Forum Activity for @robin-thompson

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot Cross Buns

Our music teacher would also use the numbers One, Two, Three to the same tune while using a hand to demonstrate ascensending and descending notes. 

First thing that came to mind for me was Eensy Weensy Spider (or Itsy Bitsy spider, if you're my wife).  

Then I remembered a tune that my dad used to sing to us.  One he learned from his mother.

Did you ever go down to an Irishman's shanty

Where money was scarce and whisky was plenty

A three leg-ed stool and a table to match

An old broken door and an old broken latch

Sung to the tune of the Irish Washerwoman.  I've known this tune as long as I can remember.  My grandmother's name was Susanna McGranahan, btw.  She knew something about being Irish.  :-)

A couple of lines from a song we sung in primary school (probably about 8 years old) were "Hey rig-a-jig in a jaunting car" and "Clear the track, let the bullgine run". These stuck with me, probably because they didn't make a lot of sense (to an 8-year-old).

It was only recently, with the magic of the search engines on the internet, did I manage to track down The Margaret Evans and add it to my repertoire ... really ought to figure it out for the dulcimer :)

I remember in 8th grade our music teacher taught us "Band on the Run" I still hear  2,3, band on the run.... She also taught us some Beatle tunes.

I seem to remember "I've Been Working On The Railroad", "This Old Man"...probably more...it's been a very long time ago (3 years!).

Steven

The first songs I remember learning were in Sunday school.  They came with choreography!  I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery... even as a preschooler I wondered why we're pretending to fire a rifle in church when Jesus says to love one another.  But I loved "This Little Light of Mine."  Then and now, forever.

In 1st Grade they taught us "The Star Spangled Banner."  In 3rd Grade Mrs. Coolidge had us sing "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" every morning.  We learned "If You Dance Then You Must Have Boots of Shining Leather" in music class and it was not an easy song to sing.  But the songs that really counted were the songs we sang on the school bus.  I lived outside North Canton, Ohio (not Canton, not even North Canton...) and Grades 1-12 rode the same bus to the same huge consolidated school.  Given the range in ages, the playlist was, um, interesting:

B.I.N.G.O.
There she was, just a walkin' down the street, singing doo-wa-diddy, diddy-dum diddy-doo
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Rat Fink (to the tune of Rag Mop)
The Name Game
It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To

There was an ongoing argument among the older girls about whether The Beatles or The Dave Clark Five was a better band. 

4th Grade is somewhat too old for this discussion, but I must share the following, which I remember almost verbatim from our long-suffering music teacher (this was Cumberland, MD by now):  "The words are 'her green beret has met his FATE.'  That's FATE, not FACE.  He didn't meet his FACE, that doesn't make any sense.  How could somebody meet his own FACE?  He met his FATE which means he DIED.  Now let's try it again."

I'm now reading Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power by John Meacham. Also reading the latest issue of Martin - The Journal of Acoustic Guitars.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Here and elsewhere!!!

Bill Bryson should be considered a national treasure.

You're not sure of the exact gauge -- ie 22 or 24 or 26?  With either solid steel or wound strings that can be quite a difference.  Depending on the VSL, of course.  Not many of us use solid steel strings above about 14 gauge, although I personally do -- on my traditional setup instruments -- use a 20 or 22 plain steel as it gives a crisper sound than a wound string of the same gauge.  

A wound string will be "softer" than a plain steel string of the same diameter, thus your "moves more towards the side" if you aren't nailing the fingering straight down.  A plain steel string is solid metal -- much firmer than a piece of thin nylon or very thin steel spiral wrapped with even thinner steel or bronze wire.  The consensus is that a wound string is easier to play (takes less energy to move) than a solid steel string of the same gauge -- gauge being the external diameter of the string, wound or not.

Just to clarify, this is not a bass dulcimer... I am just talking about the bass string or lower string...

On a three string DAD set up... The lower D string -   Just wondered about gauge and sound differences.   I have a 2

Phosphorous Bronze wrap   - 22 to 26 gauge

Steel no wrap   - 22  to 26 gauge

On one of my dulcimers I have the steel and it's nice and smooth and blends well.   On the other identical dulcimer I have the wrapped phosphorous wrap...    

I think the wrapped bronze it a little harder to play... It moves more towards the side of the fretboard, which I don't like, but it is deep sounding.   Not sure it blends as well.. 

Just wondered what you all have experienced on this... 

We loved "Little Dribbling", especially since my Lady Sally is Brit, and we love the small out-of-the-way places there.  You should see the trip we're planning for September into the Borders of Scotland where her clan and mine hung out 'back in the day'.  We've read all of Bryson's other books as well, and vistited many of those places.

I remember we sang Happy Birthday if any of our classmates had one on a school day. Songs that I recall are Skip to My Lou; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Sweet Betsy from Pike and I Ride An Old Paint (Cowboy day in first grade), and as we moved on we used at song book entitled  Twice 55 which had 110 songs in it. Here is a link to it on Amazon:  Twice 55 .

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I grew up in Ohio, and the songs I remember from early school are (in nor particular order) things like Twinkle Twinkle, Frere Jacques, Today Is Monday (foods for each day), John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, Happy Birthday, etc.

At home my folks had a bunch of old wax 78s and I learned one of my Mom's favorite tunes Across the Alley From The Alamo

What a great idea for a thread!  I may post multiple times; please excuse my enthusiasm.

I grew up listening to the Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie albums for kids, and my mom would also sing those songs accompanying herself on a ukulele, but that was at home.  In school?

I grew up on the east coast, in Connecticut and then Massachusetts. However, I spent 3rd grade in Santa Barbara, CA, and one song I remember learning in school there was "Tinglayo, Come Little Donkey Come."  I loved the rhythm of the song and the silly lyrics in which "my donkey eats with a knife and fork."  However, we moved back to the east coast after that year and no one asked me to sing that song again.

Decades and a few lifetimes later, I found myself raising a daughter back in California.  And lo and behold, in her Montessori preschool, everyone sang Tingalayo!  I was so excited to hear that song once again. And on those occasions when I brought my guitar or ukulele to that preschool, we all sang that song together.

Here is the Canadian folk/children's music group Sharon, Lois, and Bram, singing the song on one of their albums .  In the interests of wonderfully full disclosure, I must add that the middle name in that trio (Lois Lilienstein, RIP) is the mother of one my best friends from college.  She was an absolute encyclopedia of kids music. If you ever started to sing a song, she would have a ready-made harmony part, or some hand gestures, or a rhythmic chant, or something fun that accompanied the song. She and I did not connect musically until a few years before she passed, but she was an absolute delight.

I thought it would be interesting to hear about the songs we were taught when we were very little, in kindergarten through the first few years of grade school, like up to the age of around 10.  
Did certain songs 'stick' with you through your life in meaningful ways?  
What were YOUR early impressions and experience in learning songs as a small child in school?

It makes sense to include FOTMD so it can be searched.  I don't know whether I'll remember to do it or not.  ;)

I play this on the melody string in Ddd, Gdd and DAA; either Fingerdancing or Noter & Drone.

One I Love -- Jean Ritchie

All of my friends fell out with me

-5--5--5-----5----3--23---2---1

Because I kept your company

--75-----8--7-----5----345--5

But let them say whatever they will

-7---8---8-----7---5-3-4-----5----5

I love my love with a free good will

1--1---5----5----3--3-23----2----1

Chorus

One I love, two she loves

3---2---1----3---2-----1
Three she's true to me

0-------0-----01--2--1

 I worked out melody line tab for One I love several years back;  let me see if I can find it or write it out again.

I had an idea  that I was thinking of earlier .   Not sure if this is the right forum  or not, but here  goes : To make it easier  to find fellow members  videos  on YouTube ,  could I suggest using Fotmd in the searth terms  people use when posting  a  clip?  It is a suggestion for whatever  it is worth, and one I will be adding onto my videos  when I get home from work on Monday . 

May be a question for the ages? We know it is a Homer without question, he made mistakes from time to time, he may have missed a label. There were many years he was making six or seven pieces a week! Let me know if you want to "add" it as is to the registry....

dulcimoredan@gmail.com

My guess is that the dulcimer could be a more recent Ledford rather than an early one.  He was often asked for his 'old style' 3 strings with staple frets even at a time when most players wanted 4 string dulcimers with guitar frets.  I have no idea why there's no label?  Is it possible the number is scratched or pencilled on the inside somewhere?

I've just wound up a guitar business.  We would badge and number all our guitars.  But sometimes we got the numbers and letters out of sequence when we stamped them (it is easy to do if you are a bit dyslexic !); sometimes I'd allocated batches of numbers to an assistant but then they didn't use them all; sometimes customers wanted a special number; sometimes customers didn't want the badge on the outside so we hid it internally or didn't fit one at all; sometimes we wrote the number in pencil internally rather than stamping the headstock; sometimes folks wanted no markings on the guitar.  In years to come anyone trying to trace the lineage one of the 1200 or so guitars I produced could well find anomalies in about 5% of cases.  So I'm not too surprised that a Ledford without a label has turned up - musical instrument workshops are a little more 'organic' than say an aircraft parts factory!!!

It is possible the label was lost, I'm not aware of Homer "not" labeling any of his pieces. The staple frets dates it back a little ways, if you study the registry you may be able to guesstimate a date line of the latter part of the use of them. I say latter part because we know about when he started using "hearts", and about when he started "full" fret.

http://www.backroombluegrassband.com/hlccbweb/instruments/instruments.htm

Not a huge Elvis fan but am in the middle of reading Last Train to Memphis: the Rise of Elvis Presley. I plan to read the far more depressing sequel, Careless Love: the Unmaking of Elvis Presley next.

Thanks, Marg, I really am enjoying it! Hard to believe such sound and quality can be had for less than $200...with free shipping, too!

Steven

Seems like someone else just got a Bill Berg dulcimer.

Hope you enjoy it 

I'm reading 'Depression Fallout'  and 'Bloody Mary' - about Henry VIII's eldest daughter.

Seed catalogs !!!

Irene, I'm glad you're introducing more people to SACRED HARP.  I enjoy singing and playing these songs, although it's a bit more challenging than some people think!  I liken it to learning the Cyrillic alphabet so you can sing in Russian and when you've got that down well, then you (finally) get to sing the English "poetry" with the tune (and the poetry is often on a different page from the music notation, making all this even harder).

Yes, Dusty, that's the article. There are a number of other interesting articles in the book including one on Barbara Allen, folk music in schools in an highly industrialized society, and professionalism and amateurism in the study of folk music to name a few. The book (ex-library) cost me 99 cents, but with shipping and tax I wound up paying 5 dollars.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I saw and heard the mountain dulcimer in the fall of 1991 at Epcot Center in front of the America Pavilion. They were being shown and sold by a young man from a cart-like vendor space. He was from the Walnut Valley Dulcimer company in Burns, KS. I took a brochure home with me and after debating with myself and studying about it a bit I ordered the Wildwood Mountain model custom made for me in Feb 1993. I now have others but this is the one I play the most. It has been a great joy.

SACRED HARP and other books related to this kind of music as I'll be presenting how to read shape notes and then have as many that will sit in a square and sing this great music of Early America that came to us via English, Scot, Irish, German.  I love this music.  Many of our Appalachian tunes we play on the dulcimer come from this age.  and when I'm done with that next week, gonna look into some of your books that you're reading. aloha, irene

Ken, is the attached article by Charles Seeger the one you refer to?  Either way, I think a lot of people will find it interesting.

Charles Seeger, The Appalachian Dulcimer (1958).pdf - 2.9MB

I just started Silent Prey by John Sandford. It is one of his Lucas Davenport novels. I just finished James Patterson's Cross the Line which was a Christmas present from my son and daughter-in-law. Yesterday I received Studies in Musicology 1935 -1975 which is compilation of articles written by Charles Seeger. I ordered it mostly for the article on the Appalachian dulcimer, but several of the other articles look interesting. I probably won't read the entire book.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

A trio of books by Kate Thompson, known as the New Policeman trilogy, about the happenings of a small Irish village and their interactions with the "Faeries" on the other side of The Veil.  Lots of fun and fabulous fiddle tune music at the end of each chapter.

Anxiously awaiting the Anne Grimes book.

I have been reading _Younger Next Year_, and it is changing my life!!!  ~and trickling down to my husband~

At Merlefest in 2004, heard an old fella playing what he referred to as his "Hog Fiddle". Fell in love with the sound and spent six months looking for a "Hog Fiddle". Finally rescued an old (number 3) Folkways from 1973 that someone had hanging on their wall. Used to belong to their Dad but it'd hung there for ten years, no one played it and would I like it. We negotiated a good price and I am still playing that instrument today. It needs refinishing, and lately I've gotten the idea that I'd like to build them as well. I also love to hand the instrument to kids too and watch their faces light up when they can make "music" without having to learn complicated chord forms.

That five string should give you a rich mellow tone. Enjoy