I have to play the hammered dulcimer Sunday with our handbell choir but the darn thing won’t hold a tuning. The strings aren’t new so that’s not it- any suggestions as to what might be happening? I’m wondering if it’s because of low humidity? If so, is there anything I can do in 3 days?
Thanks!
Robin
Hi Robin,
If you haven’t done so already, I’d get over to everythingdulcimer.com right away and ask in the hammered dulcimer section of the forum.
My guess would be either humidity or temperature swings this time of year. Is it all the strings going out of tune together (but still in relative tune to each other), a few strings going off, everything going haywire at once, or the tuning pins slipping in their holes (tune it up and it slides back)? If you can’t get one side tuned with the other, it could be a slipped bridge. If some of the tuning pin holes have changed because of humidity or temp, there’s a different fix.
I don’t play HD, but I’m keen on the psalteries. They have similar problems because they have the same tuning mechanisms, but the HD forum at everythingdulcimer.com is the place to be. They are great folks and know eveything about the HD like Chiff and Fipple knows tin whistles!
I just looked on eveythingdulcimer and didn’t see a post from you. If you go there be sure and tell them as much as you can in your post to get the best, fastest info. Be as specific about the problem as you can. You can never give them enough information. They’re really nice folks.
In the mean time, I would put it in its case with a fully loaded humidifier and keep it at a constant temperature, as close to the temp of the place you’ll be playing as you can.
If they’re anything like harps, it doesn’t take much variation in temperature for them to go out of tune. I’m constantly having to fiddle with my tuning this time of year, when it can be 80 degrees one day and 50 the next.
If it’s only certain strings, have you checked to make sure your tuning pegs are holding stable?
Redwolf
So- I tried a couple of things- humidifying the instrument and warming the car & taking the dulcimer straight from the house to the car. Got to the church early to correct the tuning and it seemed to last through the 3 services. The ugly part was the performance really. Not necessarily mine or the handbell choir’s (although all of us reported playing some stinkers) but I don’t think mixing the two together worked very well when the tune wasn’t written for both instruments. FYI, we played Simple Gifts in C, which is a fine dulcimer tune. I used muted hammers to obtain a sound quality that blended better with the bells than bare wood on strings & amplified with a condenser mike. I think there was just too much going on and the tune got muddy. Also, a key change to E-flat didn’t help. Now I understand why some actors say “no” when they think a movie isn’t their style. Still, I may arrange something that works better for the group for next year (it takes our hb choir a year to work up a tune). Since both instruments have percussive qualities, there’s gotta be a way to put them together.
Thanks all for directing me to the EverythingDulcimer.com site. I need to hook up with some type of group so I get more playing opportunities.
Redwolf, do your harps go sharp in the winter?
Actually, they tend to go sharp when it’s hot. Cold makes them go flat.
Redwolf
Hmm, that’s a puzzle then. The harp I’m renting from my teacher was tuned way sharp when I got it. I didn’t realize that until I replaced a string that was missing when I picked it up and brought that string up to pitch. She said the string broke when she was tuning the instrument for me so I can’t blame the tuning on the previous renter. I’d say my tuners were adjusted wrong but I’ve checked both with a tuning fork.
It’s possible that HER tuner wasn’t calibrated correctly…it happens to the best of us! I once accidentally reset my tuner to A = 445, and then couldn’t figure out why my harp was sharp compared to my teacher’s (true it had seemed flatter than usual when I tuned it, but then I’d been out of town for a while…). It’s also possible there’s a significant difference in the temperature she keeps in her home and the temperature in yours, in which case it could have taken the harp a while to adjust.
But yeah…typically harps go sharp when it’s warm and flat when it’s cold (and it’s usually not uniform across the strings…the lower strings are much more likely to go out of tune than the treble strings, thank God!).
What kind of harp is it?
Redwolf
Hot = sharp, cold = flat is the normal response for most stringed instruments. It seems counter-intuitive, but has to do with the difference in coefficient of expansion for various materials and the physical construction of many instruments.
I talked to my teacher last night and she said her concert harp would go sharp in the winter but that could be due to the fact that it has gut strings. I’m practicing on a Lyon & Healy Troubador right now that has nylon strings so maybe it was tuned sharp.