Forum Activity for @steven-berger

Glad it worked out so well for you, John. I wonder, though, what would you have done if things had turned sour and became the nightmare we all fear?

Steven

~love this so much~

That's a great idea!  I don't have a metronome, but I could sure employ a similar idea....

Often we  hear and tell horror stories about traveling with our music instruments on commercial airlines. But I just had a really pleasant experience and thought I’d share it.

I recently purchased a vintage Jethro Ambergey mountain dulcimer and needed to get it home to Japan from California. I don’t have a case or bag for it and thought over several different packing/wrapping strategies for the trip. But I finally decided to just hand-carry the little thing naked on board with me and see what would happen.

My wife and I were flying economy class on ANA, All Nippon Airways. As we were checking our bags at Los Angeles International Airport, the counter clerk was curious about the dulcimer  and had some questions. She also expressed some concern about its safety. I told her I planned to ask a flight attendant for some help stowing it once we were on board. 

After going through Security and getting into the Departure area proper, we found our gate and settled in for the wait, taking turns to do a little last-minute shopping. About twenty minutes before boarding time I was startled to hear my name over the P.A. I was asked to please come to the gate counter. I did and gave the woman there my name. She found me on the computer and said, “Oh, you’re the one with the musical instrument. We’re going to have you go on during pre-boarding.” 

Seeing my confused look, she continued. “That’s the time before the regular boarding. It’s when people with small children, wheelchairs, or special needs can get on board and get settled. That way you can find a place for your instrument, no problem.”

“That’s great,” I told her, “Can my wife come on board early, too?”

“Oh yes,” she said, “No problem.”

Thanking her, I went back to Miwako to explain what they had said to me. No sooner had I told her what was going on when the woman from the counter came up to explain in more detail the procedure and to look at the dulcimer. She too had questions which I happily answered. 

So when they announced pre-boarding we were checked through and after a few minutes  allowed to board the plane. Our seats were at the back of the plane. After we stowed our carry-ons and shopping I looked for a place for the dulcimer. At first I wasn’t happy with what I saw. This new 787 Dreamliner may be a miracle aircraft, but the overhead bins are pretty small. I didn’t want to take up one for just the dulcimer and I didn’t want to try to share. But I did find a pretty good dulcimer-sized space. It was on the floor between the last row of seats and the bulkhead behind them. I found a flight attendant in the galley at the back of the plane and got her to come out and hear my plan. She said fine and suggested we wrap the dulcimer up in a blanket, which she supplied. We swaddled the little naked dulcimer and laid it on the floor out of harm’s way for the eleven-hour trip across the Pacific. The flight attendant, too, was curious about the instrument and had questions. 

We settled into our seats as the other passengers began coming aboard. My wife was very happy with the early boarding. She said we should always carry a dulcimer with us, if it means getting special treatment. 

After boarding was complete, the doors sealed, and we began taxiing towards the runway, another flight attendant came by and offered to put the dulcimer in a nearby closet. I thanked her, but declined. I felt the place we’d found and the blanket wrapping offered as much protection as we could expect or would need. Besides, I liked having its nesting spot close at hand. 

The flight to Tokyo was fairly smooth, as was the landing at Narita International Airport. I had found recordings of Hawaiian slack-key guitarist and singer Dennis Kamakahi on the in-flight entertainment system. I continued to listen while the plane taxied to the terminal.  Since we were at the back of the plane and would be among the last to disembark, I figured I’d enjoy as much of this wonderful music  as I could before gathering our things together. But my wife started tugging at my sleeve and saying something I couldn’t understand. And I saw yet another flight attendant. She had pulled the wrapped dulcimer from behind the seats. I took my earbuds out, a little grumpy at being yanked from Hawaiian bliss to Narita tarmac.

“She wants to make sure the dulcimer is OK,” Miwako said, “And she wants to see it.”

“OK, fine,” I said, taking the instrument from the attendant. I unwrapped it. The bass string peg had been bumped and the string was a little flat. Otherwise the dulcimer was fine. I handed it over to the crew member. She looked it over closely and brushed the strings lightly while we got out of our seats. More questions, more answers. I got our things down from the overhead bin while Miwako and the attendant chatted. The plane emptied while they talked and finally we hustled down the aisle, the last to leave, as the crew finished up. The naked dulcimer had landed, arriving in good condition.

As I said at the top, the bad news, the horror stories and problems get reported. I wanted to share my good experience and praise the ANA staff and cabin crew for their concern and efforts. It is a class operation.

Jim, I agree with Lisa, as crafty as you seem to be, you can make this drum work.

Terry again, I have a plastic box that I bought at Canadian Tire (a Canuck hardware store).  It was meant to store small parts, but it fits six 10 hole diatonic mouth harps perfectly and fits in a guitar or banjo case easily. The old Elton rack is one I bought in the early sixties and the only modifications are a bend to make it hit my mouth squarely and a couple of lock washers.  I also have a drawer full of harps that I never use, but these six get played pretty regularly.

Terry, Here's another view of the drum.  It was a cheap, $7.00 drum from a school supplies catalog. I put the design on the front in magic marker.

Lisa, I lined up the thumb hole with the third hole from the bottom of the whistle and used a drill bit the same diameter as the hole on the front, so it makes the same note as the third hole from the bottom of a tin whistle.  I seem to recall playing a tune called Nonesuch, in my decade ago attempt at becoming a pipe & Tabor player, but I can't recall what it goes like now.

I just looked it up on "The Session" website and here it is:  Nonesuch on The Session

Fun to see a little mini flurry of posts here       Terry , the vision of you marching around your house with pipe and tabor while your wife perhaps takes cover someplace gives me a good chuckle.      I try to take full advantage when Brian goes out to mow the grass or on an errand... I rush to do a practice session as soon as he's out the door!   lolol   The notes of these pipes and whistles are pretty good at traveling through walls and even floors.  The high notes are piercing indoors, and my neighbors are too close for me to practice in my yard.  At this point in my playing i wouldn't want to cause suffering for wild birds either.  Or I might attract the unwanted attention of chicken hawks.  ;)

Jim , I can't believe how you did that to make a penny whistle into a tabor pipe!  Very inventive!!

Did you calculate where to position the thumb hole?  Because the thumb hole placement is very specific to give certain notes, and your thumb hole looks to me to be much closer to the mouthpiece than my tabor pipe's thumb hole is located in relation to the two top holes.  But the proof of the pudding is- are you able to play tunes on it, like Mary had a little lamb etc?  Does it jump into the higher register where you need it to go to the next note?  I would 'think' that by design a PW would not be able to behave the same way as a tabor pipe, but if it works then I am amazed and very impressed!

I think you could easily use that frame drum as your tabor.  You could either drill a couple of holes in the rim and hang it over your arm (don't make the strap too long), or sit to play and hold it vertically on your lap using your arms and legs somehow.  I recommend a short drumstick with a padded tip, especially if practicing indoors.  If you want to beat the drum with your right hand, then you'll need to hold and play the pipe with your left hand.  While it might be good at some outdoor festival, I hate the sound of my snare while practicing alone indoors, so I beat on the other side of my two-sided tabor drum, and I tucked a little folded piece of chamois under the snare thread to keep it quiet.

I might be wrong, but I 'think' that on either a PW or tabor pipe, if you have a D pipe you can play in G, or D, or E minor.  I have a G tabor pipe only so far, and mostly I've been playing medieval and renaissance simple tunes in A minor.  But if I know the tune by ear, I can base it on the A minor key and work it out without having to find actual sheet music in the key my pipe is in.  Some accidentals (a sharp here and there in the minor key) I have found i can get by half covering a hole.  Using half holes gives you the ability to play in some other keys since you can then create sharps and flats as needed.  But this is mostly beyond my current level.  I do this stuff by hearing rather than by knowing music theory- I hear when I need a note to be a sharp in a certain part of a tune, and I experiment to see if I can make a sharped note with my fingering somehow. If there are several 'missing' notes I know I need to start the tune in a different key or home note (or else get a pipe in another key)...it feels kind of like the mountain dulcimer noter style playing that way!- find where the tune 'fits' on your fret board and start it there so you'll have the needed notes for that tune.   

One other thing I noticed-   I tend to practice for about 45 minutes or so.  When I practice every day I don't notice my progress as much.  When I skip a day or two once a week, when I pick up the pipe again I can actually see and feel the progress since the last session.  hmm...I like that!  lol

I switch on my metronome!

I usually have only a very short time to learn and memorise and then record any new piece. As soon as I can just about play it I then switch on my metronome and play. If I make a mistake I leave the metronome on and pick up the tune a few measures before the error.

This technique forces the physical muscle memory for that tune into the non-conscious and ties the sound to your physical movement. I can memorise new tunes very quickly and get them to full playing speed using this technique.

Jim,  it would sure be interesting to see the side of the drum.  Us tabor people find this interesting.

Nice looking flute you got there.  Good job.

Coordinating the two instruments for a beginner is, I believe, the most difficult part to learning pipe and tabor.  Fitting the drum on your arm and holding a flute with one hand, well enough to cover the holes properly, is very trying in the beginning.

However, with a little practice, the ah ha moments begin.

Until my coordination improves, I am only practicing very simple songs like:

Mary had a little lamb,  Aunt Rhody, Cabbage song, and Twinkle Twinkle.   For me  the most fun I experience is just making up music and marching inside and outside of my home.  

Neighbors are seldom home and even if they were we are not very close.

My most stressing learning obstacle is arthritis in my hands and fingers.  But I do feel this is improving thanks to Strumelia, Lexie,  my wife, and meds.

Try it.......you may just like it.

I had skipped over page two.  I just saw Lisa's video and was impressed.  I see that my homemade pipe & tabor are quite crude compared to the ones you guys have, but they'll do me for now.  Maybe I'll start working on the tune Lisa played.

I made a tabor pipe from a Generation D whistle about a decade ago and worked at it for a while, but it has been sitting in a crock of whistles in my music room for a few years now.  I got it out to tke these photos

I strted by inding the bit that would exactly fit the third hole from the bottom and , placing the whistle on a piece of scrap board, I drilled through the back of the whistle.  I then put a piece of masking tape over all but the bottom two holes and, voila, I had a workable tabor pipe.

I have a cheap 12 inch frame drum, with no snare, that I had intended using as a tabor drum.  You guys may have inspired me to have another go at it.
What tunes do you folks play on your pipe? 

Golly, I don't know about Jeff's instrument, Rob; you'd know better than I do.  I'm hoping to make it to the concert at Jerry Rockwell's fest yet may not know until last minute whether I'll get to go or not. 

I'm going to wait and see if Jeff has any cds at SE Ohio.  Save the shipping  lol.  Can't wait to meet him.  Love players who play like he does using no extra frets.  In fact, is that an old Capritaurus he's playing?  Scroll over a "flat head" was something they used wasn't it?

I'm glad you ladies enjoyed seeing Appalasia!  I've ordered a cd.  :) 

Why is it embarrassing to look in your harmonica drawer? I don't have a harmonica drawer -  they just lie all over the place!  But I do have a briefcase for gigging.

Lisa, you being a mother hen is just fine.  I'll do it.

I was just telling my wife a few minutes ago, as we are driving from Florida back home to Georgia,  how much I miss practicing my instruments.  She is shopping at a Bealls outlet store, while I'm resting in the car.

Lisa, yes, you are nuts.   A real nut.  But be at peace, there are a lot of music nuts on this forum, including this Ole south Georgia boy.  It's almost embarrassing when I look in my harmonica drawer.  

Lisa!  I really love your video.

This is a very wonderful threesom of musicians thanks for pointing this out to us Robin. I really enjoyed hearing them play.

Terry, thanks!  As my fotmd "Tabor Pipe Buddy" I know you understand and know first hand about the wacky learning curve on this crazy instrument duo...    Your moral support and feedback have helped keep me moving forward on this pipe & tabor project.

My mother hen kicks in:  Terry please keep your practice sessions very short - like maybe just 10 minutes for any one practice- I don't want you to aggravate your hand pain!

I couldn't resist and I have a couple of penny whistles coming in a day or two now as well.  Guess I'm just nuts but oh well.   I have to wait a month anyway before that tabor pipe maker gets back from his trip and then he can make me my second tabor pipe- a wooden one this time in high D probably.  Meanwhile I can continue on my plastic G tabor pipe & drum, and see if I can figure out these penny whistles as well.  I think the wait will do me good actually- it'll test my commitment. 

fun fun fun.....     

I love a dulcimer (of course), can't play but love a banjo, and I actually dream of an erhu (because of my K-drama love)!  ~this is amazing~  Thank you for sharing!!!!  Perfection!

OH so much to digest, and this is why I love all of you!  ~I will read and reread~  *THANK YOU!*

Lisa,

I just saw your video, seconds ago.  Wow!  I am so very proud of you.  I know how difficult this is, and I also know you have put some work into this madness.  

I've got to get home soon and get busy.

Hooray for Lisa.  Hooray,  hooray. 

Sandi, as others have pointed out, you are actually asking several different questions here.  The answer to all of them, though, is repetition.

If you want to be able to play without staring at the fretboard, you need to play the same dulcimer--or at least one with the same VSL--all the time so that you get used to equating the difference between tones with a distance on the fretboard.   I would also suggest sliding more than normal because your ear will cue you when you're approaching the right note.  Although I can play my guitar without looking at the fretboard a whole bunch, I find it much harder on the dulcimer, where we jump around on the fretboard so much.  HOwever, if you are really at a campfire, the fire will provide plenty of light to see the fretboard.

I have to admit that I am not sure how to tell you to "memorize" tunes.  For me personally, by the time I know a song, I know the song, meaning I can play it without tablature.  I can't really "play" according to tablature but only use it to learn tunes. I am sure if you went measure-by-measure or phrase-by phrase through a song you could memorize it. But I would suggest changing the way you learn songs so that you can memorize them all (until you get as old as I am and start forgetting songs you used to know).

As Ken says, you have to really "know" a piece of music in order to play it without tab. That means getting it into your head. I heard a story of Linda Brockinton driving from Arkansas to Florida listening to the same rendition of the same song over and over.  She had to get the song in her head before she was able to play it on the dulcimer. Once I know what a song sounds like, I think about it's structure. Is it AABB?  ABC? or whatever.  Then I look for other common patterns.  Maybe it is a song generally played AABB with the both parts taking 8 measures.  Is each of those 8-measure sequences a single melodic line or actually two (which is often the case).  Now I have a song with four distinct phrases, and usually the second part of the A and the second part of the B will be similar, sometimes even identical.

I do all that analysis (which only takes a minute or two once you have th esong in your head) before even playing. But I find it's important to understand the structure of a song so you can remember where you are when you are playing. Once I start learning the song, I will indeed take one phrase at a time or even one measure if it's really hard.  And as others have said, repetition is the key.  My wife and daughter hate it when I learn a new tune because I play it dozens of times every day for many days in a row.  I often play nothing other than a song I am learning until I really have it down and "know" it, by which I mean I can play it with no tablature.

Of course, I sometimes forget tunes later on, but usually all that is needed is for someone to play or hum the beginning and then my memory kicks in.  Ken says he writes down the tab for the beginning of each tune for the same reason, I'm sure.

I don't know if any of this is helpful, but I would suggest not playing songs that you can't hum or whistle or sing.  Get it into your head first, and watch your fingers on the fetboard while you play. Then your eyes, ears, and fingers are all making connections between the differences in tone between two notes and the distances on the fretboard.

Memorizing the melody is the easy part. Memorizing timing and lyrics is the extremely hard part for me.

The hard part is when you have a song half-memorized.  Then you play along from memory until about halfway through and end up frantically looking at the tab trying to figure out where you are.  Or, there's a really difficult section that you have practiced repeatedly and have finally gotten down, only to realize that you can never remember what comes next.  I've been playing for two years and only have 2 tunes memorized, though, of course, I haven't really put any effort into trying.

Sandi, I see your question as addressing several issues, as well.

• ...Being able to play without looking at your fretboard is about muscle memory.  It takes practice and at first you're missing notes all over the place...then you hit the right note or chord a lot of the time....then most of the time.  Start with songs that don't make giant leaps on the fretboard.  There's a reason why Boil 'Em Cabbage Down is a beginning tune!
• Memorizing lyrics is really hard for me.  I'd have to go over it a gadzillion times, at least.
• With memorizing the tune, I suggest you start with songs you already know and get good at playing those without tab.  I'm currently working on a list of tunes that I have in my head, adding more to the list as I think of them.  I'm up to about 125...and I only have on it the ones that come readily to mind...I'm not lookin through my books or files.  You can always start with songs you've known since childhood (Twinkle twinkle Little Star, Deck the Halls, Happy Birthday, etc.)  You may not want to PLAY all these on the dulcimer, but when you make the list, you may surprise yourself at how many tunes are already filed away in your brain!

I bought some mini lights that clip onto your cap or shirt collar.

Y'all are sooo amazing~thank you for sharing your wisdom with me!!!  I will continue on....

I just found this guy called Erik the flute maker . He makes great sounding whistles. But get this - A wooden saxophone!

My daughter and I have been to a couple of campfire events. If it's done correctly and you are sitting near the fire (not too close) you should get enough ambient light to see the fret board. If you feel you will not be able to see, Ken's suggestion is a good one. As for me, as Ken said, repetition is the only way I can memorize a song. When I play it so much that I'm just about sick of it then I know I got it memorized. Take a line at a time. When you got that one down go on to the next adding line by line. You will be using muscle and mind memory to know where to place your fingers or noter if you play noter drone. 

Lots of great info coming up here- thanks everyone!

I did order a couple of pennywhistles, since I'm learning the tabor pipe which seems to have a somewhat similar setup (in some ways).  Maybe taking on more than I can manage, but at least I won't go broke doing it.     

JK, Forgot about Possum Cafe, LOL. I just want to see you playing the tuba. I miss Carrie. Please tell her I said hi next time you speak with her. Thanks!

Sandi -- go to a bookstore and look at those small LED reading lights which clip onto the book you're reading.  Like Lisa I can't play in the dark, and our new Open Mic location is kinda dark already.  I'm going to get one of those reading lights and see how it will work.

Ken, you are right.  The one song I know well is the Constipated Bible one, but I worked it out myself.  The others I am learning are from TAB....

Strumelia, you bring up a good point.  I was thinking by campfirelight I'd be able to see my instrument...  HHHMMMMMm...  I am finding I do better after memorizing lyrics, but I have quite a hefty list I'm working on.  That could also be a piece of the puzzle~slow down and work on one at a time???

Noah, the thin Dunlops (.38) made a huge difference in my ability to increase my playing speed--necessary for those lickety-split fiddle tunes.  The test strips have about the same flexibility, depending on how close to the end you hold it.  And I have 2 or 3 newly available ones every day! 

Sandi, I'm sensing two different issues in your question:

1) the ability to memorize how to play the tune with your fingers, and/or to memorize the lyrics,
and
2) the ability to play the music with your fingers if it's dark and you cannot see the fretboard at all.

I find it impossible to play either dulcimer or banjo in the dark without being able to see my fretboard at all...even if I have the tune memorized.  I think if I were playing solely chords on a guitar it might be easier and more automatic, but when playing melody notes that go all over the place it's proven to be more than I can handle when playing in dark campsites.  Some folks say you can get good at it by practicing at home with a blindfold etc, but that's something I myself am not going to devote practice time to.   This said, you might find you have few problems with playing in the dark, so you might want to experiment a bit with it.