Folk School on TV

Here's a video clip that ran on our local St. Louis news station about the Folk School where I teach. Enjoy!

Go Here!

Surfing around the interwebs, I recently found a terrific blog that anyone reading this might be interested in. It's Lisa Johnson's Appalachian Dulcimer Noter and Drone Blog. Lisa (aka: Strumelia Harmonia) is a great player in the old-time traditional noter style of dulcimer and has given a lot of thought to what she does with the instrument and why she does it. While all of the posts on the blog are good, a few of the most interesting are:

A Race to the Finish, Part One

A Race to the Finish, Part Two

and some much needed commentary on

Jamming Etiquette, Part One

and

Jamming Etiquette, Part Two

Go read these posts. Then browse the rest of what Lisa has put up there. It's all fun, thoughtful, and worth looking at whether you play dulcimer, fiddle, banjo or don't play at all, but are just interested in music and creativity.

A Dream Returned

During a lesson I was teaching a few months ago, I noticed that the tuner for the high string on my main dulcimer was slipping. By the end of the lesson, it was completely gone and wouldn't stay in tune at all.

Modern Mountain Dulcimer Dream Model
Walnut w/Spruce bottom and Ebony fretboard

I was bummed.

This was my main player. Sure, I've got other lap dulcimers. And I like them fine, to varying degrees. But this is the one I love playing the best. It's got a beautiful, tight, woody sound; the action is perfect for me; it just feels good under my hands. It's a Dream model made by David McKinney of Modern Mountain Dulcimers like the one pictured above. According to David, he had a dream about making dulcimers upside down, with the holes in the bottom and he just did it. He made this one a few years ago and it's just gotten better and better over time. I love it and am so glad that this one found its way to me. (Another story entirely, but a good one.)

After the lesson, I got home, put the instrument away and then got busy. So busy that for the last couple of months, I haven't had time (or made time) to get the dulcimer to Andy Gribble to get it repaired. I think about it every time I pick up a dulcimer to play or teach a lesson, but life and work and meetings all have gotten in the way.

Well, finally, last week, I made the time. Took it over to Andy and explained the problem. We looked in catalogs for replacement tuners, talked about what needed to be done and agreed it would take a couple of weeks for him to get the repairs done.

Andy called me night before last to let me know he'd gotten it done. It turned out that there was a set screw on the end of the tuner that had gotten loose and just needed to be tightened up. Had it been a banjo, that's the first thing I would have done: tightened that screw. Somehow, because it was a dulcimer, I didn't even think of it. Dopey me.

I picked that big ole, upside down dulcimer up from Andy last night, sat it on my lap and played it for a long time. I'm sure I had a big grin on my face. It sounded so good! At first I thought it was new strings, but no, it wasn't. Just the feel and sound of getting reacquainted with an old friend. It reminded me how much I really do like that instrument.

I guess it is true what they say about abscence making the heart grow fonder.

Not A Bad Afternoon At All

As some of you probably know, I teach mountain dulcimer lessons at The Folk School of St. Louis. Sometimes teaching can be just awful. Students don’t show up; you don’t get paid on time; students don’t practice or their minds are elsewhere during the lesson and sitting there listening to them fumble through a tune is just painful.

Then there are days like yesterday, when I had three students who were so much fun I didn’t want the lessons to end.

My first student of the day came back to lessons after about a month off full of energy and wanting to learn. It was great. Then my second student of the day was even better. She’s been struggling since she started coming in a few months ago. But something seems to have happened recently and she’s now really “getting it”. She’s picking up the tunes faster and seems to have a much more responsive attitude to learning how to play.

Last student of the day was a new one. And what fun! She really seemed happy to be there and we both laughed a lot and had a real good time. I think she’s going to be a good one.

After my regular lessons, I got some time before packing up to sit with a student who’s taking one of the school’s ensemble classes and go over a tune (“Possum On A Rail”) she’s learning on the fiddle with her. Jill’s fairly new to fiddling and was feeling a little unsure of her playing on the tune. I was able to sit and play it for her a couple of times so she could hear that she is remembering/playing it correctly and that it’s not really a hard tune at all. She beamed when she realized that she can play it for the class.

Quite a day. Three good teaching experiences in one afternoon. It makes the more difficult ones all worth doing.