Forum Activity for @byron-kinnaman

Playing dulcimer with a ukelele

Playing and jamming difficulties...HELP ME!

Make that c6 for open tuning.   GCAE = chord C6 

 

I have two dulcimers, one I call favorite the other second best.

Advice starting a website

OFF TOPIC discussions

Garland,

I had never heard of Webly. A quick look at their web site and I have to agree with you that for an easy set up and the price it would be hard to beat.

I use Word Press through Luna Pages, installed through cPanel. The good thing about installing through cPanel is the updating through cPanel, a click or two and you're done. Luna Pages also does domain registration with the ability of some large number of subdomains.

Advice starting a website

OFF TOPIC discussions

I've also done several web sites. I would recommend that for content control use WordPress it's free and not too difficult to use. I just restarted by travels site at http://trips.kinnamans.net Check it out, that's wordpress. A little bit of menu work and you're up and running.

As for hosts I use Lunar Pages, by pay for 4 years at a time my monthly cost is around $5.00. There's lots of free web applications available with these folks too.

I've done both HTML and WordPress also used a few other tools.

Go to kinnamans.net follow some of the links and you can see some of html and CSS stuff. But, I wouldn't bother trying to learn it unless I was going to a lot of web stuff.

I had purchased a light weight 3 legged chair in $20 range. I had to throw it away after very little use. The light weight ones might work for slight people, but me and probably Mike they'll give up pretty quickly. That's why I bought the Browning chair. It's a bit heavier but should last a long time.

We, wife and I, spend a lot of time camping in our little camp trailer. I needed an armless chair to be able to play the MD while camping. I've tried several chairs and found the Browning Dakota Camp Chair to be about good as it gets. There's one market that's about 1/2 the price but worth a lot less, I went through two of the cheap ones.. I found the Browning very comfortable to sit in either while playing for sitting around the camp fire. My wife wants one too, so I'll be buying another soon.

Here's where I bought mine. Browning Dakota Chair

Are There More Than Ever?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Strumelia said:

Stephen said:

I recently heard someone bemoaning there just aren't as many non-tablature/by-ear folks as there used to be. They talked about how all the clubs seem to be more standardized and tablature based. I suggested to him there are not only more tablature players than ever, but also more non-tablature/by-ear folks than ever.

Getting back to the main subject of Stephen's original post above --

1) Yes there seem to be more dulcimer players overall than ever before...more players of all kinds.

2) Yes the clubs are more standardized and tablature based. Unless they diversify their approach they will continue to naturally mostly attract those who play from tab. (nothing at all wrong with that, if that's what they like).

3) Yes there are more non-tablature/by-ear/variedtunings/noter/diatonic type folks than ever. They tend to play with other musicians because they play/learn by ear and consequently they can manage to play along in various music jamming situations. Thus they have less interest in attending the dulcimer club scene, and less interest in attending dulcimer festivals that offer 90% of their workshops based on the tab/DAd/chording players. They are more likely to attend music gatherings that feature jams with various instruments, such as general folk or old-time festivals. Mind you, I don't mean to imply that they are more 'advanced' in their playing than the tab players- but rather that they can learn from a wider range of methods and don't have to translate everything into D/tab/chording format in order to learn a tune.

4) Even though there is a higher number of all types of dulcimer players overall than there was 15 years ago, I do also see the proportion changing rapidly . Within that whole, the percentage of diatonic/noter-drone/Galax/traditional/by-ear players is increasing by leaps and bounds, older beginner players too are interested in those areas of playing, and people in general are i think more wanting to play with other musicians and friends, not just in club/tab-book settings of dulcimers only. Ten years ago on EverythingDulcimer forums, I remember it was a rare treat to read posts about diatonic, drone playing, noters, Galax, playing with fiddlers or old-time sessions, etc. DAd chording/flatpicking pretty much ruled the day. Even fingerpicking topics seemed a bit outside the norm, as I recall...lol!

All that has changed now- these traditional playing genres and learning methods are super hot topics for everyone, even older beginners are eager to jump into such areas of play. It's great , now in addition to the most common tab/chord approach, there is much wider diversity of interest, information, and learning! Something for everyone's tastes.

I find this all very interesting, but either I'm kinda odd or something. I can't play a song I don't know. If I want to learn a new song I have to hear it a large number of times. Does that make me a play by ear, NO. Because I also need the notes on paper and the taps. Once I've heard the song enough times, played it enough times, I no longer need anything but my mind, it's all well embedded there. Flat picking, noter-drone, finger picking, cording, none of that matters as long as the song sounds as you, the player would like it sound.

I recommend recording your practice sessions, then listening so you can make adjustments.

The pick grip stuff that's proclaimed by many as the best is Gorilla Snot http://gorillasnotusa.com/gorilla-snot-guitar-pick-grip/

Dulcimer straps

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I found a nylon strap (guitar straps work) with leather ends. In order to get it on and off the buttons easily I had to work the leather with Lexol to get it soft enough to over the buttons easily.