Henry

[Dick Glasgow]

WELCOME ;D

Hello Henry & welcome to the Dulcimer Player's Forum.

We are all delighted that you are now a member and we look forward to your contributions to the discussions here.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your music & your Dulcimers.

Then, why not hop over to our geography poll & click on your own area: Where are you?

Cheers
'Ptarmigan'

[henry]

I live in the US, state of Alabama. Looking on the map it is in the southeast section. I am self teaching as I do not have a club or players group within reach. My main interest is in Celtic and Irish music. My research interest is Olde World origins and of course music!

I play a mountain dulcimer and I have named her Genny. Short for First Generation, she is my first! Genny is not a big name luthier's joy. But one I can learn and grow with. She sounded dull tuned in DAAA, so Genny is now tuned in DADD. And she sings wonderfully!

My second dulcimer is a relatively new adaptation of the hammered dulcimer. It is a Chime Dulcimer. The set up is in the keys of C, G, D, A. With 26 aluminum pipes suspended on a wood frame. Her name is T-Belle. Short for Tubular bells and and the Southern girl's name "Belle".
T-Belle is my experiment. I want to challenge T-Belle and myself to sound just like a church hand bell chior! When I find the time, I will build her a stand and buy proper mallets!

Enough for now - can not give away all my secrets!

I play in my home office.
I am such a beginner!

Henry

May meadow breezes wave so sweetly,
a lyric upon the glades.
Such a soft refrain.
For it is Your Muse that speaks.
of peace, love, life, and harmony

[Dick Glasgow]

Great to have you with us Henry.

I take it this is a Chime Dulcimer?

Must have the THICKEST strings I've ever seen on a Dulcimer!

Good to have another Mountain Dulcimer player on board.

Oh Dulcimike & Gypsy will, no doubt, be pleased to see another poetry lover stepping through our Cyber Doors!

Cheers
Dick

[ceadach]

Welcome to the forum Henry!!!

I live way up in Minnesota, but seeing as you are without a club, teacher, etc. let us know if you need any help with anything!

Mountain dulcimer...and Tubular Bells....( Say....Are you a Mike Oldman fan???)

I heard a chime dulcimer in California, it's a really cool instrument. The one I saw was set up just like a normal hammer dulcimer but had tubes instead of strings.

See you on the forum,
Chad

[henry]

Chad,

Thanks for the offer to assist. Its nice to know. I'll need it!

Are you in a club, group, have a website?

Yes, T-Belle looks like the one you saw. I haven't really started playing it yet, I am designing a stand for her. Sawdust time!!

The musician you are thinking of is Mike Oldfield from the movie soundtrack Tubular Bells. And oh yeah, I am a fan!

Henry
May the strings of your mind play softly in your heart and soul.

[ceadach]

Hi again Henry,

Sorry it took me a bit to reply, my computer crashed this weekend; luckily I'm married to a techno whiz and she's been resurrecting the hard drive since Saturday morning.

Yep, you are right... for some reason I get actor Gary Oldman and musician Mike Oldfield mixed up....eh, scary. Those were amazing albums that Oldfield did and can't remember if Mike played dulcimer on any of his albums...he played just about everything else.

Well, I am not in a dulcimer club...yet, but am involved in the local gang of nefarious uilleann pipers! ;D We do quite well for such a small group. www.gnipc.org/tionol/tionol2007.html

Some of us H.D. and M.D. players are working towards forming a pan- Twin Cities Dulcimer Club (or support group) and hope to have our first event this spring.

I haven't a website, but have been involved in trad music since the carefree days of my childhood. Now I'm in the groups "Rumgumption" www.rumgumption.com/ and the infamous "Hawthorne Street Ceili Band", teach music and ocassionally build an instrument or two.

This forum is teaming with folks who are top notch musicians and plain nice people. If you have a problem or are looking for resources, it is very likely we can be assist you somehow!

Take care,
Chad

[Dick Glasgow]

Ah Ha! Rumgumption eh? You were keeping that one quiet, weren't you Chad!

Hope you don't mind but I've posted it in the Dulcimer section of Links here.

N.B. Did you know that the Bios Link doesn't work, on that site?
Oh yes, & sorry but your Uilleann Pipers Club Link didn't work for me, either!

Perhaps you need to bung your "techno whiz" wife a few more bob, to go fix those for you? ;D

Oh & just for the record, according to Wikipedia there was no Dulcimer used on Tubular Bells,
(although of course we all know there should have been ........ right?)

Cheers
Dick

Mike Oldfield
Acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, Farfisa, Hammond, and Lowrey organs; flageolet, fuzz guitars, glockenspiel, "honky tonk" piano (piano with detuned strings), mandolin, piano, "Piltdown Man", percussion, Spanish guitar, "double speed guitar", "taped motor drive amplifier organ chord", timpani, violin, vocals and of course, tubular bells.

Other performers
Steve Broughton — percussion
Lindsay L. Cooper — string basses
Mundy Ellis — vocals
Jon Field — flutes
Sally Oldfield — vocals
Vivian Stanshall — Master of Ceremonies
Nasal Choir
Manor Choir (Simon Heyworth, Tom Newman, Mike Oldfield)

Tubular Bells

[ceadach]

<<Perhaps you need to bung your "techno whiz" wife a few more bob, to go fix those for you? >>

Indeed!!!! I'll bring it to her attention!! Actually we may need re-enforcements...we see if we continue to have issues with the machine.

<<Oh & just for the record, according to Wikipedia there was no Dulcimer used on Tubular Bells,
(although of course we all know there should have been ........ right?)>>

Absolutely. The list of instruments Oldfield played on his next two albums grew to include uilleann pipes and concert harp. I wonder what he's up to now.

Don't know why the link to the piping club didn't work. Let's see if this works ou better...

www.gnipc.org/index.html

If this doesn't work, try searching " The Great Northern Irish Pipers Club". We just had a tionol in May and with no less than Eamonn Dillon, Micheal Cooney and Paddy Keenan here all piping away!!!!

Henry, not to assume anything, but our piping site has dots for some of the tunes we use for the starting pipers. These might work really well on M.D., as pipe marches tend to. "Scots, wha hae wi Wallace Bled" is lovely to name but one well know one.

Take care all,
Chad

[Dick Glasgow]

Yes Chad, that linked worked nicely thanks.

Some great photos there, many proving what I always maintain, that Pipers are all mad as hatters & daft as a brush, to a man! ;D

I love the video section too.
Imagine my delight, when I played the first video, only to find that the pipes were in perfect pitch with my 2nd H-D which I'd just lowered to C!

Did I ever tell you about the time I looked after Paddy Keenan's house & dog, taking it for long walks every day, [ the dog that is! ] for one whole week, while he was on tour, way back in the late 70s.

Oh, & just to prove that I do love playing with Pipers, here's a YouTube of me fiddling along to one of this area's finest Pipers: John Hughes

Cheers
Dick

[ceadach]

<<Some great photos there, many proving what I always maintain, that Pipers are all mad as hatters & daft as a brush, to a man!>>

Oh yes,you're quite correct. And we throw devastating parties!!!!

<<I love the video section too.
Imagine my delight, when I played the first video, only to find that the pipes were in perfect pitch with my 2nd H-D which I'd just lowered to C!
Oh, & just to prove that I do love playing with Pipers, here's a YouTube of me fiddling along to one of this area's finest Pipers: John Hughes>>

So, you have a flat set H-D then?? Pipes and Dulcimer sound lovely together.

Brillant clip there Dick! I feel I should know the tune but can't quiet place it. Is it the "Pure Drop"??

<<Did I ever tell you about the time I looked after Paddy Keenan's house & dog, taking it for long walks every day, [ the dog that is! ] for one whole week, while he was on tour, way back in the late 70s.>>

You couldn't well walk the house! I've taken Paddy himself for a couple walks... Great guy he is, helped me get started piping several years back. His teaching style is rather... relaxed, like himself, shall we say.

[henry]

Sorry, Ive been offline for a while. Got busy at the job!

Let's close out the Mike Oldfield chat! I've done some research! First, he is releasing a CD in the UK 12 November. Studio is Universal Studio. Title is Music of the Spheres. Preliminary talk is he is playing classical guitar and grand piano, with orchrestration and chiors. His 30th Anniversity of Tubular Bells was a re-recording of the original with "fixes to the imperfections". I must get this CD!

He also has done a soundtrack for a video game called Meastro. An on-line game or really a virtual world. This too has just been released. However, you pay to play!

Chad, where can I get a good uilleann pipe? I might like to try it!

Til Later!
Henry

If you don't have time to chat, you don't have time to sing.
But we will always have time to play!

[ceadach]

Well done Henry!!!

Excellent to hear Mr. Oldfield is back in circulation and I'll be curious to hear his new stuff. And yes, apparently when he recorded T-Bells he was pusing the limits of multi track recording technology at the time, and several diasters befell the project before it got off the ground.

Pipes huh?...brave man.... ;)I'll send you a PM about them. They are a lot of work but well worth the effort!!!

Chad

[dulcimike]

admin said:

Oh, & just to prove that I do love playing with Pipers, here's a YouTube of me fiddling along to one of this area's finest Pipers: John Hughes

Ah, so, you tuned your fiddle down a half step, did you? Or learned to play in C#?

I love hearing John play the pipes. I don't suppose there are any other videos of him playing are there?

[dulcimike]

Hi, Henry, and welcome.