Encounter of the first kind...

[Nikita]

Hi everybody.
I'm a bit curious : how did you guys come by our beloved instrument : by family tradition, interest for instrument played in your region, heard in concert or on record ? or what else ?
When I first tried a hackbrett, it was in St Ursanne in the Jura region (yes, we have a mountain chain called the Jura, as we don't do much islands over here... ), in a small festival, and I broke a hammer (hackbrett hammer are quite thin and break easily if they get under the strings... )... the maker was so mad at me, I had to buy the whole instrument !!!
I had seen hackbrett and cimbalums of course, but never touched one...
Joking of course : I did break that hammer, but I had been trying the thing for more than an hour, and was really loving it, so I bought it
that was in 1984... and next year I'll have a big party : 30 years button box playing, and -slightly in advance - 25 years hackbrett! I'll let you know when, if any of you guys are around sunny switzerland, you'll be of course welcome !
So tell us how you did get to know the beast... Harriet told us how she did it, from the Aristocats (every body... everybody... everybody wants to be a Scat...) to the web...

[Dick Glasgow]

Well Nikita, I, like I suspect a lot of people, am not exactly sure when I first ever saw a Dulcimer & I certainly have absolutely no idea when I first heard one, given that they have been used in many film soundtracks.

However, the first time I can remember seeing & hearing one was on a TV show over here, "Glen to Glen". It featured various traditional musicians playing great music & some archive footage of some being interviewed. On one of those shows, they left a group of young trad guys playing in a pub & cut away to an old Black & White clip of John Rea being interviewed in a Pub. Of course, after the chat he played a tune, the Harvest Home Hornpipe I believe it was, and naturally enough I liked the sound of the Dulcimer.

So the seed was sown & once it germinated, the next time I saw a Hammered Dulcimer was actually, believe it or not, the first time I ever saw one in the flesh & that was when my Oakwood arrived from England!

Now you regularly see folks being advised to try before you buy, so I wonder how many Dulcimer players bought their first Dulcimer without ever having actually seen one in real life & before they even tried to play one?

So anyway, the first time I swung a Hammer was when I got my Oakwood out of it's box. Luckily it was in pretty good tune so I was able to tickle away at nursery rhymes straight away.

Six months later, to make sure I was playing it properly, I went to the 1st Cork Dulcimer Festival, in 2002, & took a beginner's class which reassured me that at least I had the thing the right way round, & was holding the Hammers by the correct end.

...... & I've been hammering away at it, ever since. ;D

Cheers
Dick

[dulcimike]

Well, I first heard one to know it at a street fair near our home in North Carolina. We had an interest in Irish and Scottish music, and I had played music on some instrument or the other since grade school, so when we heard this fellow playing at his booth, we bought one of his CDs. Didn't have the money to buy a dulcimer then - he was a builder, as well - but a year or two later, he had come out wiht a small 10-course model called "The Leprechaun". It had only a treble bridge, and the keys of C, D and G, but it was enough to find out I could play one.

It was about 12 years later when our youngest daughter was going to college that we decided to get me a "real" hammered dulcimer. I did some research on the internet, and my wife had been to the Swannanoa Gathering for Dance week which was during Dulcimer Week, and met some local players and heard some of the top players in the US, so I went to the local dulcimer gathering to see what I thought of the instruments people there had.

About a month after that, we found one with everything I had decided I wanted on it, and with the range I wanted on the way home from taking our daughter to school.

Having been a percussionist (including piano), but also loving to play melodies and harmonies, I found the dulcimer to be a good instrument for doing both while using my percussion skills.

A month after I bought the dulcimer, I went to the Upper Potomac Dulcimer Fest in West Virginia, and took several workshops.

[cooper]

I was a big fan of Dead can Dance and Lisa Gerald played a Yang Chin (sp?). When I moved to Oklahoma the local traditional club (Oklahoma City Traditional Music Association), there was a workshop with about 10 hammered dulcimer players in it. That was the first time I had ever played one (it was 12 years ago).

Months after that I moved to Seattle Washington and rented one from Dusty Strings and that was when I fell in love. The only problem was that I also discovered the celtic harp too. So, I played harp for almost 5 years before taking a break and starting the hammered dulcimer (I now play both). The bad thing was that I wanted to buy local, so I got a Master Works from Wood-n-Strings and I had regretted that latter on (all that time wasted tuning). I have recently corrected that mistake with a Dusty Strings model ;D

I have been lucky to have also played an Iranian Santoor, Hungarian Cymbilem and a Chinese Yang Chin since I have lived here (and they say we do not have culture here).

[gypsy]

Listening to Glenn Morgan play at Renaissance Faire for 20 some odd years. Told him i wanted to be just like him when i grew up, and he was dubious about my beard growing capabilities. He has graciously allowed me to play behind him at Faire for the past couple of years.

[Dick Glasgow]

Well Gypsy, you wouldn't be the first Bearded Lady!



However, you would probably be the first bearded lady Dulcimer player! ;D

Cheers
Dick

[gypsy]

ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, if i could grow a beard like that, i might try LOL! O'course, in the band the guys and i ALL have ponytails, and they have beards. Might be nice if people could tell us apart.....oh yeah, they can. i am the ONLY dulcimer player!