Forum Activity for @strumelia

Welcome Cornfield, I hope you'll enjoy the site and your new dulcimer!

I'm new here. I have experience with several fretted and key board instruments. I picked up a mountain dulcimer at a charity auction last weekend. It appeared to be a 3 string instrument that had a bad rattle. Once I figured out that it was a 4 string, the extra tuner stopped rattling. Some previous owner had two extra frets added, 1/2 and 1 1/2. I started checking you tube and other sites for information and tabs and stumbled across this forum.

I have tuned this to DAdd and am starting by playing the dd as melody with the others droning. I'll work out D, A and G chords soon. Looking forward to having some relaxing fun.

I teach a lot of new folks and only on noter drone....thanks BALLAD GAL for the tip.  I just ordered that book.  It will be very helpful in teaching.  After my wonderful experience at Berea, Kentucky, I love playing noter/drone even more so now!!  aloha, irene

Just play the frets for the melody string and ignore the rest,  That's how I do it,

Yet another good book for DAA (or CGG) Ionian playing is Moods of The Dulcimer by Virgil & Norman Hughes. In the entire book there's only 7 songs with sharps or flats, and several of those also include a version with no sharps or flats. There's even a renditon of Old Joe Clark, Greensleeves, and Wayfaring Stranger with no sharps or flats--excellent for DAA!

This is an older book that can still be found on Amazon for $1.95.

Dulcimer a la mode will give you easy songs in various modes. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5962094-dulcimer-a-la-mode-with-cd

The Wonderful World of DAA is another good starting place.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2429926.Mel_Bay_Wonderful_World_of_Daa_Book_CD_Set?ac=1&from_search=true

As far as I can tell, there is mountain dulcimer played on two tracks.  

If you are a fan of traditional ballads, this is a good cd.  And there's nothing like 1,000 verses of Barbry Allen. ;)

Thank you for all of the recommendations!  

Another DAA instruction book that is very good for someone starting out is Traditional Playing of the Mountain Dulcimer by Lorinda Jones.  Although not strictly a noter-drone book it provides four arrangements for each song: 1. Song Played With a Noter, 2. Song Played With a Noter and Rhythm Fill-Ins, 3. Song Played With Fingers and Rhythm Fill-Ins (Finger-Dancing), and 4. Song Played With Chord Melodies and Rhythmic Fill-Ins (Chord-Melody Style).  Arrangements 1. and 2. are very suitable to noter-drone playing.  The four arrangements for each song illustrate how one can begin by learning the simple melody with a noter (Arrangement 1), add fill-in notes to the simple melody while continuing to play with a noter (Arrangement 2), using the left-hand fingers to replace the noter (Arrangement 3), and finally adding chords to the melody (Arrangement 4).  For those wishing to play only in a noter-drone style, the first two arrangements of each song will be sufficient.  For those wishing to expand their left-hand techniques, arrangements 3 and 4 will illustrate how it is done.

The book includes a play-along CD, but a DVD is also available to purchase separately.  The book, CD, and DVD provide an excellent introduction to traditional mountain dulcimer playing, including two noter-drone arrangements for each song introduced.  Twenty-two songs are included with four arrangements for each.

Jean Ritchie's instructional book & cd from Homespun have been of great help to me.  

And there's always Jean Richie's The Dulcimer Book , still in print.

Plus there's Strumelia's blog:

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com

Gail, a lot of the older books use mainly ionian tunings such as DAA (often CGG) but they do not necessary concentrate solely on noter play. I'm thinking of books like Mel Bay's You can Teach Yourself Dulcimer and Fun with the Dulcimer and TK O'Brien's Guide to Playing the Mountain Dulcimer.

Perhaps one option would just be Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam DAA version.  You can get it as a physical book with CDs or as a digital download with MP3s.  

Edit: I just checked his website and apparently Seifert's books no longer come with CDs. Instead, you download a zip file with slow demonstrations of the 93 arrangements in the book.

There's my Get Noterized booklet/article available here -- look in the Old Style Noter & Drone Players Group for a link.

I know someone who may try to learn playing DAA noter style.  Does anyone have any recommendation on beginner books for this?  I may want to send her one as a gift.  Thanks.

Hi Susan -- yes -- post pictures, please.  A good close up of the whole tuning head and nut would be just right...  That way we can be certain to get our answer(s) right

What you're referring to as "fine tuners" may simply be ordinary geared tuners with much higher gear ratios -- it takes many turns of the knob to make one full turn of the shaft.  That's  a GOOD thing.

In general  -- if you have 4 strings: With the tuning head to you left (assuming you're right handed) the bass string should attach to the far side tuner shaft closest to the fretboard.  The middle drone string attaches to the other far side tuner shaft, farthest from the fretboard.  On the side closest to you, the  nearest melody string attaches to the nearest tuner shaft and the other melody string attaches to the remaining shaft.

The attached picture from Folkcraft shows where 4 strings should lead.  Whether a flathead as shown, or a scroll head,the relative locations are the same...

 Capture.JPG - 23KB

I knew nothing about this recording until the uncommonly good singer-songwriter Jeni Hankins posted a photo of her newly-acquired used lp. . . My copy on cd arrived yesterday and I look forward to listening today when I'm traveling.  

Are any of you familiar with this recording?  

Hi, Susan, your instrument sounds to be wonderfully made!  Is there some way you can post photos here so, perhaps, better advice can be offered? 

Hello, I have purchased a 1978 Anne and Ed Damm Mountain Dulcimer #198.  The tuners are unlike any I've had before, and I'm wondering if there are some tips and tricks to using them properly and restringing.  They seem to be what I would call a sort of "fine-tuner."  When winding the string on, there is very little movement.  I'm not even certain what order the strings should attach to the pegs.  Thank you for any assistance you might be able to offer.  
This is a really fine dulcimer and appears to be made from pecan.  It has lovely tone, no damage, and I'm excited to start playing!

When Moe Asch gave his entire Folkways catalog to the Smithsonian, he insisted they promise to keep all the records available.  That seemed like a big deal at the time, but now they are all available as downloads or as print-on-demand CDs.  And you can also get the liner notes in a pdf.  Here are the liner notes to the Paul Clayton album.

That's a really good album. I wore out the vinyl version.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Folk musician, Paul Clayton, was one of the early trailblazers of the dulcimer revival in the 1950s and 1960s.  If I have my facts correct and don't have him confused with someone else, he visited the home of dulcimer maker, Edd Presnell, and his wife, Nettie Hicks Presnell in the 1950s to learn traditional dulcimer-playing directly from Nettie.

I recently bought this cd of Mr Clayton playing "Southern Mountain Dulcimer" and singing, too.  Today, I listened to it on my car stereo-- the best stereo we have-- and liked it lots!  

Good photo, let's hear that fiddle.............

Couldn't figure out to get the photo in here.  Great-grandfather on a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas when he was a young man.  He lived to be 96 or 97, so it would be in about 1877

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That's a great photo...............

All of this is very helpful. I am understanding better now. And I’m excited to try it out at practice on Monday. 😁

If the songs in G require only the four chords you mentioned, you don't need a capo.  Chances are you already know how to play two (maybe three) of these chords:

G = 013 or 335

C = 666 or 346 -- if you have a 1.5 fret then 1-1.5-3

D = 234 or any of the other D chords you know

Em = 113 or 545

For me it's easier to learn new chords without the capo, rather than transposing in my head with the capo.  When the sheet music says play a G chord, I play a G chord -- no matter what key the song is in.  But the capo/transposing chart approach works, too.  I guess the only problem is forgetting which method you're using in the middle of a song!  Not that I have ever done that...

Couldn't figure out to get the photo in here.  Great-grandfather on a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas when he was a young man.  He lived to be 96 or 97, so it would be in about 1877

cowboy Ed.pdf - 146KB

No need to retune. A 'D' chord in DAD sounds the same as a 'D' chord in any other tuning, the fingering changes when you retune. 

Look at it this way, a capo changes the order of the notes available in a tuning. It does not change the notes available in that tuning. Retuning changes the notes available on the instrument. You can prove this to yourself by checking the notes on each string with/without a capo and retuning and do the same thing. 

Tuning and note order [capoing] are not particularly relevant to playing chords. They may change the fingering.  As long as you have the notes available for a chord, and they are reachable, you can play that chord. Chording is very focused, it is playing 2-3 [or more] notes at a specific point in the tune.

For your own information try writing down the chords you need for each of the songs you will be playing. Then do the same for the chords you can play in the DAD tuning. If all the songs are in D or G, then you need to know the chords D, G, A, C. The notes needed for those are D, F#, A, G, B, C#, E, and C. Note that I only specified notes, not tuning. Find those on your dulcimer, they are all available in DAD. It is acceptable to use only 2 of the three notes of a chord, the first one and the last one [called power chords].

When the capo is used to change the tuning/key it is changing the first, lowest, or root, note of a scale. It is not changing the notes available on the dulcimer.

Just a note, if you have  1+ on your dulcimer, you can play the chords [C, F, G] in key of C. The 1+ adds the C and F in DAD

That is correct. You are using the transposition chart correctly.   Over time this will become more obvious.  We know that a 0-0-2 chord is a D chord, correct?  If you put the capo at 3 and then play your 0-0-2, you are really playing 3-3-5, which is a G chord.  Does that make sense?

Marsha, if you are only playing chords and not the melody, it does not matter what voicing of a chord you use. 

Skip is correct here, at least for the keys of G and A.  You can play the most important chords in those keys out of you DAd tuning with no capo necessary. The chords you list for that song (G C D Em) are all available to you without a capo. So you don't have to use the capo for that song.  You might, however, find it easier to use the capo and then play the simple chord shapes using open strings.  But that is a matter of your preference, not a necessity.  The capo may only  become necessary when you start playing melodies or even filler licks as well, but as long as you are only strumming chords, you should be able to play the chords for your songs in G without a capo.

@skip

If I play the chords as G  C  G  C  G  D  Em  D  C  Em  D  G  C  G  C  G  D  Em  D  C,    Wouldn’t I need to retune to G?

The tunes in D and the tunes in G are all mixed up in the lineup. I am trying to prevent retuning for each song. There will not be time to do that, so I want to remain tuned to D except for the one song that is in key of C, and I am used to retuning fast to C. I was thinking that is the reason to use the capo is to adjust to a new tuning faster????? 

Now I am really confused!

If you are going to play chords only, no capo is needed. A chord has the same construction regardless of the key of the tune. Actually all the information you need, when there is a vocalist, is the chords and when a chord is played. So having the words with the needed chord just above is sufficient to chord along with the tune. I think it's actually easier that way.

If the music you are looking at shows the chords as

G  C  G  C  G  D  Em  D  C  Em  D  G  C  G  C  G  D  Em  D  C, 

and the music key is G, play the chords as shown. Your second set of chords is the chords transposed for the key of D, as if you were going to play the melody + chords in the new key of D, not G. You would be playing the chords for a D melody, everyone else would be playing chords for a G melody.

Play the chords either way, which ever sound best or is the most natural feeling. You can play the D as 000, 002, 200, 030, 777, etc or just one note, 0 on the base string [like a standup bass player does, one note at a time]. The G the same, 310, 013 or just a 3 on the base. 

Thank you so much @dusty-turtle and @skip. 

So if I am tuned in DAd and put the capo at 3

and the key of G music guitar chords are:

G  C  G  C  G  D  Em  D  C  Em  D  G  C  G  C  G  D  Em  D  C  Em  D

Then Would I play:

D  G  D  G  D  A  Bm  A  G  Bm  A  D  G  D  G  D  A  Bm  A  G  Bm  A

And do I try to play versions of those chords that do not include pressing the melody string, or does it matter?

(for instance playing the D Chord with 200 instead of 002, and playing the G chord with 310 instead of 013) 

The really difficult thing about this is that the songs they are playing are obscure tunes from their Episcopal song book, and I AM Presbyterian and have never heard any of these songs before nor can I find them on YouTube to listen to.

I could just sit out the songs that are not in the key of D, but this is a good chance for me to try out playing in the other keys using the capo, since they are a really friendly group and will tolerate my mistakes.

An interesting old photo of a zither player.   This photo is in an album that belonged to my great grandmother which eventually made its way to me after she died at 106.   This album contains lots of photos from the early 1900's including the maiden flights of several zeppelins taken in 1915.

However, I thought it might of interest to post this one of a field hospital during World War I depicting wounded  German Soldiers, Surgeons and Nurses.   My grandmother is the nurse on the left if I remember correctly............I remember her telling of many surgical procedures being done without anesthesia or adequate supplies.

Since chords stay the same regardless of the key the song is, you only need to play the chord required by the notation. A 'D' chord is the same all the time. With this in mind, song in 'D', the chords are D, G, and A [which you already know. In 'G' the chords are G, C, and D. You will need to learn to play a 'C'. Song in 'A', the chords are A, D and E. All of these chord cam be played in the DAD tuning [the C is easier with the 1+]. No need to transpose or retune as long as what you're looking at has the chords/key displayed. If a chord is required you don't know or can't play, air strum that chord. For 7ths, use the major, eg., for an A7, play an 'A'. It's one of the benefits chording only, no melody. You can play along in many keys as long as you know how to make the chord called for.

@Marsha-Elliott, if you scroll down below in this discussion, I wrote a long post here addressed to Dana.  It includes a link to a document entitled "Strumming in various keys out of DAd."  That document has a transposition chart for the most important keys of C, D, G, and A.  Take a look at that document.  It might answer your question.  And if it doesn't, by all means speak up.

I need help with something. I am to play my Dulcimer with a group of other instruments for a church gathering (sing-along). They are doing a few of the songs in key of D so I can play with them. But I think I can also play the ones that are in G if someone can answer the questions I have. I know how to use the capo to change the key and how to renumber the frets to the right of the capo and play the chords that I would normally play for key of D. The problem here is that literally all of the songs except for two are songs I have never heard and there are no arrangement in D for them. For those songs I want to just strum backup using the guitar chords shown on the arrangements that they have given me. 

So here is the question.... since the guitar chords shown in their key of G arrangements are chords for the key of G, then I am assuming that I cannot play them as I would if the arrangement was in the key of D. So assuming I use the capo at the 3rd fret, Is there a chart somewhere that will show me what to transpose them to?

Facebook pages are subject to privatization/going public.  Facebook itself has arbitrarily changed some Group pages without notice, and is taking their own sweet time to rectify the situation.  If you Join a page you'll always be able to see it.

The site is supposed to go visible/public again in another week or two, as Dusty said.