusty Turtle's new   "Lullabies From Around the World"  dulcimer tab book !:

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FOURTH PRIZE:

Jessica Comeau's lovely CD:  "Songs of the Earthly Pilgrimage:

Medieval and World Folk Music on the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer"

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FIFTH PRIZE:

Steve Eulberg's CD: Whamdiddle dulcimer/fiddle tunes "Old School Old-Time"  

(Hey Kids!-this great CD features FOTMD's unofficial 'theme song':

"Spider Bit The Baby"!) 

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GOOD LUCK! and many Thanks to our prize sponsors and donors!

Hey even if you don't win a prize, consider visiting the prize links above and treating yourself by buying yourself a prize anyway from one of the talented artists and contest helpers. Support your friendly dulcimer world friends!

Last but not least, Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer always welcomes and appreciates any amount of donation you care to make (we have site costs to pay every month, and FOTMD is run entirely on the kind donations of members).  Without you wonderful members over the years, FOTMD would not have made it to ten years old. To support and donate to FOTMD in honor of it's 10th birthday, please use the Main page PayPal donation button. 

AHHHHHHHHHH, WHAT A FABULOUS THREAD.  When I moved from Hawaii to Ashland, Oregon, I went to some Contra Dancing and had never seen it done in Hawaii. (of course)  Loved it.  For some reason, I married the ONLY TONGAN from Tonga that didn't dance.  But he made up for it by playing so many instruments and that's been the best.  In Ashland, there was a harp maker that played wonderful hammered dulcimer and he'd just about dance while he was playing.  I so love live bands like that.  thanks for sharing all about this on here.  I looked at every video.  aloha, irene

@hugssandi We're here on the planet to encourage one another-- and you've been an encouragement to me through the years we've known one another online.  We do go back a good ways.  <3

I always love all of your sharings here!  Hope you are doing well with your journey and hospital issues, Andreas.  Hang in there Salt Springs!  Strumelia, I so love Zumba, but I've not done it in a few years.  Have a funny story as to why my husband didn't want me to ever start...  Robin, I am encouraged by your cleaning out!  I am in the same boat, and I guess I have been for a long while.  I never seem to finish, and it all seems to pile up again.  

I'm not doing so great in the health department.  I know that if I'm not loyal to just 15 minutes, 3X a week I struggle with swelling and knee pain.  So WHY am I not doing just that??!!!  UGH.  I know I've been battle a bit of depression over many different issues and wish I weren't built like tissue paper.  We just got back from an hour at the pool though, and that felt great.  Weird that I could feel the swelling in one ankle more in the water....

Friends, your postings have encouraged me with going through old paperwork, papers much accumulated in my own home during the years I was caregiver at my folks' house.  And I wish to tackle more than papers, too, to lessen the things in the house.  It will take me many months but I'm further along than had I done nothing.  

Andreas, I wish all good things for your hospital stay! 

Thank you for the inspiration, folks!  

Good luck with your hospital stuff, Andreas. 

Our backyard blueberry bushes are in season now, so all self control is turned OFF.  My husband and I are plowing through an entire home made blueberry cobbler every day or two now, because fresh blueberries are way better than frozen.  Cobblers (and pies) are the only thing that enables us to eat up our blueberries as fast as I'm picking them. Each cobbler uses 3 or 4 cups of fresh berries. Yesterday I made two cobblers.  Picking about a quart of blueberries a day right now, and that will continue for a couple more weeks, then taper off.  And then there's our raspberry bushes...

Exercise-   During the Summer, half of the contra dances I usually go to are usually off for July and August due to the heat.  I don't want to just sit around eating ice cream and getting fat all Summer, so this week I forced myself to attend a Zumba class for the very first time.  I went to a "Zumba Gold" class which I guess is for more senior types, though some people there were under 60- zumba Gold is a little less intense and less complex steps than 'regular' zumba.  Yikes I felt like a total klutz, not knowing  any of the dance moves and I stumbled my way through the 50 minutes.  Good thing it was less complex!

Oh well, as the teacher said it's not a performance and doesn't matter as long as you're moving and having fun.  I don't know about the 'fun' part- it was Godawful HOT and sweaty and I felt soooo lame.  But because of my contra dancing at least i did not get out of breath...yay!   I did get a decent workout -the next day felt a little sore in places i didn't know I had...lol that's always a good test to see if a new exercise is 'doing anything'. 

Though it's not nearly as much fun for me as contra dancing and I'm not a big fan of the zumba music (hahah, I wore earplugs ), i did find it way less boring than going to a gym, which i did years ago and couldn't bear.  So, I bought a 6 class card and will at least go to 5 more classes.  My pedometer said it used about 5,000 steps for the class (though many were probably more like little hops than 'steps').  I need to do something active once or twice twice a week when there are periods of time without contra dances.

I remember 10 years ago when I first started contra dancing.  For the first few months, I'd have to sit out every other dance, it was such an intense workout. I thought I might have a heart attack otherwise!  Nowadays I have no problem dancing every single dance even for like 5 hours at a festival type dance event... yet I'm ten years older. 

Ya gotta keep drinking lots of water though.  Dehydration can really sneak up on you when you're dancing, especially if you get hot.   I also like to put some electrolytes powder in my BIG cold thermos of water. 

I agree with the others -- a Hughes Church Dulcimer kit.  The second dulcimer I built 40 years ago. 

Replacing the Nut & Bridge should be straightforward as long as they aren't glued.  If the Nut is glued, try heating it up with a heat gun or hair dryer on High for 10 minutes or so.  That softens Titebond and Elmers glues.  If all else fails you can cut them off and sand them down flat before making new ones from some of the scrap maple from your recent build, to sit on top.  

As mentioned, the tuners could use at least a good cleaning.  They weren't all that great of quality back in the day though...  If they are, as I suspect, 3 tuners on a bar, you can get a replacement pair for about $10 from Stew Mac (I just checked the price).

I agree, John. Looks like a Hughes Church dulcimer. If it came in to my shop I would recommend a new nut and bridge.

Ken

"The dulcimer sins a sweet song."

I agree. The string spacing looks really odd and arbitrary. I would suggest a new nut and bridge as well.

I would guess that it's an assembled church dulcimer kit from Hughes Dulcimer Company out of Denver.  These were made of luan plywood ("Philippine mahogany"), and were of simple design.  If you remade the nut and bridge, you could get the 3 courses of two strings that we're talking about.

Here are a couple of pictures.  THere are no markings inside to indicate maker and such.

 dulcimer.jpg - 96KB

Contra dancing is very popular here.  Because I was new, the regulars made sure I didn't sit a dance out.  Whew, what a workout.  Sometimes I go just to listen to the music and watch the dancers.  People have so much fun and some dress in old timey outfits.  What I like is that adults dance with kids and no one is left out.  Boy can those kids dance.  Nina

There are so many nice things about contra dancing.  Since you typically dance with a different person there for every dance, you don't need to come to the dance with a partner.  Since every dance is taught beforehand, you don't need to memorize any dances, ever.  You just learn various short moves (do-si-do, circle left, swing, lines forward and back, allemande,) and once you know about 8 or 10 moves you see that the dances are simply combining the moves in various sequences that are so cool.  Then you can forget the dance you just learned and try a new one, using the same moves.  And the caller helps with verbal prompts through the whole first half of each dance until people can remember what comes next.   :)

I raised a "stink" on the page this afternoon, when I noticed that it wasn't set to Private or even Closed.  Instead it was set to Secret!!!!  Now 30 or more page members have responded one way or another, and hopefully the Admin will wake up!

There are several other Facebook Dulcimer groups, if you are interested:

"Mountain Dulcimer Players", "Support the Mountain Dulcimer an American Instrument" and "Mountain Dulcimer" are Public Groups.

"Discovering Dulcimers", "Lets Make Dulcimers", "Noter Style Dulcimer Players", are Closed Groups but you can ask to join.

These are very nice groups and very informative, and you could probably find many others as well!

Yeah I'm not sure why it's taking so long.

@John-C-Knopf is correct.  A six-string dulcimer is just tuned as a three-string dulcimer with each string doubled.  So if it's a standard size, DD-AA-AA or DD-AA-dd would work.

Of course, just because a dulcimer can take up to six strings doesn't mean you have to use them.  I have a six-string dulcimer but sometimes only put on three strings.

Photos!!  As John sez, 6-stringers are usually 3 couplets rather than 6 equidistant.  Is there a maker's label inside?   

I wonder if it's an old six-string kit that someone lost the instructions to, so they set it up like a guitar....

That seems unusual for a dulcimer.  Usually if a dulcimer has six strings, they are arranged in 3 pairs on the fretboard.  Each string pair (or "course") have a distance of about 1/8" between them, so they can be played as one string.

Tuning is generally in the DAA or CGG range (Ionian or Major mode) if it's a conventional length dulcimer.  Each pair is tuned alike.  Do you have any photos of it?

A friend of my daughter has a old, very rustic 6 string dulcimer - she wondered if it's tunable and playable.  I'm a bit of a novice with the variations of dulcimers, so don't know if this is odd or not.  It has six strings, all equally spaced, like a guitar.  Is that type of string arrangement common?  To what notes should such an instrument be tuned? 

Hey Steve, you are in LUCK....there's a FABULOUS dulcimer/banjo/ukulele/"squeezebox"....festival in Palestine, Texas.   I've been there for 3 years and some marvelous squeeze box folks come to that festival.  2 years now there has been this gal from England.  (boy, is she good) she was a champion in England for several years.  such a beautiful clear voice.  Find out about it and you'll fit right in.  AND you can get on with the dulcimer too!!  aloha, irene

If I were you, I'd start with a prepared bone blank from any of a number of online sources, such as eBay, C.B.Gitty, and the like.  The dust that is generated is smelly and dangerous to breathe, so use a mask or respirator when you sand or cut bone. Same goes for mother-of-pearl (MOP).

Along with others, I am happy to answer any questions you have about building dulcimers, etc. I started building in 1974 but only as a hobby. I've sold a few over the years, Right now I'm more in to making reproductions of old dulcimers and Pennsylvania German zitters.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I purchase bone for guitar nuts and saddles from Stewart-MacDonald. Dan's eBay source looks good too. A lot depends on the size of bone you need for the dulcimer nut and bridge and how much you are will to work it down. Some folks don't like the odor created when cutting, filing, and sawing bone. If you really want to start from scratch you can probably get a beef bone from the butcher at the grocery store. You'll need to boil the meat off and then let it dry. To get a nice white color you will need to bleach it as well. Then you will have to cut it to size and shape it. Have fun however you choose to tackle this project.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Sounds like a nice birthday present. I'm sure it can drown out a dulcimer, but please don't do that. Enjoy your accordion.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I get my blanks off ebay,  bone blanks

Welcome Steve, there are lots of great members in these forums. Harry

Steve there is a Group here specifically for asking/answering dulcimer building questions.  Go to the Groups button above and find the Dulcimer Building Group and Join it -- you have to Join to be able to read/post.  We've helped any number of people get started building or solve specific problems.  Welcome to FOTMD!

My grandparents from my mother’s side was from Lafayette, LA. 6 years ago my wife and I took a weekend to Lafayette and found a cajun accordion builder. It was a few weeks till my birthday and my wife bought me one, Martin Accordions. A really fine instrument. Diatonic. Works like a harmonica. Pull for a note, push for a different note with same button. Also called a melodion. Mostly cajun music is played on this instrument but I have been playing Christmas, pop, and county music. Sounds fine. Plays totally different from a regular accordion. Much smaller. Ten keys on right and two bass keys on left. Still have not mastered it but not giving up. Aeeeee.

John, Thanks. There is one builder in my area,  southeast Texas. Not looking at being in competition. He has a very established reputation of fine dulcimers. His shop has cnc machines. I’ll depend on jigs for repetition. Don’t think he’ll have to worry about me. Thanks again John. Looking forward to keeping in touch.

Welcome, Steve!  This is THE PLACE to ask questions about dulcimer history, and design and building of the same.

I'll try to help you, along with many others here who have a lot of experience in the field.  If you look through some of the previous posts, you should find answers to questions.  Have fun!

Play guitar, ukulele. Was in an antique store and found a dulcimer in very good condition. No strings. Cleaned it up. Bought strings at my local family owned music store. Did a lot of searching on the internet and found that this brand was made in Kerrville, Texas around the 80’s. The co. went out of business in 2003. It’s made from cherry. I started about 20 years gathering luthier tools. I now have all the tools to build practically any acoustic instrument. I’ve been woodworking over 35 years and have accumulated many hand tools and power tools. I have lots of wood to build instruments and want to start building dulcimers. Want to be able ask questions of the forum members when I need help with building a dulcimer. Thanks, steve104c.

Glad you are feeling better.............