Forum Activity for @robin-thompson

Wow, Salt, I'm happy all ended well!  

Aw, I'm glad you got the snake out unharmed, @salt-springs !

Don't you get a kick out of getting up in the morning and walking into the kitchen and finding the latest creature that the cat has brought in for your inspection?  A beautiful creature but one that can deliver a nasty bite if so inclined.  I took him/her out to the edge of the deck and let it go, it was not injured but not really happy either.

I recently made a set 9" that I really enjoy. I upped the length from 8" . The longer hammers add a bit more bounce. Different woods, lengths, weights. There's no end to finding the prefect hammer. But its fun... Robert

A good "ballpark" length is something between 20 - 22 centimeters.  You alter the mass of the hammer by altering the thickness and width of the handles, heads and grips.

Could somebody tell me what the total length of a standard hammer is please including handle and head? I know they vary but an about figure would be great, thanks Nige

Regarding learning by ear vs. sheet music: This is a complex issue and both sides have their purpose.

I think that if you look at the oral tradition vs. printed books, you can see a parallel to learning music orally or by written sheet music. 

The oral tradition although it could be epic in length, used repeated rhythm and rhyming patterns to help people learn the story/poem/legend/etc. Written words allowed authors to break away from those patterns to produce more complex written styles. Although not impossible, it would be hard to memorize a novel by Tolstoy or James Joyce. 

I play in a symphonic orchestra, and cannot even imagine trying to learn a symphony by ear. Yes, it could be done, but it is much easier to read the music. When you have lots of different instruments and complex arrangements, sheet music allows competent musicians to play together without even having heard the music before.

A good classical musician will hear the written notes in their head while reading music. It's very internalized after years of practice. I've been playing my secondary instrument (euphonium) a lot at home the past year, but I noticed how my body doesn't react as instinctively as when playing trombone. With trombone I see the note, my arm moves without much conscious thought, my lips buzz the pitch and the sound comes out. With euphonium, my fingers aren't as automatic as my slide arm.  So although my lips are ready with the pitch, my fingers can get tripped up or delayed. LOL. The same should be with dulcimer playing, although dulcimer has the added complication of different modal tunings, so the brain and body need to learn them all.

When you look at the folks tales and folk songs versus books and classically written music. You see where the the author/composer's intent has little with the former, and each reteller/resinger creates a new version but within the tradition. The stories are songs are truly the people's. With books and symphonies, etc., you can interpret what the author meant or how the composer wished the music to be played. Even if readers and musicians can create their own interpretation of the works, the creator of the original is very much at the heart of the work.

Learning folk music should lean more heavily on the oral tradition (with the help of sheet music and recorded music for those that need it in the beginning), just as classical music should lean more heavily on the written tradition (with help from a good ear and hearing other musicians playing the piece).

When my first child was born here in Sweden, I started looking for American folk songs to sing to him. There were no American folk singers around in Örebro to learn from, so I ordered a book from the Internet, played the melodies on the piano and sang along. Then I started hunting the Internet (then via Napster LOL) for recorded versions of all the songs. I started singing without the sheet music (hard hold a music book while also holding a crying baby), using my ear to create my own version of the songs, mixing the various versions of lyrics and playing around with embellishments. So it was a mixture of sheet music at first for the new songs (or to refresh my memory for songs I heard/sang as a child) and then a healthy dose of playing by ear and experimentation. 

So neither side should look down upon the other. Great musicians can come from either tradition.

No, I haven't. I don't have a way to record anything right now, but hope to organize something before long.

Thanks Don! We take a lot of care in creating the podcast as well as the resource page for each episode, so we're happy you appreciate it!

Awesome! Howard is a very dear man as well as a great builder.

Have you recorded yourself playing V'la le bon vent (chanson québécoise) on your dulcimer?

Hi Patricia, 

I am listening to that one now - thank you!

Tricia

Hi Tricia,

So glad you found the podcast! You might be interested in hearing the episode with Howard Rugg, one of the co-founders of FolkRoots and CapriTaurus:  http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/010.html

Those old FolkRoots dulcimers sound great ... you're lucky to have one!

Thanks for listening,

Patricia

I am seeing this some 2+ years later, but I'm delighted to find your podcasts are still available for listening. Thank you so much - this is wonderful ! I got my Folk Roots dulcimer from Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI in 1986, and love it to this day. I'm really looking forward to listening to more of the podcasts over the next while. 

Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 37
Golden Ring: A Gathering of Friends for Making Music

http://dulcimuse.com/podcast

The 1964 LP Golden Ring: A Gathering of Friends for Making Music became one of the most popular recordings of the early folk music revival. In this episode, find out why Golden Ring was a groundbreaking album for the mountain dulcimer.

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/037.html

Thanks for listening! :-)

They are the kindest people I've ever met at the Dulcimer Shoppe.  Jim takes such great effort in everything he does, and goes out of the way to meet needs and wishes. I'm looking for a 3rd dulcimer to add to my dulcimer family, and had thought about changing makers, just for variety, but I most likely will end up getting one from Jim again, just because I love not only their product, but their attention to detail and customer happiness.  Maybe the notice of the standard policy change was with us frequent flyers in mind that know his instruments are generally in DAA (GDG for Gingers) unless otherwise requested.  

Perhaps the concern is more about letting the dulcimer community know and hoping it understands than anything internal to their production practices.

It's not even the bridge, Dusty; I don't believe they really intonate for one tuning over the other.  It might be the string set, if anything.  Personally I don't see an issue, or what all the fuss is about.  I know how to use the tuners to tune the strings to anything I want within the properties of the strings

Interesting, but no surprise, I suppose.

I am curious why Jim Woods states the change has not gone smoothly. Isn't the only difference which bridge they use? You would think they would have a bunch for DAA and a bunch for DAd, and they just have to switch which pile they grab from. I must be missing something here.

Interesting, in that in another topic we have a discussion about 'tradition'.  Yes, some traditions never change and some do over time. ⌛️

I use one wall in our living room and in my office I use single and double folding stands I make myself. 

Glad you have 16".  Mine is 9" & barely keeps me from blocking the t.v. & the remote.  Daren't do that! 😎

That fold-up feature is really nice.

Glad there are option_s_.

For many years McSpadden's policy was to set up all standard dulcimers in DAA,  with setup in DAd available on request. That has now changed. Below is an excerpt from an email I received from Jim Woods at McSpadden.

"...we have just this month changed that policy.  Now well over 90% of our standard dulcimer are sold in DAD tuning so we have yielded to the pressure and made that the default setup.  I’m still working on getting that news out to the dulcimer community.  Trying to implement a change like that in a policy that has been in place for 56 years doesn’t go smoothly."

I am ordering these:

Keyboard case

I appreciate the suggestions but I'm really only interested in a hard-shell case that I can buy somewhere. If the Cedar Creek case turns out to be my only option, I'll go that way.

I also thought of gun cases.  They're durable and long, and might work very well.  The only possible problem might be taking them onto aircraft.  After all, what would YOU think was in that case?  

Other than Dusty's suggestion, just get a half sheet of 1/4" ply and some foam, make one.  

That's a tough one.  The standard "large" hardshell dulcimer case is about 40" long. You can probably get an extra inch or inch-and-a-half since the interior is plush lined, but I'm pretty sure 43" would be out of the question.

If you don't plan on traveling on an airplane with the instrument, you might try one of those gun cases with the adjustable foam.  The foam is pre-cut into small squares, and you remove the ones to fit your instrument.  (I think they call it "pluck to fit" or something like that.) They come in different sizes. One is exactly 43" wide, but if you put the dulcimer in at an angle it might fit.  I think they also come in 46" and 52" lengths.  Here is one at Amazon .

Hi folks, new guy here. I own a few mountain dulcimers, and one of them needs a hard-shell case. It's a 43" long by 7" wide Edsel Martin teardrop. I've looked all over the internet but I can't find a case that's long enough. Back about 15 years ago, Cedar Creek built a case for my other Edsel Martin and charged me $200. I inquired with them on this one and they want $500 now. I'm hoping to find a less expensive option. Does anyone here know of either a case that would fit or of a place I could order a custom case for a more budget friendly price?

Zaulden, I not only moved the thumbrest all over the place to try different methods, but I even wrapped a rubber band around the thumbrest and my finger to try to get a good hold.  I have small hands and short fingers, and the G pipe was about my limit because of the holes being further apart.  

I wound up having way more fun on my pennywhistles, so I guess one day I'll sell my G tabor pipe.

Jack, nicely done! I also did a easy conversion from a guitar stand, for a single dulcimer.

 IMG_20151021_151404873.jpg - 169KB

Zaulden, I played the tabor pipe and tabor drum together, but I never really got past the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" stage.  It was hard to coordinate the left and right hands... but way harder just hold the G tabor pipe so it wouldn't drop on the floor and break!

Thanks for the post @elvensong. I designed my stands to fit tight spaces, between my chair and desk, etc. They occupy 16 sq in. of floor space, and I can lift my dulcimers straight up for easy access. The stands lock for stability, and are padded with rubber tubing and felt to protect my dulcimers. They also fold up for easy travel.

 stands.jpg - 524KB

Just went prowling online & 16.5 inches definitely would have blocked the t.v. screen (horrors!) & the shortest rack's a bit too long.  I posted it just as a way to do a custom fit.  Personally I prefer wood to the utilitarian look of a rack.  Still your rack is another answer fitting the discussion topic & should fit many situations & tastes.

Cool, simple solution, Jack, but I can tell it wouldn't have fit the space I had.  <sigh!>  This was a custom fit for a fairly limited space with next to no width (the double stand would have been impossible & probably the guitar rack) & the rack looks long.

I use a guitar rack but it's full. @jack-ferguson makes a nifty double dulcimer stand

 stand.jpg - 391KB

This discussion is slightly closer to what my husband just built than the similar "Dulcimer Display Stands - What do you use?"  I've no wall space to hang my dulcimers and no instrument stands not in use with my guitars or husband's banjos.  I'd been standing them up next to the bookcase seen in these photos or laying in another spot.  They fell once too often and my husband started talking about putting some instruments away!   

He could tell that discussion was going nowhere.

This is his creation using spare wood, stained (oh yeah, some got spilled coming up from the basement), he cut the holes  using his jigsaw, and he cushioned the holes using window draft sealer which comes in a strip of foam rubber with adhesive on the back. 

A 4th dulcimer I call "the Orphan" lays in the space at the bottom between dulcimers and bookcase.  It's the dulcimer that started me on my D ulcimer A cquisition D isease as I found the poor thing abandoned in a flea market.  It's not well-made, but I keep it in Aeolian for rare use or offer to loan it out explaining it's my least valued.  I also have a small inexpensive travel dulcimer in its case.

Keeping your instruments handy can be hard if your musical "petting zoo" is large, but if not locked away they are more likely to be picked up and played on a moment's notice.

 Dulcimer holder 2.JPG - 156KB

Hi Zaulden, and welcome to FOTMD!

The only tabor pipe I've ever gotten was a polymer Susato in low G as well, like the one you have.  I had listened to a lot of Youtube videos of pipe and tabor, and it struck me that the normal high D ones did indeed sound very shrill to my ears, like fifes.  I also noticed they were played outdoors most of the time to accompany outdoor celebrations or dances.  Fifes are usually played outdoors for marching.  Maybe that's a sign!  lol   Anyway, i much preferred the sound of the lower tabor pipe.  I have not played mine in a long time though- I switched to penny whistle and have enjoyed sticking with that instead... for me it was so much easier to hold and finger.

Perhaps a Bb or C tabor pipe would be easier on your ears than going all the way to the more common high D ?