Hi Dusty,

thank you for your reply.

1.) In fact, when I first found this song in the internet, it was written in 3/8 time. Now I have also found the song in a song-book in 6/8 time. I don't know how Hannikainen wrote it. But both measures make sense, because the stress should be on the first eighth note of a group of three. 3/8|oo|oo|oo|oo|... resp. 6/8|oo oo|oo oo|...

If I'd put the 6 eighth notes into a 3/4 measure, I'd get 3 quarter notes resp. 3 groups of 2 eighth notes rather than 2 groups of 3 eight notes. 3/4|OO|OO|... resp. 3/4|o oo oo|o oo oo|

So I think, a 3/8 or 6/8 does make sense and gives the song the touch of a dance...

2.) Not at all - you are welcome to use it! Thank you for asking... Enjoy!

Thanks, Peter. That's a pretty tune.

I have two questions for you:

1) Why did you tab this in 3/8 time instead of 3/4 time? Were you just following the original score or is there some advantage to that time signature?

2) Would you mind if I shared this tab with my local dulcimer group in California? I think it would work as a nice study in basic chord shapes.

--
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

After focussing on the Finnish kantele for some time, I decided to tab a dulcimer version of a Finnish song today. The song is about a squirrel nest (drey) in the trees and about the baby squirrels' life while growing up in summer and winter, protected by their comfortable nest.

The music was written by Pekka Juhani Hannikainen (1854-1924), so according to European laws it is in the public domain (author died more than 70 years ago).

As some notes of the melody are on the second string (A) in DAdd tuning, I recommend to play it in flat picking or fingerpicking style.

Enjoy. :)

I'll try to record it by the end of this week.

EDIT: So here's the recording:

updated by @peter-w: 06/11/15 07:41:51AM