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."

It looks like you're doing very good work with those zitters. @Ken-Longfield.  That kind of preservation is obviously important.

Learning “Carrickfergus”. Mostly got the tune down (cgc) now starting to work on the other two strings. 😉

Well, I finally finish the restoration of a Pennsylvania German zitter. I purchased two of them back in the Fall of 2019. The other one was easier to restore as I just had to repair a few cracks and reglue some joints. The top on the one I just finished was beyond repair and I had to make a new top. Here is the instrument.

Ken,

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

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Thought I'd resurrect this discussion thread. What are you guys working on?  building a new instrument?  learning a new tune?  putting lyrics to a melody you wrote?

I was watching an episode of the BBC series Poldark the other night and heard a charming Irish jig called "Haste to the Wedding."  I'm working on it now.  Not quite up to speed, but we're getting there.  I'm playing it on my Ron Ewing octave dulcimette, which is a 3/4-size instrument.  The smaller frets and the proximity of the strings make it a bit easier to play faster tunes.

Share with us what music and/or instrument you are currently working on!