Forum Activity for @robin-thompson

Hi, Marian! To me, strumming is the most important aspect of dulcimer play. Thus, it takes time to settle-in to learning how to strum and feel comfortable strumming. (I'm always working on my strum and I've been playing about 6 years.)

I suggest this exercise: Put on any music you enjoy. With your left hand, mute the strings. With your right hand, experiment strumming rhythms with the music. It really helps one get a feel for rhythm and, over time, your strumming will improve.

Happy strummin'!

Gene, it's beautiful! Hope you get many years of enjoyment out of it.

wavy I like it. Ya got a nice one there. How the voice?

Linda, can you explain exactly what you are trying to convert?

If it is only the melody, there is a pretty easy method that is described by Linda Brockinton in the Music Theory group where you just number the notes according to scale position. If you are trying to convert chords, then you just need a chord chart to show you where to find the right chords on the dulcimer, and not conversion is needed.

If you are trying to convert an entire arrangement you may have difficulties, since a guitar is chromatic, meaning your dulcimer may not have all the notes needed, a guitar has greater tonal range than a dulcimer since the open strings span two octaves rather than one, and the guitar can play more notes at a time since there are six strings as opposed to the three on the dulcimer.

Ok, I made a mistake above. Fretboard Road Maps isn't what you want. I was thinking they were charts showing what notes were at what frets. They kinda are, but more on the order of patterns for improvising. What you need is a chart of all the notes on a guitar fret board, so you can see what note a tab is showing when it gives a string and fret number. A finger board chart, like this one: http://egalo.com/guitar-fretboard-visualization-chart-with-note-names.pdf

This can be downloaded, and printed. I have seen these for sale at music stores, as well. You set it on your desk and learn your way around the finger board. For converting guitar tab to dulcimer, you look up each note in the guitar tab, write down it's name, and locate that note on the dulcimer. You will need a chart showing the dulcimer fret board as well, some dulcimer books have a few charts, at least for one or two tunings used in the book.

Once you have identified the notes, and located their position on a dulcimer chart, mark them on a blank dulcimer Tab sheet. You can keep all the bar, timing, and other info from the guitar tab as it doesn't change. Try a simple song, such as Frere' Jacques, Hot Cross Buns, or London Bridge. Play the new tab and let your ears tell you if you have made any mistakes. If it doesn't work in an ionian tuning, try mixolydian, then aeolian and dorian. Give us a full report of your findings. You have until the end of the semester to complete your work, and this will go in your permanent record. And bring enough chewing gum for everyone.

Paul

Ok, in doing a quick search on youtube I see there are no dulcimer versions of this yet on youtube. There is a great tutorial on a tin whistle though. I've watched this girl before because I'm learning that instrument too. But, the whistle is a D whistle so you can literally copy the notes by sound. You could play the lower notes and it would sound great. Here's the vid if you want to try it My Heart Will Go On - D whistle

Heck i really love that song too and may try it on whistle and dulcimer.

Hey Linda,

This is an idea. Have you ever tried to pick out a tune (a simple version of it) on the dulcimer? You would really be surprised at how it's not as hard as you really think. Picking out simple versions of tunes will allow you to add in filler notes that compliment those simple notes also. I have ZERO music theory. I have no clue the names of any chords or notes on the dulcimer, but I can pick out simple tunes and spice them up a bit. Here's how I would go about it if I were you.

First see if there are any dulcimer vids out there already of that particular song. If so, if you like the arrangement try to mimic it by watching their hands or listening to what is being played. If I can see round about where someone is on the fretboard I can usually pick it out. If there aren't any dulcimer vids, then I would either listen to the actual song or a vid of someone playing the tune (on any instrument) where you like the arrangement.

Then if you can get a few notes here and there you can start to fill out in front and behind the ones you are sure of just by trial and error. In my opinion you will get so much more satisfaction out of picking out a tune yourself vs. reading some tab. Tabs are great, but they are limiting IMO. I feel so much more freedom doing it this way, but I do still sometimes use tabs for certain parts of songs (knowing that I will change them to suit me).

Good luck and I hope this helps a bit.

Yeah, except for the little 'nag screen' that pops up each time you open the program, the free version of TablEdit is pretty useful. Easy to just close the nag screen each time before you start to work in the program.

FWIW, there is a free download of a (limited) TablEdit version here: http://www.tabledit.com/download/index.shtml that may be of some use to you...

thanks for the information Paul. I need to sit down and re-read this to soak in all the information.

Is there a certain guitar tab you have in mind, or are you asking for a general concept of this fret on guitar equals that fret on a dulcimer?

Guitar tab is usually lead parts, not chords. The lead may be melody, but more often is an improvised solo part. The real problem with converting it to a dulcimer tab is dulcimers don't have near the range of a guitar. Low parts would have to be moved up an octave to fit on a dulcimer. High parts could not be moved up an octave because the guitar can come up at least as far as the dulcimer. The relocated low parts then will not be quite in relation to their guitar counterparts, but it can be done. It would be best to move a whole section, rather than just certain low notes.

Converting may work, if the solo is not too far outside a certain key. If the guitarist makes a lot of use of out of key chords, the notes of a solo reflect those chords. They have to, to harmonize. For a dulcimer to play this note for note, it may be necessary to use a chromatic dulcimer. CAUTION: OPINIONATED CONTENT! It seems to me it would be better to create a dulcimer solo, rather than try to convert one from guitar. But that's just an opinion, and creating new solos may not be what every player likes to do.

Look for a guitar chart called "Fret board Road Map". It shows what note is at what fret, assuming standard guitar tuning. If the guitarist is using a different tuning, there may be a chart for it, I really don't know. I never bought them. In standard tuning, the 4th string on the guitar is tuned to D, the same D as our bass string if we tune to DAA, or DAD. The 3rd string is G, same as we use for DGD tuning. The second string is B, one tone above our A middle string, and the 1st string is E, one tone above our D melody string in DAD. The tricky stuff starts on the guitars 5th string, where we can't reach any notes below the guitars 5th fret. The 5th is tuned to A, an octave below our middle string. The 6th is E, almost an octave below our bass string. If you have a tab in mind, the starting point is to decide what key it's in, and see if it changes keys or modes. Hopefully, we can find a dulcimer tuning we can use for it.

Paul

Linda -- the problem often is that guitar tab only gives 'accompaniment chords' (one chord per measure for example), not melody chords (one chord for each note of a melody) the way dulcimer tab is written. Creating dulcimer tab from Standard Music Notation is relatively easy and straightforward.

Put the tune in TablEdit, then change from guitar to dulcimer as the instrument. The dulcimer part [module] would be missing notes because of being diatonic. I've done it, but I set up a custom chromatic dulcimer module in TablEdit. This allows me to get to a 3 string form which then can be modified to the various tunings.

The woman I bought it from has several instruments she plays but the whistles and concertinaare her passion. She had,had this dulclimer custom made for her by Allen Wood but she said she didn't play it very often. You can tell it hadn't been it is in fantastic condition. I told her about KMW and some of the other festivals and she is excited about maybe coming to some of them. I hope she does.

I sometimes frown when I see such sales and the prize asked for it. $ 100 is okay when it is not wanted by the seller, but under the $ 25 I always wonder if the seller is the rightful owner... Sure, I didn't saw the face

At the other hand, I sometimes get instruments cheap because the owner is pleased I can play it... Also for nothing at all! Those lucky moments

Wout

Holy cow Dana, what a SCORE!!! And the jimbow too. Dang girl that is awesome! I love that she pulled out a tin whistle and ya'll played some. The universal language of music will make friends for you! Great find and great story!

Great story Dana ... one that memories are made of. I bet you have a relationship with the German lady like no one else ... an' that's a GOOD thing!

Dana R. McCall said:

LOL I'm pretty good at fiddlin around just don't know about with a jimbow.

@ Sam, Sam I do love making new friends, my husband says I never meet an enemy. Once a friend of mine years ago that was German and her mother was still in Germany. He mom was going to visit, so when she got here a lot of us got together, I said Hi to her and started talking to her, she would nod her head and say Ya Ya , I thought she was agreeing with everything I had to say LOL. soon a crowd was gathering around us and I saw a lot of snickers and giggles . In a few her daughter Linda came up to me and said Dana Mom doesn't speak a word of English . I was flabbergasted , I said well we were having a heck of a conversation !Needless to say we got along great I did all the talking and she did all the listening HAHA I took her for a ride in my little green dunebuggy and she had a ball, we understood each other on a different level, we enjoyed laughing and having fun .

LOL I'm pretty good at fiddlin around just don't know about with a jimbow.

@ Sam, Sam I do love making new friends, my husband says I never meet an enemy. Once a friend of mine years ago that was German and her mother was still in Germany. He mom was going to visit, so when she got here a lot of us got together, I said Hi to her and started talking to her, she would nod her head and say Ya Ya , I thought she was agreeing with everything I had to say LOL. soon a crowd was gathering around us and I saw a lot of snickers and giggles . In a few her daughter Linda came up to me and said Dana Mom doesn't speak a word of English . I was flabbergasted , I said well we were having a heck of a conversation !Needless to say we got along great I did all the talking and she did all the listening HAHA I took her for a ride in my little green dunebuggy and she had a ball, we understood each other on a different level, we enjoyed laughing and having fun .

I suspect that anyone you meet will very likely become a friend. How could they not?

Lisa the woman I bought the dulcimer from brought out her penny whistle and a larger one she had and we played afew songs on her porch. It was fun and I made a new friend.

Hey Geekling, It was you with the jimbow not mandy. I'm going to have to figure out how to use it. :)

Geekling said:

Wow, Dana, you scored againthat's gorgeous! And it's so great that it came with a case and a JimBow! I hope you enjoy your new JimBow as much as I'm enjoying mine! At any rate, you found a unique dulcimer at a terrific pricehow cool is that? I can't wait to hear it!

That's a great story Ben

Benjamin W Barr Jr said:

Definitely a keeper and a heck of a find. It's sort of how I got my first dulcimer. I stopped at a flea market and this dulcimer was sitting on a table and the wind was actually making music on the strings. I had never seen nor heard of one at the time. The fellow selling it gave me a brief rundown of how he came on it and asked if $30 was a fair price...he said he had bought it for $20. I replied for someone who knows the instrument it probably is. I then started to walk away and he asked if I had $25 for it. I thought for a couple of seconds and figured that if I didn't like it, I could probably get my money back from selling it. Well, I still have that dulcimer!

Cool find! The only one I've seen "in the wild" was at a pawn shop in North Carolina, but the staff was too busy visiting and drinking coffee to offer any assistance to customers. Congrats on your find!

what a great find. love how it looks,

Definitely a keeper and a heck of a find. It's sort of how I got my first dulcimer. I stopped at a flea market and this dulcimer was sitting on a table and the wind was actually making music on the strings. I had never seen nor heard of one at the time. The fellow selling it gave me a brief rundown of how he came on it and asked if $30 was a fair price...he said he had bought it for $20. I replied for someone who knows the instrument it probably is. I then started to walk away and he asked if I had $25 for it. I thought for a couple of seconds and figured that if I didn't like it, I could probably get my money back from selling it. Well, I still have that dulcimer!

Nice find at a yard sale for sure!

Nice find Dana. Can't wait to hear it

Great find Dana !!! Hope you'll put up a vid soon. I bet it sounds as good as it looks. Very good price. Congrats!

Don't know anything about Allen Wood his site is no longer up but he made a nice dulcimer. this one is number 87 and was custom made for the woman I bought it from.

Look what I found at a yard sale in Lexington yesterday. I saw a post for a yardsale and it said there was a dulcimer. I emailed the lady and ask about it and she told me to come by and I could look at it before theyard sale started, so off I went. She brought the case out and opened it up and out came a beautiful tear drop dulcimer. And it sounds beautiful. and Mandy it came with a Jimbow:) Here are some pics of it. It has night hawks, moons and I think yucca plants. It was made by Allen Woods, I looked up his site but couldn't get anything. Well here it is. And it only cost 100 dollars. The bag that came with it is prob 35 dollars make the dulcimer even cheaper.:)

I think it will work good for you on the bike.

Susie - hey, yeah got it last week. Like it. Haven't used it on the bike yet, but I've carried it around the house and stuff. Like the pocket it has, wish the straps were a bit longer and padded though.

Have you gotten your case from Elderly's yet? I was there on Sat. and picked up a new tenor uke. Can't wait to start having fun with that. Thought of you when I was there.

Absolutely beautiful pics Robin. Improvising is always best, worked out good for you it seems anyway.

Hey Mandy,

I had the same problem with carrying my dulcimer when I was on a wild camping trip on the West Coast of Scotland. In the end I just wrapped a load of trailer straps around my hard case and set off on the trip

Oh well, the case worked as good map holder, and a table for my camping stove!!!!!!!

But I did get to play in some pretty cool locations!

Bobby - I guess that's better than carrying your Tommy Gun in a violin case like the gangsters did!

I've already got a case coming. Hey Bobby - I'd rather have the assault rifle anyway. LOL