Forum Activity for @strumelia

Great!  And I didn't even have to 'fix' anything!  

I should mention however, that there IS something I'm working on fixing that is related but different-   When we are 'following' a discussion and we get an emailed notification of a new post, if we click the link in the email, we are not taken to the new post as we should be...instead we are taken to the reply box at the bottom of the discussion's first page.  This is something I currently AM working to correct.  

Works like a charm!

You guys are totally crackin me up

I need a bigger red pen.

Ken...now you'll have me counting the hairs in my hairbrush....     

(that last picture looks like a football play....)

('AngryFishingGuy' would doubtless have lots to say about all this!)   

Sheryl, KenH, KenBacker...?    Does this help you all?

LOL, Lisa. We are all discovering new things with the new site. You are doing a great job keeping things running smoothly. I hope you still have all of you hair, wits, and patience. Thanks.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

It all makes sense. (But that doesn't mean that I'm not scared by the way Strumelia wields that red pen -- like an English teacher on a warpath!)

Ah you mean hovering over their Avatar picture on the right?  True!  though it doesnt give the exact time.

However, on the fotmd Main Page, in the lower left module titled "Latest Forum Posts"... it DOES tell you the last poster and the exact time of their post.  Also when yuo are THERE, clicking on the thread title WILL bring you to the latest post in the thread. (possibly because there's no other choices to click on)

Sorry I know that's a bit odd that it's different there than the other place, but hey nothing's perfect right?  Maybe I can do a rehaul down the road a ways...  or next year... when i'm old...  gettin there fast...  lol!  

For me it does, Lisa, but I can't answer for the others. I noticed that if you put your cursor over the last posters' name, you will see when they posted the last response.

I realize that this may not be terribly obvious, but does this help solve the issue?

I discovered it simply by trying to 'click differently' when I wasn't getting the result I expected.

Also, note the last poster's name, when they posted it, and shows their avatar...

Wow, I learned something new. Thanks Lisa.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi Lisa;

From the Home Page, click on Forums.  Select a Forum with lots of posts.  Select a Discussion with more than (I think) 25 posts.  When the Discussion opens the oldest posts will be first and at the bottom of the page is a Page Selector.  When you select Page 2 you see the most recent post(s).

Same thing happens if you start at the Forums Master Page and you select Discussions or Newest Posts.  When a Discussion with more than about 24 or 25 entries opens, you are seeing the very first entry, not the most recent...

Thanks Sam. I appreciate that. 

Ok, I'd like to start taking a look at this issue, but i need to have an exact step-by-step description of how you get to this point where you arrive at the oldest posts of a forum discussion (which is what you don't want).  

Please be very specific about where you start from, and what you click on in the series of clicking that you are doing.  

Start from the beginning- where are you starting from?  Outline each click step for me please.

Hi Gladys,

Glad you took over the jam in Pineville. I played with y'all several times and missed the group. Still playing the 2nd Saturday of the month at Jean Lafitte National Park in Lafayette. Come pass a good time with us and please keep me up to date on your Pineville group. joebesse@aol.com

Hi Kristi,

Welcome to the FOTMD. I play with the Cajun Dulcimer Society in Lafayette and Lagniappe Dulcimer Society and Red Stick Strummers in Baton Rouge. Hope we can get together sometime. Club info listed on the EverythingDulcimer website. Come pass a good time with us, LOL!!!!

Oh, here is a link for my Ibanez,  http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PFT2NT

I must say, thank you for your clip. In a way, I feel responsible for you getting one, as I got 2 in the past winter, a vintage Harmony tenor guitar that was refurbished, and my Ibanez PFT2 - Natural, a mini dreadnought style, as opposed to the parlor size which you had gotten.  Both Ibanez' are super value for there money.  As I'd shared privately, and will say publicly, if Joni Mitchell played the Ibanez George Benson model electrics live in the late 70's and early 80's, then you know that Ibanez is a brand to be trusted.  I simply can not say enough good things about mine.

The one thing Cynthia and I discovered is that the best strings for these tenors believe it or not is the La Bella tenor guitar strings.  The strings D'Addorio makes supports GDAE tuning, but are way too heavy for the standard tenor tuning of C G D A.  I emailed the guy I bought the Harmony from to ask what strings he used, and he told me La Bella, so there you go.

What a nice deep tone your new guitar has Cynthia....Anither nice addition to your collection...ENJOY!!!!!

Whew Bob! that rascal is some kind of purrrrrty!

Cynthia, I very much appreciated your review of your new tenor guitar. Loved your playing and singing of Precious Lord. I'm pleased that you are so happy with this new addition to your collection.

I love that! Thanks for sharing!!!

This is my current "go to" instrument.  Mostly because it is sitting conveniently close to the sofa.  It is all walnut with a Sassafras top.

Ibanez Artwood parlor tenor guitar. 5ths tuning, but tuned down a step. I like this tenor guitar quite well and did a short bit of review and play of it.

Tish Westman, a member here, has a luthier shop and also teaches dulcimer and psalty at Tamarak near Beckley. She is a wonderful ambassador for the mountain dulcimer (gifted composer, singer and player as well). 

I've seen them at the Kentucky Craft Center, just off I-75 in Berea. There were a couple of Warren May instruments, and examples from a couple of other Kentucky builders

It also helps to keep the thumb on your left hand on the back of the neck, not wrapped around the side. Looks really nice Scott. Have fun with it.

I play tenor ukulele, and I was taught to hold the uke above my waist, at a slight upward angle, and to use my right forearm to press the uke against my body. (and relax!) No strap is needed. 

For stage work my Jerry Rockwell large hourglass, if I want to get jazzy, and old Jim Good set up like Alan Freeman's in Jim's weird G tuning, and for learning new tunes (in DAd) or jamming, a (supposedly) WV made small hourglass.

Scott, 155 tuning on a just intonated  dulcimer is as close to musical heaven as it gets in our world. Playing dulcimer without drones is like playing bag pipes with only a chanter. Its just not right... Robert.

"Coyote" John Blosser calls Ionian Mode "The Mode of the Gods".  He plays in it almost exclusively.

This may not be the best area to respond but I a firm believer in the 1-3-5 tunings.  The chord possibilities are endless and you can really do some very interesting chord progressions.  So D-F#-A or C-E-G or F-A-C can be a revelation.  I went to conservatory and "think" in keys and chords so it seems familar to me.

All that said I recently tried D-A-A and it was - in a word - thriling!  It does seem that the MD wants to have a drone that rings along with your melody.

So I guess you can have the best of both worlds tune a drone tuning for some songs - tune in a "chordal" mode when you want to do something else.

If nothing else I got over my fear of tuning my strings!

Well I yielded to temptation and bought the Dulcinet.  I wanted to experiment with chromatic frets and right now these are going for around $150.

So far it is a fantastic little instrument to explore with and it seems to have a sweet tone.  The chromatic frets are messing with what little fingering I had already self-taught myself.  I do wish it was more "dulicimer" like.  I still haven't figured out he best way to hold it.  I'm thinking of putting a leather tie or some sort of strap.  Any ideas or comments are welcome.

I tuned it to D-F#-A-A so now I have a fine instrument for adding chords to a jam session.  I just thought maybe someone else might want to noodle around with it as well.  Description below.

Dulcinet T, Rosewood, Hearts The Dulcinet™ is a very unique instrument. It is about the size of a tenor ukulele so it is small and light, easy to hold and carry around. It is strung like a dulcimer, but backwards. It has one wound string, and two other courses of lighter gauge steel strings, the bottom course is two strings tuned in unison. There are 19 chromatic frets. The scale length is roughly 430mm or 17". It can be tuned in different ways, but the sweet spot seems to be G3-D4-G4G4.

 dnlsrh.jpg - 26KB

As one can see in this previously posted photo, our three cats find my playing interesting. They seem to particularly like "Grey Cat on a tennessee Farm"

My 3 furry amigos . Usually one or two will wander in and plop down next to me or even rub the dulcimer as I try to play it.

You think that's funny?  Murray (the Manatee) wants to take the vocal solo and the instrumental break on Old Man(atee) River!

Ken, that's too funny!

James, it was made by Folkcraft.

My dog was jelous at first, of the time I spent focusing on playing, but after awhile she got used to it. 

Smiley Friend, does a humming type howl when I am listening to dulcimer music, he especially likes to hear Ken Backer and other deep male voices, then he really sings. Smiley just stares at me when I play. 

 DSCF1598.JPG.jpg - 93KB

Sally's dog and cats pretty much ignore my playing.  On the other hand, my pet Manatee and I are working up a duet set of water songs.