If you want to play with drones, from DAD you almost have to use a capo. Either standard capo at the first, or a reverse capo under the drone strings at the first fret. It can be done without a capo, but you have to fret a lot of chords. The DA drones will clash with all the Em phrases. An alternative would be to not strum the drone strings at all, and just play the melody. That's what a fiddler does, though most modern fiddlers embellish the daylights out of tunes. You don't need to do everything a fiddler does. The whole melody can be located between the the nut and the 3rd fret, if you start on the bass string. Perfect for walkabout dulcimers. Another alternative is to raise the bass string to E, and the middle to B. This eliminates the capo, and gives you the correct drones for this song. You will then be tuned to EBD, and play all the melody notes on the melody string. More than one way to skin a cat. But beware of the ladies- As I understand it,the annual Faire in Lisdoonvarna was a place ladies went to find a husband! You could come home married!

Paul

Hey you old dusty turtle...hehehee

Thanks.. yeah.. I can pick. (need to get some ideas and forms down).. my fingers are bent and locked up a bit, so I can not stretch and curve to form chords..(Hence why I am diggin' the dulcimer).. So if I can pick up a few pickin' techniques then your right.. I can probably make the song come alive.

Some one did start a ren fair thread I thought.. I will search it and see. They just recommended books.

I will zip over the help me with this song and see what happens.

Thanks again.

Hi Bradford. You might consider joining the group I created a while back called Help Me Learn This Song, Please . You can start a new discussion with Road to Lisdoonvarna--or any other tune you needhelp with--as the title.

Quick thought: It might be easier to use a capo on the first fret for this one.

Quick question: You describe your difficulty with chords; what about with your picking hand? If you can pick individual strings rather than strum across all of them, you will indeed be able to play this song without too much difficulty. If you have trouble holding a pick, you might consider a thumb pick.

Quick suggestion: You might consider starting a discussion asking for ideas for songs to play at a Ren Fair in a droning style. I bet Ken H. and folkfan alone could give you dozens of good ideas.

--
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

Especially for Renn Faire things, I'd keep it simple, one strum per note -- no fancy back and forth strums, bum ditties, filling in the blank spaces with extra strums -- those sorts of things. IIRC early instrument frets were relatively fragile, especially frets tied on or made of wood and glued on; so I suspect that playing was, relatively speaking, calm.

Thank you... that was very helpful.

The other thing I need a little help on is strumming technique. Any good videos or material giving ideas or how-to's.

Here's a link to a discussion on ED, where you'll find a link to Mark Gilston's version, which you should be able to play just on the melody string with drones, tuned DAd. Yes it has a few 3 finger chords, but ignore those and just play the melody line notes at those places.

http://everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=25813

Here's a link to Gary Gallier's version, also in DAd, again mostly melody line:

http://dulcimercentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/the-road-to-lisdoonvarna-key.pdf

Hi all,

I am getting close to the next renaissance faire and want to take my stick dulcimer with me to play as I walk around. There was a good discussion on Ren music on another link so I got the books that where brought up. I found this one song that I really like:

The Road To Lisdoonvarna

I don't read sheet music that well, but it is a 6/8 beat. The notes are for guitar and it has the chords listed as well.

I found it on you tube and listened to multiple ways to play it. (sounded great on a lap dulcimer). but no real instructional videos. I can play it "okay" with the dulci on my lap.

Here is my issue: I have damaged fingers from arthritis, so I can not form chords while holding the dulci stick like a guitar.. in order to play this while walking around, I need it to be in the guitar position.

So any of you really talented music folks out there that might be able to look at this song and come up with a way to play it by droning? Or at list a simple finger pluck of some sort..

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much

updated by @bradford-jennings: 02/25/19 02:24:36AM