Yeah, just got some alien sound I didn't really understand, soundedlike 'salgro'. Probably means 'you're going to guess wrong' or 'gotch ya'.
Strumelia said: Skip, maybe that's just a subliminal message...like the Beatles' "Paul is Dead" thing... Have you tried playing it backwards? 
You're welcome Ken, I was interested in the comparison.
Ayup. There's a glitch there... Gotta have my tech guy look into it.... Only supposed to be one tune per cut and no talking! I checked all the other cuts and they only have one song per file. Thanx for listening, Skip!
Skip, maybe that's just a subliminal message...like the Beatles' "Paul is Dead" thing... Have you tried playing it backwards?
Skip said:
Ken the first one someone says 'hourglass' at the end of the tune, just before starting the 2nd tune.
The first is hourglass, the second teardrop. Or the other way around. I'm sure of it.
Ken the first one someone says 'hourglass' at the end of the tune, just before starting the 2nd tune.
For years I've said that you cannot tell what shape of dulcimer played a given tune. Others have firmly declared that they, by George, could always tell when a tune was being played on an hourglass versus a teardrop. A week or so back, Mark Gilston took up my challenge.
He says he can tell whether a tune is being played on an hourglass or on a teardrop; that each SHAPE has a distinctive sound. I say the sound of a dulcimer is NOT shaped-related. I've recorded 6 tunes on two dulcimers. The only thing my audio engineer friend did was cut apart the master recording into individual takes, and enhance th amplitude of all cuts equally
So you can "play along at home", sort of, here are two of the eleven files that Mark will listen to.
Can you tell what Shape the instruments were that played those two tunes? Of course in some sense you've got a 50/50 chance of getting it right. That's why Mark is taking the full test with eleven recordings.
Perhaps after Mark has had his 'go' at determining which is what, I'll open the files up to others...
I didn't read through the entire discussion, so forgive me if this is repeated information. Banjo Newsletter devoted almost all of the March issue to a tribute to Pete Seeger by various players and how he influenced their lives. It was a great tribute to a wonderful man.
Those who took part in this forum discussion might be interested in a live radio tribute to Pete Seeger to benefit the Woodstock Day School and the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. The event is hosted by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason.
Hear the broadcast online at WAMC.ORG .
Such a sage comment from a sage woman.
Robin Thompson said:Life can be just plain hard sometimes and making music or sharing music can help along the way.
Such a sage comment from a sage woman.
Robin Thompson said:
Life can be just plain hard sometimes and making music or sharing music can help along the way.
Thank you for the links, friends.
I can't help but think how, in some ways, Pete Seeger was to the banjo what Jean Ritchie has been to the mountain dulcimer. If each had done nothing but help popularize those two instruments, it would've been a lot. They did much more. . .
I think of how many people have been encouraged to realize a dream of playing a musical instrument and have been helped along the way by folks both at Everything Dulcimer and here at FOTMD. Life can be just plain hard sometimes and making music or sharing music can help along the way.
Here is a picture of Pete that was posted over at Banjo Hangout. I think it is very typical of Pete and I would share it here.
Here's another story from the New York Times thatcompiles excerpts from interviews with other musicians (Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Rait, Steve Earle, etc.) talking about Pete Seeger. Perhaps the most moving to me is the story of Pete watching television footage of the cleanup after 9-11, and the soundtrack they used was Bruce Springsteen singing Pete'ssong "We Shall Overcome." Pete commented that if all he had done was provide that song for that moment to help people heal, he would have lived a full life.
Thanks for the Fresh Air episode with Pete. Good to hear it.
Well, thanks for posting that, Steph, even tho' it brought a tear to my eye.
I heard a funny story in an interview Pete did onFresh Air with Terry Gross that was re-broadcast today. He was describing when he first met Woody Guthrie, who taught him how to hop trains and play in taverns. Woody basically told him which songs would get him a nickel or two when he played. And Woody explained how to wait on the outskirts of town where the trains would just start to pick up speed and then jump on. But he never explained at first how to get off. So the first time Petetried to get off, he fell, rolled down a hill, skinned both knees and both elbows and, more importantly, broke his banjo. He was traveling with a camera at the time, which he hocked to get enough money to buy a cheap guitar. He only knew a few chords at first, but played well enough to earn some nickels in the taverns until he could afford another banjo.
You can hear Pete tell the story yourself here .
We know most of those riding the rails were not doing it for fun, but it must have been quite an experience, just jumping railroad cars and traveling to wherever the trains went. What else would you expect from a guy who dropped out of Harvard to ride a bicycle across the country?
I not only remember them, but I have a couple. I also remember the LP pictured above.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Here is the NPR Obituary . It includes links to stories on Pete and some of his music.
Here is the album I refer to in the introductory comments above.
I had forgotten, but it was a 10" LP. Does anyone remember those?
Thanks DT, I appreciated your musical tribute to Pete.
Here is one way I will remember him: It's a song I enjoy playing on my dulcimer.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
In the post war 50's I was halfway thro' my apprenticeship and senior 'boy' in the building firm I worked for. In charge of three or four other 'prentice's, (and 20 oz claw hammer and a sack of cut nails), we spent a lot of time on our knees laying floors in new build council houses! We used to sing a lot, helped the boredom of driving nails, and being the owner of a cheapo record deck (anybody else remember having one?) and a few pennies to spend , I was into what my family called 'rubbish music', some of which I introduced to my mates . One of the songs from my 'collection???' cropped up often !! Yep! you guessed it, 'If I had a Hammer' I guess it could be seen as our way of protesting about sore knees and blue thumbs ? (and I later married a girl named Irene ???)
rest in peace Pete
and thank you
JohnH
In 2001, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, I wrote a piece as a skit that served as a healing point for many of the parishioners at my church. In that I wrote about the lives of people and how it affected the rescuers and the ones who consoled those people. I also used a few songs to help give meaning and voice to the words that i wrote. It opened with Billy Joel's Miami 2007--I've seen the lights go out; sandwiched with Simon and Garfunkel's take on Silent Night with the evening news; and closed with a recitation of Pete Seeger''s If I had a Hammer (some of those who were helping in that part wouldn't sing, so we said the words...just as powerful).
A touching tribute indeed, and most assuredly, heartfelt. I never had the privilege of meeting Pete, but he certainly had a peaceful, down home appeal and approach.
I posted on my facebook page when I found out this morning.
May his song live on in all of us.
A personal musical tribute:
If you listen carefully, you can hear my voice breaking up.
Pete was such a powerful force for good. We can all learn from his example.
Pete was my hero back in the sixty's. He was the one that really got me singing and playing. My second banjo was a long-necked Vega because "it was what Pete played". I feel sad, but I am sure he and Woody are now making music again in the next world.
Pete on music and participation:
"I've never sung anywhere without giving the people listening a change to join in . . . I guess it's kind of a religion with me. Participation. That's what's going to save the human race."
Once upon a time, wasnt singing a part of everyday life as much as talking, physical exercise, and religion? Our distant ancestors, wherever they were in this world, sang while pounding grain, paddling canoes, or walking long journeys. Can we begin to make our lives once more all of a piece? Finding the right songs and singing them over and over is a way to start. And when one person taps out a beat, while another leads into the melody, or when three people discover a harmony they never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few feet higher, then they also know there is hope for the world.
Pete influenced a couple of generations of folk musicians. While he will be missed his influence will be felt for many years to come. RIP Pete. I'm glad to have known you.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a new song."
One of the greats. We'll miss you Pete!
A great man lived a great life. His music lives on in all of us. Thank you for sharing the banjo photo. We must continue his work of destroying hate.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/pete-seeger-i...
A great interview with Pete! He was a gracious man.
Very well put together Dusty, Rest in peace Pete.
Pete Seeger just died. He was 94. Maybe when my emotions are easier to put aside I'll post some comments about his place in American folk music history, but how can you sum up the importance of someone who sang with the Weavers, led protest marches, and sang children's songs? He lived the assertion that music was a joyful tool intended tobring people together. (And it was on his TV show that Jean Ritchie and her dulcimer were introduced to the television audience.)
You can read the New York Times obituary here .
There is no way to choose a representative song to post here, but perhaps this one will do. He is playing with others and singingfor peace.
Thefirst record albumsI remember, from when I was just a few years' old, were Woody Guthrie's Songs for a Mother and Child to GrowOn andPete Seeger's Birds, Beasts, Bugs, and Little Fishes . I am sure I know every one of those songs by heart, and I have since I was able to talk. When I get depressed, I put on a Beatles album. But if that doesn't work, I go right to Pete Seeger. His voice is as comforting to me as my own mother's, and is indistinguishable in some ways since my earliest memories in life are sitting on my mother's lap listening to that album.
I used to wonder why I am drawn to acoustic music. I grew up in suburbia in the northeast, after all. And I spent many years listening to rock, blues, and jazz. But I've always felt at home with someone singing a simple song while plucking some strings, and I'm sure that is because of the early influence of Pete Seegerin my life.
I only met Pete Seeger once--at an anti-nuke rally in New York about 30 years ago--so I never really knew him. But I feel as though I've lost an uncle, a best friend, a mentor, and a security blanket all rolled into one. I honestly can't imagine who I would be today had Pete Seeger's music not been a part of my life.
Thank you, Mr. Seeger, for sharing the joys of music and modeling a life devoted to the improvement of one's community. Rest in peace.
Haven't been able to catch all of this by any means after seeing the discussion late, but just have to get in my 3 cents worth (inflation should up it to worth at least that much).
Storytelling is also mainly a folk art, just as most dulcimer players are "folk-y." I remember someone once saying something like "How should I say this? You should look sort of like a hippie gone to seed." Well I don't think we want to look "seedy", but we should have a look that says we're folk artists. Sitting with a dulcimer also probably says either a long skirt or pants. Jeans would probably not be something I'd ever feel respected a performance for anything other than a meeting with fellow performers, but I'd not rule out a jeans skirt.
Because for years I had a 12-letter last name that hardly anybody could pronounce, I took up using LoiS as my logo and play games with it when signing emails, such as LoiS(pringtime can't come soon enough!). In fact a storytelling friend once introduced me to other storytellers who see me on storytelling sites as "LoiS with the big S" to which I looked over my shoulder at my backside and said in a proper mock offended tone, "I beg your pardon!" (My husband swears I married him for his short last name.) All of this to show how I consider a t-shirt or turtleneck with my logo a form of "shameless self-promotion."
It's not appropriate for all of my programs, especially the historical reenactments. I'm looking forward to using my dulcimer as an example of ways one-room schoolteachers could bring music to their classes. For that program I have long turn-of-the-previous-century outfits.
I'm not all that well-endowed in the chest and doubt my approach to performing would lead many to wonder, "when is the bingo game gonna start?", but the main thing is it needs to help my program, not hinder it.
Thanks for quoting that picture here, Lisa! :)
This is just a traditional felt hat (like any European farmer in the last centuries could have had one), a simple linnen shirt and linen trousers from an online shop specialized on clothes for Medieval reenactment and a pair of wooden clogs (like any European farmer in the last centuries could have had some). The clogs are made and sold by a family here in Germany, and many people actuallylike to wear them as garden shoes. They are a bit smaller than the typical "Klompen" of the Netherlands.
That's all, the outfit is very comfortable, my feet were warm even without socks - and it is "authentic" andsuits almost all events / eras from the medieval until the early 20th century.
EDIT: Just noticed that the original question was about outfit for women, so I guess, this is a little "off topic". Anyway - I think a simple outfit is always perfect with the dulcimer! :)
Peter W just posted a great outfit he put together for a gig:
http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/photo/dulcimer-music-at-book-launch
marymacgowan said:
Ken, okay, so where does a gal get a simple old fashioned country dress?
Women, any advice on that?
Mary, go to the Salvation Army or the Good Will Store. You would be amazed atwhat interesting stuff they have that you can dress yourself up in.. seriously.
And yeah, we're performing, not just getting up and doing a song. For me that's tricky, because I want my performances to be about the songs and yet I do acknowledge to myself that it is a performance. I just don't want to be insincere.
Ken Backer said:Hi Mary
I may be old fashioned but I think one should dress for the music they are doing. For me, jeans, hiking boots, and at-shirt for guys doesn't work. You want to stand out a bit more, and remember you are performing not just getting up and doing a song. For gals, look at what Jean Ritchie wore most of the time. A simple country dress. I think a long, colorful old fashiond dress goes very will with the old songs played on a dulcimer.Cheers Ken
