Have been practicing on Ashokan Farewell trying to get fluid on it. Very fond of Dusty's performance and have watched it a few times for study!
Favorite Dulcimer to play right now is my 30" long dulcimer. Keep it between us, but i never bothered to finish trimming the frets down
yep, Steven, I'm with you on that. However, during this Plandemic, I've loved the hymns most of all and Tomasi, my husband, playing the autoharp with me. There's one I've been working on...........COME HOME. although I'm already muchly at home............I love playing my newest dulcimer that is all cherry wood and I'd sent the peg head to a carving son that lives in Maui, he carved a beautiful scroll head for me and this is a bright sounding dulcimer. Still, I love my big Box dulcimer that is so very mellow.....aloha, irene
My favorite dulcimer and tune are the ones I'm playing at the time I'm playing.
@Ken-Hulme & @Dan Those instruments look great! It'd be fun to have a go at playing them.
I've been working on a yet unnamed original tune and am playing it mostly on my Blue Lion Jean Ritchie model instrument. Playing mountain dulcimer is a comfort in these days.
I have been working on several songs, but I'm really enjoying my version of "Beauty and the Beast". I got Bing's original tab, but revised it some for my playing style, which I really like. Such a pretty tune. It sounds wonderful on my Doug Berch Standard Dulcimer, but it is also beautiful on my Folkcraft Custom Baritone.
Though I don't have a particular favorite dulcimer to play, somehow I found myself really enjoying the simple melody of a hymn called "Oh God Almighty Father". It brings to mind many fond memories of my seminary years and indeed makes me feel quite peaceful. It's kind of like meditative prayer when I am playing it.
I've been concentrating recently not on a single song but a whole bunch of songs from the American west around the mid-19th century: Strawberry Roan, Lorena, Billy the Kid, Green Grow the Lilacs, and The Maid of Monterey.
That is impressive. A couple of years ago I did build a hurdy gurdy and I think I enjoyed the challenge of building of it more than anything else.
The wheel fiddle looks really nice Dan .... was it built to a specific plan?
Sorry, I don't have a sound clip. I need to sit down and make some, one of these days...
Ozark Coffin specs:
26" VSL
Strung for Bagpipe Ddd or Ccc tuning
5" wide
33" overall length
1-3/4" deep; 3 wood button feet for playing on possum board or table
Brian and I once stayed in Burnsville for a couple days.
Ken what's the VSL on that little stick? Do you have a clip of it being played? It looks small like an epinette? How do you like to keep it tuned?
Thankee Ma'am!
I had intended to take it to the Berea Gathering this year, and our friends had intended to come home (bringing my dulcimer) after a week in NC, not five. All's well that ends well
Since our friends' house is just 'up the hill' from Burnsville, NC, I'm going to build one of my Burnsville Holly Leaf dulcimers to send back up there the next time we go. Seems appropriate, anyway!
@ken-hulme that's a very purty walking stick!
Right now it's "Star of Bethlehem," not the carol, but the fiddle tune from Alabama (I think.) I've been playing my Jeremy Seeger, cherry top, mahogany body, no extra frets, tuned DAA for now.
@Richard-Streib, I don't know where I heard this, but supposedly the "Buffalo" in "Buffalo Gals" was originally whatever town the band was playing in, so it might be "Albany Gals" or "Charlotte Gals" or "Montpelier Gals" or whatever. The song was often sung as the last song of the night and was an invitation to the ladies in the audience to hang out with the band after the show.
Been playing Hard Times Come Again No More. Can't imagine why? Also the wonderful tune Don't Let Us Get Sick by the late Warren Zevon. I've been saying for a year or more that that tune should be the theme song for anyone over 50! Imagine -- me playing a modern tune!!!
A couple friends have been isolating in the North Carolina mountains but came back to town the other day. They brought with them a dulcimer I made several years ago and had left at their house so I would have a dulcimer to play when we stayed there without having to fly one in.
This is a small Ozark Walking Stick or Coffin style. 26" VSL. Tuned Ccc Bagpipe. Top and back are wormy Chestnut, sides are Eastern Red Cedar. Head and tail are 300 year old Southern Yellow Pine. Arched Walnut fretboard. Notice that the arch widths mirror the wide and narrow spacings between the diatonic staple frets!
Just had to jump in on this question. Currently working on Buffalo Gals as a challenge from some traditional dulcimore playing friends.
My favorite instrument is an UltraLite model made by Dan Cox and specifically set up for playing in Cgg. If I play a CD player I don't make nearly as many mistakes, but it is not the fun of playing the dulcimore.
Tell us what your current favorite song or tune is right now, and why it's your current favorite.
also... Tell us what your current favorite instrument to play right now is, and why.
Let's hear it, friends! 
