Scale Lengths, etc.

Comment

Comment by Alan Roberts on March 15, 2011 at 8:01pm

Most stringed instruments have the good sense to have the strings sorted in order of size. I most recent instrument I've made (and am playing) doesn't... it's a ukulele. The strings are GCEA, with the C being the lowest. I have no clue why this is.

Comment by Allan on March 15, 2011 at 2:02pm

Lol  Alan  Now lets keep it simple I built my dulcimer some thirty years ago in St Augustine Fl while I was sailing the Caribbean to keep me company,, I originate from Montana and now live inn the Netherlands (Zuid Holland)  to find that information I look it up every time I need it ,, but I am in love with the mountain way of registering the notes by numbers... now they are numbered according to frets. Try: 034 5 35 543 4 4 024 6 4 454 3 3 034 5 3 543 2 2 024 6 4 454 3 3, 

Now it is in 3/4 time and the spaces are bars  and the numbers tell you which fret.. now let us not get fancy or you will lose this old hick  ,,  You have to remember I am not as old as I once was..

Allan

 

My CBG are in the living room but I still love playing my dulcimer  

Comment by Alan Roberts on March 15, 2011 at 9:57am

Oh yeah. About dulcimers....

I have a book here about building "long necked" dulcimers. These have small bodies and are held like guitars. Bob McNally made these popular with his "Strumstick" <tm> line. But again, as your fretting hand (usually your left) is wrapped around the neck, the tunings are a mirror image of what regular Appalachian dulcimer would use.

Nala 

Comment by Alan Roberts on March 15, 2011 at 9:50am

ROTFL. To reduce confusion, you can call me "Nala" (Alan backwards)

Part of the problem comparing the two instruments is that dulcimers are strung BACKWARDS from how you would string a guitar. Do I have you tearing your hair out yet? If you ask why they are strung that way, look how you play them. A dulcimer usually sits on a table and the melody string needs to be closest to you on the left. A guitar has your left hand wrapped AROUND the neck so the melody string needs to be on the right. I will build a lapsteel guitar soon; I'll let you know how THAT one is strung.

Maybe we can get Allan to add to the confusion by explaining the difference between "Myxolidian" versus "Ionian" tunings.

(Laughs) Don't stress it. This is one of those arcane subjects you don't have to MASTER unless you're curious. There's many a first-class guitar player that's only used an open G (Spanish) tuning. I just got back from Hawai'i and they have their OWN tunings (slack-key).

Just keep on building

Nala

Comment by Allan on March 15, 2011 at 2:53am

LOL  problem with two Al(l)ans the traditional scale for the dulcimer is the DAA with the D being the furthest string from you sitting is D

the 1st string is a double string and is your melody string and the 3rd and 4th are drones. It has been changed since then..  the two neck dulcimers originally were courting  with tuners facing the opposite directions so the couple could sit talking to each other  You played while you talked ,, stop talking and your escorts showed up from around the bush. 

have fun I do

Allan

Comment by Brian Reagor on March 14, 2011 at 5:35pm

my previous explanation of the dulcimer is assumed  to be looking at it from the playing position.....

Comment by Brian Reagor on March 14, 2011 at 5:33pm

Allan, thanks for the further explanation of the diatonic scale. Concerning dulcimers, what i find a little strange is the tuning of the strings on a 4 stringer, I have a book that shows how to make a dulcimer and it says I quote use E strings for the first 3 and a G string for the 4th, it also says the string furthest away from body should be tuned to middle C and that it is a bass string as well, it states to tune the other 3 strings to G. It also says the string closest to the body is the melody string and the rest are harmony strings. So if I understand the book, the closest 3 strings are E strings tuned to G and the 4th string is a G string tuned to middle C and is the bass string also, so...in the playing position it is GGGC but only pluck the nearest G string and the following GGC are harmony or drone strings, I'm somewhat confused.

Comment by Alan Roberts on March 9, 2011 at 8:53am

Diatonic is just  C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C.  When you sing "Doe, a deer, a female deer" you're singing a diatonic scale.

When you get into sharps and flats (the black keys), then you're talking about "Chromatic."

To mess with your head, the Native American Flutes I make are "pentatonic" (C–D–E–G–A–C), It's just missing a few notes.

Even though I played in a high school orchestra for years, we never covered music theory. Until two years ago, I thought "diatonic" was what you drank with gin.

Comment by Brian Reagor on March 9, 2011 at 4:37am

wow! just checked out the stewmac and http://liutaiomottola.com/formulae/fret.htm links and they are awesome, thanks guys, now I have plenty of work to do, feeling good now maybe some of the pics in my mind will be built in reality...I love this site

Comment by Brian Reagor on March 9, 2011 at 4:16am

Thanks Alan, Allan and Mickey...for your help and the links, so like playing mid C to the next octave up C note is a diatonic scale ? white keys only, and I can assume that it applies to sharps and flat notes also ???, Thank you very much now for further research and development...lol

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