Forum Activity for @susan-mackenzie

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.

@Adrian-E, my understanding is that the site has gone "private" but will be made public again within a few weeks.  Members still have access but it is not open to the public and cannot accept new members while in private mode.

Great job................

I was doing pretty good cutting back on the carbs until this week.............then disaster..........."Apfelstrudel mit Radler"

Rick Long makes the most elegant psaltery bows!  I still have two beautiful walnut bows he made for me years ago when I had a redwood psaltery of his.

I have also heard of black cherry for gout.

Well, y'all are still killin' it!  YER AWESOME!  I missed last Friday due to a BIG splinter, did a seated workout on Monday that was harder than the standing ones~HA!, and I have a plan to get another HASfit in tonight and Saturday.  Still slowly progressing, knees doing well, low back pain is a bother at times.

Just came by to drool over it again.  ~sigh~  Methinks I'm jealous! 

That's all I found, too, Dan. It would be wonderful to know how many dulcimers he made and who has them. I first heard his name when this dulcimer showed up for sale at Cotten Music in Nashville.

 TN made .JPG - 194KB

Welcome Marcel!  Sound like you're off to a good start with the dulcimer!  It is, of course, the American cousin of the Dutch Hommel/Hommeltje, and can be played in that traditional manner as well as the modern "Bing Futch" style.  Enjoy your journey.

Caoineadh Cu Chulainn (Lament) by Bill Whalen on the Riverdance album. 

You can find the same thing played by Davy Spillane on YouTube.

There's a luthier 45 miles north of Portland in Longview WA (where I live). http://advancedguitarrepair.com

If you want to do the repairs yourself, it's not very difficult, but does require some time and attention. I adjusted the action on two dulcimers recently: one I had put together from a 46-year old Black Mountain kit (which presented several problems) using their directions and a Folkcraft walnut kit assembled by a guy near Salem OR who didn't follow the instructions as close as he should have. I also am working on a not-so-well-made walnut dulcimer my wife and I bought in TN about 20 years ago. I'm changing the headstock, removing the frets, planing the fretboard, and installing new frets. The fret removal requires a fret puller and chip stopper (see link below) to get them out without damaging the wood, I'm ordering those now. Installation of new frets is not difficult unless you're changing their positions, which requires a fret saw (which I recently bought along with some fret wire from Folkcraft).

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Tools_for_Necks_and_Fingerboards/Chip_Stoppers_Set_of_2.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2019-06-gp&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp7DPiKn24gIVBspkCh3RMgIfEAQYBCABEgJCLPD_BwE

Hi all,

Marcel, 47 years old, from the Netherlands, married, 5 children, ages: from 14 to 26, senior java software engineer by profession.
Playing, collecting and listening to music are my main hobbies. I play bass guitar for 12 years, a little double bass and acoustic guitar (campfire level) and synths.

I found, by randomly watching movies on you tube; Bing Futch and like his work. So I bought an beginner dulcimer to see if it is something that I would enjoy. I have a Roosebeck Grace 4 string. It looks good, sounds nice and the string height and intonation is ok. I think it's a great instrument to start with and already enjoying learning the first songs from Jeffrey A. Lambert's books. For theory I've bought Bing Futch 's Method For Beginning Mountain Dulcimer.

Marcel

Thank you, Dusty. I'm finding my way around...I appreciate the guidance.

Hi @retomas.  It sounds like you have a really nice instrument there.  I would be surprised if no one around this site has any information for you.

FYI: I moved your post from the Site Questions Forum, which is for questions about how to use the site itself, to a Forum on specific instruments and specific luthiers.  That way your discussion will be easier to find.

And it shouldn't be hard just to reduce the size of your photos before posting. The free editing software that comes with most PCs or even most phones should be able to do that easily.  

I was fortunate enough to find a very nice Ray Branson four string Dulcimer. It was made by Ray in 1987. It is inscribed inside, but I cannot make out all of the writing. I have found very little information about Ray or his dulcimer. 

If anyone has anything to say about Ray Branson, I would appreciate your information. I was not able to attach pictures because the files are too big! The instrument has a very nice scrolled walnut headstock with slot, cedar top, mahogany or rosewood sides, mahogany or rosewood fingerboard,  cherry back.

I may be wrong about the sides and finger board, but I am probably close.

I plays and sounds very excellent. Thank you, thank you...

I find if I ride often I can quickly build myself up to longer distances each time. Land here is flat so its easier for me... Robert.