Forum Activity for @lexie-r-oakley

Hi Erin,

 I want to encourage you to play on your own till you find folks to play with. I am in Central MT and no one around has even heard of a mountain dulcimer. I am slowly introducing it. I am a beginner to music and to the dulcimer and have reached out to folks on this site who have very generously helped me learn everything I am ready for about the instrument, strumming, using a noter to basic music tabs, building and the history of our wonder "sweet strings".

There are many folks that offer skype lessons and instructional videos on this site and U-Tube.

I hope you enjoy your dulcimer journey and I hope you just play and have fun with it.

Lexie

I have been catching up on the pod casts; thank you for introducing me to a beautiful soul Judy Klinkhammer. She was quite a pioneer there in the mountains. I really appreciate her spirit for her music and how she shared it with anyone.

What an inspirational woman with the MD and her life with passing on music.

Wow! We're up to 14 already?  We just had Neal up here in Sacramento for a workshop and concert this past weekend.  I look forward to taking a break from work and checking out the latest episode.

Thanks for all you do!

Hearts Of The Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 14
Neal Hellman: Part Folk, Part Classical, All Acoustic

Neal Hellman has played the mountain dulcimer for more than 40 years and is the founder, director, and one of the primary artists on the Gourd Music record label. Gourd Music recordings are known for lush arrangements often pairing the dulcimer with folk and classical instruments. With music by Gourd Music artists.

For episode resources: http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/014.html

Salt-springs, thank you for posting this chord chart! I was just at a place of needing one, and voila!! Typical fotmd magic!

John Henry's tribute to John P is altogether fitting and proper.  And so lovely. 

I will pass on the info.

    I hope you do continue with the dulcimer even if on your own. There is lots on here or you-tube on 'how to' Even if there are others around, you still spend a good amount of time playing on your own. So, try and stay with it for one day when you can meet up with some folks. Do you have several dulcimers or is your Smoky Mountain,  the dulcimer you are learning on? AS long as it has a nice action (not too hard to play) and a sweet sound it's as good as any to play.

Good luck, ask a question and strum away.

John Henry has posted a beautiful tune tribute, played for John P ....

Lament for John P

I have a town & country, a mini-van but much better than the some cars that needed to hop onto the sidewalk at the end of Causeway Blvd. and many other parts of the city Friday. Rain just came too fast for the pumps to keep up. 

Yes, ken, I am very familiar with new orleans and flooding, just wishing erin 'all the best' with her move. Ha, it's not just the level of the water but the pot-holes, they will drop you down sometimes another foot while you're driving. 

I was uptown visiting family and dropping off a dulcimer to my sister-in-law. She has recently became very interested in their sweet music but the weather messed up the amount of time I had to show her much of anything. What is the saying 'hell or high water' well that didn't keep a dulcimer from landing in new hands and a heart ready. 

"high ground" and "New Orleans" just don't belong in the same sentence....

Hope your move is to high ground erin-laine, it was a mess yesterday morning in new orleans

Noah, that looks very much like the headstock of a Hughes Dulcimer.  I have 2 that I believe are Hughes kit dulcimers.

This is a dulcimer my great grandfather built. I haven't been able to find any dulcimer pictures that show this distance from the nut to the headstock. Just wondering if there is a certain style of dulcimer that He could have seen and decided to copy.

 IMG_2531.JPG.jpg - 87KB

Wow...this thread was originally started right after Karen and I discovered the mountain dulcimer.  Like so many, we first saw it at Silver Dollar City.  It's nice to read this thread and remember some of the posters who have come and gone over the years, and to take a moment to really miss a couple of folks who are no longer with us.  We made a little mini-documentary about our dulcimer discovery that pretty much tells it all. 

Yum!!!!

I forgot to add the skunk pot pie to the menu.

Possum on the half shell, a big ol' crawDAd boil, Dew claws, ramp salad, with a jug o' corn squeezins.  Yum, Yum!

Salt ,you're on to something!

Yes!!!!! And Lobster claws for finger pic's......

Salt, porcupine quills !! 

Well..............yeah!   Same goes for picks you know..............the quill think has run its course and I suggest some of us begin experimenting with other things.  Just this afternoon, I came across a poor Opossum on the road.............then I thought, now wouldn't that tail would make a great pick that would add a lot of zip to Galax style tunes.  Then a bit further an Armadillo............so I said, why not have Opossum on the half shell.............

Good one, Charles.  We also sleep in the key of "Z"

I,ve been working on a new key... "H" Why do we limit ourselves to ABCDEFG when we have a whole alphabet of 26 ? Imagine a tune in the soothing key of S or the Zing of a song in the key of Z! The possibilities are mind boggling!! My explorations with the key of H have lead me to a chiropractor , but please don't  let that  you stop your experiments............... Happy April Fools Day!!

My favorite place to play?  Anywhere I can sit with a dulcimer.  Although, if I can't sit, I will do the "Robert Force" standing method (tho' not too well.)

My favorite place to play alone is in my recliner with my feet up and the dulcimer resting across the arms of the recliner.  But I also love playing with one or two people, in small groups, large groups, and KMW super jams!  I love playing on the porch at Dulcimer Rendezvous or the lodge at the Great American Dulcimer Convention.  I love having someplace comfortable to sit with a cool breeze and some beautiful scenery.

Practicing  strum patterns. ..........you are very smart Lexie.

Yes Gail, it is fun to play around with my dulcimers along with my Girly, who is just 9.

It is a great tutor for me to really listen to what is played. It works lots on my strumming techniques also. We have fun with it.

It has been fun and a test for me to involve this child.

Lexie, Your 'copy me' game sounds like a great way to learn to play by ear, with a willing friend or family member.

 Chord chart for dulcimer by David Beede is here:

http://www.davidbeede.com/simpledulcimerchords.htm

 Beautiful work Kevin, it really rings and sings. I hear that you play just fine, we all know you understand how to make um sing!

I love the zither drones! 

Hi IIshana.........I have tried tab edit, but alas I am too slow to figure it out.....I'll bow to your expertise with that concoction of buttons and stuff.   I have found the chords for  OM Namah Shivaya more or less worked out by players far smarter than I.  Here is a link to some guitar chords:

http://easybhajans.blogspot.com/

 However, for almost all the traditional versions that you will find you are going to need a 1 1/2 fret.  Now, all is not lost because those can be added by a luthier or you can use what I call the Jessica Coumeau method, who incidentally is a genius on the MD.  Appears she took a piece of wire or bass string about a 1/2 inch and placed it at the 1 1/2 point and using some Scotch tape held it in place.  I would also think that DGdd would be your optimal tuning for that one.  David Beede another phenominal player posts this chord chart for all sorts of tunings..........I found it very helpful.

Now to be perfectly honest...........chord playing fine, but I really get a hoot and holler out of drone and noter.

My favorite places to play are at home in my living room in font of my fire with my dulci' books etc, sometimes I do strum patterns with my lil' girly sitting side by side each with a dulcimer, it is our "copy me game", we have also included fret numbers.

When I have to ice or relax my injured knee, ( the knee part is healing) and practicing or working on a song alone, it is on my sofa recliner with my tabs etc next to me where I can reach both my dulcimers so I have a choice of which to play per song. 

When I am studying or need help I sit in front of my computer working on instruction from a friend on this site, I have no skyp, so it is not interactive, but occasionally it has been interactive through chat.

On a sunny, less windy day I sit on my shaded deck in my glider swing, oh I can't wait for the rain to stop and the sun to shine! I love strumming for the birds that are flittering in my bushes along side my deck....  

My update is that I now live on my sailboat at a marina on the Caloosahatchee, and my favorite place to just play is "sittin' on the dock of the bay, watchin' the tide roll away..." 

Update, seven years later (!):

We no longer play at that farmer's market.  Right now I gotta say that my favorite place to play is with my husband in our living room in front of the fireplace, whether there's a fire or not.  Though we do still enjoy going down to town and occasionally playing under a tree on Main street somewhere...for no particular occasion.  We don't put out a hat or case for money -simply to avoid anyone possibly complaining about 'busking'...ha ha!  

My favorite place to play is in our sun room at the back of our home, situated on the banks of the Flint River, in Georgia. 

I have Indian artifacts, decorative lighthouses, and a collection of bamboo fly rods and other items that I just enjoy staring at.  Through the glass windows, one can watch the birds and other animals play and hunt food.  Ducks down by the water and the occasional alligator float by.

All of this provides an amazing place to practice dulcimer and NAF, for a moment or sometimes hours.   I feel extremely blessed.  

Though my favorite place to play is still at home, I've got a new favorite room.  Upstairs by the front windows.  (They are low front windows.) I'm away from home for much of each week so my time playing dulcimer at home is very dear. 

PS- My Sweetheart keeps the home fires burning.  And he's my favorite playing partner. <3

I'm so sorry to hear of this. I only have been a member here a short time, but he helped me figure out how to tune the dulcimer correctly when I was afraid of popping a string. 

Very sad to lose friends even new ones...

God Bless him and his family

Maria

I got a really nice bunch of tabs from his website but when I googled him so that I could share my video of a song I did using his tab I get an obit. Did he pass away? and did anyone know of him?

thanks so much

Maria

In the mid-70's a couple came to the elementary school where I worked and performed at a school assembly.  I was familiar with folks songs and various instruments, but had never seen a dulcimer before (not that I could remember, anyway) and I loved the lively songs they were singing, like "Groundhog". Sometime in the next decade I got to hear Jean Ritchie perform in person, and in another 5 or 6 years I was making a cardboard dulcimer from a kit and trying out tunes on the melody string.  I wish I knew who the couple was who performed....I've wondered if our paths have crossed again in the past 40 years.  Could be...