What's New Up In The UP
Good Morning, Y'all & Happy Friday!
This has been a great fall week here at the shop. The leaves have all changed color and fallen to the ground, and it's getting downright chilly outside. The tamarack (larch!) trees are changing color, too:
It's kind of neat, seeing the mix of yellow and green needles on these trees. From a distance, they look like regular pine trees, and the first time I saw the needles changing color in the fall, I was absolutely surprised! I've lived far north before (in the plains of Montana, near the Canadian border), but we didn't have tamarack trees where I lived in Montana. And most of my life was spent in Indiana - no tamaracks where I lived there, either. But here in our part of Northern Michigan? They're everywhere, and they're very, very cool.
Feeling Good In The Woods
I've been plugging away at the dulcimer backlog. Every week I'm finishing off more dulcimer orders - and it's a good feeling.
Here's a six-string dulcimer that made it out the door this week.
We don't do a ton of six-string instruments, but somehow I ended up with three of them in the works at one time. In this setup (definitely the recommended setup) we went with a 1 1/2" wide fretboard, with three pairs of strings. Doubled high D's, doubled middle A's, and for the low string, a high D (same as the melody string) and a low D (standard low D for a dulcimer).
By going "high/low" for the bass string, we introduced a lot of clarity to that bottom string. We've tried doubling the low D string, but it ends up sounding muddy, and there's not much definition to the sound. A high/low "low D" seems to work the best.
The Last Time We Went To Town
When dropping off dulcimers for UPS last week, Aly and I did a little "touristing." Not "fancy high-end" touristing, but "Hey, we're here, so let's get a photo touristing."
Here we are in Escanaba, Michigan (population 12,000).
Escanaba is a 35-minute drive from the workshop. I go to Escanaba two or three times a week to drop off packages for UPS. Why did we take this photo? We're standing in front of what is the tallest residential building in the entire Upper Peninsula. It's 18 stories high, so it's a landmark. Maybe "the" landmark.
The Upper Peninsula also has just one escalator, but it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from home, so I won't be making that trek any time soon. Land here is relatively inexpensive, and building tall buildings doesn't make much sense, economically. I looked it up, just so you wouldn't have to: the second-tallest building in the UP is in Marquette (about an hour's drive north of our workshop). It's a domed stadium on the campus of Northern Michigan University called the Superior Dome. It's 143 feet tall, built of wood, and is designed to support snow up to 60 pounds per square foot (2.9 kPa) and withstand 80-mile-per-hour winds, so it can be used year-round. (Your newsletter editor, a native Michigander herself, looked it up and it's an amazing structure!)
A Few More Fun UP Facts For You
Michigan's Upper Peninsula is about 30% of Michigan's total land area, but the UP only holds about 3% of Michigan's total population.
I'm a statistics nerd. Sorry, I can't help myself...
The UP has about 18 people per square mile of land. The USA has about 95 people per square mile of land. The entire world has about 140 people per square mile of land. And Europe has about 186 people per square mile of land. Manhattan (a part of New York City) has about 73,000 people per square mile.
A Little Musical Math
That's enough statistics - except for this one: Playing the song "Boil Them Cabbage," A-part only, one time through, gives a person 32 strums. Play the A-part twice, then the B-part twice? 128 strums. Play the song four times, so you can toss in a few variations? 512 strums.
Play 10 songs, each the same length as "Boil Them Cabbage?" 5120 strums. It's easy to play 20 songs in a jam, so passing 10,000 strums isn't hard at all.
Go play a song, and don't count the strums. (Unless you're a statistics nerd, of course.)
Thanks for reading, Y'all. Have a great dulcimer-filled weekend!
Richard Ash - luthier-who-is-thrilled-to-be-making-your-dulcimers-so-you-can-count-strums-while-playing
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
This week Mandy shows you how to play in the key of A! You'll learn your 1,4,5 chords in the Key of A and how to play them all in one area of your fretboard. We don't always "have to" use capos to play in other keys. Click on the image below to listen and learn.
We have a slew (that's a fancy luther word for "bunch") of videos for you to watch on our YouTube channel. Click here to see the full list. Be sure to comment on a video, and subscribe to the channel - either action helps us a LOT with YouTube's suggestion algorithms.
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: MICHAEL McCORMICK
Folkcraft: How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
Michael: I've been playing dulcimer for about a year-and-a-half now, after investigating a sweet sound I heard wafting from a practice room in a church basement. The player, John, invited me to join his bimonthly group (Mountain Dulcimer Circle of Southern Illinois). So I bought a Backyard Music cardboard dulcimer online and dove in.
Folkcraft: When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
Michael: I found a 2012 Folkcraft CSH Series instrument on eBay last August, which was in my price range, and is beautiful. Thanks for building it.
Folkcraft: Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
Michael: I generally play to myself at home (a not-ready-for-primetime soloist), and with the very generous, and forgiving, MDCoSI players. I've been to two live workshops...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF MICHAEL'S INTERVIEW AND READ ABOUT OTHER FOLKCRAFT PLAYERS LIKE MICHAEL & YOU
FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS - WE LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!
While we don't have a new player (Boo!) to welcome to our online dulcimer community today, we are still glad to re-feature another multi-instrumentalist, who fell in love with the sound of the mountain dulcimer almost two years ago now. Love how Michael refers to his Folkcraft dulcimer as his go-to noisemaking machine!
There's still plenty of room for more of you, folks! Maybe we could feature you and your Folkcraft dulcimer(s) next week?
Who's Going To Write In Next? Keep The Family Growing?
It really is super-easy to join our online dulcimer community. Just three easy steps:
1) Send an email to: newsletter@folkcraft.com
2) With the answers to the four questions below
3) Attach a photo of yourself with your Folkcraft dulcimer(s)
We look forward to receiving your submission & featuring you in our newsletter real soon!
1. How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
2. When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
3. Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
4. What other hobbies, or interests, do you have besides playing dulcimer?
WE'RE OFFERING A $25 FOLKCRAFT GIFT CARD TO ANYONE WHO ANSWERS THE FOUR EASY QUESTIONS LISTED ABOVE, AND SENDS IN A PHOTO (OF YOU WITH YOUR FOLKCRAFT DULCIMER). IT'S REALLY SO EASY TO DO! WE JUST LOVE HEARING FROM Y'ALL!
About half of your newsletter editor's coworkers - at her day job - dress up for Halloween. She does not, but it's pretty entertaining to see what they come up with each year. We even have a potluck lunch party - which she does participate in - Yum! So, with Halloween being everywhere this week, how about a pair of spooktacular songbooks full of tunes which were chosen for their "hauntingly beautiful melodies." (Just click on either cover to find out more.)
FROM DITTIES TO DIRGES
by Janene Millen & Shawn McCurdy
"From Ditties To Dirges" features ballads, lullabies, sea shanties, laments, and courting songs, chosen for their beautiful and haunting melodies. Most of these centuries-old tunes originated in the British Isles.
All arrangements except one are for solo mountain dulcimer and most are intermediate level. Arrangements include mountain dulcimer tab, standard music notation, and chord names. (101 pages - seven tunes require a 1.5 fret)
Some of the songs included: Dark-Eyed Sailor, Drowned Lovers, If I Were a Blackbird, Mary of the Wild Moor, Mirk, Mirk the Midnight Hour, Ned of the Hill, Skibbereen
Not available in book form
This book is published by Janene Millen and Shawn McCurdy, and is made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
LULLABAYOU
by Karen Keane
Karen Keane's "Lullabayou" features some of the most beautiful, haunting melodies ever created for the mountain dulcimer. Perfect for fingerpickers or flatpickers, these tunes are sure to please! (49 pages)
Song listing: Lullabayou, The Caverns Of Blanchard Springs, After The Storm, Gone Fishin', Lost In Thought, A Pair Of Stars, Fly The Plane
This book is published by Fingers Of Steel®, and is made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
Shop Folkcraft: Mountain Dulcimers, Ready To Ship · Mountain Dulcimers, Finish-To-Order · Design Your Own Mountain Dulcimer