Forum Activity for @folkfan

Barbara, Have you seen some of the whack-doodle things John Jacob Niles called dulcimers?????????? Really strange looking.

http://mewzik.com/research/niles/index.php

Some time ago in Everything Dulcimer I started a discussion asking for all the variuos names used for what we call the mountain or Appalachian or lap dulcimer. Rather than search that discussion out and add a link, I've just attached a Word version of the final list. I thought you might find it fun.

Hi Barbara,

The traditional mountain dulcimer was not known as a mountain dulcimer or Appalachian dulcimer - these are fairly recent terms. The instrument went under many different names in many different counties (waterswivel, fence scorpion, hog fiddle, dulcimore, music box American dulcimer etc etc). The shape of the body varied, hourglass, boat and teardrop all being made in different areas around the same time. The number of strings varied in differnt regions as did the tunings. What was consistant was the fretboard not extending beyond the body, the diatonic fret layout and frets under the melody string(s) only. So it was always played in a melody over drone style, andin most counties with a noter.

So that defines a moutnain dulcimer..er..hog fiddle..er..scantlin...er...feather harp...er...dulcerine..er.. Well, you get the idea!

For me, it is the diatonic fretboard, melody string only fretting and playing over drones that defines the instrument in its traditional form.

In terms of its contemporary form - well the sky is the limit !!!!!!

By organological (science of musical instruments) definition, the dulcimer belongs to a class of instruments called Fretted Zithers.

The body shape, number or arrangement of frets is not part of the definition of Fretted Zithers in general, but can define variations in type. Baltic Psalteries like the Kantele vs southern European Plucked Psalteries for example. Location of the frets (central to the body as in the Dulcimer vs on the near edge top as in the Hummel) is another example. Dulcimer tradition calls for 3 courses of strings, each course can be single, double or even triple stringed.

All Zithers (fretted or not) have their strings running across the top of the sound box rather than at right angles to it as a harp does. Psalteries (plucked or bowed), Kantele, Gusli, Autoharps, Hammered Dulcimers etc. are all local/regional names for Zithers. No Zither has a neck - anything more than the tuning head extending beyond the body.

Guitars, mandolins, banjos, "stick instruments", Waldzithers, lutes, etc all belong to the Lute class of instruments. Violins, violes etc. are yet another class - necked and unfretted.

So if you take strings off of a guitar you have a guitar with fewer strings. If it has a neck it is not a zither/dulcimer, by internationally recognized definition

Barbara, I am sure you could find numerous discussions here and even more at Everything Dulcimer in which people tell those with chromatic dulcimers that they should just play guitaror those with strumsticks that they aren't real dulcimers. Feelings can get hurt and I don't think that is anyone's intention. I do not speak for the dulcimer community.(In fact, a lot of people can even tell by my playing that I am really a guitar player who switched teams.) Some people within the dulcimer community are much more strict than others about what constitutes a dulcimer. It is that debate that I don't find very helpful.

To one person a dulcimer with a chromatic fretboard can still be a dulcimer, but to someone else, a dulcimer is a diatonic instrument played in a noter/drone style. I've always thought it arbitrary that some innovations (like geared tuning pegs) can be accepted and others (like extra frets) can't.

But I think most if not all of us would agree on what a traditional dulcimer looks like and how it was played. Let's start there. Then we can explore the variations that stem from that traditonal dulcimer withough worrying about specific classifications.

Barbara P said:

Thanks Dusty Turtle. That makes perfect sense to me now. The dulcimer community accepts all similar styles as dulcimers. I'm sorry, I didn't know that this might be a sensitive subject. I guess that's why I couldn't find my answer in the archives.

I've stayed away from this conversation because, as those who've taken part in such discussions before can attest, things can get a little testy. Can a dulcimer have "extra" frets? Can you play chords on it? Can you reverse the string order and hang it over your shoulder like a guitar? If I tune my guitar DGDGBD and lay it flat on my lap, is it a guitar or a dulcimer? If a cigar box is used as the sound box, does the fretboard become a neck? Can it still be a dulcimer then?

Rather than asking "what constitutes a dulcimer" which only encourages us to draw a sharpboundary between dulcimers and other similar hybrid instruments, let's askhow to define a traditional mountain dulcimer and traditional mountain dulcimer playing, and then explore what some of the variations of that instrument and those playing traditions are.

Even the analogy of waterfowl species doesn't quite hold up. A goose may not be a duck, but if you see an odd-looking waterfowl that appears to be half goose and half duck, what is it? We define a species as a a group of animals that can produce fertile offspring. There is a species of bullfrog on the east coast whose habitat ranges from Maine to Florida. At each step of the way, the bullfrogs can mate with those around them. But if you take one from Maine and one from Florida, they cannot mate. Or let's try another analogy. Take an ice cube and put it on the counter. It immediately starts to melt. On the outside, therefore, is water, and in the very center is ice. But where is the boundary between those two? As long as it feels wet, it is water, and you can never quite get to the ice because as you get there it begins to melt.

Sometimes there are no clear boundaries and rather than inventing them to make our classification system seem more rational, we should just accept that everything is in flux. Traditions evolve. Let's embrace the old, and the new, the long accepted and the avant guarde. If the music is sweet, it's all good.

I think you will find there are many differing opinions on what makes something a 'mountain dulcimer'....or not.

There's a system of classifying instruments that puts the dulcimer in with zithers. Zithers have a sound box that the strings completely cross. The stick type of dulcimer would be classified by this system as a lute type of instrument in which the strings cross the sound box but continue up a neck, like the cittern.

There's a nice group here dedicated to the strumstick or stick dulcimer.

I just have to say that I may have gotten into a bit of a "mixed metaphor". Holden Caulfield from J D Salinger's novel Catcher in The Rye didn't say that, but instead asked "where do the ducks go in the winter?"

It appears that Indiana poet, James Whitcomb Riley may have actually been the first to coin the phrase when he wrote "when I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck."

This quote also seems to have been said by Theodore Roosevelt at one time and it was also used during the McCarthy trials for communism.

I would think, in my humble opinion, that someone taking three strings off of a guitar and thereby calling it a dulcimer would be wrong. In the words of Holden Caulfield ( I think) If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.

Here are some Videos Banjammer or a Banjmo

Anyone know where I can find plans to make me one of these? love the sound of them.

I have McSpadden's banjomer and it works for me. Easy to play and has a good sound and is reasonably priced. I use it mostly for Civil War tunes and Stephen Foster tunes and a few blue grass types. I have it set up just like the one David Schnaufer used from McSpadden, with a cloth inserted in the hole on the bottom.

Banjmo, banjammer, there are about as many spellings as there are people making them. All basically have a small drum head or tambourine imbedded in a dulcimer body, and diatonic fretboard that stops short of the drum so that a banjo type bridge can sit on top of the skin head. Can certainly be the perfect instrument for that special sound if you don't want to take up banjo, but don't necessarily sound great on all kinds of music.

And speaking of using up small pieces of wood- Years ago when I ordered my limberjack "Clyde" from Keith, he told me he used up the leftover bits of dulcimer wood to make his limberjacks, mostly walnut pieces. He said that was why they danced so well- they were imbued with dulcimer wood spirit.

I have at least 10 different limberjacks- both new and old, but the two Keith ones are always the best dancers!

Me, too, Dave. Those "imperfections" can give an instrument real character.

Yeah I really likeit too. Thereis a localdulcimer maker that makes his dulcimer so that thereare no imperfections in the wood, in fact he brags about it. Nice dulcimers butbecause of the type of wood he uses you can't tell one of his dulcimer from another. I really enjoy seeing the wood patterns and "imperfections" in everyones dulcimers.

Robin Thompson said:

Thanks for sharing the photos of the treasures Keith made for you, Dave! That wormy chestnut is so cool. . .

Thanks for sharing the photos of the treasures Keith made for you, Dave! That wormy chestnut is so cool. . .

Might as well add the photo of my Keith Young limberjack too. I've seen a lot of very well done limberjacks that have been painted and/or dressed up. I've always been afraid to mess it up. Do need to find a little dulcimer for him...

David, they are just lovely. I too have Keith's limberjacks- I absolutely adore them!

I was saddened tolearn about Keiths passing on the 9tha little while ago.

Here's my Keith Young dulcimers (I should have had my Keith Young limberjack added to the photo as well). On the full size dulcimer: Walnut side/bottom, wormy chestnut top

Just to clear up an old comment (I wasn't a member at that time and didn'tsee it), the WNCDC taband midi files areuploaded toEverythingDulcimer about once a year. I think I may be a year or so behind, besides...

But the Western North Carolina Dulcimer Collective tab page is always up to date as of the current newsletter, and also includes mp3 recordings of each tune. They're the ones we used to send out on CD, but this is easier! One version is always the melody, the second isas-shown on the tab, andoften there's a third that is either finger-picked or playedat full-speed if it's a faster tune. (No tab for the fingerpicked versions, because I make them up as I record them!) And all of our tunes can be played on just the melody string with drones or with full chords, in either D-A-dd or D-A-AA.

The midi files are on both websites, although I really wonderwhether anyone uses them. But they're so tiny and so quick to produce with the notation software I use that they're no problem to provide, too. That software, by the way, is a DOS program I bought in 1989!

Ken Hulme said:

All of the Western North Carolina Dulcimer Collective (WNCDC) tabs are archived on EverythingDulcimer.com along with midi files to listen to.

Howdy, all

I've uploaded some YouTube lessons to my channel , all of which have free tab available on my website .

I'll be doing more of this as time permits, so stay tuned.

You are welcome, Phil. That's a Blue Lion Dulcimer!

Linda

thanks Linda. Love the in-lay on the neck of the Dulcimer on your front page.

I have a few free TABs on my website, and more will be added.

www.cabinhillmusic.com

Best to all,

Linda

Lots of new folks joining and looking for tab. I thought I would give this thread a little bump and assist our new members a little bit

I know others have listed free TAB sites in these discussions but I thought it wouldn't hurt to add my current list. Some are well known, but others might be new to some people (I removed any duplicates already posted in this discussion):

http://wncdc.org/Tab_Index.php
http://barbfeick.com/vaudeville/Tabs/Dulcimer/DAD/
http://www.hsvmda.com/tab
http://www.threeriversdulcimersociety.net/html/ourmusic.html
http://www.coloradodulcimerfestival.com/jamtunes/
http://athensdulcimerclub.wordpress.com/free-tabs/ (LINKS)
http://www.gilamountaindulcimers.com/tab.htm (LINKS)
http://home.usit.net/~sandyc/dulcimertab.html (LINKS)
http://www.tindlemusic.com/tablature.htm
http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/dogwood/dogwood.html
http://dulcimersessions.com/?cat=10

thanks so much

I'm techno-challenged sometimes. To me "midi" files are soundfiles. But Wayne's right. They aren't a real instrument playing, more like a synthesizer. Not every soundfile at ED Tab is a midi, most are quite good in fact.

Beginners should also be aware of the fact that mtn dulcimer tabs can be intended either for chord playing style (melody notes are fretted on all strings), or for noter/drone playing style (entire melody fretted on the melody string only). The two kinds of tab can be quite different, so keep that in mind.

Jessica - we can certainly share sites that contain music or tabs. There are restrictions here about sharing recordings of music not your own and not known to be public domain...

freetabs.org has an interesting "dulcimer" collection, but a great deal of it is tab for the Hammered Dulcimer, not Mountain Dulcimer. To use any of that site you also need to download the free program called TEFView if you do not own TableEdit.

Gila Mountain - my dear friend Kerry Coates - has not kept up with changes on her website for several years, so her links may or may not be valid. I think, for example, she still lists me as running a dulcimer club in Prescott, AZ, when in fact I haven't live there since 2002 and she was at my going away party. Kerry no longer makes her fabulous dulcimers, either.

You guys ROCK!!!! This is great stuff!

folkfan said:

http://www.shelleystevens.com/

http://www.jcdulcimer.com/

http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/jamnfolk/jamnfolk.html

http://www.prussiavalley.com/

http://www.mountaindulcimer-1-3-5.com/

Here are a few other sites for tab

Ron Beardslee has recently begun putting a bunch of beginner tab up on the Redwood Dulcimer Day website: http://redwooddulcimerday.com/resources.html . Ron teaches the beginner class at RDD every year and usesthis tab for that class. If you are just starting out, this material is perfect.

Mark Tindle has made available a lot of tablature of common dulcimer tunes (especially hymns) in arrangements mainly for intermediate players: http://www.tindlemusic.com/tablature.htm .

Gary Gallier has posted a bunch of tab on the Gallier Brothers website, though I would not recommend it for beginners. Some of it is pretty difficult stuff: http://dulcimercentral.com/?page_id=6 .

The same is true of Neal Hellman, who hides an ecclectic assortment tab in the deep recesses of the Gourd Music website: http://www.gourd.com/dulcimertabs.html .

There is, in short, lots of tab available for every level of MD player. Make use of it. I do. But I would also urge you all not to be a slave to tab. Learn songs by ear. Make your own arrangements. Use your instrument to express yourself.

that would have been way to easy, If there is a hard way to do something you can bet I will find it

Phil, next time, just type in something like "free tab" into our FOTMD handy SEARCH BOX at the top right of any page here. It will pull up various threads showing links to free tab, and this thread is right on the second page of the search results. It's really easier to find stuff here by using the FOTMD search box!

phil said:

it took me all night to find this page again I so glade it still here. A few weeks ago my old laptop with all my links up and died on me. I have been going nuts trying to find some of the links I had and here are most of them, Thanks Folkfan and Vivian.

www.contemplator.com for Anglo-American folk music midis including most of the Child Ballads

Tull Glazener's website:

http://www.tullglazener.com/Current%20Free%20Tab%20offered%20by%20Tull%20Glazener-mountain%20dulcimer%20performer%20and%20workshop%20instructor.htm

it took me all night to find this page again I so glade it still here. A few weeks ago my old laptop with all my links up and died on me. I have been going nuts trying to find some of the links I had and here are most of them, Thanks Folkfan and Vivian.

Vivian, I think anyone who looks in this DulcimerResources/Tab/Books forum will see the title of this thread and be able to see your post and links.

I'm just wondering, is there a way to post these links to free tab sites in a way that would be easy for people to find? As it is they seem to get buried in pages of other posts, unless there is a way already and I just haven't found it..I thought I saw some of these links once before, but could not relocate them, which is one reason I reposted the ones that I was familiar with. If there is already a permanent place to access certain links please let me know! Thanks

Wow, those are nice sites. I had used Prussie Valley before, but had not the others. I forgot about using image search. Thanks!