Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
@hoodoo If you are a fan of the music of Phyllis Gaskins, check out decades-old recording by Bonnie Russell and the Russell family.
Forum Activity for @robin-thompson
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I've had interest in the use of mountain dulcimer in a string band context. Two records, both released this year, have been delights:
-The Long Point String Band- Piney Woods
-Roger Netherton
The mountain dulcimer player in both recordings is Hunter Walker. Though dulcimer isn't played on every cut, when it's played, it is tasteful and in the service of getting a great overall ensemble sound. The Roger Netherton record was recorded at the home old-time musician Rachel Eddy with friends in support of Netherton, a fiddle champ at Winfield in a recent year.
updated by @robin-thompson: 12/12/18 03:55:26PM
Looking for article by Ken Hulme
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Sorry. I was not aware of the mistake. I will have to save the correct one once someone posts it.
Balalaika, the most Russianist of Russian instruments
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
Cool! E E A, eh?
Well it's wonderful that you are exploring both the balalaika in its native state and the mtn dulcimer! If you ever can post a video of a simple tune on your balalaika I'm sure we'd all love to watch it! 
Looking for article by Ken Hulme
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Kevin (and others), please be aware that the pdf you attached is an older version of Ken's article which contains a problematic mistake when instructing how to tune.
At the bottom of page 8 it says to tune the Bass string to D4, the D to the right of and higher than Middle C (C4) on a piano. This is incorrect and you will break all your strings if you start there and go up.
Instead, be sure to tune the Bass string to D3 ...the D LOWER than and to the left of Middle C on a piano. Thus, tuning to DAd is actually D3, A3, d4 (d4 being the high melody d string)
I believe Ken has since corrected this error in his article. But there are incorrect versions are still floating around out there in internet land.
Here's some more links to tuning assistance:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-notes-do-i-tune-my-strings-to.html
updated by @strumelia: 12/12/18 03:17:25PM
Balalaika, the most Russianist of Russian instruments
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
It was very much to play traditional Russian folk music so I've kept to the E-E-A tuning with two nylon and one steel string while playing with the flesh of the index finger as opposed to a pick. Nowhere near getting to a level of pizzicato or double pizzicato but I can muddle through The Peddlers (the Tetris song) and The Moon Shines Softly. Being in north Texas there's a Russian folk society in Houston I've contacted but nothing local(ish) and not much of an English speaking online community. There's 152 of us in all of Reddit. So, I'm excited about also dipping into the dulcimer cause this seems like a lively and supportive community and not quite so alone with an instrument as I've been with the balalaika.
Marc Bolan Dulcimer?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
I heard back from the maker- there was no connection. The dulcimers date from the early 80's. He worked for Gibson in the early 70s, Bolan was a Gibson endorsee and Nick serviced his guitars as part of the contract.
Looking for article by Ken Hulme
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Thanks a bunch!
Phil
Balalaika, the most Russianist of Russian instruments
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
Well I think one important question would be ...what kind of music do you want to play on your balalaika? They look to be chromatically fretted, so if you 'don't' aim to play specific Russian kinds of music, you could just tune the 3 strings however you wanted... in intervals like mandolin/fiddle 5ths, like a dulcimer, like 3 strings of a guitar, or like a 3 string Uke. The only limits are the fact of only 3 strings. The scale length would tell you what gauge strings to put on once you've decided on the tuning you want.
The other approach is if you want to tune it and play it in traditional balalaika style. Sometimes there are youtube instructional videos that you can follow for beginners of any instrument- that are in another language but are not all that hard to follow- just listen for and duplicate the tuning being used, and then do along with what the video person is doing.
Balalaika, the most Russianist of Russian instruments
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
Picked a tourist model up last October, or rather my son found one in a pile of 'weird instruments' and convinced me to buy it. About three months later I did figure out the instrument was REALLY meant for the mantle and not to be played. Went ahead and ordered a Roosebeck and have been desperately working on learning to play it over the last year. Unfortunately resources in English are few and far between. Part of the reason for getting a Dulcimer was simply the wealth of help available as opposed to the book and meager videos available for the balalaika. Anyone here miss with the three stringed Dorito at all?
updated by @twogunbob: 03/08/19 02:09:00PM
Looking for article by Ken Hulme
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I am in need of @ken-hulme 's article on I have a dulcimer, now what. Can't seem to find it. I just finished making a dulcimer as a Christmas present for one of my co-workers wife and I would like her to read it.
Thanks, Phil
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I came across Phyllis Gaskin's music. Exactly the type of thing I was looking for! Can't wait to read/listen to more recommendations.
Marc Bolan Dulcimer?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
@grahame-wood
I did a quick search, and I couldn’t come up with anything that associates Mr. Bolan with a dulcimer.
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Lots of good albums out there, but also lots of free stuff on YouTube and SoundCloud. I learned my first dozen songs or so from watching YouTube videos. With the videos you can see people play as well as hear the music, so its a great teaching tool. Just a YouTube search for "mountain dulcimer" will lead you on a never ending but very enjoyable journey.
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
If you install Spotify (the free version) you can use the search box to find a fair number of albums that are mountain dulcimer recordings. I saved mine to my Spotify play list and had about 10-12 albums stored. Almost all of Jean Ritchies were on the list. I figured I could find the ones I wanted after I listened to them.
Show Us Your Pets!
OFF TOPIC discussions
Strumelia:
Yes, you are right. We love doing it for them, because when they run and chase each other through the maze, it's quite entertaining for us.
Wow @susie , those dogs are livin' the life !
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Did You? by dulcimer Grandmaster Robert Force
Pacific Rim Dulcimer Project by various artists
Any CD by Jean Ritchie
Any CD by Kevin Roth
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer Volume one features 19 selections by 19 different dulcimer players. I bought it at a festival from Susan Trump. Try www.susantrump.com.
Favorite albums
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
As I begin my dulcimer journey, i'm looking for some good albums to listen to. Are there any compilation albums out there featuring a variety of styles? I'll be honest, i know little little about the dulcimer other than I like the sound and I want to play one. I looked in the archives and I couldnt find any discussions covering this topic, so my apologies if it has already been done
Show Us Your Pets!
OFF TOPIC discussions
We get a lot of snow in Northern Michigan. So, our dogs get a custom race track (maze) out back each year.
I
updated by @susie: 12/11/18 07:38:14AM
Show Us Your Pets!
OFF TOPIC discussions
Thanks for the 'warm' comments on Gracie @susie @robin-thompson @strumelia 
updated by @sam: 12/11/18 05:54:28AM
Show Us Your Pets!
OFF TOPIC discussions
That Gracie is a real firecracker !! 
What a terrific photo, Sam!
Hearts Of The Dulcimer Podcast In Its 4th Year
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 39
The Winter Holiday Dulcimer 2018
With music from all over the globe, celebrate the season with wintry seasonal dulcimer music from Butch Ross, Lorraine Hammond, Jessica Comeau, Don Pedi, Tull Glazener, Madeline MacNeil, Nina Zanetti, Aubrey Atwater, and Christine Shoemaker.
Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast can be found on most podcast apps.
Here's the link to Hearts of the Dulcimer on iTunes: http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast
Don't use a podcast app or iTunes? You can listen to all the podcast episodes directly on our website: http://dulcimuse.com/podcast
We also have a resource page for every episode, where you can find photos, videos, and song lists. Here's the resource page for this episode: http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/039.html
updated by @patricia-delich: 12/09/18 11:19:33PM
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
1) Yes -- in that part of the world, at that time, caves were often used as stables -- a place to protect horses and mules -- among other things. Cave are nice and cool, and require minimum labor to seal against the elements and dangerous wildlife (animal or human).
2) Yes, short hair and beardless are health issues -- they hide fewer parasites and are much easier to clean. Also, Jesus was Semitic, and did not look like a European with a tan.
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Here are three interesting bits of information I learned this week:
(1) Baby Jesus was, in all likelihood, born in a cave, not a manger in a stable.
(2) Jesus did not look like a hippie and was short, as most men were at the time, unlike today's man. As was the Jewish custom, Jesus had very little facial hair, and short cropped hair. He would probably have been around 5'1".
(3) The KJV of the Bible is inaccurate, as in its use of the word "dulcimer."
It's been a tough week.
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
It may be that the biblical translators were just thinking of this term generically. The two words of which the word "dulcimer" is composed are dulce (sweet) and melos (melody), thus indicating some kind of a musical instrument that makes a sweet sound or melody. Just a suggestion.
About to start my first kit, any advice?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Hi Jools;
I've assembled, or helped assemble several of those kits, as have others here. If I remember correctly, the only real "hard" part is assembling the top with the space between the two planks; and that's not difficult.
My one suggestion is to use an appropriate size of Forstner bit, and a rasp, to open up the bottom of the tuning head slot, before starting assembly with it. As it comes, that slot is three sided -- two sides and the bottom. But as a player with many years experience stringing and re-stringing dulcimers, an "open" slot makes it a lot easier to run the string ends through the holes in the tuning pins preparatory to tuning. A few stabbed fingers will convince you too! The head works just fine without a bottom, many people make them that way. There's never enough string pressure to both anything.
About to start my first kit, any advice?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Hi everyone
I finally get my Folkcraft walnut teardrop dulcimer delivered to me here in the UK on Tuesday.
I intend to start building it soon after Christmas.
I wondered if anyone has any advice to help me build it as best as possible. I'm used to working with wood as I've been making doors, windows, staircases etc for 30yrs, but this is a first.
Thank you
Jools
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Biblical scholars tell us that "dulcimer" is a mis-translation. The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible contains this list: "horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum." There is no evidence that the "translators" of the King James Version of the Bible used any ancient manuscripts as a source. Their task was to put the Bible into an understandable English rendition of the scriptures. The NRSV, the NKJV, NIV and other "newer" translations use older and more reliable source manuscripts. There is no archaeological evidence for a mountain dulcimer-like instrument in the time of Daniel (400-100 B.C.E.). There are some depictions of hammered dulcimer type instruments during that time period. I realize that this is a brief and simplistic statement of a complex issue. It would take more time than I have at the moment to go in to the nuances of biblical translation, reliability of manuscripts, and biblical archaeology to do justice to this discussion. My point is that we do a gross injustice to lead people to think that people in the middle East in 400-100 B.C.E. knew of or even played a dulcimer-like instrument.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Yes, perhaps you guys are right. But we don't know for sure. It doesn't read, hammered dulcimer. It doesn't read, bagpipe. It reads, dulcimer. I'm going with 1 or 2 stringed dulcimer.
Interesting, to say the least.
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Well at least we can say that we play an instrument with one of the oldest names for musical instruments.
My understanding, Terry, is that what is referred to as a "dulcimer" in the Book of Daniel was probably closer to a bagpipe than the fretted zither that you and I play, which has much more recent origins, as we know. The KJV was an English translation from Aramaic and Hebrew, so to really investigate specifically what instrument was meant by the term, we'd need to know those languages.
There are a handful of references to something called a "dulcimer" in literature, but again, our lap dulcimer was probably not what the authors had in mind.
One of the most well known is Samuel Tayler Coleridge's "Kubla Khan":
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssianian maid
And on her dulcimer she played
Singing of Mount Abora.
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Yes the term "dulcimer" was used in the KJV, it was a very popular instrument when that translation was written. (Hammer dulcimer)
DAN
The Dulcimer
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
The dulcimer. One of the world's oldest instruments.
I have read or heard several times that the dulcimer is written about in the Bible. But never could find it, as the NKJ only uses the word harp. However, I got my hands on my wife's deceased brother's very old KJV.
Sure enough,in Daniel, chapter 3, tis written 3 times the word dulcimer. It doesn't say mountain or lap dulcimer, just dulcimer.
It tickled me to discover this today. Now, with authority, I can state, "I play one of the world's oldest music instruments known to humankind."
Just thought I would share this very special information.
updated by @terry-wilson: 12/08/18 08:03:14PM
