This past weekend at The Dutchland Dulcimer Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting three FOTMD members.
Oliver Odgen, Maryann Lang and Jeff Hamilton. If I missed anyone Let me know. Had a wonderful time in Lancaster.
Just a quick note on Janita Baker's use of the DAA#d tuning: you can't strum. She fingerpicks, and that A# string allows her to get all the chromatic notes, which is why she can play jazz and ragtime and stuff. But if you follow her tablature and try to strum across all the strings, it will sound terrible. The tuning only works for her style of fingerpicking.
You can join our Public Domain...or Not? Group here and ask every time you have a question about a certain song:
http://fotmd.com/strumelia/group/40/public-domain-or-not
But often it's just faster to google "(song title) copyright" and go to the resulting Wiki page...where it usually tells the composers or traditional info. It will also give versions and talk about any copyrighted lyrics someone may have added later, etc. Most songs first published before 1926 are now in the public domain, by the way.
Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! You've been very helpful. I had come across a couple of these but couldn't remember the names or how to relocate, particularly oldtown. My google searches for old time fiddle tunes missed most of these.
Janet
Old time fiddle tunes by the hundred, thousands even :
Larry Warren's Sippery-Hill Web Site
Find your tune > right click > Save link as ...
Try this one: https://www.oldtownschool.org/classes/adults/fiddle/tunes/ . I think those are all MP3 files.
Click on your name which will take you to you page. Above your profile photo you will see:
Latest Activity-Audio-Video-Events-MyFollowers
Click on MyFollowers TAB and it will show you the ones you need to approve.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't find the list of people following me, in order to approve them unless I go back to the original email and click that link.
Is there a direct way from the FOTMD website?
Steve Eulberg
Janet, I am no expert on Apple products, but my understanding is that older versions of Quick Time can play midi files. Try to install QT 7 and see if that works.
Another (more time consuming) solution would be to use one of the many free online audio converters to convert the midi files to mp3 files. If you put "Free online audio coverter) in the Google search bar, you'll find plenty of options. Don't use any that ask you to register or demand payment.
If I understand correctly, I do not have ABC or midi file capability since I have an OSX operating system. Am I correct? When I had a PC I used ABC files often to hear how a tune should sound, but now that I have a Mac, I have not been able to find a similar resource that will work with my Mac. Is there a resource for mp3 files for fiddle tunes? Do I need to download some kind of extension to make ABC file work with my Mac? My apologies in advance if this has been addressed before. Thanks!
Hello Barbara-p: I have two Honea Dulcimers. One is big - 38" long, Vsl: 31.5" built 6/2008. Though big, it is strong and light as a feather. Western Red Cedar top and bottom with walnut sides. Wonderful sound, warm and full - hourglass. The 2nd one I just got a few weeks ago. More freeform...looks like a sweet potato and was swiftly dubbed 'Tater' - smaller, VSL 27.5", Western Red Cedar & Walnut ( seems to be his favorite woods ). It is new and has a while before aging into it's real sound, but I do like it. He does a very good job and you can get them at often a very reasonable price on E-Bay. I would not be afraid to buy one. His quality is consistant. I usually buy the older dulcimers from assorted makers - 60's to 1990's as they have developed their mellowness of time. Hope this helps.
Very nicely done Robert, my butternut would work great, ya think.
I wound up doing D d d d, and liking it for now, may try D D d d and will remember to widen the slot on the string guide.
Almost half the volume and tone of a dulcimer comes from its back. Raising the instrument just a millimeter off your lap or table top is all you need to do. I wanted to design a possum board that not only evevated the instrument but reflects the sound up and away. The model pictured here with a new butternut dulcimer I completed yesterday elevated the instrument about an inch. Its made of solid core cabinet grade birch plywood. finished with a mix of walnut oil stain and red dyed shellac and lacquer. Once you try a possum board you will never want to be without one... Robert
James if you go with a wound third string you will have to widen the slot on the string guide. Utility knife works well for that... Robert.
In order of use, for me it's probably somethng like DAD, DAC, DGD, EAA, DAA, DAG, and I'll often play all of those a half or a whole step down.
When you click on the top site LINK to Forums , you get to the main Forums page, but you'll have THREE TABS available to choose from, and each tab will show you a different view of what you might want to see: Discussions (which is the default view and shows all the forum Categories), Newest Posts (which shows newsest posts and by whom and when, in which forum disussions), and My Posts (which of course shows your own latest forum posts). For example, here is the view when i go to the main Forums link and then click on the Newest Posts TAB.
And if you like that "Newest Posts" view in particular, you can always bookmark it to get there quickly whenever you like. 
Some words of warning on the shopgoodwill.com website, for those of you not familiar with auction sites: Always check the estimated shipping & handling fees before you bid. Most will be rounded up to the nearest lb. above the weight of the instrument. Some will have you pay for 30 lbs. or so, plus handling, on a 4 lb. instrument. Not as good a deal if you have to tack on another 30 bucks to the auction price. Check the photos carefully for damage, and always read the Condition and Notes section below the photos. Some of the dulcimers are damaged, but may be a great deal for those of you who like to restore. Don't place your bid until near the closing time of bidding, you will only drive up the price. And set a maximum price, the maximum you are willing to pay, and the site will raise your bid 1.00 at a time until your maximum bid is reached. This is a good way to keep emotions out of your bids too. Good luck
Ahhh! Not seen the pictures - just realised I've only got the 1st Edition! Time to upgrade....
Thanks Bob, much appreciated. I had out the hourglass poplar I got from you back in December, and decided I wanted to get away from doubled melody but still keep it in Bagpipe, so wanted to get some ideas from the site. Guess I'll be going to the music store a bit later in the day then for some new strings and try D D d d.
James I like DDdd. It sounds more robust. Even on my Galax I like a low D in the mix... Robert
Looks to me as if it may be some sort of copy of the Siegrist dulcimer (the patented instrument that Ken refers to). See Ralph Lee Smith "Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions" 2nd edition pp. 142-144. It may even be an actual Siegrist, although I think they are usually clearly labelled with the maker's name (Paul L Siegrist).
Got a question that I was thinking about, and wanted to find out about. For people that play Bagpipe tuning, but have it 4 string equidistant, do you have it set up D D d d, D d d d, or how? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Saw this also...and urged them to go through a specialilst site like this or Everything Dulcimer, because they will limit their market severely by the limitations they've placed on collection.
Either way, it's an interesting item. Surely not an appalachian dulcimer in any real sense though - it's strung like an epinette/scheitholt/hommel and even seems to have the chromatic frets interleaving the diatonic, as some fretted zithers do. It's not clear whether the bars operate on the drones, the second melody course or both...
Fascinating any way....
Ken....I'm on it. It's about 3 hours away. My type of thing!
I definitely would bid on that if I were in Oregon and could pick it up. I have only seen pictures of those and the patent information in magazines. It is a very interesting instrument.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Annie, if you are on an ipad mini, you should be able to go to the itunes APP STORE and look for tablet apps while using search terms like "Font size" or "magnifier" or "resize screen font"...etc.
The old FOTMD was pretty lame on mobile devices according to most users who reported multiple ongoing problems to me.
One more suggestion, not tryng to be a wise acre, but...maybe some stronger drugstore reading glasses for mini-tablet reading? Might be less trouble than any other solution... 
Thought I would share this curious setup from the goodwill website. Anyone seen something like this before?
Thanks. Tried all the browser settings every which way to Sunday, but all too big or too small, like now. Does this website support Dynamic Type?(setting on ipad for larger type). I think the old one must have, as 2 taps was all it needed. Sorry to be a pain I just have to stop for now, before I throw this thing in the Red River. There's a reason it's called a "cursor." =:-o
How does one find these external plug-ins? Is that like an app?
(Dear S., no rush to answer, please just don't give up on me yet. Playing my dulcimer is still my freshest joy - 3 months today, it came! - and it's largely because of fotmd.) Annie
I mostly play in CGC 3 string. Occasionally DAD and DDD . Just keepin it simple.
Anne, there are various ways to increase font sizes through browsers settings and browser plugins. I think if I increase the site's overall font size, it's going to really mess everyone on phones. So either way there would be a problem. If the mobile zoom function is not right for you either, can you browse in your browser options to try and find a font resizer plugin ? For example, on firefox i like to use: ThemeFont&SizeChanger plugin.
One of the lovely aspects of playing old dulcimers with wooden pegs and 'by ear' frets or staples (I have quite a few!) is that you can forget about switching on an electronic tuner (it wont do you any good - in fact, it will drive you mad) and basically ignor any tuning 'rules' you find in dulcimer books. All the tunings I use are really simple. They will involve finding a root note that sounds OK somewhere on the melody string (depending on the mode of the tune) and then blending in the drones to that note. The drones will be some sort of combination of the root and/or 5th of the scale that I'm playing on the melody string at that time. I'll pick the pitch of the scale and combination of the drones depending on the timbre I want for a particular tune.
You know you own too many dulcimers when:
-You start using them as bird houses
-You put one in a pond just to see how well it floats
-You can't afford to change the strings on all of them
-You keep one on your desk to hold pens and pencils in the soundholes
-You can't count them all without loosing track
I usually am playing in DAD or DAA with an occasionaly journey into CGC, DGD and CGG. Some tunes just sound better in different tunings. That creates just enough confusion for my ears, fingers and brain.
