Forum Activity for @john-keane

Congrats to all of the participants!

Just sharing that the contest is over at the Walnut Valley Festival and the 2014 mountain dulcimer champions are:

First Place - Duane Porterfield, Mountain View, AR

Second Place -Jonoathon Schultes, Tulsa, OK

Third Place - Jonathan Dowell, Los Alamos, NM

Congratulations to this years winners!

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a new song."

LOL! No problem, Gwyn. Jerry has a brand new album out too called "Tapping at the Edge of Paradise" that isn't yet on iTunes, but you can download it here: http://jerryrockwell.bandcamp.com

Oops, Guy. My husband was talking about a friend named Gary while I tried to concentrate!

Thanks Gary, I hadn't seen that one before. It would be nice for when I practice at home, too.

Haven't played for a yoga class, but I do like Jerry Rockwell's album Nine Meditations for Dulcimer in my yoga practice!

This is one of those off the wall questions. At the yoga studio where I practice, there have been some special workshops offered. A couple who leads yoga practice while the husband plays his cello to enhance the moves. One with a guitar. I spotted a studio in North Carolina that offers something like this with the mountain dulcimer. I'm curious if anyone here has ever done something like this with their dulcimer or their own yoga practice?

Wish I could have made it, but I had to work! Cyntia told me it was a wonderful event (even without A/C in the concert hall... yikes!).

I'm sure you had a blast, Kristi, and how nice of Gregg to put you up. Maybe next year I'll be able to meet you down there.

I hear you have some weather coming your way, so stay dry!

Steph and Keith were looking forward to this event when I was out there this summer. Maybe next year I can plan a visit to my son's around this time. Glad you had a good time Kristi; and all of the others who attended I am sure had a good time as well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Jeanie, her sister Jan, and I really enjoyed your visit and glad you got home safe, now don't drown in a desert in this weather you have coming at you!

THIS SATURDAY IN L.A. BRING YOUR DULCIMER AND COME PLAY So far we have 5 people coming for sure, 5 maybes, and 10 can'ts but put us on the mailing list. Which is not that surprising this time of year. We want this to become an at least once a month get together happening on a week day evening. Please friend me here on FOTMD or Psaltery Strings for more information.

Hi Alice, we are having our first BP/Dulcimer Together Saturday, Dec.13th, please friend me here on FOTMD for more information and directions. Looking forward to meeting you and hearing about your Dulcimer adventures!

Alice C. Dolamore said:

Hi , I would love to join your group. You do not know me because I go to Ohio from May through October so i can play the dulcimer with groups and go to many of the festivals in the East coast area. I use to go to the festival but have not been for many years as I am in Ohio. I have dulcimers, baritone, banjammer,and my newest addition Dulci-Bro. I live in La Crescenta.

Please let me know when and where. I will be leaving Ohio next week to return to California.

Alice Dolamore

The idea of having this Bowed Psaltery/Dulcimer Get Together from 1:00pm to 9:00 is to allow people to come and go as they wish, some people have said are planning on showing up right away and leave after a couple of hours, some have said they are coming around 7. 9:00 is when we figure to wind it up. We will be seeking consensus on when would be the most convenient day of the month to start having once a month get togethers.Please friend or message me here on FOTMD for more information and directions.

Well Geekling, you are always welcome over here any time you feel like visiting, but yes it is intended as open house come and go, we will have a food area, maybe circle up to play tunes especially after it gets dark, should find enough going on at any moment.

Having our first get together at our home in Arcadia CA December 13th, 2014 from 1:00pm to 9:00pm. Dulcimers and other string instruments welcome, but Bowed Psalteries will be the focus of this musical event. For more information friend me here on FOTMD or Psaltery Strings.

I can't imagine being against the noter style Dulcimer playing tradition! When played that way really brings out the reason the Dulcimer is sometimes called the "American Sitar".

Gregg, I certainly urge you to do this, for I did the same thing about two years ago after the Redwood Dulcimer Day in Santa Cruz. I started with a list of 5 or 6 people in the Sacramento area, and that list has now grown to almost 40. We have met once a month for two years now, and we've never had fewer than six show up.

I do have three pieces of advice. First, I suggest removing your phone number from the announcement above. There are spambots that troll the internet for such personal information. If people "friend" you and then send you a personal message, you can share that kind of info privately.

Second, start a discussion in the California Dulcimer Dreamin' group here at FOTMD. Obviously, the folks there will be more likely to be interested than will other FOTMD members from around the country, and if you poke around the discussions there you might be able to target some folks yourself.

Third, if at all possible, start a website. I started one about 18 months ago for my Sacramento Group, which you can see at www.rivercitydulcimers.com . You can start it for free and then later decide if you want to "upgrade" to a paid account. In your case, you will want a home page that has all the key words like "dulcimer," "psaltery," "Los Angeles," "Southern California," "San Gabriel" and whatever else you can think of. That way a dulcimer or psaltery player who does an internet search will be able to find you. And add a page where people can contact you with their email address. I average about one interested person a month who wants to join (although often they initially inquire about getting lessons). That may not seem like a lot, but over the course of several months it adds up and helps make a fledgling group more viable.

I have other advice, too, about how to make your gatherings interesting for both beginners and advanced players, but you may have experience running such groups, so I'll shut up for the moment.

Finally, let me offer that I met you a few years back at the Harvest Festival (the year Aaron O'Rourke was there). I believe you and Leo were co-leaders of the jam circle that afternoon. Both of you did a great job helping new players gain the confidence to call out a song since you were there to bail them out if they got stuck and needed someone to lead. That experience also gave me a lot of confidence, for I learned that I already knew about half the songs that were played and I was able to just follow along and play chord backup for the rest. I never had the chance to thank you or Leo, but I really appreciate the knowledgeable but friendly way you guys ran that song circle.

I hope you manage to start a nice group. In addition to my group in Sacramento, there are regular dulcimer gatherings in Berkeley/Oakland and Santa Cruz. It would be nice to have a string of groups in Cali and perhaps we could entice some great players to come through and do a California tour, visiting each of our groups for a workshop or house concert.

Best of luck!

Actually a fairly large turnout at Harvest of Dulcimers encourages me to suggest starting an at least once a month Dulcimer/Bowed Psaltery get together at my house in Arcadia, California. The house is large enough with a shady back yard, leave a message for us here if your interested in joining us.

A slightly taller zero fret would be useful for a noter drone style dulcimer as it would allow slacker drones without buzz (giving a wider range of potential tunings).

As was mentioned some builders do not bother making the zero fret higher, but if you want to make yours higher and don't want to order a piece of larger fret wire, why not just cut a groove and make a bone, delrin, or hardwood nut instead of a zero fret?

I would try either a piece of fret board material or something contrasting, with a balance piece down by the bridge. Maybe some as fret markers like on a guitar. Kind of like inlay at the 0 fret and elsewhere.

You could try removing about .010-.015 from the top leaving a hump/bump for the 0 fret or gluing a .010-.015 x 1/2" x 1.5"shim or shaving before cutting the slot to raise the 0 fret.

Wow! Most builders fret the neck before it gets assembled to the body! You can't really raise a piece of fretwire well. You could, I suppose, put something thin (like tape) on either side of the slot before you tap the fret in place, so that the shoulders of the fret rest on the tape on top of the fretboard; and then carefully cut away the excess.

I haven't done any recording lately. When I was recording I used a Sony mini-disc recorder. I like Sony products also. They make excellent video cameras. When I was looking for a camera about six or seven years ago I went to a Best Buy. The guy showing me cameras tried to steer me away from Sony because they made audio products. I told him that when I worked in TV the only cameras we used were Sony and they were excellent. Kind of quieted him down.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Before I started using my studio to record in, I just recorded my videos using my built in camera and microphone on my lap top like here:

Dan, I use a Sony video camera. I think it does a decent job. Here are two examples of which I did not modify the sound:

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/video/for-john-henry-father-halpin-s-topcoat

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/video/christ-the-lord-is-risen-today

It's just one of those no frills hand held video cameras. I do like Sony. They make a good product.

Pamela -- if you look at the list I posted above, you'll see all of the mode names and tunings for the key of D. This list here:

Mode.........Tuning

Ionian........DAA
Locrian.......DAB
Aeolian.......DAC
Mixolydian...DAd
Lydian........DAE
Phrygian.....DAF
Dorian........DAG

Pamela:

http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/09/few-of-my-posts-ab...

(DAC is aeolian, DAG is dorian...in the key of D.)

and here:

Pam, I suggest you start with DAA tuning because you have a book coming for that tuning, and it's a very easy tuning to play in with a noter. Then after you get comfy with various tunes in DAA, get a few simple tabs for DAd in noter style (fretting the melody strings only- the other strings showing only as "0"zero), and learn a few tunes in DAd tuning. Then you might enjoy learning a few 'lonesome sounding' tunes in the DAG and DAC tunings. At that point you'll know a whole lot more than you do now...but just start with a few tunes in DAA in your coming book. Keep in mind that in all the tunings I mention you will probably be still in the key of D...just in various modes in the key of D. Don't worry about any of that now though!- start with some easy things and simple concepts.

Later still you might like to try other playing styles too, like chording style and fingerpicking style. But noter style is as fine a place to begin as any, and you don't want to try doing everything all at once.

Do you mean "key" or "tuning"? D is the key note of DAd, C is the key note of CGG, etc. As far as tunings, you need to learn to quickly re-tune the melody string(s) to change across all the modal tunings for a given key (bass string note):

Ionian........DAA
Locrian.......DAB
Aeolian.......DAC
Mixolydian...DAd
Lydian........DAE
Phrygian.....DAF
Dorian........DAG

Another excellent N&D tuning is Bagpipe: Ddd or Ccc etc.

You may want to read a couple of the blog articles I wrote here:

Uncontrite Modal Folker

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/uncontrite-modal-folker

and

Get Noterized

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/get-noterized

I'm pretty much a novice at noter playing, but I like DAA or CGG (both 1-5-5 tunings). These tunings put the tonic note of the Ionian (major) scale at the third fret, allowing three notes on the melody string below the first octave. Sometimes those extra low notes are needed in a tune.

Thank you so much for this, I subscribed. I got a book of kantele songs called Fishbone from kantelemusic.com. It's very nice, now I just need to add kantele and voila. I wish someone on here would start making 5 stringed ones.

I, too, enjoyed the video on the "Birth of a Kantele." Thanks for alerting us to Orange Kantele.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Wonderful link! I really love the "Birth of a Kantele" video. Thanks!