Thanks everyone for your comments! I will try to keep up the rhythm of posting about my DulciBlog giveaways, and later today (Wednesday 12/18/13) I will be sending out my newsletter from my web site (jcrmusic.com), where I will try to give something else away. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Jerry
That's kind of you to share. I haven't tried to play it yet, but it looks like there are lots of arpeggios involved.
Thanks so much.
A challenge for someone that plays noter drone. Guess I should step out of my comfort zone and try it.
Hi Folks!
It is Friday and I'm going to try and always give something away on my Dulciblog:
http://jcrdulcimer.blogspot.com/2013/12/southwind.html
Enjoy!
Jerry Rockwell
AS I read you second paragraph I was going to suggest strumming the melody strings nearly vertically and using only the side of your little finger to brush the middle drone string and bass string.
One thing you've quickly discovered is that "there is no right way, or wrong way to play the dulcimer" -- just YOUR way. I've been an 'outie' strummer for nearly 40 years, influenced by Jean Ritchie. So firmly an outie strummer that it was probably 15 years before I even accidentally strummed out and back. Others emphasize strumming inward. Whatever works best for you.
When you back and forth strum, try to make the major notes of each measure the innie strums. Personally I think tablature which tries to teach you which direction to strum for which note is mostly a waste of time. Play a tune in a way which sounds good to you.
I find it interesting that your middle drone string has so much more sustain than the other strings; but 'stuff happens'. That might be solved by changing the middle drone string to a slightly larger gauge.
Onward and upward, as an author friend is fond of saying.
William,
First of all, in common parlance, what you are calling the "tenor" string is referred to simply as the middle string. "Tenor" makes sense to me, but that is not common practice.
Second, strumming in will accent the melody string only if your strum moves downward rather than upward. It may be that you are too new at playing to be able to fully control your strums in this way, but in the same way that Ken described how to strum out in such a way as to de-emphasize the bass, you can do the same thing strumming inward. In other words, strumming inward per se does not stress the melody notes. It is your specific method of strumming inward, and as you progress you will gain greater ability to alter your strumming in nuanced ways.
Third, notice that you refer to "principle" strum. Although some folks only strum in one direction, most players eventually begin strumming in both directions. The key is to keep a steady strum, with your principle strum occurring on the down beats and your other strum occurring on the up beats. So if your principle strum is in, the as you count 1-&-2-&-3-&-4-& you will strum in on the numbers and out on the &s. If your principle strum is out (as is mine) then you reverse that, and you strum out on the numbers and in on the &s. But melodies are not limited to down beats, so as you begin playing more and more advanced melodies, you will have to play melody notes when not strumming in the direction of your principle strum.
In short, the long-term solution to your problem cannot simply be to strum in instead of out. You will eventually develop the technique to emphaize certain strings in either direction. Admittedly, de-emphasizing the middle string is a problem.
How new are the strings? I would suggest putting all new strings on and getting slightly heavier melody strings and bass strings. Why not try .024 on the bass and .012 on the other strings. That change alone will emphaize the bass and melody strings more than they are now inyour current set-up. And if the strings are old, they might indeed have aged differently. Wound strings can sometimes go dead or flat faster than unwound strings, and since you finger the melody strings, the oil from your skin might have encouraged the melody strings to age faster than the middle string which remains untouched. Both new strings and changing the gauges might help with the problem you have.
Finally, if changing string gauges does not help, try changing the tuning a tiny little bit. Every dulcimer has a tone that finds extra responsiveness in the wood. Some players and luthiers sing into the sound holes of their instruments to find what that tone is and then they tune accordingly. It is possible that the A note of your middle string is simply more resonant in your dulcimer than other notes. What if you tuned CGG instead of DAA? You will still be able to play all the same songs in all the same fingerings that you've already learned, but it's possible that getting the middle string off the A note will bring it back in line with the volume and sustain of the other strings.
Good luck. And let us know how things go.
William, Ken has given you good advice about how to alter your strumming to either stress the melody strings more than the drone strings. You may not be able to master strumming technique right away, but keep working at it.
You should also not be afraid to change string gauges as you suggest. Although you might not want to go smaller than .020 on the bass string, especially if you are tuning to DAA, you might as well try .012 on the melody strings. That will increase the volume of the melody string a little bit.
I won't say common, but I will say it's something a new player recognizes quickly and either accepts or learns to circumvent when desired. Nothing wrong with the sound of drones; IMHO it's an essential part of the whole Dulcimer Sound. But it's not something most Westerners are accustomed to hearing in heavy doses.
The more you play, the more you'll find your personal balance of drones and melody, usually on a tune-by-tune basis. Some tunes cry out for a heavy drone background, the way some tunes cry out for a heavy drumbeat. Others, not so much, and at times, no drone at all. Some phrases of some songs want a drone, others don't; especially the farther up the fretboard you play -- the higher frets with the drones are often uncomfortably discordant, so you learn not to use the drones above, say fret 9...
The easiest way to lessen the amount of drone sound is to change how you strum. From your description it sounds as if you are strumming either very flat across all the strings, or perhaps even across and down as you get to the middle and bass drones, which would emphasize them.
So... learn to strum "up and out, in and down" so that the melody string is emphasized in each direction, not the drones. When I strum outwards, I basically brush the drones with the little finger of my right hand (the finger itself helps to mute the drones somewhat), as my pick plucks the melody string almost exclusively (and the drones as I want to pluck them). strumming inward I often don't touch the drones at all with the pick, but again brush them with my curled fingers in passing.
If you can borrow a tuner from a friend, either the same make, or a different make of tuner, try it, and see if the "out of tune" changes. I suspect it's less critical than it looks on a tuner, and probably not far enough to hear the difference. My guess is each tuner is probably more sensitive to certain notes, or a certain part of it's range, and less sensitive to others. If the dulcimer sounds good when you play it, don't let the scientific lab equipment bother you.Tune the open strings, and let your ears decide the rest.
It's a mystery isn't it Patty? You probably oughta take it to someone who can solve it.
As an aside, but along the same lines. Early in my music playing days I got into trying to make sure every fret noted true..lasted for a few years though.....course there wasn't any little clip on tuners in those days. I'm a piano tuner and I'm thinkin' well I can hear the low side of a 5th and the high side of a 5th and everything in between and none of these stringed instruments are right. So I'd mess with the bridge and with the nut and change the strings and then I'd try a different material for the bridge and I'm thinkin' I can tell the difference....and I probably could... : )....
But the best thing I did was just start playing the instruments as they laid.....& if I thought one note was always a little flat well when I came to that note I'd push on it a little bit before it sounded and sharpen it some. And if there was a note I thought was always sharp...well I'd live with it. And you know what? Pretty soon I couldn't tell the difference. Or I didn't care....one or the other. All I know is my obsession with 'perfectly in tune' was thankfully lifted from me. Sometimes I think I should pay a little more attention to my tuning however... : )...
Nowadays with these clip on tuners I've read threads to where people just don't know where to turn.....this note ain't right or that one.
That's kind of where you're at Patty. Your chart shows things are messed up for no logical reason.....except maybe for different fretting finger pressure behind the fret. But I looked at your page and saw you're a guitar player so I'd give you the benefit of the doubt there.....and you probably know what things oughta sound like.
So....take it in...get it looked at? Good luck...f'real.....& I hope you get it to playing to your satisfaction.
Patty
Everyone so far has made sensible suggestions but I guess you want ideally to take one definite course of action and see how it goes.
* I suggest you ignore for the moment the possibility that your maker simply got his fret spacing wrong and try to improve the intonation, not perfect it;
* Given the materials used, you need to replace the bridge (certainly) and nut (possibly, though it's a more delicate operation), and preferably in a hard material like bone or corian;
* The bass D string seems pretty much OK with your current set up, so use that as your marker (don't worry about the intonation of the bass string beyond the 12th or so fret - it's usually pretty unplayable up there anyway);
* The middle string is mainly sharp, which suggests you need that part of the bridge to be further from the nut (you make the bridge using three different facets);
* The melody string(s) - the pair won't/can't really be different - is mainly flat, which suggests the bridge facet needs to be nearer the nut. NB we are talking small differences in distance from the nut of maybe no more than 1mm between each facet.
* So far, so standard with a tuning of DAD and a 12/15/22 - 28 set of strings. But your bridge is floating I think you said - it doesn't have a fixed slot? This means you can fine tune the position of the bridge - and SLANT it slightly if necessary - to get the intonation across and up the fingerboard acceptable, if not perfect.
...It will of course be easier if you ask a luthier to do all this for you, but it's perfectly possible to do it yourself with a little care.
Good luck!
Geoff
Well that's a whole heap of data there Patty, like Dusty, I had trouble making sense of it all.
A couple of things come to mind.
Most likely it's a question of finding the correct position for the bridge and then finding the best combination of string thickness. You usually have to play one variable against the other to get this.
Are there any signs in the wood or colouration(fading etc.) that suggest the bridge was set at an angle across the fretboard.
The 6+ fret doesn't fit quite the same pattern of sharp and flat as the other frets. Maybe ignore results from this fret for the time being and base everything on the whole numbers.
You know what I find is interesting, there is no pattern in the variations. Looking just at the 3 A strings on many of the same frets the variation between the middle and melody are in opposite directions. Maybe caused by poorly shaped nut and bridge slots [along with the material]?
Does the MD have a zero fret or just a nut?
Hi PATTY; Sorry to hear of your troubles.
First thing I would do is get a good FLAT steel rule (you Brits have a ruler, but that's different
) and make sure the frets are flat to each other. By the variances you list in "cents off" it doesn't sound like they are. Individual frets can be re-set as needed.
You found a US nickel and dime on your side of the Pond?
Replacing the nut/bridge -- Like John, I've never in 40 years heard of a builder using plyuwood for the nut/bridge. It makes no structural sense. The countertop material that John mentions - Corian (tm) - makes good bridges. But so does hard, dry bone, purchased plastic bridges; and woods like hard maple, ebony, lignum vitae, or snakewood. Personally I find wood easiest to work with.
The usual spacing on the melody string couplet is about 3mm between the pair (1/8 inch to us Yanks).
Point of grammar... since the dulcimer is normally played flat on your lap, not vertically, most folks don't think of 'top' and 'bottom' strings the way guitarists or mando players do. We usually refer to the nearest string(s) as the melody string(s); next is the middle drone, followed by the bass or bass drone (farthest from you).
If you continue to have problems, you might get in touch with Robin Clark, up in Snowdonia, Wales at Birdrock Dulcimers.
Well, there you go Patty !!! You can see that the questions I asked you a while back in that PM, have all been asked again here, so if you can provide us with just someanswers we may be able to help ?(that bit of Geoffs answer re a 'compensated' bridge relates in part to the question I asked about the type of bridge you have)
John
Patty
Ken asks some very sensible questions - and knowing something about your dulcimer, as Strumelia asks, would also be helpful.
Sorry, but there are also other variables. If you are tuning the dulcimer to something other than it was designed for, or using strings of different gauges than the original, it may well play out of tune - the bridge is usually "compensated" by the maker for both.
But tell us a bit more about the problem and the instrument before we start worrying you too much!
All the best. Geoff
P.S. Welcome to the UK and European group!
Patty, can you tell us a little about what kind of dulcimer you have? Does it say who made it? Is it used or brand new? Where did you get it from? Is it possible to post a photo of it? All this info would help us figure out what the problem might be. Also, as Ken asked- just how badly out of tune are you talking about- a little or a lot?
P.S. I re-named this thread to better reflect your question so more folks could help. 
Patty -- the big question is "How far out of tune?" A few cents? From dead on to full sharp? Technically, anytime you press down on a string, you're stretching it and causing it to go a tiny bit sharp.
You said "...a new dulcimer..." brand new from the builder? Or new to you? How high is the action? What we consider a good starting point is the nickel & dime test. If the strings just touch a dime placed next to the first fret; and just touch a nickel placed on top of the 7th fret (not the 6+ fret). If the action is much higher than this it is very easy to stretch the string(s) far enough to go serious sharp.
Sounds like I would have really liked Dep. MO. Sorry to realize he's no longer with us. Has anyone filled his shoes??
I came across Rod on PalTalk, and he was a good person. It was always a pleasure hearing his playing, as well as him talking about his assorted dulcimers and sharing what they were tuned to etc. I still can not believe it's been 3 years.
Thanks for that Lisa ! As for the angels, well, he always seemed to have plenty of instruments out on loan ............. !!! Dusty, I agree with you about Paltalk, he as good as held my hand when I first went on .
John
I can't believe it's been three years. Wow. Rod was the first one to welcome me to FOTMD. He was a generous and kind soul. One reason I don't join the dulcimer club on Paltalk much anymore is because his absence there--even after three years--is so palpable it makes me sad.
I like that image of him teaching angels to play the dulcimer.
FOTMD member John Henry in the UK recently posted a video of his beautiful version of The Friendly Beasts, one of my favorite Christmas Carols.
John Henry then mentioned that he was encouraged years ago here on fotmd by our then-moderator Rod Westerfield affectionately known to us all as "Deputy Mo". John Henry writes:
I had more or less abandoned noter play until I found my way here, used a peculiar form of chordal play instead, but thanks to our friend 'Deputy Mo', who offered encouragement not only in my use of the noter, but also in the way I approached this infernal machine...I gained a little confidence, and now you have me , warts and all. All I ever try to do is (i) illustrate that expression can be coaxed from a tune when using a noter, and (ii) share what I do in the hope that it may help others....
John (it was Rod who drew my attention to the use of this tune as a Christmas Carol ???
Rod loved this site dearly- tirelessly helping and encouraging everyone, particularly beginner players. He was a good friend and a great help in all ways. His posts and explanations are still helping people here. Sadly, Rod passed away unexpectedly on Christmas day in 2010, but his contributions, posts, and FOTMD page are still here on fotmd: https://fotmd.com/rod-westerfield
I remember Rod particularly at Christmas time here on the site, and John Henry's video and comments made me recall how Rod and I agreed that The Friendly Beasts was one of our favorite carols.
So I thought it would be nice to pull Rod's recording of The Friendly Beasts from his profile page playlist and post it here below. I've attached the MP3 clip at the bottom of this post. We can raise a little toast to 'Deputy Mo' this holiday season, and know that he continues to help and encourage players, both here on FOTMD and up on high...I like to think of him teaching the angels how to play the mountain dulcimer...
Well my alto C seedpod strawfire ocarina showed up on Friday. Fits nicely in the hand and feels lovely to hold.
The Aria ones do sound lovely, good choice! I like the brown glazed seedpods as well, earthy tones, and no 2 are quite the same.
Ruth It's an Aria tenor, not nearly as high as the soprano. Cats don't seem to care for my ocarina OR my rebec....just too piercing for them- they run for the door like crazy! lol 
I like those brown raku-style seedpods, they sound nice too I think. The twleve hole isn't much diff from the ten hole ones- those two tiny 'extra' holes on the 12 hole give you a couple of very handy sharp or flat notes, but you don't have to use them. That enables you to play in a couple more keys, or songs that have an accidental note here and there. I notice lots of xmas carols have those notes. But good thinking to start on a 6 hole or 8 hole pod Oc.
What brand of ocarina? And given the cats reaction, was it soprano? I'm toying with getting either a seedpod or scarab style one from Songbird, but an alto. Both these are 6 holes, the 12 hole ones look too daunting.
I love the NA flute too! Infact I like them so much I have 6 and just sent some wood this morning to a flute maker to have one made. lol I even attend 3 different flute circles in my area. Tons of fun
Yeah right, I'll be playing Stairway to Heaven soon....or Zelda's Lullaby....
I love the part about the cats! When my neighbors had a dog, I could play harmonica in my dining room and make him bark and howl along with the music next door. My cats never seemed to mind. My wife, on the other hand... well, I never had an actual curfew, but she says she can relate! And playing while on the road generally requires going further away from civilization than the people who smoke.
I had to refresh my memory on ocarinas. Rock on!
I bought an ocarina last week, and have been having some fun on it.
I've always loved the sound of recorders and whistles playing early music- medieval and renaissance, even just early folk tunes. Well made ceramic ocarinas can sound pretty nice once you get the hang of controlling proper intonation with your breath, especially if you learn a little vibrato. I've never played a wind instrument before, but always wanted to try one. I do have a passion for learning new things and exploring new musical challenges.
The challenge in this case is- I'm using it as a little tool to improve my limited skill at reading music (standard notation sheet music). I can pick out tunes in standard notation, but it's a laborious process for me- I want to be able to sight read sheet music better than I do. Surprising how this ocarina is actually helping a lot with that. My ocarina plays in key of C, but can play sharps and flats as well, so I'm just starting by playing very simple early tunes in C with limited range and reading them from the sheet music rather than using 'ocarina tab' like many folks do. Ocarina tab is pretty annoying, and if I'm going to spend any effort learning to read anything I figure it might as well be something I can use for any instrument.
I'm learning a lot and it sounds pretty...sometimes. To me at least. lolol...
The high notes can be a bit intense, and after only like four days, the cats Suki and Sheba just know. As soon as they see me take the ocarina out of the box they both rush to the door and run downstairs to get away from me. Brian set an ocarina curfew of 10 PM. Whaa....?? Suddenly I'm a leper.
Gosh, gang, I am suddenly immensely grateful that I kept my mouth shut. A couple years ago DH took up guitar. The nook in the house where he practices is awash in picks, music sheets, instrument stand, books, tuners -- you get the idea. He seems happy so I just putter on by. Now I am seeing that I may need my own hill of goodies -- this dulcimer world does become expansive, doesn't it?
Ah, yet another thought! I am using a Herdim pick but there are some guitar picks in the house and I can look at some homemade options too. Thanks for the suggestion.
