Looks like a good time - good people, food and dulcimers!

Yes, that was a great day - playing together with others is something different than just sitting at home! And as the opportunities to meet other "dulcimists" are rare over here, days like that one are really precious!

As I said, Martin has done a great job rehearsing that piece even with beginners that didn't know it before - and they all could join in half an hour later when we recorded it - and it's a one-take-only recording!
I think it helped a lot that he set the rhythm with the stomp box so we all kept in time with each other!

that was wonderful and loved the singing!!!!

Thanks Peter - It is fantastic to hear about the growth of the dulcmer community in Germany

Continuation...

I started the German board in October, together with Martin and Miriam, in October 2012, and I "planted" two other "starting points" in the internet ( www.dulcimerforum.de and www.mountaindulcimer.de ), so interested people can find us on google. By now, we have 49 "members", of which about 10 - 15 people write regularly (the others seem to be a bit shy still - but never mind, the "scene" is growing!). And from the beginning we all were convinced, that the board should not end in itself, but should be the "tool" for contact and for arranging real life meetings! As we also have some members in North Germany, we hope to arrange a meeting in the middle of Germany some day.

So, some of participants of our lasts gathering have been students and customers of Martin, some are friends of me from the ukulele scene, and some are people who found our board and got interested. When we met the first time in December 2012 (look for our "Old Joe Clark" video here on FOTMD), we met at my house, as I have a "music room" in the basement of our house. And this we met in the group rooms of a church in Ludwigsburg, where Martin lives.

We stay in touch on our board, and hope to meet again in July and maybe on the last weekend in August. We are confident that there are more of us and that the number of Mountain Dulcimer players will grow!

That's how it all developped.

Thank you, Helen, Patty and Robin!

@Robin - thank you for asking. How did we manage? Short version: it grew during the last months - faster and better than we had expected!

Are you also prepared to read the long version of the story? So here we go!

When I received my first dulcimer in April 2012, I started Dulcimer blog in German, just to record my progress (mostly for myself, but I thought it might be helpful for others who are interested). Up to then I was quite busy in the Ukulele scene in Germany and after years of ukulele I was looking for a new challenge.

I ordered a cheap mountain dulcimer just to try it out and see whether I'd get along with it or not.

Some weeks later I received a friendly email from Martin (that is the big guy with the stomp box in the video". As he lives about an hour away, I visited him a few days later and we had a great afternoon. Together with a djembe drummer he sometimes attends Middle Ages reenactment events as a street musician ( www.dulcimus.de ) - and last year he started to offer dulcimer lessons ( www.dulcimerschool.de ). And, as one thing leads to another, he also started an online dulcimer shop ( www.dulcimershop.de ) - as with your shop, Robin, not because he's expecting to get rich, but to make it easier for interested people in Germany to buy a decent instrument. He does that all in his spare time, not as a main profession.

Martin is a friendly, highly motivated and musically skilled guy. He is a "Just do it - life's too short to hesitate!" man. Through him, I learned to know Miriam (she's also here on FOTMD). And we thought it would be nice to connect Mountain Dulcimer players in Germany, as we guess that we are not so many and spread over the whole country. At that point I already was a member of FOTMD, so I transferred the infos of my blog into a platform with forum / discussion board in German. Of course, I do not want to distract people from joining FOTMD. But not all people in Germany are able or want to read and write in English.

To be continued...

That's great Peter! How did you manage to find so many players already in Southern Germany? And where did you meet? Are you in Bavaria?

I've watched this a few times already. I absolutely love it. You all did great!!! I'll have to turn up the sound on the speakers and play along with you. Thanks for sharing this Peter

Thank you for listening and commenting, Marion and Roman!

@Marion: I'm glad we could help you to start your day!

Thank you all! Martin (the guy with the black stomp box) did a great job rehearsing with the group. We are not yet enough players in the area to meet regularly - but we hope to have 3 to 4 gatherings like that during the year.
I'll try to sing more to the songs I play. But first I have to find out the lyrics of the songs, a lot of tab sheets come without lyrics. But I think it really adds a nice touch from time to time.

Peter, that's awesome!!! That happens to be my favorite song currently You all are great!!!

Love it!

Peter... that is really good. I've groups in the U.S. that didn't play it that good! And the singing. You've got to bring out more of that in the future. (Many groups over here don't sing with their dulcimer playing.)

You guys sound great, Peter!

We had so much fun today, and it was great to work on playing that song altogether - and especially the newbies did a great job!