Question Of The Week: Who Inspired You To Play?
And now it's time to add your own two cents to the Folkcraft newsletter.
Somewhere along the way, we picked up a musical instrument with the desire of playing it. But before we picked up that instrument, we heard someone else playing it, fuelling our own desire to play. This week we ask...
Who inspired you to pick up the instruments you play?
It could be a world famous musician. It could be a teacher. It could even be your grandpa in his overalls sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch.
Folkcraft's owner Richard Ash credits his dad for the musical inspiration.
Read more in next week's newsletter.
Nick Young of Folkcraft (right) may not have stuck with music if it wasn't
for a guitar riff from this guy. Read who it is and more in next week's replies.
No wrong answers, folks. And feel free to share any pictures you may have. We'd love to hear your story.
Who inspired you to pick up the instruments you play?
Your Answers
Who inspired you to pick up the instruments you play?
We are absolutely loving the crowd participation to our questions of the week! Thanks to all who have contributed, and to those who will start or continue sharing. Here are your stories...
Name: Cindy B. - Twins at Play
Location: Marshall County, IN and surrounding area
"Piano - my mother and grandmother. I loved watching their hands move so elegantly across the keys and even more, loved the music that poured forth. It's funny though, my mom didn't think I was serious about piano, and I had to teach myself the first year to convince her to let me take lessons. Organ - the organist at St. Simon's church. I heard my first Bach prelude and fugue there and I was absolutely fascinated and transfixed by the wonderful sounds and the vibrations of the pipes. Flute - my band director. I loved the silvery tones that the instrument made. Oboe - my band director. He thought I would enjoy the instrument, and oh, did I!!! (I would love to learn English horn, but that probably is not very practical.) Guitar - my children. I admit, I am a hack on the guitar, but I wanted something for the camping trips that we took that would entertain them during the evening camp fires. Hammered dulcimer - I was hired to play a wedding, along with the bride's cousin who played hammered dulcimer. From the moment I heard it, I was hooked."
Name: Graham W.
Location: Monroe, VA
"My parents gave me my first guitar when I was in 7th grade. I had tried to learn piano, but no luck. But I didn't expect that guitar (Western Auto Silvertone)! As for dulcimers, I was reading about Jean Ritchie while I was in college, and decided to build an hourglass dulcimer kit from Here, Inc., in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1975. I gave it to a friend last Christmas, and next year it will be 40 years old. Now I have a James Jones dulcimer built in Bedford, Virginia, in 1982."
Name: Cheryl F.
Location: Soddy Daisy, TN
"My very good friend, Lori Schultz, from N. ft. Myers, and her club instructor, Vicki. Taught me how to play in 5-10 minutes. Fell in love with the sound of this lovely instrument and as soon as we returned to Tennessee, ordered one."
Name: Dave w
Location: Long island, ny
"Join mitchell"
Name: Docterry
Location: West Chester, Pa.
"At my Third Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1975, I met (and took a lesson from) Bill Spence of Fennigs All Star String Band. I met David Marks a number of years later at the Craft Booth area at the Festival, and he sold my wife Paula the Legend Hammered Dulcimer I still play today in August of 1991. She gave it to me as a Christmas present that December...(She hid it under the bed) The painting shared is Bill Spence and I playing a duet in 2007..at the Philadelphia Folk Festival of course :)"
Name: Jonathan S.
Location: Tulsa, OK
"I've always loved music, since I was a baby even. As a kid, we would take family road trips to places like Branson. That was my first exposure to the dulcimer, something my grandpa had enjoyed longer. About 16 years ago, he found out about a local dulcimer club, and asked me to come along. I didn't know what to expect, alone if I would even enjoy myself. I thought it was an instrument retirees played nothing but Oh, Susannah on their front porch, lol. But I had my cheap little no-name dulcimer on my lap, had my first workshop... and loved it. Years later, enough dulcimers to fill a wall and a trophy shelf later, I love it more than ever. Building a kit my grandparents gave me helped develop a new love of woodworking, and hope to one day become a luthier myself."
Name: Carole B.
Location: Bradenton, FL
"The lovely, beautiful lady named Judy Donnally was the person who was playing her Folkcraft dulcimer on a camping trip. Thanks Judy!"
Name: Mac S.
Location: W. Hartford, CT
"My list can go on and on over the years, so for the now I will list Bing Futch, Neal Hellman, Roy Rogers, Tampa Red, Lightnin Hokins, and the particular instruments themselves whose sound led my exploration."
Name: Denise G-V
Location: Toledo, Ohio
"In the 5th grade, when they offered instrumental music, someone said no one played the harp because it was too hard .. That is when I told my mom I wanted to play the harp! Fun photo attached!"
Name: Jon L
Location: Charlottesville VA
"Keith Young and The Mill Run Dulcimer Band were my inspiration to both play and build."
Name: Shirley M
Location: Waterloo IN
"My mother played the piano and started me at an early age. It is still my foremost musical instrument. But, fortunately, many years ago I went to a Renaissance (?sp) festival near Cleveland OH and purchased a mountain dulcimer and only played in the drone style which I did not like. Then, went to a program on the Best of Kentucky and heard Maureen Sellers play the mountain dulcimer and I was hooked. So, Maureen is responsible for the MD and Linda Brockinton for the finger picking style I prefer."
Name: n/a
Location: n/a
"Big Futch"
"OOps .... Bing Futch ...."
Name: Jerry H
Location: North Hampton, Ohio
"My friend Dave Kludy. I think Dave would call the picture Hammered Dulcimer"
Name: Wayne A
Location: Kingston, ON Canada
"I picked up my first dulcimer as I knew it would be fun to learn on, but who encouraged me to keep playing, keep trying is all the friends I have had the privilege of getting to know, and to love, that I met at the Workshops in Vermont, New York State, Pennsylvania and Connecticut - these folks are special and come close to being family in some ways as well as an inspiration to keep playing and striving to do better."
Name: Dean E.
Location: Seneca, SC
"The late Robert Mize, Blount County, TN. Master builder, southern gentleman, and kind friend. Dean Eades"
Name: Richard Ash (from Folkcraft)
Location: Woodburn, IN
"Who inspired me? That's a tough question to answer. My dad, for sure. But his inspiration was "music", not specifically dulcimer. Other inspirations? My 7th grade band director. My college bassoon professor. Nowadays I'm mostly a dulcimer/uke person. Inspirations for those instruments? For uke, Lil' Rev. For hammered dulcimer, Ruth Smith and Dan Landrum. For mountain dulcimer, Bing Futch, Jerry Rockwell, Phyllis Gaskins, Don Pedi. (These folks may not be my "inspirations", but they're certainly huge influences on the way I play nowadays.) The photo I've provided is me with my dad, playing dulcimer together. As a child, I remember him playing guitar, singing all the time, and enjoying music. Enjoying music is my goal, regardless of the instrument that I'm using. I have the same goal for my students - have fun with the music. Once you have enough skill and technique, the repertoire is easy to add, and the enjoyment only increases."
Name: Carl W.
Location: Demotte, In
"Stopped in to a music store in Shipshewanna, In. and was exposed for the first time to the mountain dulcimer - was impressed with the haunting, mellow, quiet sound of the instrument as played by the storekeeper. Was convinced that this would be the instrument for me - Two weeks later, I purchased one from Gary at Simple Sounds in Shipshewanna. Been enjoying it ever since."
Name: Ken A
Location: Columbia, CA
"I was inspired to play guitar by my family. My father brother and sister all played and I wanted to be just like them. It was Pete Seeger who inspired me to learn 5 string Banjo though I never got the hang of that and eventually gave it up. Carol King was my inspiration for learning the piano though I am not very proficient at it. My newest instrument is the Hammered Dulcimer and it was Rich Mullins who inspired me to learn that instrument."
Name: Nick Young (from Folkcraft)
Location: Fort Wayne, IN
"I've been listening to music since birth, but it took me 13 years of listening to hear a song that made me want to actually play it. 'You Can't Bring Me Down' by Suicidal Tendencies did it for me. I was barely a teenager, growing up in the Catholic school system, trying to figure out who I was... and this song had all the anger and rebellion someone my age needed. And in a time of Tipper Gore, the PMRC, and 'parental advisory' stickers, this album remained hidden from my parents (sorry, mom). The guitar riffs are great from start to finish. It took me about a year on the acoustic guitar, and another couple weeks as I transitioned to electric guitar, to figure out how to play it. Still my favorite song ever written. I was fortunate enough to meet the band's guitar player while Folkcraft was exhibiting at NAMM in Anaheim, CA. I told him that in my early teenage years, while my friends were hiding beer and cigarettes from their parents, I was hiding his music."
Name: William M.
Location: Cullman AL
"Contemporary Christian artist Rich Mullins. I got to sit at his feet (literally!) one night in 1991, before a concert in New Orleans. He was killing time while he waited, and pulled out an Appalachian dulcimer that belonged to a bandmate. After watching him play for about two minutes, I thought, I could do that. Two friends in Birmingham AL owned a shop that sold dulcimers, so I paid them a visit the next weekend. I still own and still play the instrument they sold me."