Jon,

Q: What do Don Pedi, Thomasina Levy, Bing Futch, and Irma Reader have in common?

A: They are all teaching at the Baritone Dulcimer Day on November 1.

I stand by my basic position that you don't need special instruction to play the baritone.  If you tune to a 1-5-8 tuning, you can use your DAd tab. If you tune to a 1-5-5 tuning, you can use your DAA tab.

But I'm sure you would learn a lot about other approaches and get some good material to build a repertoire from that one-day festival.

--
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

Hey Jon.  Playing the baritone is a lot of fun.  The increased sustain and lower register are great for slower ballads.

There are some resources for baritone.  (I believe DJ Hamouris has a book, and there are several books for playing the baritone to accompany a standard dulcimer.)

However, you don't need baritone-specific materials. If you are playing by yourself and tune GDG, you can play all the tab you already have for DAD.  The intervals for the strings is the same, so the tablature will all work.  You will just be playing in a lower register than indicated in the tab.  And if you have tablature for DAA, just tune GDD and let 'er rip!

I don't think it's a problem that your dulcimer can't be heard among the ukuleles. Keep joining them. Over time, as you get more confident, you can play louder, or maybe they'll let you do a little intro to a song before they all join in and drown you out. Remember, the goal is to fit in, not stand out.

--
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

Shelly Stevens has a book  Jamming with the Baritone Dulcimer that tells you how to retune one string on the baritone to play in the key of D with other dulcimers. There is this video from Folkcraft by Mandy Tyner. If you do Facebook, there is a group called Baritone Mountain Dulcimer that you can join. A simple internet search for Baritone dulcimer will turn up lots of links and information. I have a dulcimer I made which has a deep body that I'm thinking of restringing as baritone. If you look at my photo in the Embarrassment of Dulcimers thread it is the dulcimer in front of the blue Lazy Boy on the left side. It has a flat peg head, maple fret board, and Paduk back and sides with a red cedar top.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Hi kids, my experiment trying to play the Mountain Dulcimer with a ukulele group didn't work out at all. They play fan strumming way too loud and can't hear the dulcimer, of course with my playing that may be a good thing. But good cord practice all in all.

  Anyhow I'm thinking of tackling a baritone dulcimer but can't find any real good resources or information on YouTube. Any ideas out there on resource information, books Etc. I think preferably something with videos. I'm  more visual minded. I was thinking of tuning to  G,D,G. Any suggestions on where to start looking would  be appreciated thanks again.  Didn't find to much on the baritone Forum here on FOTMD 

Like always thanks much all the information is truly appreciated  on with the journey