It's a what?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I've never heard of an Array mbira before. Sounds pretty. Looks kind of scary though!
updated by @ballad-gal: 07/13/19 06:16:35AM
Forum Activity for @ballad-gal
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
updated by @ballad-gal: 07/13/19 06:16:35AM
Restringing advice
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
The notes are the letters A through G, then begin again with A. There are some sharps and flats along the way as well.
Depending upon which note you start with, the tuner will show D, then E, then F, then F#, then G, G# and A. Be sure to only turn the tuning peg when the string is vibrating.
Hope this helps.
Restringing advice
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
I recently had an accident with my dulcimer and have had to restring it.
I have a Korg electronic tuner and have the two high D strings in tune. I think the middle A string is low as well as the Bass D string. I am very nervous in tightening these strings as I am afraid of breaking them as I have done before. What is the note progression approaching the Middle A string so I know I am getting close and have not gone too far. The same on the bass D string.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Show Us Your Pets!
OFF TOPIC discussions
@Phroederick Paper bags can be a cat favorite, too.
Those eyes through the slit in the box-- perfect! :)
Blue Lion IW Style 1 Red Cedar & Walnut question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
If you're going to spend that much $$$ of a dulcimer, play it before you buy it!
Blue Lion IW Style 1 Red Cedar & Walnut question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Thanks everyone for your responses. I did the math and it would not save me much money. I just bought the McSpadden in my profile picture and will hold off for now. Dusty, the strings being farther apart and the floating bridge kind of made me rethink it. I want a dulcimer with a 1-1/2 fret down the road and am willing to wait. Again, thanks to Banjimer and Dusty Turtle.
Blue Lion IW Style 1 Red Cedar & Walnut question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
If you've got the opportunity to purchase a Blue Lion at a good price, don't pass it up. Blue Lion is not currently accepting orders. When they do accept orders, the wait can be 6 months to a year or more due to the high demand for their instruments. Incidentally, their instruments have a full-bodied well-rounded sound, somewhat guitar like. Many dulcimer players love them as the quality is top-notch.
Blue Lion IW Style 1 Red Cedar & Walnut question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Hi @Silverstrings. I have an older Blue Lion I with a cherry body and cedar top. It does indeed have a big, warm sound. I doubt the walnut is much different. Here is an audio recording of my playing Rosin the Beau that shows off the big sound the instrument offers. If you scour my videos and audio clips I'm sure you could find other examples, too, but I didn't have good recording equipment on some of that older stuff.
My only complaint about Blue Lion dulcimers is that the strings are set so far apart from one another. That works great for fingerpicking, when you need your fingers to get in between the strings, but it is hard to flatpick fast with that setup. At one point I talked to Bob and Janita Baker about making me a custom nut and saddle to move the strings closer together, but I never did that. I use the instrument now mainly for fingerpicking and use one of my other dulcimers for flatpicking.
The I model does not have the fancy inlay of the II model, but I have never been able to hear any significant difference between the two. However, the Acoustic Jam model is a standard dulcimer built with the extra large body they use for the baritone, and that one supposedly has more volume.
If you do buy the dulcimer, or even if you ask for a sound sample, be aware that Blue Lion dulcimers have a floating bridge. When I first got mine (used from a noter/drone player) the bridge was not placed right and the intonation was off. It's an easy fix, but you have to be aware that if something sounds "off" it is not a design or build defect.
Blue Lion IW Style 1 Red Cedar & Walnut question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Does anybody have an opinion about the Blue Lion style 1 with Red Cedar and Walnut? I am wanting a big, warm sound. It also has a 1-1/2 fret that I will need in the future. There is a used one that I am really interested in purchasing. Thanks
Phroedrick:
Thanks to all for the response. Think it sounds like homeopathy and physical therapy is a good choice, so I’ll try that. Did talk to my orthopedic guy today and he, too, thinks the paraffin therapy to be a good choice. Again, thanks for the advice and your experiences. Now, if anyone knows where they do full body transplants...
If you find anyone doing those body transplants let me know. I've been looking for those for awhile now and having not much luck.
Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
@fiddle, you can always feel free to start a violin thread in our "Adventures with Other Instruments forum, here:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/adventures-with-other-instruments
Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Welcome Lisa @fiddle! Well, we can certainly help you with dulcimer related things, but not many here play violin that I know of. Fiddle and dulcimer do go together well; many of the 20th century changes to the structure and playing styles of the dulcimer came about because folks wanted to play those fast Celtic fiddle tunes...
Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hi My name is Lisa. I have played the dulcimer for about 10 years. on and off. I recently purchased a violin. 
Now the problem is trying to get the violin to sound right.. I played the violin in H.S. .... I am just frustrated at my progress. I did play the violin last night in my Dulcimer Group... I will have to learn some more songs...
A neighbor had this done a number of years ago due to his hands becoming quite dysfunctional. As I recall he once told me that the recovery was difficult and not much of a picnic. Perhaps his surgery was more involved than most, however he did end up having a number of proceedures including one where a bone from his big toe was used in one or both his thumbs.
I have a number of large Bansuri flutes that cause me great difficult for a similar reason. When I looked at alternative issues a master player told me that he had similar problems and found that soaking his hands in a parafin bath helped a great deal to keep the inflammation down to a minimum. Perhaps something like that would help.
I fully agree that surgery should be the last of the last possible considerations, and that you should try a variety of other healing modalities for quite some time before letting anyone cut you for any reason. I've seen acupressure, acupuncture, salves, exercises, and other things work "wonders" on things of similar nature.
As a general principle, I would try whatever non-irreversible techniques you can before committing to surgery.. A few months ago I developed pain st the base if my left thumb (I am also a guitar player and this frightened me). Somewhat against all my scientific training I bought a heavy copper bracelet with magnets and have worn it 24/7 since. The pain and stiffness have disappeared. Could be coincidence but my GP said he‘d seen it work for others.
I have also had amazing results for back issues arising from an old injury from a McTimoney chiropractor (not a regular chiropractor) and this would be another consideration.
This is only my experience and I am not giving advice. But for $10 I am very glad I tried the bracelet. And it looks cool! I can send you the link if you like.
Cigar Box Guitars
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
Phroedrick:
That is really neat!
Okay, I admit I have a love affair with making cigar box guitars and, especially, cigar box ukuleles. I make them and usually give them away to kids in the family or someone with an interest in learning music and not enough coin for a basic instrument. I’m including a picture of a recent uke. It’s my favorite so far, and is concert length.
updated by @susie: 07/05/19 01:41:46PM
Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Welcome Cornfield, I hope you'll enjoy the site and your new dulcimer!
Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Just play the frets for the melody string and ignore the rest, That's how I do it,
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
The Barley Grain for Me
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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. ;)
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Thank you for all of the recommendations!
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Jean Ritchie's instructional book & cd from Homespun have been of great help to me.
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
And there's always Jean Richie's The Dulcimer Book , still in print.
Plus there's Strumelia's blog:
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
updated by @dusty: 06/30/19 09:30:35PM
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
There's my Get Noterized booklet/article available here -- look in the Old Style Noter & Drone Players Group for a link.
Instruction books for DAA Noter playing
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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.
Song of the Sea Anne and Ed Damm Dulcimer Tuner Question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
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...
The Barley Grain for Me
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
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?
Song of the Sea Anne and Ed Damm Dulcimer Tuner Question
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
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?