Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Healthy Living- healthy eating, exercise, weight loss, veggie gardening, etc.

OFF TOPIC discussions

We're just getting things started growing again here, with the Fall/Winter rains coming fairly regularly now.  Summers are brutally hot but quite lacking in rain and everything dries up.  Luckily we didn't get too much moister from Hurricane Idalia here a couple weeks back...  Feast or famine.

Hurricane Lee missed us but according to the National Hurricane Center it will be coming ashore, hopefully as "just" a Tropical Storm,  somewhere between Boston and Halifax on Saturday.  Folks there are gonna get some seriously windy and wet weather.  

updated by @ken-hulme: 09/13/23 07:33:40AM

Anyone have a David Honea dulcimer?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Look at the old Everything Dulcimer archives.  IIRC there were a number of discussion of Honea dulcimers 'back in the day'.

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 
Shanon, most dulcimers are relatively quiet when compared to other instruments, and are easily "drowned out" by banjos, mandolins, fiddles, resonator guitars, etc. I don't like to think of it as 'drowned out' though, I like to think of it as fitting in nicely. It's not always that easy to discern a dulcimer when played with louder instruments, but the music does still sound fuller for having one. With modern tech you could make a dulcimer way louder than everything else if you wanted to, but if youre sitting between a banjo and a fiddle and it's all acoustic, your dulcimer isnt going to be very pronounced.

I wish I had the opportunity to play dulcimer with concertina, but I don't know anybody with one. Id love to get myself a concertina and learn to play but i already own a handful of instruments that I haven't learned yet so I think the concertina might have to wait a while
updated by @nate: 09/13/23 06:40:55AM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Is it really normal for a dulcimer to have a very weak, drowned out sound?

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I don't. In our local monthly bluegrass jam however one of our regular participants (let's call him Adam) always bring his German concertina (english and german concertina are different, I'm just not sure at the moment which difference exactly). 

Although it's quite unusual for bluegrass it's enrich the sound a lot. And in the later hours Adam often sings German folk songs  while accompanying himself with the concertina. 

The combination of the squeeze box and his strong, emotional vocal performance surely are a treat. Alas as far I know he don't record anything and I would never record without permission from him.

Marlboro - Brattleboro VT - Monthly Gathering - 3rd Tuesdays

Single-Instructor workshops, band & house concerts, Club activities, monthly Jams

Marlboro and Brattleboro Vermont area mountain dulcimer players gather on the 3rd Tuesday of the month to share the joy of playing the dulcimer. All are welcome to join,  For details please see:

https://www.marlborodulcimer.org/

Just For Fun - sayings regarding the dulcimer or music

OFF TOPIC discussions

A  poet-friend, Val Coleman,  once sent me these lines:

"There is no storm

When the dulcimer sings.

Hatred and hurricanes

Wait in the wings."

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

The only time I've played with a concertina was in a jam, but I was playing guitar, not dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

What to call your dulcimer collection?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

What fun to revive this thread. I remember many years ago going to Bryan Bowers concert and he walked on stage with a stack of autoharps all tuned for different kep=ys and songs. He spread them out behind him on the stage in those triangular shape guitar stands. He turned to the audience and asked what you call a group of autoharps like this and then answered his own question: an embarrassment of autoharps. I've never been embarrassed by all my dulcimers.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

What to call your dulcimer collection?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 

A meditation of dulcimers? A therapy of dulcimers?

updated by @sea-strings: 09/12/23 11:19:27AM

Anyone have a David Honea dulcimer?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I've got a new dulcimer in the house, whee! My latest acquirement is a David Honea (picture posted in this album ).

That said, it looks like the luthier's dulcimer website is no more, and the Wayback Machine version is sadly lacking in photos. There are a few of his dulcimers listed used on eBay right now, and I found a little discussion of him in past threads here, but I'd love to see (or hear about) even more of his work, because I'm curious like that.

So if anybody else has pictures or stories or thoughts on David Honea dulcimers, feel free to share, and thanks in advance!

Healthy Living- healthy eating, exercise, weight loss, veggie gardening, etc.

OFF TOPIC discussions

It's that time of year when the flowers and veggies are all getting overgrown and ragged looking. Time to start pulling things out, pruning, tidying up a little area here and there as the plants become exhausted by it all. I've learned the hard way to not procrastinate too much on end-of-year garden cleanup. 

Happily we're still getting some real nice tomatoes. Not lots of them, but just enough to enjoy the bacon/tomato/mayo sandwiches we love to make this time of year.  

updated by @strumelia: 09/13/23 09:32:59AM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Can't remember that I've ever had the opportunity. Maybe once, years ago, in a multi-instrument jam.   Not exactly a common folk instrument around these parts.  I've been to a number of statewide folk meet-ups here in Florida and can't remember seeing or hearing any sort of squeeze-box.  

updated by @ken-hulme: 09/12/23 07:13:23AM

Accompaniment

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Do you guys like to play along with a concertina?

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I forgot to mention, you can find those built in pre-amps with tuners online for anywhere from 15-300$ depending on the quality. You'd have to cut a hole in the side of your merlin to install the display into, and youd have to cut a slot into your bridge under your saddle for the pickup to sit in. Nothing too complicated to do yourself, and definitely something you could get done by a pro if you wanted to. Just make sure you get a preamp small enough to fit in your instrument, perhaps a ukulele preamp.

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I have built a dulcimer with a fishman preamp that I recycled from an acoustic guitar. It had an UST or basically a pickup under the bridge and had a built in metronome, tuner, and tone controls.

Personally I am not a big fan of how amplification changes the tone so much, however I'm also not a big fan of the hollow, plunking tone that strumsticks often have. I have tried one of those little piezos, and preferred that, because the original tone was mostly preserved. In my opinion, many strumsticks players are also guitar players who want a more gutsy, guitar like tone, and install pickups to achieve that. 

When it comes to tuners built into amps, maybe this is just me, but I find their displays to be very unintuitive to use to tune. I have a headstock tuner but I mostly use an app on my phone. A modern smartphone has a very high quality microphone, typically better quality than you'll ever need for tuning, and also typically better than an actual tuner, plus the display is much bigger and has more details. The clip on can be handy in a group setting or anywhere noisy.

Nate

updated by @nate: 09/10/23 04:29:40PM

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I must have a good one, then. *shrug* Still, its a roots instrument usually played in an environment (traditionally) where everyone would tune by ear to relative so, historically its not that far off. LOL

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

No thanks.  Seen too many of those with unplayable fret spacings.  Seagull makes good guitars, but...

Maybe ive been in the dark but how cool is THIS?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

https://seagullguitars.com/product/m4-spruce-eq/

A Merlin in spruce- with an ONBOARD TUNER and Preamp? They make one in Mahogany, also. I know, it costs more than just clipping on a tuner but think- if Seagull didn't think people would buy it they wouldn't make it. This means that enough people, somewhere, said to them "hey, what if you......" meaning there is interest enough in it for them to invest tens of thousands of dollars or whatever to actually come up with one! 

For a 'roots' instrument, that's pretty damn cool.

updated by @alathea: 09/10/23 07:10:43AM

Just For Fun - sayings regarding the dulcimer or music

OFF TOPIC discussions

I'm an uncurable punster (just ask my wife) but when I play my dulcimer I don't fret about it.

Just For Fun - sayings regarding the dulcimer or music

OFF TOPIC discussions

As a dulcimer player I always have an appetite for something new. My latest is called: "Ala-Mode" !

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks! Found him. I'll send him a message later today with the photos and serial number of my dulcimer. As it turns out, he is only about 35 miles from my home in Natural Bridge. Maybe I will be able to visit him.

I have a small collection of electric and acoustic guitars as well as cigar box guitars and violin (some of which I built myself). I also build all my own vacuum tube guitar amplifiers.

I have a BSEE from Virginia Tech earned when vacuum tubes were still part of the curriculum. I retired 4 years ago from my job as a Satellite Communications Systems Engineer contractor with the CIA. I worked in the Intelligence Community for 40+ years. My wife and I retired to Natural Bridge Virginia in 2019.

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

You can send him a message here. He is jcalkin. Do a search under members for him and then click on send a message.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

updated by @ken-longfield: 09/08/23 12:58:47PM

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks for the responses.

I found his Facebook page before posting here. However, I don't do Facebook so that is little help to me.

Does he have an email address?

Is there any way to send him a private message through this website or this forum itself?

Bill Haegele

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I see John commenting and showing his builds on the FB page Let's Make Dulcimers (an Psalteries and Mandolins, etc.).  He's actually a member here, but not a big contributor.  I've not played one of his but it's obvious he has very high level skills as a builder, and his designs are r4ally nice.  I'm sure you'll really appreciate your purchase. 

I'd go to FB and contact him there.  He has a personal Page and a Dulcimer Page as well, I believe...  

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

John Calkin, former President of the American Guild of Luthiers.........100's of articles by him available online.  He is on facebook too.

https://www.facebook.com/john.calkin.92

That is going to be an outstanding for you....since JC's retirement from H&D (Huss and Dalton guitars  in Staunton, Va.) John tells of  building 4,000 instruments.  BTW, H&D Guitars are mucho bucks and top of the line.........like 4-5 grand used and way upwards of that new. 

updated by @salt-springs: 09/08/23 03:16:30AM

John Calkin Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I just purchased a John Calkin Dulcimer from a local shop here in Lexington, Virginia. I have been trying to find information about Calkin and the Dulcimer I purchased but his website is dead and I can't find any contact information other that he is located in Greenville, Virginia. I live in Natural Bridge, Virginia. The label inside the Dulcimer has Calkin's name, Greenville, Virginia,  and a serial number.

Photos of the Dulcimer in question are attached. TIA

Bill Haegele

updated by @bluesky636: 09/08/23 01:01:09AM

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

What poetic lyrics. And what a nice reminder of the purity of Garfunkel's voice. 

Frank Bond Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks Ken... I fixed Rob's link.  :)

Frank Bond Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

The link Rob posted didn't work for me. It is missing the "l" at the end. This one works: https://www.orpingtonfolkclub.org.uk/Interviews_&_Articles/Interviews/001.html

Good article and interview.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Frank Bond Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

https://www.orpingtonfolkclub.org.uk/Interviews_&_Articles/Interviews/001.html

Here’s an interesting article about the most famous player of Frank Bond dulcimers. If you haven’t listened to him, you should!

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

One of my favorite S&G tunes as well.  

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Well, young lady, that was a popular song in of the college coffeehouses I frequented back in those days. Thanks for bringing it to my attention again. The folks who sang it did not do it as well as Art and Paul, but it was lovely nevertheless.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

April Come She Will (Simon & Garfunkel)

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

One of my favorite songs of my youth- April Come She Will. From Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence Album, 1966. I loved the song then when I was 12, but it's even more meaningful to me now that I'm older.

Written by Paul Simon, usually sung by Art Garfunkel.

Lyrics:

Truly a timeless song.
Here is Art Garfunkel singing it in 1966:

...and here he is singing it 55 years later, at age 80 , in 2021...Incredibly beautiful.

Reasons NOT To Get a Chromatic

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

I know I'm bringing up an old thread, but - oh well.  I play guitar, clawhammer banjo and am now learning dulcimer.  When I learn a mountain instrument, such as clawhammer banjo or dulcimer, I want to learn and play it the way the the original players played it.  I guess I want to learn the tradition, keep it, and maybe add a personal touch here and there.  But "old school" tradition is very important to me.  So, if I want chromatic, guitar or banjo is the way to go for me. With clawhammer banjo, I thought of transferring it to guitar - but why?  It was made for banjo. With a dulcimer I want that lovely sweet sound of the mountains and to keep the tradition alive as best I can.  I don't want to make them into something modern and into something they are not.  There are plenty of hybrids instruments - banjo dulcimers, guitar banjos, etc. out there if you want to come into the up to date modern world.

So, in my mind, let a guitar be a guitar, let a banjo be a banjo and let a dulcime be a dulcimer.

The Joy of Sharing Dulcimer

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

How serious can you get with a recorder? See the following:

J.S. Bach Toccata & Fuge d-Moll BWV 565 arr. for recorder orchestra
Berliner Blockflöten Orch

Dietrich Schnabel - Symphony 1, mvmt 4

Three Irish traditional - Quinta Essentia Recorder Quartet & Paul Leenhouts I Quarteto Flauta Doce
Quinta Essentia Quarteto

The Joy of Sharing Dulcimer

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I suspect that the recorder over tin whistle choice is often snob-ism. The American Recorder Society says

"Rather than a mere toy, an educational aid, or a simple musical instrument suitable only for amateurs, the recorder is a vehicle for serious musical expression demanding years of dedicated study. It has a long and interesting history and can lay claim to an extensive and highly varied repertoire spanning eight centuries. It has always enjoyed a particularly rich representation in literature, drama, painting and sculpture."
https://americanrecorder.org/about_the_recorder.php

Similarly, four year olds should be given lessons on the violin or piano, not the dulcimer.

IT'S NOT ABOUT HAVING FUN OR ENJOYING MUSIC! (Or learning to count.)

As a result, where I live you can buy a recorder in a "dollar store" for $1.25 whereas you have to go to a music store to buy a tin whistle for $9.95.

Confused about Sharps and Flats

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

To give a specific example of how key and temperament affect notes on the dulcimer, if you had 3 dulcimers built to be tuned (EBE) and
one was "equal temperament"
one was "mean tone temperament"
one was "just intonated"
G# would be flatter on the "just intonated" dulcimer than it is on the equal temperament dulcimer
G# would be sharper on the "meantone" dulcimer than it would on the equal temperament dulcimer.
That is not a common tuning, but it is an example of one where G# is quite different for each temperament, since you mentioned G#.

The Joy of Sharing Dulcimer

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

 
I think a tin whistle can be a really abrasive sound in the hands of a new player. When I started on tin whistle, I didnt have any breath control and would always waver in and out of pitch or blow too hard and hit the higher octave. Luckily it was just my cats who had to be there for that learning experience, but they made it very clear that they were worried about me xD

At least a plastic recorder, as much as I don't like the sound, is a bit quieter and less sharp of a tone. I can imagine that children who are genuinely interested could benefit a lot from learning tin whistle, but that the average 3rd grader, if given a tin whistle, would be a true menace xD

Confused about Sharps and Flats

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

It depends on what temperament is being used, as Skip also mentioned. In equal temperament, G# is the same as Ab. There are other temperaments (systems of tuning used at different points of history and/or in different cultures) where G# may not be the same as Ab.

In addition to that, players of fretless or other instruments capable of microtones may choose to inflect notes depending on what follows them. For example, leading tones (like G# in the key of A) might be pushed sharper in order to accentuate that leading to the tonic.

To complicate things further, due to acoustical physics of various instruments, there are often tuning peculiarities regardless of what temperament the instrument maker was going for. Clarinets, for example, overblow an interval of a 12th- but some fingerings end up producing wider or narrower 12ths, even on high end instruments. It's up to the player to be able to compensate for that. And of course some ears are more sensitive than others to even notice.

More than you probably wanted to know for your question!