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Dulcimer, part two
Jul. 7th, 2010 07:24 pmAnnouncement: I can now almost - ALMOST - play "Oh, Susanna" on the mountain dulcimer.
(watches as the internet fails to collapse in excitement.)
This achievement did not occur without incident. The dulcimer arrived, as noted, without the kindly little instructional DVD, but, impatient, I headed over to YouTube to find out how to at least tune the thing so I could strum it in an amateurish sort of way. A YouTube video kindly told me how to tune it – the two melody strings matching the third string, and the bass string a fifth below that, which sounded pretty enough when strummed, so, with some difficulty, I tuned it to that and strummed Three Blind Mice and All Seemed Well, until the instructional DVD showed up this morning and coldly told me that no, on the instructional DVD we would NOT, but NOT, be tuning the dulcimer in that nicely traditional way, no matter how kindly and expert the guy on YouTube sounded, but rather in the Mixolydian mode of DD A D.
This did present a problem, since although the melody and bass lines tuned to D, the middle string did not want to hit A. Somewhat above A, sure, somewhat below A, even better, but A, not so much. I finally gave up and just dropped the string an octave, which worked, and tried that for a bit, and then tried to get it to go up the octave, figuring if it had hit one A, it could certainly hit another one and stop arguing with me. Not so much.
Which leads to the one problem with the mountain dulcimer: it doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to tune, although perhaps I am coming to this from the prejudice of a piano, which someone else tunes for you, and a recorder/pennywhistle, which just require some mouthpiece tuning.
Eventually, however, the string hit A, and then I was set to go. Which is when the other incident occurred: the Little One, who had been watching the excitement of A with appalled distance (he is a very musical cat, and did not appreciate all of the missed As, which was understandable), decided that the best way for humans to play the mountain dulcimer is with arms outstretched over the body of a cat.
"This is not in the video," I said, pointing at the video.
The Little One, supremely indifferent to instructional DVDs, merely burrowed himself more closely beneath my arm.
If you have ever seen people playing mountain dulcimer, you will see that the ones using "proper" technique (I am quoting the video) play by strumming from the elbow. This is all well and good for the majority of players, but rather less good when a cat is attempting to rest his head under or over the elbow, and or trying to push his little paws against the dulcimer. "This is NOT THE LAPTOP," I tried to explain loudly, removing the cat, "WHICH YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON EITHER."
(We have developed a semi-typing technique wherein I type around a cat, which more or less does not work that well with laptop typing and will be, I can see, of no use whatsoever with the mountain dulcimer.)
I started up the video to Learn Proper Strumming Techniques. Within seconds, the Little One was back under my arm. I removed the cat and rewound the video and started again. Within seconds, the Little One was back under my arm. This continued, but I think you get the idea.
Eeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnntually, we reached the part of the DVD that focused on playing "Oh Susanna," a song the Little One quite likes and would like to be scratched during, never mind that the mountain dulcimer takes two hands.
Aside from the tuning issues (which may be, as said, me, or may be this particular instrument) I so far quite like the thing. My guess is that I'm eventually going to completely ignore the instructional DVD and head back to the suggestion on YouTube, fingering just the melody and/or bass strings, rather than attempting too much chording, but we'll see how it goes – and what the Little One thinks. However, my fingers are not quite up to playing that much quite yet, so I think that's the end of the musical accomplishments for the day. Plus, I have this furry thing by my side.
(watches as the internet fails to collapse in excitement.)
This achievement did not occur without incident. The dulcimer arrived, as noted, without the kindly little instructional DVD, but, impatient, I headed over to YouTube to find out how to at least tune the thing so I could strum it in an amateurish sort of way. A YouTube video kindly told me how to tune it – the two melody strings matching the third string, and the bass string a fifth below that, which sounded pretty enough when strummed, so, with some difficulty, I tuned it to that and strummed Three Blind Mice and All Seemed Well, until the instructional DVD showed up this morning and coldly told me that no, on the instructional DVD we would NOT, but NOT, be tuning the dulcimer in that nicely traditional way, no matter how kindly and expert the guy on YouTube sounded, but rather in the Mixolydian mode of DD A D.
This did present a problem, since although the melody and bass lines tuned to D, the middle string did not want to hit A. Somewhat above A, sure, somewhat below A, even better, but A, not so much. I finally gave up and just dropped the string an octave, which worked, and tried that for a bit, and then tried to get it to go up the octave, figuring if it had hit one A, it could certainly hit another one and stop arguing with me. Not so much.
Which leads to the one problem with the mountain dulcimer: it doesn't seem to be the easiest thing to tune, although perhaps I am coming to this from the prejudice of a piano, which someone else tunes for you, and a recorder/pennywhistle, which just require some mouthpiece tuning.
Eventually, however, the string hit A, and then I was set to go. Which is when the other incident occurred: the Little One, who had been watching the excitement of A with appalled distance (he is a very musical cat, and did not appreciate all of the missed As, which was understandable), decided that the best way for humans to play the mountain dulcimer is with arms outstretched over the body of a cat.
"This is not in the video," I said, pointing at the video.
The Little One, supremely indifferent to instructional DVDs, merely burrowed himself more closely beneath my arm.
If you have ever seen people playing mountain dulcimer, you will see that the ones using "proper" technique (I am quoting the video) play by strumming from the elbow. This is all well and good for the majority of players, but rather less good when a cat is attempting to rest his head under or over the elbow, and or trying to push his little paws against the dulcimer. "This is NOT THE LAPTOP," I tried to explain loudly, removing the cat, "WHICH YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON EITHER."
(We have developed a semi-typing technique wherein I type around a cat, which more or less does not work that well with laptop typing and will be, I can see, of no use whatsoever with the mountain dulcimer.)
I started up the video to Learn Proper Strumming Techniques. Within seconds, the Little One was back under my arm. I removed the cat and rewound the video and started again. Within seconds, the Little One was back under my arm. This continued, but I think you get the idea.
Eeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnntually, we reached the part of the DVD that focused on playing "Oh Susanna," a song the Little One quite likes and would like to be scratched during, never mind that the mountain dulcimer takes two hands.
Aside from the tuning issues (which may be, as said, me, or may be this particular instrument) I so far quite like the thing. My guess is that I'm eventually going to completely ignore the instructional DVD and head back to the suggestion on YouTube, fingering just the melody and/or bass strings, rather than attempting too much chording, but we'll see how it goes – and what the Little One thinks. However, my fingers are not quite up to playing that much quite yet, so I think that's the end of the musical accomplishments for the day. Plus, I have this furry thing by my side.
