Forum Activity for @bill-doerge

Thank you, Skip.
I assumed that screw was just holding the handle and peg together! I tightened that screw and there is plenty of friction now.
Thanks!!

Try tightening the screw on the end of the peg. If that doesn't work, disassemble the tuning machine by remove the screw and carefully removing the handle ant the washers. The plastic disk can then be roughed up with a piece of sand paper to increase friction. Reassemble and adjust.

I am having a problem with my Lynn McSpadden mountain dulcimer model M-12S. One of the high unison string pegs will not hold the pitch. I tune it up, the peg turns and lowers pitch immediately. Is there a way to tighten these pegs? I have attached picture of peg box. Thanks!

I'm really envious of your screened porch, Strumelia.  It does seem to be a perfect place to eat or play music.

I get excited the first time I see English peas at the market. Usually they come towards the middle of summer, but they've already arrived this year.  I used to gather recipes for them, but I've realized that I like them raw better than prepared.  So put away the chips and popcorn. I'm gonna sit right back and shell a bunch of peas!  Yum!

I love Spring... it inspires me to cook more and to prepare healthier food, for one thing.

We have fresh ruby red leaf lettuce growing in the garden now, so making fresh salads is a frequent thing.

Today I'm tying the young tomato plants to their stakes.. they're now tall enough to get damaged in a heavy storm.

Can't wait for corn season.  :D

We are very happily enjoying our new large screen porch we put in last Fall.  So nice to eat outside in the evening by candlelight ... crickets chirping... with not a single thought or care about mosquitos!

I've managed to lose a few pounds during the past 6 months by eating a little more fruits and vegetables, and a little less junk.

Tomorrow morning will zip over to our local fairgrounds for 45 minutes and go for a brisk 2 mile walk before the morning gets too warm.  I'm trying to do this once or maybe twice a week now, just for good measure.  I've learned if I try to do 'too much' I end up avoiding it altogether.  So it's better to keep my goals do-able.  :)

They did a nice job, it's cute! 

This was made for me by OldTyme Dulcimers in north Georgia.  The top soundhole is a little tweety bird

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I'm more of a dog person, but those cats are well done. I can see how you'd love 'em. Is that a Folkcraft?

How adorable!  But I can feel my allergies acting up . . . 

I like my little cats. 

Thank you Jan, they are very comfy!

They fit me perfectly, but I am tall (5'9").

Susie, your gliders look very comfortable!

For me, seat height is key.  I'm fairly tall, but have disproportionately short shin bones.  A child's chair works pretty well for me--17 inches, tops.  Office chairs which can be lowered often work well and they often have arms, which I need for support. My right arm, after complex shoulder surgery, can't just hang free; it has to be supported or it feels like gravity is pulling it out of the socket--very painful).

I have several 3 legged folding stools and an assortment of folding chairs, but my favorite remains my recliner!

Here’s my favorite spot.  I’m pretty jittery so the glider is perfect for me.  The hardest part is trying to be still if I’m making a video, LOL.  

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I keep a drummer's stool in the back of the van in case the venue had no chairs (outside in the park, camping, etc.) 

I have not made the transition to standing and playing as I've been playing for nearly 40 years and just can't find a position where I can still do the technical work.

In my studio I use an office chair that I fitted with "rollerblade" type wheels and removed the arms. Super comfy. I also use a keyboard stand fitted with padding for standing and playing flat.

Nice!!!!

I like heart shaped ones - makes it easier to get your pick out when it falls into the MD. F style holes are much harder to get the pick out when it falls thru  - LOL

These days my 'performance' playing is standing up with my dulcimer on a waiter's folding table 30" high.  If I have to sit and play I look for a standard metal folding chair.

I think it changes with the season of my life.  I used to want a La Leche League-type emblem!  Now I'm happy with the simple circles on my Feather Dulcimer....  

<<<<<  The floor, as pictured....  

My favorite chair is 'Zetti Mid Back Executive Leather Chair'! I believe that one must always choose the chair in which he/she find themselves comfortable. This is the chair which I have ordered from office furniture Miami , as suggested by my friend. It gives me the required comfort and flexibility avoiding my back pain while playing the online game. Happy with the quality of service.

This is really nice.

Just a reminder to everyone that we have a Site Questions Forum where you can find answers to many of the most common questions about how FOTMD works:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i

Not sure how to start a forum thread?  How to add a video?  How to change your avatar picture?  How to send a private message? ... take a look there and you will likely find an existing thread explaining just how to do that!  If you don't find the existing answer, then add your own new thread in that forum asking how to do a particular thing on FOTMD.

Our site questions forum is the EZ place to get answers on how to use our FOTMD site!   

Those dolphins are so gracefully designed, Dusty.

I realize in reading this discussion that seven years ago I promised to post a picture of the dolphin soundholes on my Eedy Beede octave dulcimer.

Since David makes his dulcimers in Florida, the Atlantic dolphin soundholes seem appropriate.  What you can't tell in the photo is how small they are.  Each is smaller than my thumb.

Lisa -- your jouhikko looks a lot like my Anglo-Saxon Lyres -- but with sound holes!

I've made soundholes in all sorts of shapes over the years -- from circles to the Space Shuttle.  All my instruments now have plain circles, in patterns, but I'm partial to leaves -- maple and tulip poplar in particular.  

One of my favorite sound hole shapes is the quatrefoil ("four leaf").  Not sure why, I just like it and it has an old feel to it.
I had it used for sound holes on both my jouhikko and my "Elizabethan Garden" epinette des Vosges.

For a traditional dulcimer the classic Dutch Heart soundhole is my favorite, but as others have already said the choice really has to please only one person.  In a way it's kind of like choosing a tattoo. Some prefer no tattoo at all.  Others prefer to have their whole body covered in tattoos.

One consideration is whether or not you ever intend to resell the dulcimer.  Dulcimers with standard heart-shaped soundholes and/or circles will probably have more resale value.  A personalized soundhole will only appeal to someone who can appreciate the choice you have made.

That kitten is just to cute. :)

I wanted to bump this thread because I have that exact instrument, except mine has no decorations. I found it in a Pittsburgh Guitar Center of all places. There were a couple of articles about them in Dulcimer Players News a couple of years ago. The one the article was acquired originally in a folk music shop in NYC circa 1970’s. The strings on mine were original and very corroded so I replaced them all. It was tuned like a DAD dulcimer, more or less, when I got it, but using a caliper to figure out gauges, plus some research and a little math, told me this particular instrument was supposed to be in G (all Gs and D’s). The citera comes in different sizes and tunings, but on this size G works well. 

I wanted Ted to add that some of my pins were loose and would not hold tune. I removed them and discovered that although they look like zither pins, they are not! They are larger (zither pin wrench will not fit) and they are smooth, no thread! I made the worn holes smaller with the old super glue trick, and they are holding fine now. But they are true friction pins. It is good to remember that. Mine came with the correct size wrench, thank goodness. I understand Dave’s comment about not enough leverage. The previous owner solved that problem by sticking too small metal handle of the tuning wrench into the top of a standard wooden file handle. Works like a charm.

Another question-does anyone have a sound clip of a Beard?

Ariane, you're so welcome! Your lovely story made me smile :-) Thank you for sharing that!

Oh Bob - you made such a nice present to me with the upload of Tiny Tim-Tiptoe Through The Tulips!

I heard it when I was a child in the radio here in Germany and I loved it. It was played by a radio station (if I remember correctly every Friday) early in the morning when I had a homey (gemütlich) breakfast with my father before he had to go to work and I to school.

I have never heard it since then and never knew who sang it - and now it brings the best childhood memories back to me - thank you, thank you, thank you! I have tears in my eyes...

Scent and music can be very evocative 

Ariane

A while back I was playing around in a music store and had an acoustic bass guitar on my lap.  I don't play the bass but can fake it after decades of guitar playing.  I was playing the bass line to Taj Majal's version of "She Caught the Katy" and was trying to sing, too.  But I couldn't do it. When I expressed frustration, explaining that I can play guitar and sing with no problem, the owner of the store replied that I had to "own the bass" before I'd be able to sing along to it.  I thought at first that he was trying to sell me the instrument, but what he meant was that before I'd be able to accompany myself singing I had to really know the bass line perfectly without having to think about it at all.

I think that's right. You can only work on one thing at a time. So if you have to think about where to fret the fingerboard or how you want to vary your vocal line, you can't also be thinking about strumming or picking with your right hand. You have to know one part so well that it's automatic, allowing you to think about the other part.

I don't know if there are any shortcuts.  Just repetition.  I developed a steady, back-and-forth strumming pattern on the guitar many years ago.  It enabled me to become a passable mandolin player pretty quickly and also sped up dramatically my improvement on the dulcimer.  I sometimes mess up my right hand in that I don't play the exact rhythm I had intended, but I never get off beat. My right hand just goes back and forth, out, in, out, in.  Sometimes I strum all three strings, sometimes just two, sometimes I pick a single string, and sometimes I skip a beat and don't hit any strings, but my hand feels that back-and-forth movement anyway.  In fact, if you see me play a half note you will often see an extra little jerk in my hand as I move just to keep the beat even though I am not playing a note.  Before you will be really comfortable singing, your strumming hand has to become automatic.  Not robotic, for you can still swing and play with feeling, but it has to be something you don't have to think about at all.

And think of how quickly you could learn new tunes if you only have to think about your left hand!

I would suggest muting the strings of your dulcimer with your left hand so that when you strum them you just hear that vamping scratch. Then put on your favorite CD or turn on the radio.  Strum along.  Find the beat and just strum out once per beat.  Once you're comfortable, add the in strum, counting 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & and strumming out-in-out-in-out-in-out-in. (You can reverse those outs and ins, but you have to reverse them all; be consistent!)  Do that over and over and over.  Once you're comfortable strumming in both directions, then try to replicate the rhythms you hear.  It might involve skipping, accenting, or muting strums, but when you can hear a rhythm and replicate it with your right hand (always maintaining that steady, back-and-forth motion), then I think you'll be ready to sing or play and not worry about that right hand at all.  By then you'll "own" it.

Richard you said it all.  

All this Ukulele talk- I can't get Tiny Tim out of my head; "Tip-toe thru the tulips..."