[Homestead] a musical question
Clansgian at wmconnect.com
Clansgian at wmconnect.com
Mon Dec 1 10:44:56 EST 2008
> >I kept waiting for James to jump in on this thread, but...maybe later?
> Sandy
Me? I can scarcely play the radio.
Lynda's suggestion of the Appalachian fretted dulcimer (so called to
distinguish it from the hammered dulcimer) is probably the most easily accessible.
The reason the fretted dulcimer is "easy" is because it is diatonic. Some of
the frets are missing from the chronatic scale. This means you cannot play a
note out of the key. Also the accompaniment is accoplished by the drone
strings that are generally not fretted (or 'noted'). You only have to play the
melody line to get a fairly rich sound.
There are thousands of tunes arranged in tablature form available free on the
internet. Which see: http://www.folknotes.com/MDtab.html
There are many variations on the basic scheme of this instrument such as this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&
item=130271911362
This same company also makes the traditional dulcimers.
Of course I put the word "easy" in quotes at the beginning. The fretted
dulcimer is deceptively easy. You can sit down with some tablature music and
play a tune the first time pick up the instrument. But you can dedicate years to
playing it and not touch the surface of the potential vertuosity.
Another instrument to consider is the folk harp, which see at the same above
site. The half steps in the diatonic scale are distinguished by color, that
is, all F's are blue and all C's are red. This means that if you pick up the
instrument for the first time and avoid playing any of the colored strings, no
matter what you play it will sound good whether it's a tune or not. Like the
dulcimer, you can learn to play a tune in five minutes or spend fifty years and
not learn the 100th of it.
James
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