Forum Activity for @strumelia

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!

On You Tube one of my favorite people calls himself Orange Kantele. His playlists show he plays the Eppinette and Scheitholt versions of the Dulcimer and is constantly coming up with new tunes with very strange titles and beautiful drawings illustrating the melodies. I'm very impressed with how he is helping to keep an entire musical tradition alive. He also plays Kanteles and electronic music he writes himself, truly an amazing musician. But what surprises me the most is how few viewers he gets! I recently told him he should join up here on FOTMD and he said he'd look you folks up but I'm encouraging you folks to check out his work.

Those are great suggestions, John Henry.

Hello Juliana ! I'm not American, so do not claim to be any sort of expert on the matter, (tho' my Grandchildren reckon I look like a man of the mountains !) but here offer a selection of sources that please me, they offer just a taste of the things you seem to be looking for ?

The Dulcimer Book Jean Ritchie

Songs and Tunes of the Wilderness Ralph Lee Smith and Madeline Macneil

FolKSongs of Old Kentucky Ralph Lee Smith and Madeline MacNeil

Folk Songs of Old Virginia Ralph Lee Smith and Madeline MacNeil

Galex Dulcimer Phyllis Gaskins

I am sure that you will have many more suggestions from others better placed to offer them !

good luck

JohnH

When you capo a guitar or banjo, the chromatic fret pattern lets you keep all the same fingerings, just changing the key. On a dulcimer, the mode as well as the key changes, unless you have a chromatic dulcimer. The capo is useful, but we do have to remember that the mode changes at each fret. Three of the modes are major, four are minor. This means when the guitarist capoes at the first fret and his D chord or scale become Eb, our DAd dulcimer capoed at the first fret gives us E dorian, a minor scale. To match the guitarist's Eb, we need to re tune. The capo has it's uses, we just can't always match positions with other instruments.

I have one of these. Same concept, but a little less expensive. Works great.

http://elderly.com/accessories/items/WDC1.htm

Charles, a guitar capo will not work on a mountain dulcimer since there is no neck involved.

I have both one of those brass clamp-on capos that Bryon points to and the more traditional capos such as those Ron Ewing invented and still sells for about $20 . The more expensive brass model does not actually work any better except for the fact that it is a little quicker, so if you are in multi-instrument jams where people switch from key to key really quickly, they can be helpful. But you can get pretty fast with the Ron Ewing design as well.

As Ken says, we need pictures. Detailed pictures. Your description could apply to any one of a thousand builders. Did you look inside through the soundholes to see if there is a Maker's label?

A photo would help Dan.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Dulci-more by Bill Schilling sounds like a book you'd like. It's mainly DAA, loaded with folk and traditional songs in the Public Domain and that includes many hymns and a back section of Christmas music. 250 songs in the first section and then 45 in the Christmas section. I don't see a traditional ISBN so I'm not sure if I bought it from Elderly or had a local music store order it. The book seems to be self-produced by the author who gives this contact info: 984 Homewood Ave., Salem, OH 44460-3816; 330-332-4420 & there are 2 sets of websites and emails bill@billschilling.org with

http://www.billschilling.org and bill@dulcimore.org with http://www.dulcimore.org .

Hi Wayne. There are many book/CD combinations available from Mel Bay. Cripple Creek dulcimer has many good songs for playing at the park. Check them out at Mel Bay's website: http://www.melbay.com/Products/CategoryCenter/D09/dulcimer-mountain.aspx

While I have been depleting my stock of Mel Bay books, if you see any you like, you can PM me to see if I have it still in stock and I can make you a good deal on the price. Or you can email me at: longfieldsfolkmusicshop at embarqmail dot com. I hope you find some things you like. Enjoy your dulcimer journey.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Greetings from Louisville, KY.,

I am a beginner (One Year Now) player and having an AWESOME JOURNEY !!! I recently purchased a book/tab & cd "Stephen Foster Mountain Dulcimer" set (from Shelly Stevens). My wife (Sharon-autoharp) and ILOVE this resource. The playing along has REALLY helped me with strumming, timing etc. I am "Attempting" to find OTHER book/cd combinations (to play along with). We have actually used the Stephen Foster cd when we play at the park (several times) and passer-bys stop and listen. It's an awesome experience.

Any help (with recomendations) would be great. Would really like to find resources with (but NOT limited to) Hymns AND Christmas.

THANKS for your help

Pastor Wayne

First question is "What kind of music?" Child Ballads? Celtic? American folk? Hymns & other secular music?

Try this

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/forum/topics/try-these-sites-for-free-tab

Thanks Paul!!!

Type this into your browser: Amazing Grace - chords

You should get several web sites with lyrics & chords. Some of the sites will let you change the key to whatever key you want, others won't. You may not find every song you want, but there are thousands of songs available in this way. Try doing what others suggested above, and if something sounds wrong, let your browser find it for you. Over time, your ears will get good at telling you when it's right. This will help you until then.

This page came up in my browser: http://www.bing.com/search?q=Amazing++Grace+-+chords&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR

Yes, I think the lights are coming on for me. Thanks Guy!!!

Patty, if the song is in a major key, you can usually find the basic chords fitting into the I, the IV and the V chords of the key. For instance, if you are in the key of D major, your song can usually fit into D (I), G (IV) and A (V) chords. For the most part your I chord will be your "home" chord, as it is called the Tonic. Your IV chord tends to want to move to the V chord, and your V chord tends to want to move you home to I again. This is just a general rule of thumb and there will always be exceptions to this rule. In your melody, find out the strong beats of each measure, perhaps beat one. See if you can find a chord that shares a tone of the melody on the first beat of each measure. For instance, if your melody has the note "A" on beat one of a particular measure, you will notice that this note is in both the I chord (D) and the V chord, (A). Try each of those chords and see which one seems to sound most appropriate to your ear. Then do the same with beat one of the next measure and so on. Keep changing the chords around until you like what it sounds like.

Once you have arranged your song using those 3 chords, you may actually be happy with it, but you can also try substituting some other chords here and there. For instance, for some of your I chords (D) you may want to try some vi chords (b minor), for some of your IV chords you may want to try substituting a ii chord (e minor) and for some of your V chords you may try substituting a iii chord (f# minor). You will have to keep trying and changing things until it sounds good to your ear... that's the way arranging is! Once you have your chords done to your liking you can also try to arrange for a second dulcimer, playing a harmony part.

Thanks Robin, Rob, Mary and Dusty!!! I understand about sounding right to the ear. Many times when I've hit the wrong note on the melody I know that it's wrong right away. Good to know my ear still works okay. Mary I"m glad you are back. I missed you! Dusty, thank you so much!!! Learning those three chords and especially the chord shapes will help tremendously!!! I've learned a lot more about music since joining this site than I ever have. You all are great

Patty, each in our own way, everyone here is saying the same thing, though it might be hard to see that at first.

Let's start with just the main three chords, I-IV-V, or in the key of D, the chords of D, G, and A. Each chord is made up of three notes: the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale.

D chord: D-F#-A

G chord: G-B-D

A chord: A-C#-E

Within those three chords are all the notes of the D major scale: D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D.

So the basic idea is that when you play a melody note, you want to play a chord that has that note in it. You may note that (unless you play the autoharp) you do not want to change chords for every single note, so in general, you look at the notes in each measure and see which chord is going to cover the majority of them. Sometimes you will have a choice, and then you will want to rely on your ear. And there are some other basic prinicples. In general, songs end on the tonic, or key tone, meaning in this case D. And very often they will go to the V chord (in this case A) before resolving to that D.

Before you try to figure out the chords for more complicated songs that include minor chords and diminished chords and all that fancy stuff, start out with 3-chord songs. In fact I would bet 70 percent of folk tunes only have three chords. As I've said elsewhere, I encourage people to sing or whistle or hum the melody of songs they know well while they just strum chords until their fingers are used to strumming chords and, in your case, you are getting the hang out of guessing what chord to play.

And you can also do this without looking at music and without thinking about all those notes I mention above. As you play a melody on your dulcimer, stop on an important melody note. Whatever chord you play is going to have that note in it. One reason for learning those chord shapes is because you will know right away what your options are. But you can also do this by trial and error. While you play a melody note, try to find another note on another string that sounds good with it. Do that on the third string, and you're all set! You don't even have to worry about what chord that is! I did that for a long while, not really worrying about what chords I was playing but just trying different chord shapes on different parts of the fretboard until I found one that worked. Eventually I learned the fretboard better and can name those chords, but who cares? The important thing is find chords that sound good.

Patty, If you're looking at a traditional hymnal, the low bass note may well be the root of the chord. Sometimes I just experiment with chords and see how it sounds. If it sounds good, I keep them; if it doesn't, I find something else.

Hi Patty,

I start with playing the tune againstthe open strings- and when it sounds a little 'harsh' I know a different harmony note or notes on the open stringscould be needed (chords). In the key of D those chords are going to be D, G, A or possibly Bm. So it is not difficult to try them all against that phrase of the melody and see what works!

Robin

I saw an interesting discussion on chords in the Beginner's group. A big thank you to Dusty for giving us instruction! I have a question that maybe many have been asking. Sometimes I run across some music that I would like to play but I'm not sure how to figure out the chords. I can figure out the melody. I can read notes on the staff. It sometimes takes me a bit but I get there eventually . My question is how do you figure out the chords for each measure? Also, if you only have the melody how does one figure out the chords? Sorry if these are dumb questions.

Pam, both are good. I'm learning chord style right now, but plan to learn noter style in a few years when I'm more proficient. I love to watch the noter videos with the feather strummers flying across the keys! In fact, you may want to watch some videos to see what overall sound appeals to you.

I think every player owes it to him/her self to spend six months of solid practice/playing in each of the 3 basic styles: Melody-Drone with fingers, Noter & Drone, and Chord-Melody; to see which style and sound appeals the most.

I like to teach people first to play Melody-Drone as it is IMHO the simplest, most intuitive way to pick out a tune and learn it.

You can experiment with a couple of different ways of playing Pam, just remember you don't have to stick with any one particular way to play. So feel free to try various things! Also keep in mind that anything new will feel a bit awkward at first- that's natural. Time spent practicing and experimenting makes everything smoother little by little.

Of course, use a noter. If you want to. If you don't want to use a noter, you can use the ones at the end of your arms. It's all a matter of personal choice. No hard and fast rules except for the one rule that says "have fun". Welcome to FOTMD and the wonderful world of the mountain dulcimer.