Do you play any popular songs on your dulcimer?

hugssandi
@hugssandi
6 years ago
244 posts

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....  

Rob N Lackey
Rob N Lackey
@rob-n-lackey
6 years ago
422 posts

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!

 

Janene Millen
Janene Millen
@janene-millen
6 years ago
28 posts

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.....

Kusani
Kusani
@kusani
6 years ago
134 posts

Rocky Top!!!  music  dulcimer   music

 

Dusty Turtle
Dusty Turtle
@dusty
6 years ago
1,720 posts

Steven Berger:I enjoy playing Stephen Foster songs, which was popular music back in the day.....way back.winker


@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.




--
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
Steven Berger
Steven Berger
@steven-berger
6 years ago
143 posts

I enjoy playing Stephen Foster songs, which was popular music back in the day.....way back.winker

Ken Hulme
Ken Hulme
@ken-hulme
6 years ago
2,111 posts

I have a whole set that I call Top Of The Pops --  1650 !!

Dusty Turtle
Dusty Turtle
@dusty
6 years ago
1,720 posts

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!headbang




--
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
Lisa Golladay
Lisa Golladay
@lisa-golladay
6 years ago
108 posts

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!  howdy biglaugh

hugssandi
@hugssandi
6 years ago
244 posts

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...  duck