Oh boy. I get to start the first dulcimer thread. We have a few dulcimer players here. Off hand there’s Missy, Chattiekathy, Byll, Brassblower, John(?). And me. I’m certain there are others.
I got to play my mountain dulcimer in public for the first time at last weeks Katrina benefit concert. A blast. I used a small pickup attached with sticky tack. Now I’m addicted to amplification. Because the mountain dulcimer is so quiet it’s sometimes difficult to really hear subtle changes in expression. Even harder to practice. With an amplifier those expressions stand out. It’s making me a better player.
I am very tempted to try dulcimer, but apart from being a little skint at the moment, I already have more instruments than I have time to practice. They look so intriguing and sound really cool.
Actually the look of the fretting scares me a bit (Huh? Where’d all my semitones go?).
In July, I bought my wife a hammer dulcimer from http://www.songbirdhd.com/index.html. I got her the 16/15 Phoebe model. She’s a talented musician who has been away from music for a while because of our busy lives. She has really taken to this new instrument. Now we get to play hammer dulcimer and whistle together! Very cool. Only problem now is that she is a much better musician than I and I’m going to have trouble keeping up.
I also have a very nice mountain dulcimer on loan from a friend and a four string “walking dulcimer” I picked up as a lark on eBay recently. So many instruments, so little time…
I’ve got a Songbird. It’s a 17/16/8. I like it real well but it’s so huge.
I really messed up. At the College Hill festival in Cincinatti a guy was selling a Songbird 12/11 for $200 including a gig bag and stand. I didn’t buy it. What a dolt!!!
Buddu. The typical mountain dulcimer is diatonic. If you play whistle then the concept is similar. You can get them with extra frets and even fully chromatic. I have two and I’m thinking about having one made into a chromatic then use 4 strings instead of 3.
Yep, they are a lot less portable than a whistle! Guess who gets to lug the dulcimer, stand and assorted other stuff in and out of the car? My wife now calls me her “roady.”
Know where I can buy a reasonably priced adjustable height stand?
MAW! The site ate my post!!! And it was a nice, long, informative one, too!
Ok - I play both kinds of dulcimer, but I play mountain WAY more than hammered.
For lots of dulcimer related things - check out our website (at bottom of post). Also check out http://www.everythingdulcimer.com if you’ve not found it yet.
I’ve played mountain dulcimer on and off since the '70s. I love the drones.
Bill, see if you can find an album by Sean MacAloon (sp?) - its was recorded in the late '60s, I think - he plays IP with a hammer dulcimer.
I used to hear tracks firm this on Ciaran Macmahona’s RTE show.
Yes, I have an anthology cd with a few of the MacAloon pipes/hammer dulcimer tracks. I’d really like to get hold of the Joe McHugh/Barry Carroll recording sometime.
If you come across a source for the McHugh/Carroll recording, I’d like to know about it. While googling for it I came across a long article on the HD in Ireland. It’s somebody’s thesis.
I’m known to play the fretted dulcimer. I have a full-size hourglass dulcimer, with good volume, and I also have Cedar Creek’s Dulci-Lin, which is a high octave dulcimer that I love the sound of. I started playing dulcimer along about the same time I took up whistle.
The mountain dulcimer was my primary instrument for 20-odd years. I made and sold them for a few years to suppliment my graduate school stipend, too. I finally bit the bullet and bought a Blue Lion rosewood dulcimer with internal pickup a few years ago, as well as a hummell/humle from Triskelion. Both are very cool.
Any other Kate Price fans out there? Anyone have any of her earlier (pre- The Time Between) recordings? Heck, while we’re at it, how about any by Scartaglen?
I only have “Deep Heart’s Core” and “Isle of Dreaming”. I like the former better.
I just learned “Jump at the Sun” from that CD (on whistle). I notice that there are a couple of used copies of “Time Between” avaliable from Amazon, but they’re
charging a pretty penny for them! That better be one heck of an album!
So I gather one can ask about either hammered or mountain dulcimer here?
So then, any advice on a good learner’s hammered dulcimer? I’m not sure I want to learn a fretted instrument, and I’m not a huge fan of mountain dulcimer (sorry!), but I’ve heard some well-played hammer dulcimers that in turn piqued my interest in possibly learning the instrument. (I once associated HD with mystic namby-pamby types, since I first heard them as a kid at festivals that drew that kind of person. But I’ve since heard some nice stuff on 'em . . .)
I got to play around with the “Traveler” this summer (Rick donated it for a raffle, and I was selling the tickets!). Rick is also a great player, performer, teacher, and a really nice guy!
I have a McSpadden. The import charges were horrible. I will get to grips with the thing…one day. I’d wanted to have one since I heard one played in Aberdeen Folk Club in around 1984…
