Forum Activity for @mary-adelee

Thank you so much for the words of wisdom!  As usual, they are much appreciated!

You do indeed see lots of dulcimers made entirely of a single hard tonewood, most commonly walnut, but cherry and maple as well.  They are not as common as dulcimers with  one of those woods for the back and sides and soft tonewood such as spruce, cedar or redwood for the top.  The top plays a bigger part in the sound than do the back and sides, so an all-maple dulcimer would, as Strumelia says, have a bright, crisp tone. Additionally, it would likely have exceptional sustain. I believe Linda Brockinton mainly plays an all-maple McSpadden specifically for the extra sustain to enhance her soft, fingerstyle play.

Speaking further about sound box sizes-  I also have an all-curly-maple hummel (mtn dulcimer like in many ways) which has a very large and deep sound box/body... and even though it's all maple it has a big resonant mellow tone. My maple mtn dulcimer has a very shallow depth body, and thus its voice is crisp and clear, less 'mellow'. They are both all maple but very different body dimensions and so have different tones.

"Good" sound can mean something different depending on personal taste.  Both my all-maple instruments sound wonderful, but they sound very different from each other!

My Keith Young curly maple dulcimer is all maple, even the fingerboard, and it sounds great and is in perfect condition after 26 years. I used it for this site's logo . Maple has a nice crisp sound, as opposed to slightly 'mellower' tone of walnut or spruce for example. It's also pretty hard, so (I'm guessing) would be a little less likely to get dinged. That said, I feel the volume and dimensions of the sound box tends to be a bigger factor in the tone of the sound than the type of wood does.

Is a dulcimer with maple top, sides and back considered to be a good sounding, durable dulcimer?

Reminder:  Members are allowed to have no more than two threads at any given time in our For Sale forum. Please contact me or another moderator for help in removing threads you no longer want active. Thanks!

AS Strumelia (the boss) said 3 years ago. Let's keep the discussion to the original topic Question:  String Break Angles, VSL, Radii, Excessive String Length

All it needs to maintain is its tune.

I want to hear what pleasant concertina sound is.

I just love this thread and the people who make it as it is.

Appreciate everyone's input. I decided to drop and couple of strings and am now down to four (I kept the octave string at the bottom. I like it a lot more, but may end up going to 3 strings. I'm learning to play finger dance and fewer strings makes everything easier.

Another possible direction is to use the extra strings to create a non-standard sound.  I typically tune my five string dulcimers with an unmatched pair of notes in the upper and lower courses.  Use of DA-a-da yields a very contemporary sound that is great for improvising.  When playing with double strings it is important to have the action low at the nut so that it is easy to fret them.  Lots to try- have fun exploring.

Dusty - Great information. Thank you. I've been playing around with DAD and DGD and I've found I prefer DGD. For me the chord shapes seem easier to finger for the most part, through the first five frets anyway, and the melody string integrates easier. But I'm a rank newbie so it may change in time. Thanks for the help.

Brad

I think there are two questions there, Brad. The first is why tuning to D became standard and the second is why DAd (or 1-5-8 or the mixolydian tuning) is so common.

I'm pretty sure that once upon a time, people would tune a dulcimer to whatever tone resonated most saliently in that given dulcimer.  They would "hoo in the hole," literally hum into the soundhole, find a tone that sounded really special, and tune to that.  Later on, I think tuning to C was most common, and to be honest, I wish we still tuned to C because it would make explaining music theory so much easier.  But I think around the time of the dulcimer renaissance in the late 60s or early 70s, people began tuning to D to play with fiddles, since there are so many fiddle tunes in D (and A -- It's those pesky guitar and banjo players who like playing in G).

In traditional drone play, you have to change the tuning of your melody string depending on the mode or scale of the melody you are playing.  In the key of D, the four most common tunings are DAA, DAd, DAC, and DAG.  The first two sound major and the latter two sound kind of minor.

When the 6+ fret became common--and it's pretty standard these days--a player could play in the mixolydian (DAd) or ionian (DAA) modes without re-tuning. How convenient!

You will often hear that chording is easier in DAd than in DAA.  I do not believe that the simple act of playing a chord is easier in one tuning than the other. And I actually prefer the sound of chords in DAA better than in DAd. They are more compact and more coherent.

This is only a theory, but I think playing melody & chords together is easier in DAd because out of one chord position you can reach a greater range of notes, basically three frets' worth.  The whole trick to chord/melody style is to be able to capture the melody out of chord positions with a minimum of hand movement.  And DAd simply gives us a greater tonal range out of any one hand position.  Anyway, that's my theory.

I happen to play in DAd 90 percent of the time because that was the most common tuning when I first started playing and I want to be able to play by instinct as much as possible, so that a musical idea goes from my head (or my heart) to my fingers with no hesitation, something that is much easier if you stick to one tuning. I also have a 1+ fret on my main playing dulcimers and find that with the 1+ and 6+, there is rarely a melody I can't get.

But I would never say that one tuning is superior to another.  DAd happens to be the most common these days, and that's why I started with it.  Now it's comfortable.  When I tune to other tunings, I have to think about what I'm doing, and who wants to do that?!

Dusty, I see what you mean about the chromatic template. Thanks for the help. 

Just out of curiosity, why is DAD tuning so popular?

Seems like I am going to check this software soon.

Brad, I would suggest not using a chromatic template to map chords for the diatonic fretboard.  It might suffice for now as a quick reference to find a specific chord, but it will hinder your long-term understanding of the fretboard.  As I mentioned early on in this discussion, one of the challenges with chord shapes on the dulcimer is that they change from major chords to minor chords as you move up and down the fretboard. In order to begin understanding why that happens, you have to see where those fat and skinny frets are.  Using a chromatic template will make it harder to learn the layout of the fretboard and how those chord shapes work more generally.

Nate, I like your attitude! I'm always putzing around with different projects and I enjoy the process of coming up with a solution (oftentimes not real elegant, but.....). I actually bought a couple of screws to make one, but decided it's easier to just buy one.

You've inspired me to think a little more outside the box so it's off to the workbench to see what I can come up with.

Dusty - I know the frets look chromatic, but pretend they're diatonic and it will work. I didn't name each note, I'm just showing the note placement for each chord at each fret. I made it up for my use so it's probably less confusing for me, but I thought I'd just put it out there. If I'd found the Strumbly chart I probably wouldn't have bothered. But then I wouldn't have posted and wouldn't have gotten your pun!

Brad

Hey Brad, don't forget that dulcimer capos work a bit differently than guitar capos. Plenty of folks make nice dulcimer capos, but you can also use a pencil/chopstick/crochet hook fastened to the fretboard with a piece of string tied around the box of the dulcimer. I personally use a C clamp with a wine bottle cork super glued to the side of it

Nate

Brad, I'm having trouble with your chord chart since you appear to be using a guitar template.  I can get past the 6 strings, but that chart shows chromatic frets.  Are you playing a dulcimer with chromatic frets?  That changes everything.

You might just Google "dulcimer chord chart DGd" and see what you get.  Here is one chart and here is another. I'm sure there are others out there.

And remember that the easiest way to get your I - IV - V chords on a dulcimer in an open tuning is to use the bar chords.  So if you are tuned DGD, then 000 is G,  333 is C and 444 is D.  Of course, those are only partial chords, but they can help when you're in a jam. (Like that pun? )

I completely agree. Wooden flutes , like the native American flute, are about celebrating culture and style, not limiting who can make or play them

Where are the bagpipes then?  

@shanonmilan I had a music friend who was a very good mountain dulcimer player yet her mother didn't like hearing her play it.  There's just no accounting for taste, it seems.  

Hey, i resemble that remark, Dusty!  

Haven't gotten a capo yet, but I made myself some basic chord diagrams in D-G-D tuning. Thought I'd attach it. Please let me know of any mistakes, suggestion, etc.

Brad

Dulcimer Chords DGD.pdf - 28KB

Dusty - Thank you! That works for me. Off to pick up a capo.

@shanonmilan, try playing the banjo on your porch.  That will have the neighbors begging you to play the concertina!

I like to play concertina on the porch but my neighbor seems to hate me when I do so. Can someone explain why.

Brad, if you are tuned DGD, you are in what is basically an open G tuning.  It will be pretty easy to play common tunes in G.

You can also play common tunes in G in a DAd tuning, but you have to pay attention.  If you don't have a 1+ fret, you can't play a C chord down by the nut and will have to play 3-4-6 or 6-6-8 or something like that.

However, I regularly play in G out of a DAd tuning with a capo on the 3rd fret.  You can also put the capo at the 4th fret to play in A. And if you have to play in C, you can quickly tune down to CGc (another reason to play with 3 strings and not 6 is the ease of tuning!)  This approach allows you to play in the 4 common keys (C, D, G, A) at folk, old timey, and bluegrass jams.

A few years ago I made this video demonstrating how to play in G and A with a capo tuned DAd.

The jams I play at do mostly songs in the key of G. Would a D-G-D tuning be better that a D-A-D or some other? Or does it matter?

Thanks much for the help. I think I get it. I'm going to just play and quit trying to figure it all out. I'll let my ears do the figuring.

Brad, the short answer is that in traditional drone play, there are no chords.  The first and fifth notes of the scale of whatever key you are in ring out throughout (or drone) on the bass and middle strings and you play the melody on the melody string.

Take a look at Robin Clark playing "Coleman's March" .  In DAA tuning, he starts the song going from the 3rd fret to the 5th fret.  At that point he is actually playing a D major chord (D on the bass, A on the middle, F# on the melody).  But then he moves to the 6th fret (G note).  If you were chording, you would switch to a G major chord there, but in drone style, there is no chord change.  The bass and middle are still D and A even though there is no A in a G major chord, and yet the song sounds sweet, doesn't it?

Thanks for all your replies. Dusty, that's kind of how I've been doing it. I think I've got most of the chords I need mapped out.

Ken - I'm still a little confused. I understand about letting the other strings hummm along, but what happens when you change to a different chord in a progression, like G-C-D-G?

Brad, I have a six-string dulcimer that I only play with three strings now.  I much prefer the clarity of sound with the single courses. And certain techniques (like bending strings) just can't be done with those double courses.

If you are used to other chromatic instruments, you may get frustrated with the way chord shapes work on the dulcimer since they switch from major to minor depending on where on the fretboard you are.

They way I taught myself chords, and the way I encourage students to do so now, is to find some 3-chord songs.  Don't worry about playing the melody, but just strum to accompany yourself singing or humming or whistling.  Figure out those 3 chords by the nut, perhaps sticking to the first 3 frets.  When you have those down and can play them without having to concentrate on where to put you fingers, find different versions of those chords around frets 2-5 or so.  Do the same thing, strumming chords there until you get them down. When you fingers are comfortable there, find those same three chords around frets 5-8.

In the end, you've just been strumming chords and singing songs, but you've learned where to find the main chords you need up and down the first octave of the fretboard.

Good start, Brad.  If you ever get tired of trying to figure out those chord shapes, you can simply play the melody on the melody string(s) and just let the others hummm along.

Well, I've been fooling around with my 6 string. It is now a 4 string and may very well become a 3 string!

There is a difference in sound, but not enough for me to add back strings. It still sounds great. In fact I can't even remember how it sounded before (one of the few benefits of old age) so I'm good. My plan is to play it in a BG jam I go to so I've been working on chord shapes (DGD tuning). It's difficult because I'm finding the dulcimer so different from any other instrument I've had. But I'm pressing on as a jam is coming up that I hope to be ready for.

Brad

Thank you for sharing.

https://youtu.be/9G206AjnPgc?si=9WNiZvMM8g6quRXD