what was your first song on the dulcimer?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
The Crawdad Song for me.
Forum Activity for @john-keane
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
what was your first song on the dulcimer?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I "Biled Dem Cabbage Down". LOL.
Good thread to start, James.
what was your first song on the dulcimer?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Thought it would be a nice thread idea for people to share about what there first song was on the dulcimer, and maybe any back story or how it came to be.
Mine was Wildwood Flower. I'd been playing autoharp and guitar the local dulcimer club, and there was a Thursday night session where it was just me and the lady that ran it. We were doing some tunes, and we started playing Wildwood Flower. I looked at her, and said, Diane, can you show me how to play that on the dulcimer? So line by line, I was shown on her dulcimer how to play Wildwood Flower. Diane favored DAA, so I was first shown Wildwood Flower out of DAA. After a while, I relearned it in DAd and then never could play it out Ionian tuning to save my life. Even now, on my 3 string Clark model dulcimer from Dan Cox that is tuned bagpipe Ccc, I play it from the open fret using DAd tab. My eventual goal is to relearn it out of Ionian, and usually I can do the first two lines just fine, but the third is where things start going south for me
It is on my dulcimer bucket list to do, so we'll see.
updated by @james-phillips: 07/31/23 08:58:21PM
When I send something I usually ask and pay for tracking number so I can be sure it gets to its destination. I've ordered things from ebay and I haven't had a problem yet. The seller always gives me a tracking number. It comes in handy where I live since our local post office has a reputation for not being reliable. In fact, we made the news a couple of weeks ago. The Washington D.C. area was reported as having mailed delivered after 6 p.m. We were one of those areas. Fortunately that has changed and we now get mail in the afternoon. I could tell you some stories but I don't want to worry you. Give it a couple of days and then go to your local post office and ask them if there is a way they can search it.
Here in Lansing, MI, I usually can track a USPS shipment to the time it was accepted for transit and, if it happens to come from east or south of us, once in the Allen Park, MI sorting center and once more when it's out for delivery. But that, of course, depends on the sender adding tracking to the postage. I've had Parcel Post shipments, even with a tracking number, take long vacations to all sorts of places. The upside of this is I've never actually not had a dulcimer delivered and never received one in damaged condition from USPS. So, frustrating as it is, hold out hopes, Kristi, and I'm winging what positive energy I can your way as well.
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I tried one out... Very tight strings and takes a lot of hand power .... For a man it would be great! they do sound good!
Steven Berger said:
Paula, check out the Gold Tone Dulciborn...I don't have one, but the samples on YouTube are worth watching...it's a dulcimer disguised as a Weissenborn guitar...and it sounds incredible.
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Great!!! love to try it!
Ivan Bradley said:
Hi, Paula, you might consider the Blue Lion Acoustic Jam model as well. I'll bring mine to TVDS this Saturday so you can try it out. It's not for sale, but it could give you another idea in your search. Blue Lion usually makes a few of them in each production run, so, if they haven't been ordered one might be available there soon. I'll bring my Ron Gibson baritone as well. With its deep body and boat shape it projects pretty well and could be another consideration with a regular set of strings.
See you Saturday.
Ivan
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Paula, check out the Gold Tone Dulciborn...I don't have one, but the samples on YouTube are worth watching...it's a dulcimer disguised as a Weissenborn guitar...and it sounds incredible.
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hi, Paula, you might consider the Blue Lion Acoustic Jam model as well. I'll bring mine to TVDS this Saturday so you can try it out. It's not for sale, but it could give you another idea in your search. Blue Lion usually makes a few of them in each production run, so, if they haven't been ordered one might be available there soon. I'll bring my Ron Gibson baritone as well. With its deep body and boat shape it projects pretty well and could be another consideration with a regular set of strings.
See you Saturday.
Ivan
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hi Bill could you also send me that same information.
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Have you ever heard a Probst?
Dulcimers and their sound - makers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
There are so many makers out there.
I am looking specifically for a sweet sound, some projection, and not twangy...!! more guitar sounding but enough volume so you can hear yourself in a jam.
I like Gallers for that reason but he does not seem to be making them, and I cannot find a used one.
any other suggestions for the description a above?
updated by @paula-brawdy: 02/10/25 05:21:40AM
Does anyone know a safe way to get bad or musty smells out of an autoharp?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
I wanted to add that one of the products I used had been effective for eliminating the odor of a dead animal that was decomposing under a fellow worker's bed one summer (the place was using tents as a cost saving measure!). Everyone who shared the tent thought the guy had really disgusting body odor--but they were so pleased that the industrial strength hospital surface germ killer spray made living with him possible when used every 12 hours. They didn't discover the dead animal until the last day when they were packing up and breaking down the tent.
It wasn't me, but my brother Steveand my future husband, Craig, who shared the tent with this guy!
And, no, that spray didn't even begin to help this dulcimer! 
Does anyone know a safe way to get bad or musty smells out of an autoharp?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
I bought a MD and case off Ebay that must have belonged to a smoker. I took a small air compressor and blew out all the dust I could get to inside and outside the MD. Do this outside so you don't smell up the house. I sprayed the case with fabreeze and put it in the garage. Several treatments cured the case. I took dryer strips and sprayed them with fabreeze and stuffed them into the sound holes. I also wiped down the outside of the MD with a slightly damp paper towels. Refresh/replace the dryer strips weekly and eventually the smell will go away. Initially you are replacing one smell with another until the smell disapaites over time.
Does anyone know a safe way to get bad or musty smells out of an autoharp?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
Hi Tumbleweed!
I had the same question because I had purchased an old dulcimer that just stunk to high heaven....I don't remember what I paid for it, but I figured it was worth the price to have it as a wall-hanger if nothing else because it was very attractive. It has a wooden case and the case had been "padded" with industrial carpet glued on and that had deteriorated and smelled really bad. I tore out as much of the carpet as I could and then set the case in my garage to air out....that was about 5-10 years ago and it's still out there somewhere....I was finally able to bring the instrument inside the house a couple years ago, but it's in some out of the way place....still haven't put it up ona wall where I might breathe the residual mustiness. Some people say they actually LIKE the smell of old musty wood, but I find it very offensive. At least I don't have to work on keeping out scorpions, as Kristi Keller mentioned! I have to say that I asked for advice here and I think I tried everyone's tips, but nothing except "airing it out" over a long period of time seemed to make any real difference. I hope you have better luck than I did!
Welcome to FOTMD! Lots of good folks here....and we're happy to have one more! 
Jan
Does anyone know a safe way to get bad or musty smells out of an autoharp?
Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions
I just bought one from an estate sale in Florida and the harp itself is in great condition but will need a good tuning etc. I am sure it has been in storage for awhile and the case will need to be replaced. The musty smell from the case is on the harp but not as bad. I have read about putting it out in sunlight but I live in a desert area and it is August, not a good idea this time of year. I have also read to put sage or cedar chips in the sound hole but not sure if I would be able to get it all out. I am open to suggestions on how to clean it up safely and to get the stink out. Thanks
updated by @tumbleweed: 02/09/25 09:50:40PM
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Thanks so much for the kind comments, friends! My favorite dulcimer players in the whole world can be found right here at FOTMD and y'all are among them! :)
Since noter play is all I can do, this little observation may be off- base. . . Yet, here goes! :)
It seems that some styles of dulcimer play can be approached more on a note- by- note basis (with both the right and left hands) while tunes played with a noter are more easily approached by working with phrases, series of notes. And a noter player has to know a tune well enough in order to decide how to create good phrases-- when to strum/not strum and how to use slides-- to best emphasize the tune. Sometimes, I'll record myself and notice I haven't strummed enough in a passage and expected too much from the sounds got from the slides to convey the melody. There are also times I strum too much and don't use slides to the best effect. And sometimes I need to let there be space-- not a rest, necessarily but a little breathing room. . .
As Randy indicated, some slides are harder to get clear tone out of than others. I've been working on Fisher's Hornpipe this summer and the A part is hard for me to play cleanly consistently to phrase it just the way I want to. There are plenty of challenges, fun challenges, in sliding a stick along a string to help make sounds!
PS- I, obviously, don't know correct musical terms to explain things musical. So, if what I wrote above makes half sense or no sense at all, please feel free to keep on scrolling. :)
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
If you please I'd be more specific? There are 2 noter movements in particular I avoided for a while. They are eighth notes played with a quick flick of the wrist....& there ain't no such thing as a slow flick right?....you either flick it or you don't! That 7-8-7 and its reverse cousin and more difficult 4-3-4 are tough to get to sound clear. Of course the higher up the fretboard these movements are used the easier it gets b/c the frets are closer together. Use the force !
BTW I hear Robin using these noter movements in her playing.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
' Oh you know all the notes, and you sing all the words, but you never quite learn the song ... ' The Hedgehog Song
Know the feeling well Randy. Someone asked me to play 'The Siege of Delhi' the other week, no trouble working out the notes, no trouble working out the rhythm, but fitting the two together is a nightmare. Easy enough to play slow*** but as soon as you try and get up to speed your arm's swinging about like a demented pendulum and any fine control goes out the window.
In the end you just find yourself 'catching' it one day and then wonder why it was ever a bother in the first place 
*** It does seem fashionable to play some of these old tunes that commemorate massacres as laments instead of quick marches nowadays though.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Robin beautiful playing, hard to pick a favourite from the play list, I do like B in the L. I love them all.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
"It's a timing thing that I can't think about too much...."
Robin...this is so true with my noter playing too. Like...if I'm flatpicking a tune and have trouble with a passage I can repeat, repeat the troublesome measure or two at a slower tempo and eventually my fingers can figure it out. But with noter playing I find there are certain techniques that I can only get going by playing them up to speed....slowing them down doesn't help so much....hard to explain.
"Use the force Luke!"
Once I started thinking about going with the force I could play passages I once avoided with the noter. Sometimes I get 'em and sometimes I don't but the more I play the better I can navigate the tricky techniques by just going for it and trusting the force......: )....f'real....
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
gee just when I think i have mad progress along comes this honestly I loved it.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Steph, I can't take any credit for Billy since it's a trad tune. :)Randy's fantastic flat- picked version is a YouTube favorite of some players here in Ohio who are familiar with the tune. They know the skill required to do what Randy did with the piece!The tricky part for me of playing Billy with a noter is that run up the fretboard in the first section of the A part. I can only get it to sound half decent about half the time. ;) It's a timing thing that I can't think about too much or rush too much. Too much thinking is bad for my health, anyway. Haha!
Geekling said:
That couldn't have been easy to play--I know I certainly couldn't! I'm particularly partial to Ridin' the Zigzag and Wobble Railroad.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Randy, you are the first and, I'm thinking, the only person I ever heard play Billy in the Lowground on MD. Since you flat- picked it and it's got lots of notes (Mark flat- picks it on guitar) I thought it was a tune I could never manage on dulcimer. Once I got rid of that droning fifth (by going with the CcG tuning), it worked for me. I played this with a fairly stiff quill-- it sounds different yet with a more flexible quill or one of my big homemade plastic picks.
Y'all are so nice to take the time to listen and comment, friends. I'm going to even risk seeming sappy and let y'all know that I have great affection for my music friends, many of whom I've never met in- person.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Yeah, I agree about how smooth and effortless Robin's playing appears. Her superior technique makes even difficult songs seem approachable.
My favorite is still Circleville.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Duly noted Randy ! (OK, I'm sorry, but it's often pointed out to me these days that the old ones are the best ?) Gonna have to get her to give me some lessons one day, I've been a fan since I first joined FOTMD
JohnH!!!
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Yes, good call out RanMan. Robin makes it sound so smooooth and easy, but it takes a huge amount of work to get to that skill level. Beautiful playing Robin.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
True that.
I always liked 'Quittin Time at Essex Mine' ... I'm a sucker for a good waltz.
If You Don't Somebody Else Will
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Point out the sweet noter playing here on Billy in the Lowground that is. It's an extry good tune and the choices and execution are perfect Robin.
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/music/playlist/popup?playlistUrl=http%3A//mountaindulcimer.ning.com/music/playlist/show%3Ffmt%3Dxspf%26id%3D3745489%253APlaylist%253A148%26mdate%3D2014-08-01T05%253A09%253A27.528Z%26nik%3D2pgjt53vxzwfp&playlistType=user&autoplay=1&selectTrack=0&hideShareLink=1
updated by @randy-adams: 06/11/15 07:41:48AM
Do your pets enjoy your playing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
I've got 3 cats. One will fall asleep behind me as I'm playing, one has gotten to the point where she will deign to stay within earshot for a few minutes, and the third flees when she sees me carry a dulcimer into the room.
Do your pets enjoy your playing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Our dogs tend to congregate around when I'm playing.
Do your pets enjoy your playing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Our dog can take our music or leave it. There's no accounting for her tastes in music. :)
Do your pets enjoy your playing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Here was our Sheba just this afternoon ...she came into the living room and draped herself over the chair a few feet away, to listen to us playing music with a friend.
Do your pets enjoy your playing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Just curious...do your pets enjoy your dulcimer playing? My cat and my dog are my biggest fans. (Of course, free entertainment every evening, food an drink "on the house", and no motel fees may be the reasons they like my playing).
updated by @steven-berger: 06/09/16 08:21:50PM