Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Look inside the rear soundholes; there may be a maker's label visible.  Beautiful instrument, as Dusty says it is build for more traditional playing since it has no 6+ fret and traditional wooden pegs.  I've attached three articles I wrote for new players. 

The first is called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all speak the same lingo), plus answers to many beginner questions about the tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new acquisition.

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/dulcimer-resourcestabs-books-websites-dvds/17129/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

This one is an introduction to playing Noter & Drone -- one of two or three traditional ways to play (the others are Fingerdancing and the rare bowing)

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/dulcimer-resourcestabs-books-websites-dvds/15049/get-noterized

The other attached file is all about the older Modal style of tunings (not the modern DAd, although it's mentioned) and how they relate to the diatonic (non-chromatic) fretboard of the traditional dulcimer.  

As Dusty also says (he steals all my good lines)  Ask questions, and if we don't know the answer we'll make something up!  

Enjoy your dulcimer journey!

Uncontrite Modal Folker.pdf - 92KB

Hi Irene. Yes, you can choose the output location for the files, so you can specify to an external drive such as a USB thumb drive or an SD card, as long as it's big enough to hold the contents of the site you're trying to "mirror" (ie, copy).

great news.  however, I have an older computer and way slow internet.  bummers.  Could it all be downloaded to a THUMB DRIVE?  I could have a friend do that and then I'd have all those tunes, and so much good info on building dulcimers and etc.  Why can't someone else take it over?   aloha, irene

The Wayback Machine is a great resource, but because our site of interest (ie, EverythingDulcimer.com) still currently exists, there's a better option - use a website copier program to simply download the entire website to your hard drive.

Properly configured, programs like this will rebuild the entire website locally, with all of the tab, mp3s, midis, articles, etc.  This takes a long time to do (as in hours in the case of EverythingDulcimer.com), depending on your internet speed and how "beefy" your computer is, but if you set it up and run it before you go to sleep, or before you head out to work, you may never notice. And it's a whole lot faster/more efficient than going through hundreds of tab files, articles, etc. to decide which ones you might like to keep and then downloading those individually. 

I use HTTrack because it's free and has a pretty good interface (as far as these types of programs are concerned).  But there are others that will also do the job, including WebWhacker, SiteSucker, SurfOffline, Grab-A-Site and more.

Thanks all. I will be playing it Dusty. If it's got strings on it at my house it gets played.

Showtimegary--that is an awesome instrument you have. Enjoy it.

@showtimegary. there is nothing we can tell you. You're on your own.

Ha! I'm kidding, of course.    You are going to get tons of advice from this site, and some of it might even be helpful!

First off, I would suggest you join both the Beginners Group and the Old Style Drone Players Group , since your dulcimer is intended for traditional styles of music.  Poke around there and see if there are old conversations that might help.

Secondly, don't be afraid to just play.  Put the dulcimer on your lap, tune it up, and start playing.  If you like what you hear, do it again.  If you don't, try something different.  Lots of people learned to play this instrument long before the internet or even tablature had been used.

If you are a beginner, Strumelia's Noter and Drone Blog  might be very helpful.

And when you have questions, speak up. If we don't know the answer, we'll make something up!

Just bought my first Dulcimer and know very little about it. Is there anything you all could tell me ?

 DSC00766.JPG - 101KB

I just started playing the dulcimer in January using a borrowed instrument.  Quickly decided that I wanted to continue playing and started looking for one of my own.  I knew I didn't want to play traditional music on an instrument made overseas so that ruled out some of the less expensive commercially produced instruments.  Stumbled across OldTyme Dulcimers on etsy.  He is located in north Georgia.  He built this instrument for me at what I thought was a very reasonable price.  Walnut and butternut with the two cute little cats for the soundholes.  I found the cat silhouettes I wanted to use and emailed to him.  He chose the tweety bird for the upper sound hole.  It came with four strings.  I just attended an intro to flatpicking workshop given by Tull Glazener which was excellent.  Love that sound and took off one of the melody strings to make it easier to flatpick.

 IMG_0254.JPG - 141KB

Thanks so much for all you teach here, including a way to find old sites closed down.  I read his letter as to why he's closing down and it's so understandable.  I'm sure we all wish Bruce the BEST in where he puts his time and efforts.  aloha, irene

Most piano keys were never solid ebony or ivory, but rather maple or another hard wood with thin ebony or ivory overlays, and later phenolic and other early "plastic" overlays.  

A woodworker would need some special equipment to salvage the wood from a piano.  I built several dulcimers when I lived on Kwajalein, from WWII era solid mahogany desks and other military officer furnishings that I recycled.  A deep-throat bandsaw with the special jigs to re-saw thick wood into thin planks for starters, and a wide-mouthed plane as well as a wide-mouthed surface sander.  Otherwise the waste is horrendous.

I'll check those Robin. I know the white ones are not ivory :( I used to do a lot of scrimshaw work and would love to have ivory to piddle with.

I think chorded zither (autoharp) makers will use an old piano to get wood for the pin block.  

Sam, if the old piano has real ebony keys, those are of value. 

This is an issue with me. At the old place ... mom's old piano is just sitting there. It's been years. The keys now stick and it's out of tune. I've tried so hard to find it a home. I've offered it for free so many times and in so many places. It's very old now and shows it. Not that beat up, just old. 

I've often thought of dismantling it and salvaging the wood. It's very expensive to get it milled though. I can buy dulcimer supplies much cheaper. 

So unless there is sentimental value, I don't think many old family pianos will be recycled. It's a shame too. I'm sure that many have beautiful wood in them.

Thank you so much Dusty for the tab for Boys of Wexford , I will try it out and let you know... not home much today but sometime this week!  and thanks to Ken for pointing me to Banish Misfortune tab!   You guys are great

Don't forget, Bruce did write the following:

"We have some great resources like our tablature, articles and other items not directly associated with a user account that needs a place to live. I’m going to look for options of how best to make these resources available in perpetuity."

Bruce may well be making plans to house the Tabs and articles someplace online himself.

John, I see over at ED that one person has volunteered to take the site over, but I'm not sure everyone understands how much work is involved and how much technical savvy it requires.  A team of people with the right range of expertise might be able to do it, but the number of people who have that expertise, have the time available, and have an interest in dulcimers is pretty low.  I have not given up hope that the right group of folks might step forward, but I also think that the rest of us with our own websites will have to be more involved in the future to fill the large void ED will leave.

The FOTMD moderators and I are going to be keeping the discussion about ED closing focused in one thread, so people won't get confused by multiple ongoing threads about the same subject.

Please follow Dusty's link below to the active discussion where anyone can post about it.  I'll lock this thread now. 

Thanks for understanding!

WOAH, that is one fabulous site, full of much research and love the list of songs etc.  WHY WHY WHY?   Can't somebody take it over?  hard to say aloha to that site.  irene

@linda-boies, we are all in shock about this development.  Please see an earlier discussion about ED closing .  Lois has explained how to use the "Wayback Machine" to find material from expired websites.  Hopefully all the resources available on ED will still be around even if no one can be found to maintain the current site.

Paula, I've been wanting to learn Boys from Wexford myself, so I began the process of transposing the sheet music to D and arranging some basic harmonic accompaniment.  You can see in the attached pdf what I've come up with so far (I call it a "work in progress," or WIP).  It should get you started.  From here my process will be to listen to as many versions of the song as I can to hear when there should be minor chords instead of major chords.  And then I will begin adding the "filler," meaning the arpeggios and other minor embellishments to fill in the spaces when the melody takes several beats.  If you have any luck with this tab, let me know.

The Boys from Wexford (WIP).pdf - 58KB

@paula-brawdy , there is plenty of sheet music for Boys of Wexford available online. Most of it seems to be in the key of G.  It wouldn't be too hard to transpose that to D. But also note that Leo is playing a dulcimer with four equidistant strings.  I'm sure you could figure out how to play the tune in regular DAd tuning, but it won't be exactly like his. Also, he uses the 1+ fret to get a C chord in Banish Misfortune.

Here is Leo's version for reference .  He is a member here, so you might consider contacting him directly.  

Banish Misfortune is in the Everything Dulcimer Tab collection:

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/banish_misfortune.pdf

Hopefully we will somehow be able to save Everything Dulcimer before it goes away June 1st!

I would love to find mtn dulcimer tab for the Boys of Wexford and banish misfortune...I think they are traditional tunes... Does anyone have these tunes... I have been listening to Leo Kretzner play them on youtube!

Perhaps a member, or a group of members, can consider taking the reins of ED in the future?  Is this a possibility?

Thanks for the link, Dusty.

Yes, the tab archive at ED was a great resource for beginners. I learned a few tunes that way when I was first starting out before I gained the confidence to figure songs out on my own.  I do hope that database is retained somehow.

But everyone should know that ED is not the only site to maintain free dulcimer tablature.  I list 9 such sites on the Resources page of my website, and I'm sure there are others.  (If you know of any, let me know and I'll add them.)

So sad. That like this site has been a breath of fresh air for those who love the dulcimer. Will sure miss the tabbed music.

Kusani, I was just as surprised as everyone else to find out about this today.  Right now, everybody (myself included) likely needs some time to wrap their heads around it all.  In any case, it's not really my place to insert myself into.

In the meantime, as others have suggested, people should take the time to download whatever Articles they are interested in on ED, and probably also a good idea to just take an hour or three to go through the TAB collection there and download your favorites.  Saving your favorite articles and TABs will go a long way towards feeling a little more grounded.  Lois' reminder is also good, in that most pages on ED will be still somewhat accessible through the internet archive.

The tab there is what lots of players want, but I just fell into a 3 year-old discussion here about tunings.  It mentioned a DAA chord chart that went into several keys.  A search sent me to a discussion on Everything Dulcimer by Stephen Seifert as he was developing a new handout about DAA chords.  From there I went to his website & his 3 charts.  I am pretty sure I've downloaded it in the past, but just to be sure I printed it out again.  Since the site won't really plan to add anything, now's the time to prowl Archive.org on Feb 24, 2018 to see if it's complete.

I've also found the more people prowl a site there, the easier it stays to find it.

Strumelia, is there any way you, we, could pick up that site if no one else does?  I believe it is the most important website for tabbed dulcimer music; not to mention the wealth of general information. 

Thanks for posting this site. I just tried it out, great.  They are up to Feb 24, 2018 at this time.

It may be an alternative the ED admins could use/recommend if necessary.

I just went through the articles on ED and downloaded those that I thought I might want to review in the future.  Ron Z has posted that he is no longer accepting any new content (articles, tab, events, members, etc.) so what we see there now is all there will ever be.

I'm shocked by this news. 

Everybody needs to get good at using the "Wayback Machine" at  https://archive.org/ .  By the time it shuts down we need to locate the date with the most complete scan of the site so that people can go to that date to prowl for an article or tabs.

As a storyteller I do that with a site that was a rich source of story suggestions but no longer is online.

Here is where you can get more info:

http://everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34074

and here:

http://everythingdulcimer.com/ed_end_of_life.pdf

Thanks for the suggestions. I started with Herdim and they are not for me. I have now bought some firmer picks - Dunlop Tortex, Gibson, Everly Star, ... You name it I've got it or ordered it 

Again, thank you.

I have no idea how it was supported financially but it could be a great loss if not picked up by somebody or some group. June 1st. isn't that far off......     Strumelia??????

A valuable site is closing shortly -

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/tab/

Personally, I'd play it for a year before investing even the small amount in a new nut and bridge and installation.  Learn what it sounds like and plays like "as is" before doing any tweaking.  Most "shops" won't know squat about repair/replacing dulcimer nuts and bridges anyway.  If you must, buy a bone nut/bridge and D.I.Y.

I look forward to hearing you make it sing, Stewart!