Forum Activity for @notsothoreau

Dulcimer just followed me home

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Correction. I took another look and the maker is John A. Morris. I thought about a kit but those don't usually have a maker's name. I planned to call Dulcimer Shoppe tomorrow. I did find a previous post that talked about tightening those screws and it seems to help. I put a set of D'Addario dulcimer strings on it (.012, .014, and .022) which sound okay. Someone set this up to play with equidistant strongs so it's hard to tell where the strings should go on the bridge and nut.

Still going to do the happy dance here! It will have a good home.

Dulcimer just followed me home

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

The label should have a model number on it. Some of the Sweet Song dulcimers (with SS in the model number) were kits, and Morris may have bought and built a kit. Strings you can get at lots of music stores or online - you can use any loop-end string of the right size. And the tuners have small screws in the ends you can tighten a bit to keep them from slipping.

Dulcimer just followed me home

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

My husband sent me a link to the Facebook marketplace yesterday. There was a dulcimer for $40. I felt sort of sorry for it and checked to see if it was still available. All I had to go on was that there was a label with a date of 1976 and that it was from Arkansas. I picked it up today. The owner bought it in the 70s, played a bit then just kept moving it with him. He decided it was time to let it go. 

It's from the Dulcimer Shoppe, March 1976 and the label says the builder was A. Morris. It's walnut plywood, with those metal pegs that are slipping right now. And it needs new strings. Can I call it a McSpadden?

 

 

updated by @notsothoreau: 03/20/20 01:20:16AM

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Thank you, Strumelia.  I'm doing the August Foundation schedule from HASfit.com, and it is a perfect, safe startup.  All the vids are free on YouTube, too!  Solid program.  I'm sore, but it's been a good week!  Tomorrow = rest day.  

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Ken & Terry, I'm sure you will enjoy this soup.  Don't be afraid to fiddle toward the finish and get the flavor just the way you like it. My wife actually adds ketchup, something I was radically opposed to until we were dining in a Mexican seafood restaurant in San Francisco one day and I saw someone adding ketchup to their own. If I overdo to the lemon juice or clam juice I will sometimes add some tomato paste. My wife and I both enjoy spicy food, and if we are the only ones eating I'll sometimes cut up a fresh jalapeno into tiny pieces, but you have to be careful with that since hot peppers vary so much in strength.  Prepared hot sauces are easier to control.  You can play around and see what you like.  Bon appetit!

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Dusty, I'm gonna do it. Looks and appears delicious.

Thank you.

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Good recipe there Dusty!   Cold soups are a great thing to serve in the summer.  I make several kinds, and may have to add your simple Cocktel de Camaron to the repertoire.

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My wife has a big birthday tomorrow--the half century kind--but she and our kid are at Lake Tahoe kayaking and paddle boarding in the Sierra sun.  So in anticipation of their return later today, I whipped up (little cooking involved) one of our favorite summertime dishes: coctel de camaron , Mexican shrimp cocktail.  This is a cold soup, and the genius is that the base is spicy V-8 juice!  The only cooking is the optional stage of boiling the shrimp.  You can used pre-cooked shrimp, in which case there is no cooking involved, but I like to add some of the water the shrimp was boiled in to add extra flavor.  This is a super tasty, super easy, very low-carb dish that takes a lot of prep only because of the time it takes to chop vegetables.

Ingredients (portions are flexible):

Spicy V-8 juice -- clam juice -- lemon juice -- shrimp, bay shrimp, or prawns -- chopped tomatoes -- chopped cucumbers -- chopped onions -- chopped avocado-- chopped fresh cilantro -- whatever spices you like (I use onion powder, garlic powder, lemon pepper, and salt).  

If the Spicy V-8 is too spicy for you, use regular V-8 (or mix the two together).  You can always add hot sauce such as Tabasco at the end, or offer it to be added to each bowl individually.  It can stay in the fridge for a few days, so you can make a big batch to last, or serve it in small cups as a great appetizer for a barbecue or other warm weather soirée.

Excuse me . . . I'm gonna have some now . . . 

updated by @dusty: 08/03/18 05:17:41PM

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General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

In some skills, I'm rank beginner.  In others, I'm intermediate or above.  Two things I'm always learning:  the instrument, what it allows and its limitations and my ear.  If I were to attend a workshop, I'd try to place myself in a workshop which would expand my knowledge of the mountain dulcimer itself and how I hear it. 

Although noter/drone is the only style in which I play, exploring its limits is really fascinating to me.  :) 

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Even the most basic beginner has wonderful things to teach a highly skilled professional. Over time, expert musicians can forget the bright joys of 'newness' one experiences when playing music for the first time. They can lose freshness and objectivity and not even really be aware of it.  A beginner can remind us of why we play music to begin with. A true gift!

I've always felt that the idea of distinct levels of beginner/intermediate/advanced are very subjective and hard to separate. Also we all tend to undervalue our own abilities.

@dulcinina , if the music you make brings joy to the lives of others, then I'd say that's the only proof you need that you are indeed a 'real' musician in the truest sense.   I wish we could just agree to add the joy factor into the criteria by which we 'judge' whether people are musicians or not.  To me, that's so much more important than whether someone can read music or play in various keys.  

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This discussion spoke to me in so many ways.  I lead a small group of players because I just wanted to have someone else to play with.  They consider themselves beginners and in some ways they are because of being new to the dulcimer.  One is a retired music teacher (voice) the other played the piano.  They know music theory. I do not.  But I could get them started  and they have taken a couple workshops.  They are slaves to the written tab.  They won't deviate or experiment.  My other two players in the group just go with the flow.

I know the more musically trained get frustrated with me but I said at the outset "I am not a professional musician."  I can get you started.  But you know what? After reading this discussion, I say I am a musician.  I play to satisfy myself, I play at the Alzheimer center and in nursing homes and I don'obsess about mistakes. 

All really top notch musicians make mistakes.  My mentor, a pianist and graduate from Julliard who knows nothing about the dulcimer, has trained me to keep playing regardless of mistakes and told me countless stories of famous musicians who make mistakes.  Oh gosh, I'm rambling.  I am going to have my group read this discussion and hopefully they'll relax a little bit.

And my friend from Julliard wants me to teach her the dulcimer.  I am inspried by so many of you on this website.  Thank you for all the insightful comments.  Dulcinina

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That's a great perspective, @john-keane. Instead of worrying about whether you have the skills for a workshop, consider whether the workshop has the skills you seek.

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John, you presented a whole new perspective, to me, anyway and I agree wholeheartedly.

Thanks for taking the time to write your "novel."

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Nicely written John.  I've always told people to go to classes which appeal to them, regardless of the rating.  You may not master the topic now, but six months or a years down the road there will this "Aha!" moment when something you learned in the past finally "fits" what you're doing.

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The topic of level "labels" has been a source of interest to me since the time I filled out paperwork to attend my first dulcimer festival years ago.  This was a long time before Karen and I had any notion of traveling the country performing and teaching workshops.  We were just professional musicians (on other instruments) wanting to learn how "not to stink" on this wonderful new instrument that we had discovered a few months earlier.  We both figured out rather quickly that the level labels didn't really work for us at all.  Even though we had less than a year of experience on the mountain dulcimer, we had a lifetime of musical background.  We found that, as we looked through the course offerings, we seemed to fit (in most cases) anywhere from novice to advanced (depending on the class).  The selection process and trying to declare a level label for ourselves was excruciating UNTIL we changed our perspective.  We decided to approach the selection process in a "where do we want to be" manner rather than the "where are we" fashion.  This decision literally changed our lives.  Yes, it was scary.  Yes, we were sitting in classes with students who had been playing for many years as opposed to our few months.  Yes, we understood that the instructors wouldn't wait for us to "get it" before moving on to the next topic.  With all of that said, we had a look at the payoff part of the dulcimer journey.  We learned skills and tricks that we couldn't do well at the time, but we could go back home and practice them.  We learned that the mountain dulcimer community is very helpful and accepting, and we met people all of those years ago who have become some of our best friends on this planet.  ALL of this happened by changing our perspective concerning level labels and totally eliminating the frustration.  I tell students all of the time that perspective is a weird and wonderful thing.  Some might marvel at how people can come from all over the country yet sit down and instantly make beautiful music together while others might complain that all these people do is sit in a circle and play the same twelve tunes for a week.  It's all about the perspective of the observer.  We cannot control labels developed by others and where we fit (or not) into these categories, but we CAN control the perspective at which we view these labels and approach them in a manner that will benefit us (as players) the most.  Sorry about the novel, but this is a topic near and dear to my heart.  Please don't be afraid to venture into a workshop that a label declares is too difficult for you.  The information will benefit you greatly if you take it and develop the skills at your own pace.   

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This is the very essence of learning any instrument. By continually experimenting with what sounds good and what doesn't, you build your intimacy with the instrument. And like any other skill, if you practice 15 minutes a day, you will learn your instrument. Your brain begins associating certain sounds with certain shapes and it starts to snowball. Before you know it, you are writing tunes and able to jam with confidence because you know your instrument. 

 

Exactly. In our circle, everyone knows the songs we're playing but most still insist that they can't play without the tab. Most of us hum these tunes in our sleep lol.

 

 

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I try to look at the tab if there is a tricky part I haven't been able to figure out. I find I can pick out the melody most of the time if I just mess around with it.

I try to keep in mind how kids learn to be rockers :). They dress like their hero, try to play the same way and obsessively listen to a song to figure it out. It's still a good way to go about it.

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I had a baseball coach in HS who's favorite saying was: "Boys, ya gotta want it!" He screamed
that a thousand times or more.

I loved baseball, and I wanted it, as far as my small frame would take me.

Same for any instrument, you gotta love it and want it. We have two pianos in our home. My wife is a superb puano player. I don't have any love for it, and I don't want it. I do love to hear her play.

She has no real appreciation for the dulcimer or harmonica or ukulele. Society's fringe instruments. A source of consternation between us. But life goes on.

Lois, ypu didn't love the harmonica.

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At the risk of turning this into a different topic, I agree with the practice part even though I never could get the hang of getting a harmonica to play just a note at a time. <Ptooey!>  My Ionian playing of Christmas carols comes closest to this. 

Memory and knowledge of what you want to play are a major factor.  Also those of us who go beyond just a melody are probably dissatisfied with not being able to flesh it out.

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This is a really interesting discussion that got me thinking a lot. What skills does one need to master in order to progress from one 'level' to the next... Made me remember times I was asked for the music or tabs to a tune I had played on my dulcimer or Scottish Small Pipes. When I reply with an apology, that I can't help because I cant read music or tabs yet and only play by ear, I somehow feel inadequate.

I believe it's possible to master some skills as an intermediate player but also lack some of the skills of a rank beginner, at least in my case. Most, or a great many beginners learn from written music I think. I never learned to do that, even though i know the importance in it. (It's hard to commit to that when there's so many other neat and exciting things I need and want to do!) Some solace that, within the Irish music tradition, according to some quite renown musicians, most learning is done by ear, "Lugging it" as Matt Seattle (Scottish composer and musician) calls it. I guess it comes down to skill and confidence.

Anyway, if there was a definitive check list for player 'levels', I don't think I would want to see it.

updated by @bob: 08/01/18 03:19:45PM

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The key part of @terry-wilson's comment below is the practice part.  The fact is that if you can sing (not well, necessarily, but hitting something close to the right notes) then you can play by ear.  If your brain can make the connection between the interval between two notes and the right amount to open or stretch your vocal chords, then it can certain make the connection between intervals between notes and distance on the fretboard. After all, on the fretboard, you have not only your brain making a theoretical connection, but the feel of your fingers and the vision of your eyes.  So playing an instrument by ear should be three times easier than singing.  The only difference? Most of us have been singing our whole lives, so we have decades of experience.  Too few of us practice playing by ear.

And one problem with tablature is that it forces you to look at it instead of looking at the instrument.  So it actively sabotages your ability to play by ear.

I have no doubt that there are a lot of people who right now are unable to play by ear. But that doesn't mean they can't do it. They just haven't tried enough and practiced it.  Perhaps because I am self taught on most of the instruments I play (I took some guitar lessons the summer after third grade and piano lessons around that same time) I am amazed that people are afraid to play without tablature, without someone else telling them exactly what to do.  Just put the instrument on your lap.  Play something.  If it sounds good, do it again. If it doesn't, try something else.  Don't be too ambitious, just try to find the melody for all those nursery rhymes we learned as kids.  You'll get those melodies in a short amount of time and will be able to figure out more complex ones later on.  

On Monday I was teaching a student a song that she requested to learn.  So I wrote up tablature for her. But she was struggling so much looking at the tablature that at one point I took the tab away and forced her to look at the fretboard.  She protested that she can only play with tablature.  But the problem was that although she knew the melody, she was getting distracted by all the information on the tab.  When I forced her to stop thinking about fret numbers and note duration and just to play the song she had in her head, she was able to learn it much faster.  In this case the tab was a hindrance to her learning the song. But even when that's not the case, using tab does not aid in the development of our ability to play by ear and may even sabotage it by forcing us to look at the music instead of our instrument.

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Terry, ages ago I gave away my harmonica and the book I bought as I just couldn't get it.  Wish I could as it's a small very portable instrument.

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My 2 cents: And I've stated this before, as it worked for me. If you want to play the dulcimer by ear then do the following : Buy yourself a D or C ten hole harmonica, practice for 30 min a day for three months, and bingo, you begin a new life The Harmonica is a "by ear" musical instrument. Put in honest practice time for three months, and then without fanfare, a still small voice speaks to you; "Wow, I'm playing this dang thing by ear." I don't need harmonica tab, just know the tune in your head. Don't even attempt to play the lower or higher octave. Just concentrate on the middle octave, beginning at hole four. Same scale as dulcimer. Do it!!! Spend $25.00 and change your musical life.

updated by @terry-wilson: 08/01/18 02:36:26PM

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I once wrote here about "First language", meaning in this case instrument training, influencing you.  In my case it was piano and I am indeed chained to sheet music.  Ionian tuning has let me develop my ear a bit, but ear training and (at least in my instrument playing) memory is a gift, or at least a skill, I don't possess.  I can play something over and over and maybe do most of it without looking while the piece is actively being worked on for performance, but if I come back to it after some time later, I couldn't begin to play it without working on it.  It may take me less time the second time, but it's not like singing if I know the words.  

I sometimes say I'm "math impaired" as numbers don't stay with me.  I believe this is somehow part of my brain linkage.  Perhaps it can be developed, but I've never been able to do it.  This is why I say I'm not a musician.

FWIW my memory works pretty much the same way.  I exercise it like crazy with theatre, but once I finish a show I couldn't begin to give you the lines without reviewing them.  It's also why, as a librarian, I gave great service taking people to the numbers on the shelf, because I don't remember them very well.

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I whole-heartedly agree, Ken. The same goes for people who can only play with sheet music. Tab & sheet music are useful in SMALL doses. After that it becomes your ball and chain.

It's like training wheels on a bike. Sure you can keep your training wheels on but you'll never be a good rider.

Frank Ledgerwood told me stories of people who came to him to improve their playing and he would ask them to play their favorite song so he could evaluate what they needed. They would tell him they couldn't because they didn't have the tab...for their favorite song?

I often get asked how I developed my style and it was by just experimenting. I learned my instrument by making up tunes. Put away the tab and just spend some time with your dulcimer. Sight reading tab and music are two great skills to have but I'll take knowing my instrument any day.

I might not know a song but in a few beats I can jump in and jam with anyone because I know how to make the sound that I'm hearing in my head. I may not know know I'm playing a C9 chord but I know the sound I am after and how to get there. 

I have considered teaching a workshop on how to write tunes with no music theory or tab, and it will be a beginner class because if you can fret and strum your instrument, if you know what sounds good to you, then you have the ability to write your own songs. The biggest impediment is people thinking they can't do it so they don't even try.

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Good for you Sandi!!  Maybe keep it small/do-able, so you don't wind up putting it off.

Terry, I neglected to mention the large portion of potatoe chips though.  heheh Yes I grew the cukes- their seeds are a bit large tho...will try a different variety next year.

Dusty, I like mozz (and balsamic) vinegar on tomatoes sometimes too!   mmmm!

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Marsha, I saw this happen recently with my husband at our folklore group.  I do understand as I've felt intimidated by them because there's some darned good musicians in the group.  He can play banjo in the background at my Civil War programs and earn raves.  I also stop him being in the background to have him play the melody of "Old Rosin the Beau" for my singing the Civil War abolition song "Roll on the Liberty Ball" and later a bit of it for "Lincoln and Liberty, Too."  He knows the song and does it well. 

We had a theme of Cities for our folklore group's song swap and he wanted to sing and play it for the song "Denver."   It's to that same tune and he can do it in his sleep.  He blew it, not just a little bit, he got thoroughly spooked.  Don't think I'll ever get him to try playing there again. 

O.k. I make myself play there.  When I said "I've felt intimidated", that past tense isn't true as I still do.  I've blown it there at times.  It's good for me to set those goals.  Just hope someday he'll try it again and I keep trying to help him understand.

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You are absolutely right Dusty. I need to work on keeping a happy face when I make a mistake. It seems that the difficulty of doing so is in direct coralation with who the audience is.... old folks, kids and family, no problem because they don't even know when I make a mistake, but on a stage, different story. I loose concentration and bingo, ooops!

 

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Day two of workin' out!  WHOOP!  WHOOP!

 

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Musicians (including dulcimer players) make mistakes all the time. I'm sure Yo Yo Ma makes mistakes daily.  How often you make mistakes does not differentiate a beginner from an advanced player.

But an important skill to learn is how to make a mistake and keep going, keeping the flow of the music.  If you make a mistake but skip right over and keep going, the mistake is gone, off into the ether, and even if anyone noticed, they forget about it right away. But if you make a mistake and then stop and start over, or utter some choice exclamations (as I am wont to do) or pause for a moment with an unhappy face, then you really look like a beginner who can't carry a tune.  And what's more, once you learn how to continue playing after making a mistake, then the fear of making mistakes goes away.  Magic!

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Beautiful tomatoes. Our tomatoes didn't do so well this year. On the small side. Lisa, did you grow the cucumbers too? Some friends gave us 2 quart bags of the largest blueberries I think I have ever seen. Sweet. Oh my yes. Good for you, Lisa. Your goodies are much better for you than my meal of deep fried Bluegills last night. Then leftovers today. You gained 6 months of life, while I lost a year. Oh well.

updated by @terry-wilson: 07/31/18 05:03:53PM

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Regarding the discussion of "when you can consider yourself a musician", I sometimes think I play like an Oriental Rug...there's always a mistake somewhere in it.  (O.k. so maybe the audience doesn't know -- if I'm lucky.)  My standard reply to the obvious mistakes is "Now you know why I'm a storyteller and not a musician."

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Those tomatoes look wonderful.    The woman across the street from us has a huge garden and no one to feed, so we get all hers.

Never heard of taxi, though.

I prefer some fresh mozzarella and basil to sour cream any day.

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Oooh... it's later than usual in the season due to our late Spring and then that drought too for a while, but...

We're finally hitting out tomato season!!  This year is a first in that our garden tomato eating is actually overlapping our blueberry picking.  This is what we wait for all year long... the blueberries and the magnificent tomatoes.

Here was our lunch today on the new screen porch, also with cucumbers from the garden.  The yellow is a tomato called "Taxi".   Yeah I probably went a little overboard on the sour cream, but hey.  

 

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I just returned from the Dulcimer U workshop in Cullowhee, NC where my main morning class was Tull Glazener's upper intermediate. He taught us how to take any music score, transpose it to key of D (or what ever key you want), then write the full chord tab for it. He also taught us how to then write other parts to do it as ensemble. No previous knowledge of music theory was necessary, nor did we have to be able to play by ear.

it was an intense week, but I came out of there with a whole new world opened to me. And I am so excited now to know that if I can't find tab for a song I like, it won't be a problem.

Choose just ONE song for all eternity...

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I would have to say "Come By the Hills". It's an Irish traditional tune that I first heard played by Celtic Thunder on one of their CDs. I think because I live in the mountains that it really speaks to me.

 

But I also LOVE "River" too that several of you mentioned. Put the two together and you would need a whole box of tissues to handle the tears.

updated by @marsha-elliott: 07/31/18 02:56:46PM

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Goals. I believe a key factor is:

"What do you want to do with your music." I believe if one can accompany their singing with an instrument, like a dulcimer, and it's acceptible, then you are a musician.

I believe if you can entertain yourself, your family, and/or friends, then you are a musician.

I could go on and on with other examples, bit I'll stop there.

The point is: "YOU WILL KNOW when you are a musician."

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I could open another can of worms by asking when you can consider yourself a musician :)

I find myself looking at a number of lessons on Dulcimer School for Intermediate and Advanced. They may be above my current skill level, but they give me an idea where the gaps are in my knowledge. Sometimes, it's something I've never even heard of. I know musicians use riffs to fill in a melody, but I'd never considered learning a few to add to what I play. I had no idea there was such a thing in the dulcimer world. That's the tough thing about being a beginner when you aren't taking lessons from someone in person. Sometimes it's something you can pick up from watching someone else play, even if it's just a video.

 

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If any of you are Patreon supporters of Bing Futch, you see that he has just posted materials from his 3-Day Intensive workshops at Evart.  He is doing separate workshops for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

I just glanced at the material and haven't watched the videos yet, but so far I don't really see much difference between the intermediate and advanced stuff.  He teaches chords in the intermediate level, but he also teaches crosspicking technique there, which in my mind is more challenging than the scales he teaches at the advanced level.  In the arrangements themselves, it appears the advanced stuff is played faster and has more eighth notes, but the intermediate arrangements looked pretty advanced to me.

It's interesting to see his take on these categories. At some point when my work lightens up I'll take a harder look at that material.

I've said before that I don't see any use for these categories other than providing guidance at festivals about what workshops might be appropriate for individual attendees. Perhaps a more useful discussion would be what skills or techniques people have found useful and encourage others to develop.  Maybe an idea for a different discussion . . . 

Thanks Geckostar97 -- Wish I could be credited with the design, but an old boy named Jacob Gross made two round-bottom zithers back in the 1860s -- one fretted, and one bowed.  And his were based on the earlier fretted zithers of the Moravian settlers in PA.  

I may tackle the bowed version next as it's a bit simpler.  Right now I'm staining and sanding and staining again the fretted one, trying to get the color at least close to the original...