Great sound guys! What's the name of that song?

Judy do you still have your Kantele?

Wow. Not sure how I missed this one. LOVE the sound of the Kantele and the dulcimer! Is that a GoldTone?

Thank you both, Judy and Linda - glad you like it!

@Linda: Martin's dulcimer is his own design, built by luthier. You can find a video, some photos and more info (in German) here: http://dulcimershop.de/konzertdulcimer.html

Thank you, Helen and Dusty.

Yes, Dusty - you are right. It is a little more complicated than pressing one button - but on the other hand, it is not TOO complicated as there are only 5 strings and only 8 or 9 available chords. I hope some day I'll also master the 10-string kantele that way - and there you need all five fingertips most of the time.

Anyway - an autoharp is still also on my instrument wish list (but I guess, not this year). There are great players and great autoharp videos on Youtube etc.

That look likes so much fun! And the way you finger the kantele is not like the autoharp; it is much harder! For the autoharp, you just press the button for the chord you want, you don't have to think about which string should sound and which shouldn't. You guys are doing great there! I think the best sound you get is when Martin plays the melody on the bass string, for that creates a nice contrast with the strumming.

Thank you, Patty!

Peter, that was excellent!!! Thank you for posting. You gave me a great treat for my morning

Thank you all for taking the time to listen and to comment! We appreciate that a lot!

@Strumelia: what I do with the kantele is not really "fretting" (as it doesn't have frets at all) but rather muting resp. dampening the unwanted strings. For example, to get a D-major chord on a kantele that is tuned to def#ga, I have to mute the 2nd and the 4th string to get df#a. It's similar to that what you do with an autoharp. On the 5 string kantele you only have some basic chords like D, A(7), G, Bm, F#m, Em - but even though you've only got the first five notes of the scale, you still can play little "lines" and "ornaments" in between your chord playing. Maybe I can describe that better some day, it's easier than it looks!
Of course, strumming the kantele is only one of several playing styles.

@Steve: I think, Martin and I have a similar "musical intuition". As I also play these pieces on the MD, it was no problem to just start and play the next piece. We just asked each other: "What next?", Martin counted us in and that's it.For the last four pieces we just let the camera on.Sometimes we had a "false start", and once the battery of the recorder was empty. That's why we have cut's between the pieces. I think, the "raw material" is about 20 minutes long, I cut that yesterday in the evening. Rendering and uploading it to YT took much longer than working on the video - but that was done by my PC and I could spend the evening with my family!

@Marion: Or maybe "Finno-American Concerto"?

Thank you all for the response!

Phenomenal!!!

Great job, guys!

This is terrific! So much FUN. That first tune I think I have often contra danced to, and perhaps will tonight.

I never saw anyone fretting a kantele before- that shows you how little I know.

Having fun playing with freinds at home is absolutely the BEST thing ever.