Forum Activity for @strumelia

Lois, you joined here in Sept 2012.

That's funny what you said about "so fotmd".  Well I guess when you have thousands of members there could never be one way of doing... anything!

This is SO FOTMD!  I'm not quite sure when I started here (I found something dating back about 6 years ago), but at the time I was taking instruction from a very fine folk instrumentalist.  He was fine for other instruments and he gave me a good start on the dulcimer, but I finally found it was time to leave.  He was so dogmatic (hmm, dog as opposed to a bunch of cats), while I found FOTMD members inclined to say there are so many ways and each has validity.  Guess this is also why I'd find it hard to limit myself to any one of these names.

Sometimes there are sensible answers, Jane.  As @Ken-Hulme says, "railroad men were our industrial age heroes." Part of the national myth of America is a modern society slowly moving westward over a whole continent.  A simple image in a western film might be a railroad moving through the wilderness, and we all understand the symbolism. 

But it's also the case that the period of history when the railroads were built (1860s-WWI) corresponds exactly to what is known as the "golden age of folklore" when professional folklorists went around collecting popular music and stories, often precisely because they had a sense that as the railroads and other agents of modernization were transforming society, an effort was needed to capture that "folk wisdom" before it was gone forever. Very simply, a lot of folklore collections were made during the period when a lot of people got jobs on the railroad.   Working on the railroad, dollar and a dime a day/Give my woman the dollar, and throw the dime away

American music of a later period would have more songs about cars than about railroads.  Riding around in my automobile/My baby beside me at the wheel

Welcome to the dulcimer community, Jane.  Online, we can communicate faster than they could during the age of ships, the age of railroads, and the age of automobiles.

I call my dulcimers family.   

What if?? That requires considerable consideration. Like Dusty stated one does not always shine on every song--thus the justification for having more than one.

However IF I had to have just one, it would be the Leonard Glenn reproduction Kevin Messenger made for me.

I have several wonderful dulcimers, and they serve different purposes. A tune that shines on one does not necessarily work so well on another.  However, at any given time I usually consider one of them my "numero uno."  Right now that would be my cherry/redwood McCafferty with a 25" VSL.  It works equally well for fingerpicking and flatpicking.  But ask me in a few months and my answer will be different.

Playing only one dulcimer is like drinking only one kind of wine.

There's no way I can choose one. I have to choose two. My Doug Berch  is my go to dulcimer for plugging in, and my Folkcraft Custom  with a galax back is my go to dulcimer for when I'm unplugged (generally speaking). It's like having to choose your favorite child. 

I always refer to mine a 'collection' of dulcimers.

By the way, that's a nice display. I like the shelf with Shaker Pegs as a hanger (got me thinking now !)

Come on Y'all............ everyone knows that it's only proper to call 'em a "Mess of Dulcimers" or if you're talk'n and trying to be a bit highfalutin it would be a bit more polished to speak of 'em as a "Pile of" or "heap of" Dulcimores. 

A troupe, a heap, a batch, a fleet, or maybe just y'all if I am speaking to them rather than about them.

Hmmmm.  I was going to suggest we vote, but this is going to be hard to choose.  A choir?  I also find myself liking Exaltation, Embarrassment, and Medley.  Of course to an accountant or tax official it's Inventory or Supplies.

If my requests for commissioned, and donated to charities, dulcimers drops off, my other half will call them an 'excess'. 

A 'medley', [pun intended]. Have a 'medley' party, hand out MD's and play a bunch of tunes one after another, without a break in the music. That's a medley of people with a medley of md's playing a medley of tunes!

Mine are birds of a feather which flock together.  :)

Thinking a little more about this, I have been known call them a "herd." A friend of mine, an autoharp player, would walk out on stage with about ten or so harps to give a concert. I believe he called them an "embarrassment" of autoharps. We could probably appropriate that for dulcimers as well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hmmm, that's a real hard one.  I have two wonderful mountain dulcimers and two wonderful little epinettes (which i kinda think of as small scale dulcimers)

I've often thought of getting another dulcimer, and have been sorely tempted a few times but somehow I resisted. So... because i don't actually know what it'd be like to have other dulcimers, I'm going to choose one of those four I already have and am familiar with playing.

Of the four instruments above, if I could only keep ONE (oh what a terrible choice!)... I'd probably choose my sweet mahogany epinette that @john-henry Crocker made and sent to me as an amazing surprise gift the Christmas of 2011.  It's got a beautiful voice and it's so precious to my heart... two of the best reasons to choose it!  

A 'gaggle' of dulcimers (as in a gaggle of geese, with a nod to Aunt Rhody's old grey goose) ?

A 'murder' of dulcimers (as in "a murder of crows"/The Blackest Crow/murder ballads) ?

An 'exaltation' of dulcimers (as in an exaltation of larks/joyful singing) ?

Inventory? 

Thank you all re the burl maple. I've built quite a few from that tree; as well as a variety of other products. The one in the photo is one of a set of two.

@Kusani, the burl maple top on that dulcimer is astounding!

Probably not what you're looking for but I just say "collection"... though agglomeration and arsenal come to mind as well.

If I can only have one it would be one of my Uncle Ed Thomas reproductions.

Well, Dan, I've never really thought about this. I usually just say I have "a lot" of dulcimers or sometimes a "bunch." All I know is that I keep enlarging the "herd" despite trying to thin it from time-to-time.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Wow, @Kusani !  That wood is stunningly beautiful!  

I feel lucky to have several wonderful dulcimers!  If I could keep just one-- I've referred to it before as my nursing home dulcimer because I'd have to choose one when I go into nusing home someday-- it'd be my Blue Lion Jean Ritchie model. 

I believe I would chose one of my own builds, #7. It has a burl maple top, walnut/maple back, and walnut sides. The wood is from trees I cut several years ago. 

If I could have only one mountain dulcimer, it would be my Blue Lion Jean Ritchie Model.

My purple 28 inch ultra-lite. It is what I'd describe as the most traditional....

DAN

www.dulcimore.com

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@lisa-summey , are you still having problems with this?  Do you think you got the dulcimer tuned correctly with your electronic tuner?  Is it holding now?

I don't recall a discussion on the name of our group of dulcimores. I refer to them as a "clutch" , but would like to hear what you guys call them.... maybe put together a survey?

DAN

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Jane, I'm so glad you are enjoying your dulcimer and enjoying the site here!  

...

Dan does a very good job of making things from wood. 

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Dan makes some wonderful modern style dulcimers. Great quality for a decent price.  Earlier this year they moved from Yreka, CA to Wabash, IL, and are happy for the change.

Groundhog is one of many names for a very large underground dwelling rodent.  Think underground beaver.  Beaver live in water, Groundhogs live underground.  They're 16"-20" and weigh up to 20 lbs.  Vegetarian, they love to raid gardens and large crop fields and so are considered pests.  Relatively easily caught, they were sort of 'survival food' for early pioneers.  Reasonably tasty.

We sing about railroad men so much because they were our Industrial Age heroes.  They connected one side of this huge country to the other. They worked hard and played hard.  England had/has its canals that connected the industrial Midlands to the coastal ports -- Josiah Wedgewood helped build canals so his pottery could get to the coast without half of every wagonload being broken.  You also had your Navvies who dug and built, and the sailors who linked the pieces of the EMpire together.  

I play the old ballads myself.  The Child Ballads and others -- 16th and 17th century versions of the tunes and words that changed dozens of times between there and then, and here and now.  From the Elfin Knight to Scarborough Fair.  All the dozens of versions of The Riddle Song from Lay the Bend to the Bonnie Broom on down through history.

The site looks good. It is easy to navigate. Thanks for keeping it simple and elegant.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I plan to check back from time to time to see what's listed for MI, OH, IN.

Yeah to what Ken said.  

Most folks remove the outer melody string if they are playing chords as they get a bit more fretboard to press on. Most Noter & Drone stylists remove the inner melody string so there is more space between the melody and middle drone string and less chance of the noter getting caught in the middle drone.

I believe it's your option.  If if it were me, I would remove the inside melody string.  Inside, meaning the one next to the middle string. 

Which string should be removed for a three string dulcimer