Forum Activity for @strumelia

Hey don't 'shoot' the messenger!  

The chances that you are playing the more modern oldtime version of Angeline/Angelina are about 90% I'd guess.

When i looked through the Stephen Foster original sheet music, it seemed odd to me because I was so used to the modern version.  Doesn't quite do the 'expected'.

Here's a handy modern site with some basic Stephen Foster info and sheet music, lyrics:  Stephen Foster online songbook

These are Foster's lyrics:  Foster's lyrics   (gotta love the reference to a "wellumscope")

and here is the original sheet music:   http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/catalog/levy:067.003

Here is my banjer friend Paul Draper doing an EXCELLENT job playing and singing the original Stephen Foster Angelina Baker as it was published by Foster in 1850, including the lyrics (and notice how "beat on the old jawbone" became "beat on the old banjo" over time).  Foster's version has a subtle edginess because of the way both the A and B parts have lines that end on a note that sounds unresolved and anticipatory...I just love how rich and alive it all sounds. By the way, Paul shakes a plastic bottle of aspirin for his percussion section   :

P.S., for what it's worth.... when I was fooling with my ocarina way back then, I did notice that various Christmas carols sounded very pretty and festive on ocarina.  It's that time of year now, so don't be afraid to try your favorite holiday/winter tunes.  

Playing a dulcimer lefthanded is no problem.You just have to change the strings opsite. You must have a look at the place for the wounded string. It could be possible to make the slit a little bit wider. Normally the strings should just sit uppon the bridge and nut (half of the diametre deep)and not inside a deep slit. There is no need to buy a lefty dulcimer because the instrument is built symmetrical. If you want to sell the instrument it's no problem to change it back into a "normal" dulcimer - perhaps with a new nut.

Peace, good will, and sound logic.

My first dulcimer I got when I moved back the Urbana/Champaign area, where it was in a resale shop.  It was a 3 string AW Jefferey's model, with wooden friction pegs.  This was back in 1999.  I was mostly playing guitar and some autoharp at the time, but it intrigued me, so I bought it.  Even though I didn't play it, it did make a nice looking decoration in the couple of apartments we lived in.  I eventually in the mid 00's sold it to a member of the autoharp discussion list I was on to a member who also played dulcimer.  

Terry, I'm afraid I didn't keep up with learning my ocarina.  I'd have to start all over from scratch again, and now I'm spending my 'learn new instrument energy' on learning the bones.  Sure wish I had three more weeks every month to just have fun and play everything I wish I could!  I'll be reading this thread though, to have vicarious fun from you all!  

Tull Glazener sells a workshop arrangement of "Over the Rainbow." It comes with a melody and harmony part in tab and a CD that goes over the arrangement measure by measure.  You can find it at his website .

Gonna have to wait a spell on me.  I won't have my first ever Ocarina until sometime next week.

Strumelia, please give us a demonstration of you playing your Ocarina.   

Well, shoot, Strumelia!  Now I'm going to have to get the tab for both and figure out which one it is that I play!

This is all pretty cool.  Ok, so where are the vids of you all practicing and playing??  

Angelina Baker is the original tune as written & published by Stephen Foster in 1850.

Angeline The Baker is an oldtime tune/song that was clearly based on Foster's tune, but has evolved differently enough that I would consider them two separate tunes at this point.  If folks tried playing them together, it'd get confusing.

Both versions are 'traditional' - public domain.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a modern song that's under copyright, so one has to consider that when playing or distributing it.

I think Angeline the Baker and Angelina Baker is a single song with 2 names.

My first dulcimer was made in Berea, KY, too--by me!  I was serving as a chaperone at a national gathering of Girl Scouts who had come to explore Kentucky in 1991.  We stayed in Berea for several days, living in one of the older dorms and soaking up that great vibe that pervades the historic town of Berea.  The Cincinnati Dulcimer club came down and spent a day with us, helping us put together our cardboard dulcimers and teaching us a few songs.  It would be another 6 years before I bought a "real dulcimer"--an all cherry hourglass dulcimer with hummingbird soundholes from talented Warren May.

Suzanne, what a wonderful post!

I tried piano in Grade 2, too shy. In Grade 11, an autoharp ---- too many strings! Ditto the 12 string guitar I bought after I retired. Pain in the ...um... wrist. Hated walking past where it hung on the wall, taunting me.

But music was still in me, wanting out. Maybe a dulcimer? Found this site, Stumelia's Noter/drone blog, maybe I could play that way.

On March 19th of this year I came home from work to find a long box with a forklift puncture in it, left on our back deck in just-above -freezing weather courtesy of a Canada Post person who chose to ignore David Lynch's "fragile" all over the box! All was surprisinly well with the Sweetwoods student dulcimer inside, and soon little tunes were startling the canaries in the next room. Like the sentimental high school girl I am on the inside, I still mark the 19th of each month as an anniversary of the beginning of a love affair with the dulcimer that shows no signs of cooling off.

Enjoy them Terry, I know our house is happier with them playing upstairs. (They're a little loud) I always know that my son is happy when I hear him play.

After much research, I am so excited and can hardly wait for my C & G Mountain Ocarinas to come to my home.   My wife is even excited.  The sounds of the Ocarinas are beautiful.   Like a Pan Flute 

Good stuff Jan.  I am hoping to participate in some group sessions 2016.   

I didn't start playing any instrument until 3 years ago.   When I first started,  my song list grew rapidly, maybe a hundred songs.  Now though,  I concentrate on being proficient on a short list of songs.

You are pretty amazing.  Hopefully what you have written, will be valuable to the originator of this thread.

Clever "stand!"  I made several from scrap red oak that work fairly well.  Until I made these, I used guitar stands like Susie, Mary and Wout.

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Actually, Terry, I just finished making a list on Excel (so I can re-alphabetize after new additions) and there are 225 songs on the list.  Most of these I know how to play, some are ones that still need some work, and a dozen or so I've heard before but they're still pretty new to me.

I never take tab to a jam, but then I play mostly by ear.  Even with a song I've never heard before, I "watch hands", figure out the major chords and strum those--or, at the least, if they're playing in D, just strum a D chord every time it seems to fit.  That's how I started in jams when almost every song was new to me.  Or you can mute the strings and strum the rhythm.  I rarely sit out a tune, unless my hands are tired or I just want to listen and enjoy the others play for a bit.  Very rarely do I end up in a jam where there are unfamiliar (to me!) complicated fiddle tunes being played at breakneck speed, changing keys with every other tune, so that it's hard to do more than tap my foot and nod my head. 

Sometimes a song will be played that is unfamiliar to me and the person next to me has the tab and I look on theirs...but I'm not a very good sight reader of tab and find it difficult to keep up, unless I just play the first note in each measure (which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, by the way).  Also, if the tab is pretty complicated, you can just play the notes on the melody string. 

I've been singing and learning new songs with my family, school, choirs, education classes, church, scouts, and dulcimer events for nearly 65 years, so it's not really surprising that there's such a long list that I know.  I encourage everyone to start a list of songs they know, and to try to find them on their dulcimer.  Even if all you can do is say: "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"....I think it begins on the 2nd fret", then that's a great start.

I don't think any of us, as children, set out to "memorize" Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or Happy Birthday or Mary Had a Little Lamb, but we learned them and our mouths know how to move in such a way as to produce the vocal renditions of them...or we can hum them or whistle them, or pick them out on a piano or other instrument.  The more tunes you can hum or whistle, the better you'll be at jams, I think!

I know this isn't a stand but... This is definitely in my future!! 

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I'll second John's endorsement of the Homer Ledford festival in Winchester, KY on Labor Day weekend.  It's a small event but always has great instructors and the jams are a lot of fun.  It draws people from many states. 

Other weekend workshops/events/gatherings I've attended include:

• Kentucky Music Winter Weekend, held in Louisville, KY at a large hotel right off the expressway. In 2016 the dates are Jan. 8-10
• Ohio Valley Gathering (aka OVG) held in my hometown of Lexington, KY.  It will be Feb. 26-28 in 2016.
• Indiana Dulcimer Festival in Woodburn, IN at the Folkcraft factory  in Sept.
• Great American Dulcimer Convention at Pine Mtn. State Resort Park in Pineville, KY near Cumberland Gap National Park. This is always the last weekend in September and will be celebrating its 40th year Sept. 2016.
• The Raintree Music Heritage Weekend in Spiceland, IN in the late spring
• Bluegrass Creek Dulcimer Festival near Evansville, IN

Of course, there are many more wonderful events held on weekends that I have NOT attended. Hopefully, we will all be informed about these on FOTMD.

Now I really have to go find mine! 

In the video there are a bunch of instruments on the stage, including what looks like a mountain dulcimer on a stand at the far left (stage right).  Also what I think might be a bowed psaltery downstage.

In one photo it looked like a MD. But in 1974 any thing was possible.  Robert.

Is the instrument an American Mountain Dulcimer?  Or a French Epinette, like the Epinette des Vosges???

Je suis d'accord ..    .. I discovered Malicorne when I went looking for a French equivalent to 'Steeleye Span' , as a result of being part of a French conversation group ...... I also discovered Alain Stivell,Tri Yann and Angelo Branduardi at the same time. I figured a folk revival fuel for folk rock in England must have crossed the Channel in some form..

Hi Jan

That's a very impressive list of songs you listed.  If I may ask, when you play these songs in a jam, etc., do you use tab or do you have all the songs to memory?

I've played with a group of people, usually around 15, two times.  My only experience with jams.

Most everyone were using tab.  I could only play maybe one third of the songs,  having no tab book and playing by memory.  

I was okay with this, as I love to watch and listen to others play.  But both times I wished I had tab.  

I counted 22 of your songs that I have to memory, so I would have to set out more than half.  

Lisa said,

 "...what you actually have is a group of players who know each other and have played these songs before.  Or they're playing within a genre that has a core set of tunes that everybody knows.  Or they're improvising within a narrow set of boundaries, like with 12-bar blues.  Or... they all go to the same dulcimer festivals and they all learned the same songs from the same books because it's a small world."

My dulcimer group is 2000+ miles from my home and I only get to visit and jam with them a couple times a year, so I can relate, Lisa!  Most of the time I am going to jams at festivals/events/workshops, etc., where I know few people...and the attendees come from a wide range of states and even other countries.    It helps everyone if the jam is defined or described in some way, for example,

• "We won't be passing out tab, but if you want to bring yours, that's fine."
• "We'll be using 'Jan's Jammin' Book', but bring any tab that will help you."
• "This will be a fast jam featuring fiddle tunes, reels and jigs"
• "Our Snail Jam will be specifically for beginners.  We will teach several common jam tunes and tab will be passed out."
• "All tunes will be played in the key of D unless specified otherwise."
• "Expect the tune to be repeated until you see a foot raised or the leader gives a whoop, indicating the end."
• "We'll play all tunes AABB unless we announce an exception"

Since the jams I've been to always have the attendees taking turns choosing songs to play, if someone suggests a song nobody knows, they have the option of playing a solo for the group or choosing another song.  If several people know the tune, they will play it through several times and others will join in as they feel able, with chords, single notes, percussion, etc.

Some events publish jam tune titles in advance....Dulcimerville used to do that, and many found that helpful.  If nothing else, you can write suggestions on a board, make posters, or write titles on a cheap vinyl window shade with a permanent marker to help people remember tunes that they really do know.  The tune list may even lead to some requests! (Would somebody puh-leeze play 'Sally Slapped Me With a Flounder???!!!')

Here's my list'

Rosin the Beau/Bow  

Boatmen

Going to Boston        

Edelweiss 

Rock the Cradle Joe   

Sugar Hill

Old Yeller Dog            

Red Wing

Old Joe Clark            

Hard Times

Soldiers’ Joy           

I’ll Fly Away        

Ashokan Farewell  

Rattlin’ Bog 

Wildwood Flower      

Ash Grove

Columbus Stockade Blues

My Old Kentucky Home

Whiskey Before Breakfast

Sweet Hour of Prayer      

Will the Circle be Unbroken?

This Land is Your Land

Angeline the Baker 

She’ll be comin’ round the Mtn

Goober Peas         

Greensleeves

Scarborough Fair     

Southwind

The Water is Wide   

Rocky Top

Wabash Cannonball         

River

City of New Orleans    

Liza Jane

Reuben’s Train      

Ground Hog

Amazing Grace      

Simple Gifts       

Golden Slippers  

John Stinson2

Cripple Creek          

Angel Band 

O Susannah    

Short’nin’ Bread

Skip to My Lou     

Sloop John B

Spotted Pony           

June Apple

White Coral Bells  

Mes Parents

Go Tell Aunt Rhody          

Cindy

Boil ‘em Cabbage Down

Be Thou My Vision   

Scotland the Brave 

You Are My Sunshine

Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night

Leaning on…Everlasting Arms

Blowin’ in the Wind

Puff the Magic Dragon

Dona Nobis Pacem

Oh, How Lovely is the Evening

Star of the County Down

Shove That Pig’s Foot a Little Further in the Fire

Glendy Burke

Pretty Saro

Hope this helps!

If you're the organizer you should have a backup folder with tab for a half dozen simple songs like Lion Sleeps Tonight, Frere Jacques, KumBaYa, the detested Boil Those Brassicas Down, etc.  Or you're prepared to teach those tunes to people so they can play along without tab. 

Jan, those are really good points.  A jam can be anything you want it to be :-)

A lot of times when there's an informal jam, and nothing is pre-rehearsed, and it seems to a beginner like these people are performing magic -- what you actually have is a group of players who know each other and have played these songs before.  Or they're playing within a genre that has a core set of tunes that everybody knows.  Or they're improvising within a narrow set of boundaries, like with 12-bar blues.  Or... they all go to the same dulcimer festivals and they all learned the same songs from the same books because it's a small world.   

What do you do when you get a room full of players and nobody knows the same tunes? 

My last refuge in a room of singers and chord players is The Lion Sleeps Tonight, since it's 3 chords in a steady repeating pattern and people only need to remember one word from the lyrics (and wimoweh isn't even a word anyway).  I don't have a good fallback for melody/drone dulcimer, unless it's Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  I keep running into people who don't know Go Tell Aunt Rhody, for crying out loud. 

What are your fallback tunes to get a jam rolling?

And Kimberley, good luck on Saturday and tell us all how it went!

He is a good performer, for sure. Makes very good slides, which makes the ocarina sing!

Here's my end result of converting a guitar stand to a dulcimer stand.

http://fotmd.com/forums/forum/new_posts/18503/10-dulcimer-stand-conversion-project

Shared this video with my so who plays ocarina. He told me he has seen a lot of David Erick Ramos' videos, and that the wall of ocarina's seen in this video are about 1/10th of what he owns. 

We look forward to seeing you at Kentucky Music Winter Weekend!

Nice, a wall full of ocarina's

As demonstrated by the responses, a "jam" has many different meanings.  For me, it's a time to gather informally with other musicians to play music with no pre-rehearsed arrangement, taking turns suggesting and leading tunes, and feeling free to add harmonies or to use percussion or vocals or whatever else contributes positively to the experience.  I would expect some to be slow and some fast and some easy and some difficult.  I would expect that some tunes played would be ones I've never heard before, but I would still find ways to participate.  I think flexibility is key.

Other people like to gather and play tunes from a particular book or folder of music.  While I wouldn't call that a "jam", others do and that's OK--it's a fun activity and can be very helpful in learning and practicing tunes with a group.

Jams can be times when new tunes are shared and taught to a group on the spur of the moment, if the desire to learn it is there.  Sometimes, when only one person knows a particular tune, others listen in appreciation to the impromptu solo performance.

However you define a "jam", it's all about sharing music and having fun!

Piano, Banjammer, ukulele, penny whistle, recorder; a beginner on steel drum, djembe and hammered dulcimer; and a former player of the clarinet, guitar, and flutofone.

I have also had many classes with Dave and enjoy him in concert and as a lively participant in jams.  The "young boy" (now a teenager, I believe) is his nephew--and he's already debuted his first CD!  It's a real joy to see them perform in person--hope you get the chance someday!

I have classes with Dave H AND John Keane in KY festival in Jan. Pray for good weather.  Really looking forward to it.

Dave does have a membership here on FOTMD by the way, here is his profile page:

http://fotmd.com/dave-haas