Musician and Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer Maker
I go back into the studio in a week or so to record more tracks for the album I’m working on.
I have a question. Do you prefer purchasing music on CD or by downloading? Let me know!
My plan is to make the album and each individual track available as a very high quality MP3. [...]
Posted in Music on Dec 18th, 2007
Athanasius Kircher wrote Musurgia Universalis in 1650. It presents his knowledge of instruments, acoustics and music theory.
There is a reproduction of the manuscript available on line in two volumes:
Musurgia Universalis Volume 1
Musurgia Universalis Volume 2
Posted in Hammered Dulcimer on Dec 11th, 2007
Musicians spend a lot of time with their bodies in postures specific to playing their instrument. This can cause a number of physical problems such as stiffness, fatigue, cramping and chronic pain.
If a musician has a physical condition that exhibits similar symptoms the side effects of playing an instrument can exacerbate the symptoms making it [...]
Posted in Quotes on Dec 6th, 2007
“When I look inside and see that I’m nothing, that’s wisdom. When I look outside and see that I’m everything, that’s love. And between these two, my life turns.”
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
I have received more inquiries about my shop made thickness sander than I have for any other post! Go figure!
Though a thickness sander saves time I must admit that I love thicknessing thin stock the old fashioned way. I use a toothing plane, a number of bench planes and a scraper. It works well, it [...]
Posted in Quotes on Nov 29th, 2007
“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”
“An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an original is motivated by necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.”
“I have been [...]
Posted in Dulcimer on Nov 25th, 2007
I find Google’s patent search to be a good resource for inspiration and research.
While searching for things dulcimer I came across this very interesting patent.
Aside from the foot pedal mechanism what interests me most about this design is the dulcimer itself. The wide hourglass shape, the modified scroll and the use of f-holes [...]
I just got home from an afternoon in the studio. I will soon have some sound bites of what I’m up to on these pages.
The process of recording always leaves me with mixed feelings; on one hand I find it creatively inspiring, on the other hand I am sometimes uncomfortable with the thought of freezing [...]
Posted in Hammered Dulcimer on Nov 20th, 2007
When I first began playing hammered dulcimer around 1975 the most common instruments had 12 courses over the treble or center bridge and 11 courses over the bass or left bridge. Hammered dulcimers are often described by the number of courses over the various bridges. The dulcimer described previously would be referred to as a [...]
I have read that scrapers may be one of the earliest tools used by early humans. Though scrapers are very simple tools they are still in use today.
The basic cabinet scraper is a rectangle of steel hard enough to hold an edge but soft enough to be easily sharpened. Most scrapers are made of [...]