From what I'e seen doing a search on 'dulcimer capo' $18-20 is about normal for a wood capo. I do suggest you don't get one of the plastic ones, I did for my first one and it broke fairly quickly. I would assume that most MD dealers/luthiers would have them available.
I see one on amazon for $20 (roosebeck.)
but I also see some on ebay that say hand made by KOCH. Same price.
Any opinions on these or any other? that's in that price (or better lol)
thanks so much
Maria
Happy Birthday to me then (really....today's my day).
That's wonderful, Strumelia! Thanks for posting. Paul is a phenomenal player.
The A part does indeed seem unresolved because it goes to the IV chord. Interestingly, the modern version of the song makes that same move but a bit earlier but then goes into a melody that resembles the B part of Foster's original. The A part of the modern song seems to be a kind of mashup of the two parts of the original.
Rob that was an amazing report of your time at Hindman, so happy you did so well with your classes and glad you enjoyed it all.
I would so love to be able to make it all that way to soak up all the history of the mountain dulcimer and meet all the great people who keep it singing today. It especially is a dream of mine to meet some of our members/ Friends and learn from you and play a tune with you.
Thank you Ken, Rob and Robin for sharing your time there and Ken thanks for the wonderful tour of pictures. 
Sounds like a great time. Maybe someday I'll be able to make the trek from the left coast.
Nice summary of your activities Rob, but you forgot to mention how great your roommate was. LOL! I did something a little different this year and decided to have a table in the vendors area to show my J.E. Thomas dulcimer and have some dulcimers and accessories for sale. Although I did not sell any dulcimers, I did sell some books, picks, noters, a tuner, etc. I had a wonderful time, enjoying workshops and the seminars, playing dulcimer and guitar, renewing old acquaintances, and making new friends. I'll post some photos of the museum.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Rob, great run- down of the weekend! I felt like I'd made it to Appalachian Dulcimer Promised Land in Hindmam! I hope to go back!
PS- Kathy V and I had been, unknowingly, assigned to the apartment Jean Ritchie, George Pikow, and Edna Ritchie used when they visited Hindman. It seemed the history of the school and the village was present.
I knew I would miss something good when I couldn't go this year. Sounds like a fun time for sure. I know last year was great, so next year will be even better.
Thanks for your imput , Rob. You whetted my appitite for next year.
The folks at Hindman, Ky, outdid themselves; this 2nd festival was better than the 1st one. We registered on Thursday. It was great to see the other presenters/performers again. Don Pedi, Anne MacFie, Randy Wilson & Cari Norris, none of them I'd seen since last year. It was also great to see our fellow members John Knopf, Dan Cox, Ken Longfield, Robin Thompson, and Mike Slone. After a visit with Mike & Doug Naselroad at the Dulcimer Shop (and future School of Luthierie) the festivities began Thursday night in the new Museum of the Mountain Dulcimer in beautiful downtown Hindman. We were treated to a concert by banjo performer/historian/collector George Gibson with one of his students, followed by Bob Young on dulcimer and vocals. After some conversation both at the Artisan Center after the show and at the cabin, we all retired for the evening, anticipating tomorrow's activities.
After a splendid breakfast of biscuits & gravy, eggs and sausage at the Hindman Settlement School we trekked across the campus to the School of Crafts to begin our workshops or man our sales tables. If you are unfamiliar with the Settlement School in Hindman, it has had connections to the dulcimer since its beginning. Uncle Ed Thomas was a visitor there, Josiah Combs was a student, Jethro Amburgey taught, and John D Tignor was a student as well. The 1st workshop I was to teach was "Accompanying your Singing," and I'll have to admit, though, I do it every day, I was a little nervous about this one. I had 7 students to face and as I started the nervousness left, and we had a great time, singing and using different methods to accompany ourselves. I believe they enjoyed it as much as I did.
When it was over, I wandered back across the campus and into town for lunch. After that great refreshment at the Artisan Center Cafe, I went back to the School of Craft to catch a little of Anne MacFie's rhythmic strumming workshop. After trying to teach something at least similar for a while now, I thought a new perspective on how to communicate with the students might be in order and, thank you Anne, got some ideas from you. When I got back to the Settlement School, there was Alan Darveaux sitting at one of the picnic tables outside the May Stone Center playing away. So I did what any fan would do: immediately sat and listened. Hung out 'til supper was over then Randy Wilson, Anne MacFie and I had to get ready to perform. Great concert, tho' my part could have used a little more polish. A little jam on the front porch of the cabin before bed followed.
Saturday morning found me up and at 'em although since my workshop wasn't until the afternoon I hung around the cabin for a bit after breakfast then moseyed over to the dulcimer shop. I got to play some great instruments there (at Doug's request) for folks who were coming in the shop. After lunch it was back to the School of Craft for my workshop on Tunes from the Sacred Harp. Again, small attendance, but because of it we were able to get into the songs and techniques for playing them a little more perhaps than in a bigger class. That night after a fine supper we enjoyed Ron Pen, Cari Norris and Don Pedi in the evening concert. Following that, who'd uv thought it, a jam.
I forgot to mention the seminars: Don Pedi, The Way of the Dulcimer and Ron Pen: Singing Family of the Cumberlands, both of which were excellent presentations.
What more is there to say? Come next year. The setting, the people, the music makes this a great place to come and drink in the atmosphere saturated in dulcimer history. Josh and Jessica of the Artisan Center, Brett at the Settlement School, Mike of the Dulcimer Shop and all the others who have had a part in the festival did an excellent job of making this a great time for all involved. Get yourselves down there, up there, over there next year and be a part of historic Hindman and its dulcimers.
Hi Susan, I am the Fothmd member Strumelia suggested to chime in.
We are a wonderful group because everyone is so encouraging for a person to play the MD the way it suits you comfortably and everyone has great ideas to help people to do juts that. You might also check out the group for "Challenged Players" my story is there with ideas also....
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis which challenges my hands, I have found that I enjoy playing Noter/Drone style, choosing the pick helps and I wear hand splints. The splints relax my hands so pain does not cause shaking or cramping.
It sounds that you are helping your friend come up with a solution which makes her more comfortable.
Let us know how it is going for your friend and the solutions you come up with to help your friend play comfortably.
Very nice job from Paul--but not the one I know, for sure! So I guess the one I know is called Angeline the Baker.
Thanks, Strumelia!
That's worth a lot Strumelia. I've been practicing Christmas songs on harmonica. Thinking perhaps I can learn a couple on Ocarina within a couple of weeks. We'll see.
Hi Ethany! -we have a Forum with various thread about how to do things on the site...and in it, there is a thread about how to send private messages: http://fotmd.com/forums/forum/new-site-questions-how-do-i/14488/private-messaging-system-questions
hope this helps 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'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:
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???
