Hi Shaw, and welcome to the wonderful world of the Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. It's a good place to come, spend some time, learn about the dulcimer, and to meet some good people.
I evidently put my first post in the wrong place, I think it was Strumelia's page.
Anyway i wanted to ask the community a peculiar question.
I used to be a professional musician, mainly guitar, but a table saw wrapped that up mighty quick. After a few years of profound sadness at the loss of making music I decided to learn new stringed instruments that don't require the fingers I lost (I actually have the fingers on my hand but the the pinky and ring finger of my left hand don't work at all and the middle is @ 50%. Anyway, I am a serious Kora player now (a west african harp) since it only requires thumbs and pointer fingers. But I learned recently, that the Dulcimer might be a good instrument for me also and I'm thinking of launching into it. I'm concerned about adapting to it, since I really only have a thumb and pointer finger @ 100% and some middle finger usage (I think enough to note a string on the Dulcimer). I don't understand enough about the Dulcimer to know what i'm getting into with it.
Also, the question of my hands has also made me think I should perhaps go for a smaller VSL - maybe 25" since I guess i won't have the same reach that fully fingered people might have. Any thoughts on this would be welcome. Sorry for the length of this post! I should say, my interest in the dulcimer is mainly as a singer/songwriter, I'm not necessarily looking to play fast, but I'd like to be able to play interesting chords.
Thanks in advance for your advice and thanks for the welcome!
Welcome Shawsg to Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. Glad you joined. This is a great group of friendly folks. Join the discussions. Ask questions. We are glad to help each other.
Hi Shaw, and welcome to the wonderful world of the Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. It's a good place to come, spend some time, learn about the dulcimer, and to meet some good people.
Ben
Hello friends,
I evidently put my first post in the wrong place, I think it was Strumelia's page.
Anyway i wanted to ask the community a peculiar question.
I used to be a professional musician, mainly guitar, but a table saw wrapped that up mighty quick. After a few years of profound sadness at the loss of making music I decided to learn new stringed instruments that don't require the fingers I lost (I actually have the fingers on my hand but the the pinky and ring finger of my left hand don't work at all and the middle is @ 50%. Anyway, I am a serious Kora player now (a west african harp) since it only requires thumbs and pointer fingers. But I learned recently, that the Dulcimer might be a good instrument for me also and I'm thinking of launching into it. I'm concerned about adapting to it, since I really only have a thumb and pointer finger @ 100% and some middle finger usage (I think enough to note a string on the Dulcimer). I don't understand enough about the Dulcimer to know what i'm getting into with it.
Also, the question of my hands has also made me think I should perhaps go for a smaller VSL - maybe 25" since I guess i won't have the same reach that fully fingered people might have. Any thoughts on this would be welcome. Sorry for the length of this post! I should say, my interest in the dulcimer is mainly as a singer/songwriter, I'm not necessarily looking to play fast, but I'd like to be able to play interesting chords.
Thanks in advance for your advice and thanks for the welcome!
Welcome Shawsg to Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. Glad you joined. This is a great group of friendly folks. Join the discussions. Ask questions. We are glad to help each other.
Hey Shaw, welcome aboard. Glad ya found us.
Welcome to FOTMD, Shawsg. It is good to have you aboard. I look forward to your participation in these discussions.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Welcome!
I saw where you posted several questions to me on my profile page.
I'm going to suggest that you copy your whole post with various questions and create a new thread/discussion in our General dulcimer forum: https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/general-mountain-dulcimer-or-music-discussions
that way you'll get many members comment with good suggestions for you!
Use the +plus button to add a new discussion there and name it. Thank you and I hope you will enjoy the site!