Forum Activity for @strumelia

Hi Jerry... so you waited twelve years to introduce yourself here?  

Do you go to the monthly contra dance at Dewey Hall?

Hi, I've been a member here for a while, though somewhat inactive, so I thought I reintroduce myself.  I live in the Berkshires of Western Mass (right down the street from the Magic Fluke Company, known to ukulele players ... and I am also one of those)!  I've been playing and collecting dulcimers since the late 60's.  Bought my first one from Hank Levin at the House of Musical Traditions, then on St. Marks Place in NYC (I grew up in Northern NJ).  Here in the Berkshires, there is a busking program in the summer, and I've been happy to participate on dulcimer, ukulele and autoharp.  I work as a lecturer, so-called motivational speaker, training specialist and consultant.  I particularly speak about intentional gratitude practices, and every Tuesday I post a "GratiTuesday" quotation or gratitude reminder on my blog and various other sites. I have always liked the dulcimer ... a lot!

Yay, @dusty!  I hope lots of folks do the same, too!   

We have an audio recorded and uploaded and will make it "Public" on IADD.  

I just recorded a video. I'll be sharing it with y'all this Saturday. I hope lots of you do the same.  Happy IADD!

Either my Uncle Ed Thomas traditional dulcemore replica by John Knopf; or my  traditional Virginia style Hogfiddle by Bobby Ratliff,  Both with staple frets under the melody string and plain (no 6+) diatonic fret layout.  

In her HomeSpun instructional recording, Jean lists many names for the lap-held zither and says its names come from the parts of the country in which you find it.  She goes on to say that for her lessons she's just going to call it a dulcimer.  

Although I agree with some of your points Wally, as a native born Brooklyn girl raised in Greenwich Village in the 1950s and 60s, and my parents having been 'Bohemians' there who regularly had gatherings of musical friends at home... I must maintain that not a soul ever uttered a word like " Dul-sim-o-wah".   Though I've heard many a Brooklyn and Bronx accent while growing up, nobody we knew ever would have said that word remotely that way. I must object!  Your examples sound to me a bit more like maybe.. Bostonian?  😹
Any Appalachian dulcimers in the Greenwich Village or Brooklyn areas in the 1940s-early60s would have been traced either directly or indirectly to Jean Ritchie's arrival in NYC in 1946 from Kentucky (after getting her college degree), and her influence in introducing the humble rural instrument to the modern urban folk revival setting. Even 'Uncle' Ed Thomas (1850-1933) and Jean Ritchie's father Balis and their whole family in the Kentucky mountains called their instruments "dulcimers".

In addition to differences in spelling, there were differences in pronunciation of the name of our instrument. This almost certainly resulted in differences in how it was written.

Some of our earliest references to the instrument come from estate and sales records in county courthouse archives. I can imagine that one of these might well have resulted from a visit to a deceased's home. Looking over the fireplace, the local says "One pit-chuh of the fahm, one of Unkel Har-rah, an' a dulcimah." The town raised attorney writes "1 large painting - $4, 1 small portrait - 45¢, 1 dulcimer - $1.25" the later based on his knowledge of the King James bible, not the object. The written note is in pencil and later transcribed in ink to the public record book.

I can imagine the use of "dulcimore" as having come from the early 1960s folk culture through some proponent in Brooklyn or Grenwich Villiage calling his pride and joy a "Dul-sim-o-wah."

Oral language variations are what they are.

Do we actually have any evidence for early use of the name "dulcimore" by our pioneer scholars? Jean Ritchie's first work is "The Dulcimer Book." Skimming through Ralph Lee Smith's "The Story of the Dulcimer" (2nd ed.) I don't see the word. I don't have a copy of Allen Smith's "A Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers" at hand, but his preference is clearly shown in the title.

By the  way, I just noticed that the spell-checker for this website flags "dulcimore" as a potential error.

If I had to pick just one, it would be my Folkcraft Custom with a butternut top and walnut back and sides. It has the fret layout I love, a 27" vsl, and a Fishman Prefix Pro Blend pickup with a built in preamp. It has other custom features like the dolphin sound holes and a maple dolphin inlay at the 5th fret and a galax back.  It's everything I would ever want and has a beautiful tone.

I looked up the dulcimer you have. Beautiful instrument. So glad to hear your playing improved so much since you acquired it.

Excellent Strumelia.

Dusty's right.  In English there were no standardized way to spell anything until some years after the Oxford English Dictionary was completely published (1884-1928) and accepted as the standard (taught in school).   Basically between WWI and WWII. And the farther from mainstream society folks were, the more those spellings seem to have varied.  

For example, my Scottish Clan name -- Home -- dates back to 1225 -- has at least 28 ways to spell Home, and people with all those different surnames are genetically related!

The Appalachian dulcimer is a folk instrument that evolved in the US from various folk instruments familiar to immigrants, such as hummel, langelik, langspil, scheitholt, epinette, etc. The earliest currently known dated Appalachian dulcimer has a date from I believe the 1830s, but doubtless they were being made in the US somewhat earlier. There are some good dulcimer history books out there that should be read by anyone interested in the background of dulcimers, as currently known.

The fact is we will likely never know exactly when/where/bywhom the American lap dulcimer was precisely 'invented'. Such records were never officially kept by anyone, and folk instruments can be fragile or be stored in barns- many have not survived as long as instruments like violins or pianos that were considered more valuable and thus were better cared for over time. Compared to more widespread commercial instruments, the surviving documentation on mtn dulcimers is sparse.

As to names, like Dusty said there are regional variations in spelling and pronunciation, especially when it comes to informal folk culture. The 'dulcimer' in St James Bible likely refers to ancient instruments that were more like psalteries or hammered dulcimers, or perhaps even bagpipe-like.
There is no Official Rule Book that governs how mountain dulcimers should be called, played, or tuned. Instead, there are musicians, scholars, online fans, and builders who all have their own preferences and ideas on classification, tradition, and features of the instrument. The mtn dulcimer is definitely classified in the broad zither family as opposed to the necked 'lute' family, but beyond that people get into classification and feature preferences that can be relative according to their own ideas.

If I started posting regularly about distinct characteristics of the "Dulcimonium"... then after a few years everyone might well consider that to be a verified and distinct variety of mountain dulcimer, not to be confused with Dulcimores or Galax dulcimers or box dulcimers or modern dulcimers. I could go on about how this or that feature makes something a Dulcimonium or not a Dulcimonium... a dulcimonium must have gut strings, six of them, and have a long triangular body shape and must have wooden frets and zither tuning pins... or else it's not a true dulcimonium.
What I mean is that there is no actual official 'Bible' or rulebook of mountain dulcimers. With enough repetition and enthusiasm, anyone could make Dulcimoniums 'happen'.

BTW please excuse my evening ramblings, ..and know that i certainly don't intend to offend anyone!

I already own my dream dulcimer which is a Blue Lion Acoustic Jam dulcimer. Like Robin’s dulcimer, it is made with a western red cedar soundboard and walnut back and sides. The VSL is 26.25.” I play mostly fingerpicking chord style. The Blue Lion dulcimer is great for that. I guess having some beautiful inlay work would make it even more dreamy. Since acquiring the Blue Lion AJ dulcimer, my playing has greatly improved.

I'm fortunate to own a dream dulcimer, a Blue Lion Jean Ritchie model instrument.  Top is Western Red Cedar, sides & back are Walnut.  I can't tell you the VSL off the top of my head-- I only play with a noter so VSL isn't much of a factor.  

Tough question. If I could have just one, today, I think it would be a 1917 RT model, a replication of an older Thomas made for Bailis Ritchie in all walnut built by Dan Cox. Maybe tomorrow it would be something else.

I think Ken's correct.  It's pretty clear that all those different spellings of what we now refer to as a dulcimer -- delcymore, delcimer, dulcimer, dulcimore, dulcymore -- reflect local or regional pronunciations of the word.  Especially among people with low literacy rates, few people would have seen the word in print, so there was nothing like a "standard" pronunciation.  In the same way that folk songs varied from one region to another, so would the pronunciation of a word vary.

As for dulciwhacker or duckslammer?  

That's a good question Nate. I wish I had a good answer. I don't think it is a stylization. You may be closer with your second suspicion. Perhaps these various names came about by spelling out the name of the instrument spoken in different dialects. It would probably take a linguistic study to confirm this. I'm not a linguist and have idea how one would go about doing this.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Something I've wondered for a while is, if dulcimer is written in the Bible spelled 'dulcimer', are different spellings a stylization of the word done on purpose or just a product of limited literacy in the deep mountains? 

That's a fun question. I've always wanted a Homer Ledford dulcibro. The craftsmanship is gorgeous, I love the metal sound, and it's a piece of dulcimer history. Unfortunately, but justifiably, they are quite expensive so that one might be a while for me lol.

What type of music do you play now and/or wish to learn in the future?

If you could have your dream dulcimer, or have it already, what would it be?  Woods? VSL? Maker?

I'm thinking of getting a new dulcimer and wish to explore options.  Thanks!  Jazz

Three years ago this was asked by @shannonmilan  "Do you mean to say they also differ on their tuning?"    
"They"  being dulcemores and dulcimers.

Yes and no..   What I said was  " The most common tunings <for traditional dulcemores> seem to have been Unison (all strings the same gauge and same high note -- d-d-d) or Bagpipe (middle and melody strings an octave higher than the bass string D-d-d), with 1-5-5 tunings a close third."

So Yes, they do differ
-- traditional dulcemores  are/were most commonly tuned to ddd or Ddd and other key equivalents
--modern dulcimers are most commonly tuned to DAA, DAd and other Modal tunings (DAG, DAC, etc) and their key equivalents 

and No
-- in that dulcemores and dulcimers can be tuned to exactly the same tunings

.  

I can't speak for what Ken Hulme meant, but I would say that the popularity of tunings differed by regions. What was popular in southwestern Virginia (bagpipe or unison) may not have been what was popular in Kentucky or North Carolina. Tunings were selected to suit the voice of the player if she/he was singing with the dulcimer. In a 1-5-5 tuning the bass string was set to "a good note" and the other strings a fifth above it. A good note being one that suited the singer's voice. Tunings also depended upon what suited the song, e.g., major or minor scales. Accepting a "standard" tuning allows folks to play together. When I first started playing it was CGG and moved to DAA and then to DAd. If you listen to other dulcimers players today, you will find many playing in other tunings when the perform solo.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Do you mean to say they also differ on their tuning?

I'm coming in late to this discussion Linda, but let me add a thought or two. First, I think the tuners are banjo friction tuners ( probably Champion) and the plastic buttons were replaced by walnut buttons. I don't know if this was done by the manufacturer (Grover) or by McSpadden. Second, wood is subject to changes in humidity and temperature. After taking the dulcimer out of the closet, there may have been some swelling or shrinking of the wood in the peg head. Sometimes when the screw bottoms out another washer, which is thicker than the original, can be used to thicken the side wall of the peg head allowing more space for the screw to tighten. There really isn't anything to malfunction on those pegs as they are a friction fit, but unlike violin pegs where the friction is within the peg hole, the friction on these pegs is against the wall of the peg head.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Dear Richard, thank you, thank you! Your suggestion is much appreciated because I finally got the courage to take it apart--your advice to take note of the washer order saved me. As it turns out, they have two metal washers sandwiched between a plastic ring.  By taking them apart, and putting them back together, for some mysterious reason they then worked. I've attached a photo of the innards. I'm very grateful to you! Linda

 IMG_7131.jpg - 161KB

Hiya again, Wally, see the response I just wrote. Merci, Linda

Dear Wally, and you are a dear!  I am amazed by all the learning I have gotten from your email and those of others who have replied.  I never dreamed I would have the courage to take apart the tuners on a musical instrument because, in the past, I have had a 98% failure rate on putting things together that I have taken apart.   I didn't even have the language to describe those pegs because I knew they weren't the violin friction type, nor the geared type. So, thank you. As it turns out, they have two metal washers sandwiched between a plastic ring.  By taking them apart, and putting them back together, voila, now they work--not sure why except maybe the dulcimer was happier that someone was paying attention to it. So again, many thanks. Linda

 IMG_7131.jpg - 161KB

You asked "what type of tuner?" I just looked at your photo, and you tuners are interesting in their own right due to the way the wood is held between metal fingers. I can't find any match on the Elderly Instrument tuners web page, and there are a lot of designs there.
https://www.elderly.com/pages/search-results?offset=456&q=tuners

Friction pegs (non-violin type) are common on banjos and ukuleles. Looking at the following web pages I identified about five basic types. Some use fiber washers while others use plastic. Yours appear to be fiber since some are more compressed than others.

All About Ukulele Friction Tuners - Got A Ukulele Beginners Tips

Banjo Tuner Tips & Tricks

Some really old high quality instruments used tapered tuning pegs, apparently designed to fit in the holes used for violin pegs. A video dealing with these is:
1920’s Martin Ukulele- What to do about the friction pegs?

One of the videos mentions screws bottoming out. That might be your problem if the wood has shrunk over the past 40 years. That could explain the left-right difference.

It sounds like you have a solid plan for maintaining and improving your dulcimer! Using peg dope for lubrication and Murphy's Oil Soap for cleaning are great practices to keep your instrument in good condition. Sanding out scratches and refinishing areas as needed can also help restore its appearance. Best wishes with your project, and I hope your dulcimer continues to bring you joy and beautiful music!

1 week from today is International Appalachian Dulcimer Day!    

Feel free to share any work you create (music, photography, embroidery, jewelry, poetry, etc.) which celebrates the Appalachian dulcimer and its spread around the world!  

Richard said " If you ever disassemble one all the way take note of the order of the metal and the fiber washers on the shaft."

Perhaps at some time in the past someone took one or more of them apart and incorrectly reassembled them. If one is better than another, you might have a model to check against.

There is a small fiber washer in the mechanism if my memory is still good. Sometimes that can be the culprit. I have had some success loosening them a lot and then slowly tightening them back down. If you ever disassemble one all the way take note of the order of the metal and the fiber washers on the shaft. Sometimes just using them will get them holding again. After all no exercise for 40 + years and we all forget how to do things.

Hi Ken, Thank you so much for the tip. That was the first thing I tried, and they were a little loose, but now the pegs on the right keep slipping. I appreciate the thought, though!

Yes

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."