I am working on new online project called: "Good Wish Song 2021"

In the relevant dulcimer facebook groups I have posted the following beginning of January:

The idea of this composition will be an encouraging and bolster (I hope that this is the right word) song for 2021

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Within a short time the participant's list has increased to 12 and after I had received all twelve 2 bar-compositions I started to puzzle them together so that a nice melody came out.

I have set up a project chat group and it was a delight to see the lively discussion and brain storming regarding the initial arrangement...some wanted to add chords, some an intro and outro, some to reduce the tempo.

Two days ago Ron Zuckerman has written down all agreed additional wishes/suggestions in a new sheet music and made an orientation recording so that the recording phase for the group could start.

Today I already could place 3 dulcimer recordings as well as 2 vocal recordings into my DAW where I will do the final mixing...and what can I say...it already sounds so beautiful!

I will post the final video here and would be happy if you are looking forward to it as I do

I’m working on getting two just intonation dulcimers. Unfortunately one of them had a major fret placement defect and was unplayable. Hopefully I can get it replaced and I’ll be able to change keys like I want without restringing. 

Thing to watch out with Sniff.numachi is that most often their tab is listed "backwards" by modern standards -- they list DAA for example as AAD, which gets lots of new players in trouble...   Try www.Contemplator.com for those kinds of tunes.

I try to play Cam Ye O'er Frae France on dulcimer. I discovered a site which has a kind of tab (although it's auto generated thus might be wrong): http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiCAMFRANC;ttCAMFRANC.html

Nontheless the tune sounds good, but I need practice, practice, pratice :)

I'm pretty much a beginner, although I do play other instruments, so I'm a relatively quick learner.  I'm learning the fretboard and some basic chords.

My big dulcimer project is working on a Christmas album to give to friends this year.  One song is already on my Audio list, "People look East", which includes DAD dulcimer, ADAD mandolin, acoustic steel string guitar, and an electronic pipe chanter.  More are forthcoming for this forum (as long as they include dulcimer, of course!).

Thanks Strumelia for seeing my cleverness. All joking aside, I wanted to share this with others for it took me a long time to discover how to do this. For those who may be interested in the three chords I use: F, Bb.& C my fingering for them is as follows:  Starting with the top string and with the  capo on the third fret:  F= 3 3 3 or 5.3 3  Bb= 6 4 3  C= 4 3 4.   btw I found that fingering the F chord on the dulcimer is a lot easier than on the guitar.  I am afraid arthritis is catching up on and that is one more reason I am thankful for the dulcimer.

John, I look forward to hearing that from you!  It's clever how you figured to first tune to C and then capo on 3 to get into the key of F.  I think the key of F is probably the most problematic key to tune to on a typical diatonic dulcimer with 26-28" scale. Good for you!   btw I too find it way easier to sing in F or G than in D.

I am working on the hymn: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". Hymnals have it in the key of F with one flat which puts it in a good singing range. I put my dulcimer into F by capo-ing on the 3rd fret while the strings are tuned C G C. I have worked out the three basic chords F, B, and C to accompany my singing of this hymn. I'll do the video of this hymn for FOTMD soon for you to hear and see what I have done.

Yes. Thanks!

Hi Jan - it would be good to get them until the end of November - will this be working for you?

Ariane, what's the deadline for getting our videos or audio clips to you?

Tune wise I work on the songs we choose for our weekly Zoom gathering over at The Traditional Mountain Dulcimore site. I currently have four mountain dulcimer builds in the works. Three are C.N. Prichard reproductions and one is a teardrop.  Prichard are walnut with butternut top, all curly maple, and all poplar. The teardrop is all poplar.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

...and I can already "sing" that is sounds wonderfully! You will hear it in the Advent Calendar behind one of the little doors...!

Mark and I have been working with classical guitar & bowed dulcimer music in recent weeks.  When Ariane put out the call for music for the Advent Calendar, we decided to participate and take a leap, going with the instruments on which we are much less practiced.  It has been a fun challenge!  

I love hearing how everyone's doing and what your current interests/projects are.

Terry, a special hug to you- It's so good to see your post. I'm so glad to hear you are slowly recovering, that's sounds like a terrible ordeal.
Simply playing soothing notes for five minutes can be a true balm for our souls. 

John, I bet your son has no idea that his interest in learning classical guitar is lifting up and inspiring YOU as well. 

Dusty, one of the things i love most about Renaissance and medieval era music is how so many of the tunes go back and forth in using a sharp and a natural. It always tickles my senses when the note occurs one way and then the other. I find most often the sharp comes later on, after the natural in the first part.

Hi, Terry,

You've found a good therapist with the dulcimer. Enjoy.

I'm practicing classical guitar for the first time in many years. My adult son in California expressed an interest in learning and I offered to give him some Zoom lessons. I'm playing through the book I suggested he get, so that I don't embarrass myself too badly!

I'm also making friends with the new dulcimore I recently recieved from Dulcimore Dan. I'll be posting about that soon.

Hi Terry - I wish you further and speedy recovery and much fun with your new dulcimer.

(I have not been playing any instrument for some weeks now since I have kind of overstretched my left hand and hope that it will be possible again soon...I really miss it a lot.)

Take care!

@terry-wilson So good to see you back!  My niece has been in a long period of recovery from COVID and it is difficult.  Take care and enjoy playing music again!  What size/shape/woods dulcimer did you find at the yard sale?  

I started learning my first DAaa tune. Buffalo Gals. I like the way the notes slide into each other in this song. My new dulcimer sounds really nice in DAaa tuning. 

I just started working on the Irish jig "The Gander in the Pratie Hole."  It's an interesting tune because the A part is in D major but the B part is in D mixolydian. So the first part has C# and the second part has C natural.

Val, what a great gift!  There is something special about playing an instrument built by a relative or friend.  (I have several built by friends.) I'll keep my eyes open for photos!

This one Robin is a Christmas present for my niece she wont know till Christmas day. Will get my son do to do some photos of my builds and will post.

@macaodha Is the dulcimer for you to play or for someone else?  Feel free to post a photo of your build sometime!

Getting close to finishing my 6th dulcimer, hour-glass mahogany back and sides spruce top. And loads of other stuff.

@gary-major Such cool songs!  When you're ready to share them here, please post in the group Rockin' in the Free World.  (Copyrighted songs need to be posted in a group or forum discussion.)  

I have been working on Wendy Songe's version of "King of the Fairies". Fun tune! Also, I recently purchased the sheet music of "John Barleycorn" as performed by Steve Winwood of Traffic and working out chords, etc on my chromatic dulcimer. 

Jan,

   Someday I would like to learn how to write out a score on Tabledit also. Good luck and looking forward to hear about your progress!    

I have copied a few tabs, Blowing in the Wind, There's Something about that Name and where have all the Flowers Gone. My goal is to share one with you all as soon as I can master it. I'm getting excited to get into the grove again and since winter is fast aproaching, what a better time to start. 

Take care my fellow Dulcimer Players

I'm working on learning how to make a score (TAB and standard notation) using Tabledit.  I'm using it with an original composition, trying to see how possible it is for me to get some of the music in my head into written form.  Of course, with my issues with reading tab, I probably won't be able to play my own tab once it's complete!

I’m starting to learn my third song. Wildwood Flower, Old Joe Clark and now Wreck of the Old 97. I’ve been playing dulcimer for over 40 days, but I lost two weeks while on vacation. So I’m still working on the basics like strumming and keeping the noter from sliding off the string. 

Since I have written here that I will be working with my dulcimer on "Ue o Muite" I would like to let you know that I have just uploaded the video on youtube - if you like to listen to it please find the link to my youtube chanel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbtgN6BpTZTuAv0Ng8ndGYA?view_as=subscriber

"A Taste of Jam"

Recently I rediscovered the "Athens Dulcimers" website. They offer: "Beginner Tunes", and "Basic Jam Tunes".  They play by ear in these videos, but through research I came up with tabs to help me at first with these tunes.  My goal now is to play by ear like they do too. Now I have a taste jam before joining the real thing. 

This reminds me of how singer Ariana Grande got a tattoo on her hand that was Japanese  characters meaning "seven rings" (a title of her newest song at the time).  Unfortunately the Japanese characters were not exactly correct, and the tattoo actually said: "small BBQ grill" in Japanese.  lolol... probably a better tattoo anyway.

@Ariane Oh, that's such a funny comparison-- Moon River issued in Japan as Beef Stew!  Thanks for the laugh this morning.  In these days, it is needed more than ever.    

I have found this - and think that the last sentence is very "fitting"

In  Anglophone countries , the song is best known under the alternative title " Sukiyaki ". In Japan it refers to a Japanese  hot-pot  dish with cooked beef, the word sukiyaki does not appear in the song's lyrics, nor does it have any connection to them; it was used only because it was short, catchy, recognizably Japanese, and more familiar to English speakers. A  Newsweek  columnist noted that the re-titling was like issuing " Moon River " in Japan under the title "Beef Stew". [4]

Most Americans pronounce it "soo-key-ah-key".  The actual pronunciation my Japanese friends tell me is closer to "ski-yaki".

THe sherry would probably overwhelm flavors in a way the sake wouldn't.  But hey, my mother-in-law once substituted an apple for an onion in a soup thinking that since they were both round it would work.   Can't say she didn't use logic!

Yeah, John.  I can just picture my mom looking in her cabinet and knowing there was no sake, saying "Well...sherry starts with an 'S' so we'll try that." 

Sherry! Oh, my. Saké, rice wine, is the commonly-used ingredient here. I'm sensitive to alcohol, so we substitute vinegar or lemon juice for it. "Sukiyukky"--I love it.   Kids can be so inventive.

In the early 60's, my dad brought home a recipe for sukiyaki from a friend who'd been working a while in Japan: fresh veggies sautéed with strips of steak put in at the last few minutes, served over rice.  Some liked it a lot, some hated it.  Of course, we had all eaten the vegetables and steak before.  I think the objection was more about the liquid that the veggies simmered in.  It contained both soy sauce and sherry--and I think it was the sherry which wasn't appreciated.  I'm not sure if sherry was even in the friend's recipe--it might have been a special Japanese alcoholic drink or some other fermented liquid--but it was interpreted by mom as "sherry"--which she didn't even like!  

People who didn't really like having this tasty dish served for supper referred to it as "sukiyukky".  It's still a favorite dish of mine! But I'd never heard of the song by the same name before now!

Thanks, @dusty-turtle!

I have read that this song was released first in Japan in 1961 and became one of the world's best selling singles of all time, selling over 13 million copies worldwide. It was for example top in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.

It' so funny...as a child I tried to sing along...I wonder what I have sung in Japanese

Here's a version of the song with the lyrics and English translation.  I didn't know this song either until @ariane and @john-gribble discussed it here.

Ah, thanks a million for the information, @john-gribble!  So tragic about the deaths in the plane crash which included the singer!  

@robin-thompson, no, I don't think so. It is very typical of Japanese pop songs of the era (early '60s).

A little later--according to Wikipedeia, the lyrics were written after a protest rally and origionally had nothing to do with lost love.

Kyu Sakamoto, the singer, was killed with over 500 other people in 1985 in the worst single plane accident in history.

@john-gribble Is the song based on an old myth or folktale and is the tune a traditional tune?  (A dear grad school friend from Japan translated some Japanese folk tales for her thesis and, while she was working on them, I'd read them for her for their "readability" in English.  This was several years ago.)   

That's a wonderful song, @Ariane and @@robin-thompson. It is still popular in Japan. According to my wife Miwako, it is a "lost love" song, with the singer walking at night and looking at the stars. He says if you look up, the tears won't stream down your face. 

I like to play it noter style in DAA. It is pentatonic, and that one flatted note can be had by "half-sticking," using the noter like a guitar slide.  

I think I have never heard of that song, @Ariane.  It is sweet it gives you a happy remembrance from childhood.  We can all use those sorts of remembrances from time to time.  

Some days ago I heard a song from the early 1960's in the radio that reminds me of my wonderful childhood and makes me feel "nostalgic" - it is "Ue o Muite Arukou" (also known as "Sukiyaki") sung by Kyu Sakamoto.

Yesterday, while sitting on the terrace noodling around on my MAX (and because this tune has become an "earworm" again - Dean (@Elvensong) will be laughing when he will read this word) I have tried to play this tune on the dulcimer - and (except one half note) it will work.

So I guess that my next recording will be this (for me) very special song...

I like the challenge of playing slowly-- it can be hard to keep a tune slow and melodic.  Great exercise for me!  @ariane's Shenandoah project is just the right kind of challenge for this old girl.  

<crawling back under my rock now... see you when Covid is a memory...>

When I don't have an answer I ask myself, "What would Groucho say?"

Not only for recordings like this, but for any kind of group play we don't have the luxury of varying tempo for expressiveness. Unless you have a conductor or other clear leader, you just have to find a tempo and stick with it. I am always humbled when I practice with a metronome.  It is one thing to vary tempo on purpose, but too often I vary uknowingly, speeding up over easy sections and slower down over the harder ones. That's something I'd like to eliminate.  I wasn't joking when I mentioned the frustration that comes with a metronome. I can only take it in small doses.

"like a kidney stone...." ...that's a gem!  I'll definitely be using that one.

Ken, I guess it'll be a good growth exercise in controlling your playing then. I know it's true for me that sometimes simpler things can be hard when I'm used to doing stuff my own way (the way I'd prefer).
It's like someone who has lived alone for decades has difficulties adjusting to living with someone else. I had an older girlfriend who was engaged for two years to the nicest guy, they felt so lucky to have found each other, ...but they finally broke up because they both couldn't deal with moving in together and just visiting wasn't what they really wanted... they were each 'married to their own houses' full of their treasured stuff and could not deal with making the changes.

I too can vouch that you've been saying 40 years for about ten years now. No offense intended Ken, but since you mention it on average once every day in one post or another, that means we've all been reminded of your 40 years of playing approximately 3,650 times now. We've definitely gotten the memo!     

Yes, "normally" I also prefer when playing alone to paraphrase a tune and to have a more "flexible" tempo  - but in such a kind of project I think it is "necessary" to play to an agreed tempo so that I can put the measures of different musicians in a row and the tune still will have its flow.

If one has "difficulties" in taking over the tempo I still have the possibility to place his/her measures more to the end of the tune - that will be no problem

Dusty -- back then -- 10 years ago -- I was saying I'd been playing 30 years.  Now, 10 years later, I'm saying 40 years...

2020 -1975 = 45 years    "Time flies when you're having fun; fruit flies like bananas." -- Groucho Marx

I play a number of songs very slow --  Londonderry Air, Danny Boy, Amazing Grace, and others.  It's the regular tempo that I'm struggling with -- rather than playing "expressively" to the rhythm of the words, I guess. 

"Like a kidney stone, this too shall pass."  -- Unk Nown

Ken--Pretend you're playing it to a baby you want to fall asleep.  Playing a song slowly is sometimes harder than playing it fast....kind of like riding a bike.

I'm working--and enjoying--Skye Boat Song

@Ken-Hulme, whenever there is too little frustration in my life, I practice with a metronome.  Problem solved.

By the way, I first discovered the dulcimer about ten years ago and joined ED and FOTM around then, too. You were saying back then that you'd been playing the dulcimer for 40 years.  Maybe the math needs to be updated.    I'm not saying  . . . I'm just saying.

Speed issues with Ariane's Shenandoah Summer Project.  I've spent 40 years playing to the rhythm of the words, and I decided to get involved with her group play project for the challenge.  But 60 beats per minute seems glacial!   Have I mentioned how much I hate those little blue city guys -- metro-gnomes? 

Tryin' to smooth out ashokan farewell, Barlow Knife, and currently arranging/learning Cold Frosty Morning

Thanks for the update Gail...I wondered how that was working out for y'all.

I have been in a dulcimer orchestra since last fall.  Judy House, the music director of the Winston-Salem, NC club, has written a book of multiple part pieces, and we are also working on some pieces from Tull Glazener's 3 String choir.  We've played quite a variety of music and it's been a lot of fun.  Of course, with COVID-19 we can no longer meet in person, but we have Zoom practices instead. Hopefully we will be able to actually do some performances in the future!

I had Wittner pegs put on my langspil. They're amazing and a real delight to work with!   (I'm sure Pegheads are terrific too)

I've switched from Pegheds to Wittner geared tuners. I think the tuning is a little more precise. You would be in big trouble if you cut the button off as the gears are in the button rather than the shaft.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

@robin-thompson One of the things that make Pegheds attractive is they do look very much like wooden friction pegs. Had I been more patient, Chuck, the man who makes them, would have cut the grips (buttons) off the original pegs and attached them to the new geared pegs. But I'm completely happy with what I have. Much more elegant and light-weight than those chrome banjo pegs.

But now I'm causeing the thread to drift. I think I'll go play some dulcimer.

@john-gribble While I love the look of old friction tuners, my hands can no longer manage them-- soft tissue woes, not arthritis.  Enjoy those Pegheads!  

Good for you @Gary-Major !

I am coming back to playing. Been away too long. Got new strings. Polished my dulcimer up. Have a few song boook... Well I hope to shar when I finally catch up lol.

Well, I'm falling in love all over again with my Kevin Messenger teardrop dulcimer (see my avatar). I installed a set of Pegheds on it last week, and now I can zip from one tuning to another without sweat or foul language. It's like having indoor plumbing!

I'm also exploring the materials I got at the on-line Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering a couple weeks ago. I only attended one day, but received plenty of skill-developing information to keep me busy.

Non-dulcimer—I'm nearing completion of a book manuscript I've been working on since last November. It is a translation  with notes of a Japanese poetry collection from the 13th century. Here's one which seems particularly appropriate to our times:

 Fujiwara no Kiyosuke 

1104-1177

Given enough time, 

all these troubles may become 

like those of the past—

all those mean, hard, fear-filled days,

remembered with nostalgia.

nagaraeba mata konogoro ya shinobaren 

ushi to mishi yo zo ima wa koishiki 

I'm finishing up a 15 string plucked psaltery with decorations.   I gave my #25 plucked psaltery to my two little grandsons that came here with their daddy and they left today.   We made two canjo's for them.  One is 3 and the other is 8.   both could play both instruments.  sooooooooooooo fun.  aloha, irene

Doodling up a smaller version of my Burnsville Holly Leaf dulcimer.  This one will be only 5" wide and 30" overall, with a 25" VSL

I'm constructing a mean-tone walnut hourglass Thomas replica for a guy in Yorkshire.  The body's assembled, but needs trimming and pegs, nut, bridge, frets, strings, etc.

Thank you, Dusty.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."