Forum Activity for @marg

     I started with one dulcimer and not much music, now I have several dulcimers and other instruments and lots of music, tabs, books, bags, stands, misc. and etc.

    At one time I could practice most anywhere, than I started moving around trying to find a spot. I am now trying to set up an area and I was looking for ideas of how you may have yours arranged. What type of seating you thinks works well and size of area or space or room you have.

    Any ideas or photos of your special music space or area would be a hugh help, thanks.

My dulcimer life is very simple... I only own two (not counting "Stubby").  I do all performing on my Homer Ledford, and play my Warren May around the house.   If I had more dulcimers I would only confuse myself.

Thank you, for sharing these websites! 

Bro. Mark.  I think the consensis is that the dulcimer was made in Korea.  Not that one of your Order couldn't have been building dulcimers in the 70s, but I would expect a more complete "Made by Brother James of the Order of St. Francis" kind of label.  Or at least a sketch of Friar Tuck playing a dulcimer!   "Franciscan" here could be a backhanded reference to San Franciso, "flowers in your hair", that sort of counterculture thing. 

http://www.primeshop.com/MIDILibrary/midlist2.htm

http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/ti_frset.htm

http://www.dulcimerandmore.de/Tabs/tabs.html#alph_H

http://www.kitchenmusician.net/pages/kmmusicbyorigin.html

 Mark, love your lantern avatar.  I have a small collection of them.

Tom, a second dulcimer is handy.  The instrument you built has such a nice sound!  And it was always a treat to hear you & Melissa make music.  

Last summer, I bought a used dulcimer through Craigslist-- the seller and I met in a public place to conduct business.  Perhaps you would have good luck buying used locally?  

It'd be an honor and a treat to hear you two playing Quittin' Time!  

Dear Charley,

I am also intrigued by your dulcimer because of the inner label reading, "Franciscan".  I am a Franciscan Friar...one of those brown-robed, sandal-footed monk types of Friar Tuck fame from the days of Robin Hood and the Sherwood Forest.  I was amazed to see our name in there and am wondering if at one time any of our friars (there are about 20,000 of us in the world!) were building dulcimers?!?!?  

If you learn any more about this instrument, I'd love to know.

Sincerely,

Brother Mark

 Tumbleweed, are you planning to attend this event? If you are, did you hit the Attend Button for the event? It should put the event on your calander. 

I have a question.  Is there a way I can put an existing event on my calendar?

I'm still very much a beginner in playing but the issues I had with the dulciborn have settled down, except still on the highter frets - they are still hard to play but I am mostly playing lower down. I want again to thank you all for all the suggestions and your ideas in helping me set up my instrument. I am posting a few videos for the 4th on the dulciborn and any trouble I am having is more from just still learning how to play, not the dulciborn itself. So, thanks again

 Thank you for posting this.  That's a very interesting instrument.....  whatever it is!

My husband Wayne Jiang and I have started a new podcast exclusively about the mountain dulcimer called Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to everything about the mountain dulcimer: the dulcimer’s history, dulcimer music, dulcimer builders, dulcimer communities, dulcimer culture, and much, much more!

Hearts Of The Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 1
Scheitholt Part 1

http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast

In this first episode, folklorist Lucy Long and luthier Ben Seymour talk about the German scheitholt. Plus, Heidi Muller talks about Dulcimer Week in the Wallowas in Oregon.

For episode resources, go to: http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/001.html

Hearts Of The Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 2
Joni Mitchell's Dulcimers

http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast

In episode 2, we have two stories about Joni Mitchell's dulcimers. Joellen Lapidus tells the story of selling Joni a duulcimer at the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival. Rick Scott recalls being picked up by Joni while hitchhiking in Canada in 1971.

For episode resources, go to: http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/002.html

Hearts Of The Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 3
Scheitholt Part 2

http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast

In this episode, we continue the exploration of the scheitholt:

- What kind of music was played on the scheitholt?
- Why did it fade into obscurity?
- And why is there a surge of interest in the scheitholt?

To answer these questions, Wayne spoke with Ken Koons, Ryan Koons, and Ken Longfield, who are musicians and instrument builders. They have built their own scheitholts and have done research on the instrument.

For episode resources, go to: http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/003.html

Howdy Robin.

Thanks for the input.  I might get another dulcimer.  I am looking to make some changes to the one I built but don't want to be without one in the mean time.  It might also be nice to have a second already set up to a different tuning since some jams change keys around frequently.

In any case, it was nice to hear from you.  Melissa and I picked out your Quittin' Time at the Essex Mine or at least something close to it.  You have some good tunes!!!

Tom S.

The black Snark works well for me. I agree with Ken, tune and remove. Too many people in our jam sessions tune and leave them on. It's not good for the finish on the dulcimer to leave them on, and it looks silly.

Some splitters have the ability to join pages also. I don't remember which one I used.

Hi Skip,

I'm trying thatright now. The free splitter splits the pdf into individual pagesjust grat but when I haavea2 page song Mobilesheets wants it as 1 file. I am going to try converting to picture files where I can load mulitple files to 1 song. Never done it but it is my next best shot.

Thanks.

Didn't realize a 'strummer' is a stick dulcimer which, i guess, is played like a guitar.

I was thinking of a base under the 'body' to mount a holder.

I use a little black Fender clip-on.  I don't put it on the dulcimer, I clip it to my possum board, the edge nearest to me.  Pet peave.... seeing a beautiful instrument with tuner clipped to the end.  When the instrument is tuned, take it off before you perform.

Skip -- a possum board won't work with a strummer (aka stick dulcimer). 

Mr Phil -- You could try memorizing a number of tunes...    Or, if your tab is on 3x5 cards, you could rig a mount on the strummer's neck, like a backwards capo sorta, to hold a standard music instrument lyre.  The elastic would go under the strings and the bar in back would hold the lyre.

How about making a combination possum board/tab holder?

You could use a pdf splitter. I have just the books so I made pdf's of each page.

I've seen reports that the 'Reds' break more easilly than the 'Blacks', something to do with how brittle the plastic is.

Like an herb garden right outside your kitchen door, an istrument hung on the wall near where you hang out is often used.  

I use Mobilesheets o my Android table  for storing all of my music, but it is a pain when I get a .pdf file that contains a bunch of songs. Join the Jam II has about 200 songs but came to me as one file. What are the easiest ways to store these things nd be able to search them? Seems like one time I found a way to have a bunch of bookmarks automatically generated, but I can't remember how? Does anyone have any ideas?

Hi, Tom!  

I've only seen one of JR's instruments and it was at a luthier's shop in need of a repair of some kind.  As I recall, it was a heavy, sturdy instrument (as opposed to being a light build).  I didn't play it so have no idea about how it played or sounded.  

Hope you are well!  Warmest wishes,

Robin

The problem is this: my new strummer dulcimer is too small to mount a lyre on it to hold my tab sheets. It is made with the body of a ukulele. THERE IS NO ROOM! I'm thinking I'll have to use a portable stand (that is height adjustable) now if I play it outside home in a group. I despise lugging MORE STUFF around. Has anyone seen, found, got, or have a picture of a neato-solution to this issue?

Does anyone have any experience with instruments from this builder?  Strengths or weaknesses?  I am looking at a standard dulcimer and not the banjo model.

Thanks in advance for any input.

The capo allows the guitar player to play in D with the same fingering that would be used if the music were played in C.  Another option would be for you to drop the pitch of your dulcimer down a whole note to match everyone else playing in C.  Have fun!

Do you know what else they love- an open case or gig bag! It's the Purrrfect size for my cats and my small dog even tried it ( just once, she thought it smelled too much of cats, and being a dog she does have some standards! )

Joe thank you so much for your encouraging post.   Yes your avatar image is fun and original!   It's amazing how delightful some people's images are- and so much wonderful variety!      Big hug to you...

Hi Strumelia, you have created a great new site. I love it. Glad you got rid of the "typewriter" photos for new members. Wish everyone would post something original, rather than the standard stock dulcimer photo you are using for most members. I sent my photo to some online guy and got him to draw a caracature of me holding my dulcimer and it came out fairly well. My kids say it is ugly, but at least it is original, LOL!!!!  Thanks again for a great site.

joebesse@aol.com

Has anyone used the tool explained on the website "Dulcimer Simplified" for barre chords and other chords on the mountain dulcimer? I would like to get feedbck on this item, so that I might use it to teach beginner dulcimer players in my club. Thanks for any help given on this.

joebesse@aol.com

Thanks guys.   I know that it's not always intuitive and breezy to figure out how things work here-  partly because we are sooo used to things working a certain way.  We're on a whole different platform now, that was pulled around this way and that to make it function as closely as possible to how we have been used to for six years-  but some things are just plain built differently and we have to learn new 'work patterns' to get around and do stuff that used to be familiar but now works differently.

It's kind of like remodeling a house-  the entrance door used to be on the side, but you put a window there instead and relocate the door at the back so people can drive around and bring in their groceries in more easily...people will keep automatically knocking at the side window while fumbling for their keys....for a good long while...  lol.

I appreciate your extreme patience... the good news is that the place is pretty good already and will only get better slowly and steadily!  And we are now SAFE, updated, and expanded.  In contrast, the old site was being badly neglected by the old provider, and we were completely dependent on that company to keep it running FOR us.  Now there is no uncaring corporation to be dependant on anymore.  

Having those two options of how to join a forum is excellent. If you've been following it regularly, you would only want to see the most recent posts. Otherwise, you can join in the beginning and catch up. Some of these changes will be second nature to us all once we get used to the nuances of our new home.

WOW, thank you Strumelia for your work at educating us on what happens by clicking on different areas.

This has really helped and I appreciate your time and effort! 

Ken, great idea!  I'll be sure to put this in my 300 page "Tips on Navigating FOTMD" outline I was planning to write this afternoon! 

This will be wondnerful Lisa. Thanks for taking on this project.

Ken

"The dulcmer sings a sweet song."

I learned something new too! Thanks Lisa!!!

BINGO!  Never even considered clicking on the number.... thought it was just a counter!   Need to put this in your "Tips on Navigating FOTMD" file