Greetings! I've searched the conversational archives, to no avail, so I'll ask as a general post - are there any other hammered dulcimer players on the Session?
As an aside, reading most of the postings has sparked a need to return to my long-neglected tinwhistle...
Another Dulcimer query - a completely different one
Good to hear that the old whistle have had another chance!
I'm sorry but I'm not another hammered dulcimer player. In fact I've never even seen the instrument live. I doubt that it ever was used in Swedish folk/trad music. We've been using different kinds of zitterns instead.
Why I send my post is because I have a Dulcimer query of my own! I'm interested in building a Mountain Dulcimer and I wonder if any of the Session members have experiences of that instrument for Irtrad music?
lars
I have a hammer dulcimer.
I do not play it that much. Yet I enjoy it when I get a chance.
I guess I have that illness. Too many other instruments to learn.
My first instrument and still one of my favorites is the mountain dulcimer. And yes.... irtrad are played a lot on mountain dulcimers. I belong to a mountain dulcimer club and a good share of our tunes are irtrad.
You have many modal tunings to choose from. The more standard tuning is DAD or DAA. You are limited to certain keys. The beauty of Irtrad is most of the keys fit well with that tuning. D, G, A, EM, BM... a capo comes in handy.
Check out the group... THE STONE RING on mp3.
They play a few HD songs. One is Cooley's Reel/ The Maple Leaf.
A real challenge for HD players. I should know my friend (who plays HD ) and I ( who played penny whistle) attempted that song on an open stage performance....Smokin' tune
Good luck on your mountain dulcimer. ONe suggestion. You can play more tunes if you insert a 1 and 1/2 fret and a 6 and 1/2 fret on your mountain dulcimer.
I can't resist mentioning my old favorite local/Colorado Irish group, Colcannon, which features a very good HD/Mountain Dulcimer player by the name of Doug Berch. They have some CD's out. Check them out!
Dirk
I have a Ukranian version of the hammered dulcimer (and yes, I can play it). 22 courses, six strings each. it's a massive thing. I think the one used for Celtic music is quite a bit simpler. I love it. It's gathering dust in Calgary though, for the moment, as I couldn't fit it into my car when I moved to Toronto. (My guitar, harp, banjo, fiddle, djembe, bodhran, mandolin, pipes, and didgeridoo got greedy with the space in the back seat. )
Good to hear from another dulcimer player. I play the hammered dulcimer. Dulcimers are relatively popular in the Washington, DC, area. We have many good teachers, such as Karen Ashbrook, who literally wrote the book on "Playing Hammered Dulcimer in the Irish Tradition."
Hammered dulcimer is my primary instrument, and pennywhistle is rapidly joining it. I don't particularly like the HD in session unless I'm doing airs or waltzes. On the driving reels and jigs and such the sound gets far too muddy for my tastes. I'll do a rhythmic backup, and leave the melody line to other instruments.
Dirk, I met Doug years and years ago at the Lone Star State Dulcimer Society bash. Thanks for reviving some pleasant memories!
I play the Mt. Dulcimer in sessions and have built about 120 over the years. Email me if you have any questions about building one and I will try to help as best I can. Laura was correct about the frets, especially the 6 1/2 and you will need a capo. You can hear some Mt. Dulcimer on my CD "Jefferson and Liberty". Go to www.ItinerantBand.com for more information. Dave
I play hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer and bodhran and love having the music on
the Session to reference. I play many of the Irish tunes on both dulcimers. I also have
a music score software called TablEdit that is very useful in writing the songs in dulcimer
tab as well as transposing tunes to a more dulcimer user friendly key.
Karen Ashbrook's hammered dulcimer book on playing the HD in the Irish tradition is the
best. I have a long way to go to learn all the songs in the book, but her arrangement of
the Butterfly is wonderful. Our band plays it and we have like an Irish jass sound to it.
Our instruments are the HD, guitar, Irish flute and bohdran.
Oops, my reply got cut off. Susan, if you are near Seattle, you should get in touch with the Northwest Hammered Dulcimer Society. They hold monthly jam sessions and a couple big weekend events every year. Their website is currently down for remodeling. Send an email to NWHDS@topica.com and ask someone to tell you how to join the list. Joining the group ($15/year) gets you a monthly snail-mail newsletter, but you can join just the email list if you prefer. (I'm a relatively new member, but I can't remember how to get signed up.) The NWHDS is not devoted exclusively to Irish music, but Irish music is a major component of the typical HD repertoire. At least one NWHDS member plays in a Celtic band.
My husband plays his hammered dulcimer at the Saratoga Springs,NY Pan-Celtic jam with no apparent complaints from the other participants. It only rings too much after maybe the Star of Muenster. That depends on the individual instrument.Of course they don't object to my playing the piano,either, so maybe they're a more liberal group than most.
Yet another hammer dulcimer player here. It's a great instrument and works best in slow and moderately paced tunes. The melodies tend to get lost on fast-paced tunes, especially reels.
The instrument enjoys some popularity in the Mid- Atlantic region, if a cult instrument can be termed "popular." Washington, DC, Baltimore and Annapolis all feature at least one music store that sells hammer dulcimers.
Maryland is home to June Apple dulcimers and years ago, home to a great band, Hickory Wind, which featured hammer dulcimer. We all thought they were going to "make it." Alas ...
I agree with Rayzone that the H D works best with "slow & moderately paced tunes".
I play an Oakwood & it's very lively but at this year's Causeway Dulcimer Festival I saw a great idea being put into practice which killed two birds with one stone.
A player had been unable to see his strings clearly so had fixed sheets of fabric on top of the soundboard & under the strings. This I tried & it not only made the strings much easier to see, but it reduced the ringyness of my instrument too.
Dulcimer query
Dulcimer query
Greetings! I've searched the conversational archives, to no avail, so I'll ask as a general post - are there any other hammered dulcimer players on the Session?
As an aside, reading most of the postings has sparked a need to return to my long-neglected tinwhistle...
Susan near Seattle
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by Thelees01
Another Dulcimer query - a completely different one
Good to hear that the old whistle have had another chance!
I'm sorry but I'm not another hammered dulcimer player. In fact I've never even seen the instrument live. I doubt that it ever was used in Swedish folk/trad music. We've been using different kinds of zitterns instead.
Why I send my post is because I have a Dulcimer query of my own! I'm interested in building a Mountain Dulcimer and I wonder if any of the Session members have experiences of that instrument for Irtrad music?
lars
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by lars
Re: Dulcimer query
I have a hammer dulcimer.
I do not play it that much. Yet I enjoy it when I get a chance.
I guess I have that illness. Too many other instruments to learn.
My first instrument and still one of my favorites is the mountain dulcimer. And yes.... irtrad are played a lot on mountain dulcimers. I belong to a mountain dulcimer club and a good share of our tunes are irtrad.
You have many modal tunings to choose from. The more standard tuning is DAD or DAA. You are limited to certain keys. The beauty of Irtrad is most of the keys fit well with that tuning. D, G, A, EM, BM... a capo comes in handy.
Check out the group... THE STONE RING on mp3.
They play a few HD songs. One is Cooley's Reel/ The Maple Leaf.
A real challenge for HD players. I should know my friend (who plays HD ) and I ( who played penny whistle) attempted that song on an open stage performance....Smokin' tune
Good luck on your mountain dulcimer. ONe suggestion. You can play more tunes if you insert a 1 and 1/2 fret and a 6 and 1/2 fret on your mountain dulcimer.
Laura
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by hillfolk
Re: Dulcimer query
I can't resist mentioning my old favorite local/Colorado Irish group, Colcannon, which features a very good HD/Mountain Dulcimer player by the name of Doug Berch. They have some CD's out. Check them out!
Dirk
# Posted on January 22nd 2002 by dirk
Re: Dulcimer query
I have a Ukranian version of the hammered dulcimer (and yes, I can play it). 22 courses, six strings each. it's a massive thing. I think the one used for Celtic music is quite a bit simpler. I love it. It's gathering dust in Calgary though, for the moment, as I couldn't fit it into my car when I moved to Toronto. (My guitar, harp, banjo, fiddle, djembe, bodhran, mandolin, pipes, and didgeridoo got greedy with the space in the back seat. )
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Kerri Brown
Re: Dulcimer query
Good to hear from another dulcimer player. I play the hammered dulcimer. Dulcimers are relatively popular in the Washington, DC, area. We have many good teachers, such as Karen Ashbrook, who literally wrote the book on "Playing Hammered Dulcimer in the Irish Tradition."
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Jiml
Re: Dulcimer query
Hammered dulcimer is my primary instrument, and pennywhistle is rapidly joining it. I don't particularly like the HD in session unless I'm doing airs or waltzes. On the driving reels and jigs and such the sound gets far too muddy for my tastes. I'll do a rhythmic backup, and leave the melody line to other instruments.
Dirk, I met Doug years and years ago at the Lone Star State Dulcimer Society bash. Thanks for reviving some pleasant memories!
# Posted on January 25th 2002 by Tyghress
Re: Dulcimer query
I play the Mt. Dulcimer in sessions and have built about 120 over the years. Email me if you have any questions about building one and I will try to help as best I can. Laura was correct about the frets, especially the 6 1/2 and you will need a capo. You can hear some Mt. Dulcimer on my CD "Jefferson and Liberty". Go to www.ItinerantBand.com for more information. Dave
# Posted on January 27th 2002 by McBodhran
Re: Dulcimer query
I play hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer and bodhran and love having the music on
the Session to reference. I play many of the Irish tunes on both dulcimers. I also have
a music score software called TablEdit that is very useful in writing the songs in dulcimer
tab as well as transposing tunes to a more dulcimer user friendly key.
Karen Ashbrook's hammered dulcimer book on playing the HD in the Irish tradition is the
best. I have a long way to go to learn all the songs in the book, but her arrangement of
the Butterfly is wonderful. Our band plays it and we have like an Irish jass sound to it.
Our instruments are the HD, guitar, Irish flute and bohdran.
# Posted on January 27th 2002 by pdillard
Re: Dulcimer query
Hi Susan,
I was just browsing the web on my lunch hour on the lookout for tunes and encountered "The Session" site for the first time.
# Posted on January 28th 2002 by x
Re: Dulcimer query
Oops, my reply got cut off. Susan, if you are near Seattle, you should get in touch with the Northwest Hammered Dulcimer Society. They hold monthly jam sessions and a couple big weekend events every year. Their website is currently down for remodeling. Send an email to NWHDS@topica.com and ask someone to tell you how to join the list. Joining the group ($15/year) gets you a monthly snail-mail newsletter, but you can join just the email list if you prefer. (I'm a relatively new member, but I can't remember how to get signed up.) The NWHDS is not devoted exclusively to Irish music, but Irish music is a major component of the typical HD repertoire. At least one NWHDS member plays in a Celtic band.
Sarah in Alaska
# Posted on January 28th 2002 by x
Re: Dulcimer query
My husband plays his hammered dulcimer at the Saratoga Springs,NY Pan-Celtic jam with no apparent complaints from the other participants. It only rings too much after maybe the Star of Muenster. That depends on the individual instrument.Of course they don't object to my playing the piano,either, so maybe they're a more liberal group than most.
# Posted on January 29th 2002 by vonnieestes
Re: Dulcimer query
I'm halfway making my mountain dulcimer!
# Posted on February 4th 2002 by lars
Re: Dulcimer query
Yet another hammer dulcimer player here. It's a great instrument and works best in slow and moderately paced tunes. The melodies tend to get lost on fast-paced tunes, especially reels.
The instrument enjoys some popularity in the Mid- Atlantic region, if a cult instrument can be termed "popular." Washington, DC, Baltimore and Annapolis all feature at least one music store that sells hammer dulcimers.
Maryland is home to June Apple dulcimers and years ago, home to a great band, Hickory Wind, which featured hammer dulcimer. We all thought they were going to "make it." Alas ...
# Posted on February 5th 2002 by Rayzore
Re: Dulcimer query
A Hammered Dulcimer player from Norn Iron here.
I agree with Rayzone that the H D works best with "slow & moderately paced tunes".
I play an Oakwood & it's very lively but at this year's Causeway Dulcimer Festival I saw a great idea being put into practice which killed two birds with one stone.
A player had been unable to see his strings clearly so had fixed sheets of fabric on top of the soundboard & under the strings. This I tried & it not only made the strings much easier to see, but it reduced the ringyness of my instrument too.
# Posted on August 12th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Dulcimer query
I have an Iranian version of the hammer dulcimer, and would like to get it tuned in the DC area. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
# Posted on May 29th 2008 by hameed