OH MY GOSH I LOVE Y'ALL!!! Our phone/internet was out a few weeks after a storm, and I come back to see how amazing y'all are! I LOVE IT!!!! And I kinda wanna hear it all, too....
Do you play any popular songs on your dulcimer?
San Francisco Bay Blues, Bird on a Wire, any country song before 1970, Peaceful Easy Feeling was one of the 1st songs I learned on the dulcimer, Desperados Waiting for a Train, Lulu's Back in Town, Ain't Misbehaving (including all the dim and minor chords on a dulcimer with no extra frets.) So many songs.... so little time!
Country: Someday Soon, Pancho & Lefty, Louise, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, When You Say Nothing At All, May You Never Be Alone Like Me
Pop/Folk: Both Sides Now, Time After Time, Circle Game, End of the World, Let It Be Me, I Will, My Immortal, Up On the Roof, You Belong to Me
Cabaret/Show Tunes: La Vie en Rose, Lili Marlene, If I Only Had a Brain, Over the Rainbow, Goodnight My Someone, When I Fall In Love
Calypso: Brown Skin Girl, Jamaica Farewell, I'd Reveal How I do Adore Her
Always maintain a list of popular songs and tunes to work out.....
Steven Berger:I enjoy playing Stephen Foster songs, which was popular music back in the day.....way back.
@steven-berger, for a couple of years I played a gig here during Gold Rush Days, a kind of living history festival in which we dressed in clothing dating from the mid-nineteenth century and performed music and theater and stuff. I played the character of someone from Appalachia who brought his dulcimer to the "diggins," sharing songs along the way. In one part of my act I asked the audience if they liked modern music or old traditional music. Then when the younger in the audience thought they were being bratty and said they preferred modern music, I would tell them that I agreed and I especially liked that new songwriter Stephen Foster. I then launched into a few Foster tunes.
In the nineteenth century, both Foster and the dulcimer were modern and innovative.
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Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator
As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
I enjoy playing Stephen Foster songs, which was popular music back in the day.....way back.
I have a whole set that I call Top Of The Pops -- 1650 !!
Well if you just want a chuckle . . .
At the jam after the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering this past spring we played "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. It was mostly barre chords. I was cracking up the whole time.
I often play Prince's "Raspberry Beret" with a kind of honky tonk shuffle, and idea I got from a band called the Derailers.
And to please my daughter, I occasionally play Bruno Mars's "The Lazy Song."
A couple of years ago Stephen Seifert was the guest instructor at the Redwood Dulcimer Day in Santa Cruz. I was invited to the after-party and was really excited to jam informally with Stephen, Neal Hellman, and others of my dulcimer heroes. I had been learning so many fiddle tunes and Celtic tunes and I couldn't wait to show them. And what do you know? They all wanted to play 70s pop. The same stuff I played guitar to my whole life. Can we just put "Hotel California" away? I wish I could stab that song with a steely knife!
--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator
As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
I took a dulcimer to Uke Club last week. It was one of our 3-chord-song nights... although we are fast and loose with the number 3. The songs were in several keys. I tuned Ginger to D-A-d-d (it would have worked just as well with a three-string setup) and made extensive use of the 1.5 fret.
I played every chord in every song with no capo and no retuning. With one exception. I could not find a true G-minor chord (no B-flat in this tuning) so I substituted a G power chord barring the 3rd fret. Since this was a proof of concept, I made extensive notes. The setlist (in alphabetical order from the song packet, although we did not play them in this order):
All Shook Up (key of A)
Big Yellow Taxi (C)
Brown-Eyed Girl (G)
Chapel of Love (D)
Feeling Alright (D)
Get Back (A) -- try these barre chords...
4th fret for 8 counts (Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner...)
0 (open) for 4 counts (but he knew it couldn't...)
4th fret for 2 counts (last...)
3rd fret for 1 count
2nd fret for 1 count
Hound Dog (D)
Jambalaya (G)
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (C)
Love Me Do (G)
Memphis (A) -- A chord 101 and walk the bass string 1-2-3-2-1
E7 chord 111 and walk the middle string 1-2-3-2-1
Moonlight Bay (C)
Old Time Rock and Roll (C)
On Top of Spaghetti (G)
Pink Cadillac (G) -- Play G 013 and walk the bass between 0 and 1.5 frets
Spooky (Gm) -- Cheat the Gm as 333, play Am 446 and C-diminished is 656
Takin' Care of Business (A)
Twenty Flight Rock (A)
When Will I Be Loved? (D)
You Are My Sunshine (C)
The uke club theme song is basically Movin' On Over (G)
I did put in a few hours' practice on the days before the club meeting. I consulted two chord books (Neal Hellman's little one and the gigantic Mel Bay spiral-bound one). And I very deliberately chose a night when the setlist was manageable. Tin pan alley night would require a chromatic fretboard... or the patience of a saint.
Sandi, under the circumstances, I don't have any business judging you too harshly! 
I'm not asking for TAB, I just wanted to chuckle over some ideas that might seem very unlikely. I.e. right now I'd love to have a go at "I Like That" (with language edits) by Janelle Monae, LOL. Please don't judge me too harshly... 
