This channel is -- shockingly -- about stick dulcimers (aka dulcimer guitars) and pretty much only that...
My mission is two-fold: 1. Let the world know stick dulcimer guitars exist because anyone can play them and everyone wants to play music. 2. Teach you how to get the most out of playing a stick dulcimer. Chords, songs, picking, practicing, all of it.
If you know what they are, then chances are you have one, but if you're just starting to learn about stick dulcimers, then this channel is just as much for you.
You can play a musical instrument, I know you can. Sure, maybe you tried (or your parents forced you to play) piano as a kid, or you attempted to learn guitar in college, but "nothing seems to work." Or you've gotten used to saying "Well, I don't have a musical bone in my body."
To you, I say "NO! You really CAN play a musical instrument!" I'm here to show you how and I want you to add the joy of music to your daily life.
I’m late and you might not want this suggestion but I’ll persevere. I need ‘event occasion music. Something to play at a somber occasion (end of life, funeral, ex. Water is Wide). A joyous occasion, wedding, birth, engagement ex. Bach. Night with friends over relaxed, easy going ex. Here’s where we place Bill Withers. You get the idea, occasion music. ❤️ thank you.
I'm a little late to this video, so you've already done Ain't No Sunshine. My next pick is Sweet Caroline. Not my fave Diamond song, but I'm not familiar with your other options. So, Neil it is. Or how about Memphis Streets by him? Very underrated song!
Jimmy hendrix Starts voodoo chile by choking the notes. I love creme eggs. I seriously thought you said, at the start was anus sunshine. Go to bed, your drunk. 😂. Said your dulcimer.
A creme egg lover!! I would not want that type of sunshine. See previous comment... Should I not drink on the channel? It's a hot/cold thing for folks and I was a bit undecided on it, tbh.
Hiya. Great vid. I think what you are referring to as dead string playing, i know it as choking the notes. Great song. I hope you didnt get a hangover.
No, no hangovers. I don't drink that much ever. I just like a nice cocktail 1-2x/wk, and kinda got in the habit of having something while working on instrument things. Like a treat. If I seem tipsy it's more that I sleep about 5hrs/night to keep up with this endeavor and have young kids (who often interrupt those 5 hours).
Also, I don't like the sound of "dead" or "choke".... why are we so violent with the poor things, they're just notes!! Maybe "muted string"? LOL, poor notes.
Up next on the list... I gotta learn it better than I currently do, but I made the sticky note for it (how I catalog the chords), and it's pretty straightforward, I think. I may have to ignore the intro bit tho.
Bill Withers would be nice. Also, Check out Seals and Crofts… maybe Summer Breeze, more. Also Loggins and Messina will surely have some great options 🎶😊
Some of the classic rock stuff sounds like it'd be staightforward and then I get to it and I say "oh, they were doing chords that are neat (i.e., not modern pop), so I gotta finagle that one" ... or, sometimes leave it for another day cause it's a weird one or something. But, Floyd. Noted. Thank you!
I will agree heartily. It came out way better than I’d expected. The ziricote really pops with the binding too, and the amber finish is a pretty nice match up
Your videos have convinced me to risk the waters and get one of these instruments. I have only vocal training, but always wanted to branch out. After getting covid, then long covid, my vocal control and breath duration have suffered. My first solution was to make and learn a lyre, which has worked above expectations since I live in a rural, remote area without instructors or even someone to jam with. I've been lured by the famous simplicity of these strumstick variants on other channels, but worried about the instructional support...and then found you. Thank you for what you're doing. I know that you put time and care into these free videos. Your not making money, you are spreading music. That is such a beautiful thing to do.
Thanks for the kind words Robert (assumption from user name)…. I do hope to make enough money on these things one day to support it more than it does, but for now it’s certainly about helping people… if you’ve taken a shine to anything new and musical you wouldn’t otherwise have done/tried / succeeded at, and I helped bridge a gap in some way, then you have closed my week on a good note. Posting RU-vid videos is a lot of work and you never really know if people find them helpful or not unless they speak up… so, thank you. 😊
Technically yes, but kinda no…. realistically you need to change the strings to keep from killing your hands with tension. But then when you change strings it typically makes it sound more out of tune (which is already a challenge on Merlin’s). So then you will want to buy a different bridge saddle. I sometimes have those available in the store.
I typically tell people to follow the above path (restring, determine preference, buy a bridge if you like), so they’re not buying stuff they won’t want. Or buy another instrument, bc you may want to switch back n forth! 🥳🤘🏽
When I do, it will be. Current experiments are around string gauges, bracing, woods, and making a test chromatic dulcimer version, which I was surprised to hear multiple session guys here say they’d want to have.
I like your easy going style of showing what the possibilties of the beautiful instruments are. This guitar is not a Seagull Merlin. What is it? Thanks musical friend🙏
Aww, I appreciate that, I see no reason to be too serious about an instrument meant for enjoyment (well, aren’t they all?)! This is my own design, launching for public sale in September’24… would love to have you on the list just to know about them / spread the word. Seagull is nice enough, but I got frustrated with the tuning and range issues. These are intentionally more like guitars in a variety of ways 😎
Oh, I sure appreciate that! Posting videos regularly feels like screaming into a void, hard to know if it’s helpful and all that. Do let me know if you have questions or suggestions!
It’s my own design! 2 models, one based on a mountain dulcimer, the other (same shape) fretted and strung like the top 3 of a guitar. Yes, there are 4 strings, the high string is doubled… lovely chorus effect 😎 Learn more here: heyinglewood.com/pages/join-the-preorder-waitlist
@@HeyInglewood So is it tuned like a dulcimer? and do you play it like a dulcimer or like a guitar, I don't know that much about dulcimers. I do play banjo though.
There’s two types, the guitar version and the dulcimer version. Guitar is top 3 strings, GBE, all the frets. Dulcimer is DAD, and fretted in a single key. But played in the same manner as a guitar / mandolin… Very different sound and creative headspace tho.
These are great for a beginner, lots of “quick wins” when starting out, many ways to sound good and play songs with less initial practice than guitar. But also different enough that they keep experienced guitarists engaged, curious, and creative!
I do try to be me, and it’s nice to find folks who appreciate the quirkiness I’ll never successfully hide 😂 Slow it down!! That’s the only way to get it to work!
sounds like me. i don't know a damn thing about what i'm doing but i have fun doing it. i know nothing about music but i have messed with my m-4 so much i find myself picking tunes by ear now i never thought i would be able to do that. its almost like my fingers know where to go on their own. i love my merlin no doubt. thank you paul for guiding along the way.
Whats PB. Pete townsend invented the word Noodling. 😊. I noodle irish songs, and sort of blues songs, bending the A string on the DAD dulcimer. You are quicker than me. Can you play any Who songs.
I’m sure there’s some that could be played, but def not Pinball Wizard… that one requires guitar, it’s got so many out of key chords. I don’t think there’s a single minor one in the whole song. Watched a nerdy theory video about it over on the 12 Tone channel, you should check it out
@@HeyInglewood Thank you for replying. Thats when the guitar, wins out over the dulcimer. Oh well. I will check out the 12 tone channel. Have a good day.
@@HeyInglewood i play about 15 hours a week. I have had my dulcimer about 6 months. Should i change the strings. I replaced the strings when i got it in december.
Yup!! Super awkward usually. Balance of body and neck weight is tricky for all such sized instruments, but the body size definitely gives more to cling to 🤘🏽👍🏽
This is a really nice build. I picked up a Seagull Merlin a few years back and have loved it. It’s a “similar” in that it’s half of a dulcimer in shape and handling of a guitar. Though mine is nicer than my cheapest ukulele (super thin back), it is nowhere near the construction quality of my nicest uke or cheaper Johnson mandolin. The design and composition shown in this video looks like the type of instrument I would love to show off while playing. Such a beautiful piece! 🥰🎸
Thanks so so very much, it means a lot when someone with this level of instrument experience has kind words. And these are the prototypes. Multiple intonation and playability improvements on the production models in the shop right now!!! 🥳
Feeling really good, too. This is the prototype (which I was thinking was the pinnacle as it exceeded my expectations), but the production model (2-3 weeks away?) is going to be so much better!!! 🥳🚀
Great vid! If I had any exceptions they would be, number one, only that what you call the “top” is also called the “table”-in fact, the soundboard -and, number two, the so-called “sound hole” is more properly the vent-hole which could be placed virtually anywhere on the sound-box, even through the sides or the back, to do what it has to do: prevent damping the table’s vibration. Yes, a vent-hole makes the instrument sound better, but only because having a vent-hole prevents cushioning, or damping, the vibration, as it would if the sound-box was an enclosed volume of air like an inner tube or ballon. The effect one hears when speaking into a vent-hole of, say, a guitar, the hole placed traditionally in the geometric centre of the table, is actually negative sound: the egress has allowed your voice to enter the sound box and echo it from the inside instead of the instrument’s sound which comes from the outside the way plucked strings do. The real medium transmitting the string’s vibration to the table, or soundboard, is the bridge over which the sting is tensioned. The so-called “sound-hole” is not the source or even the middleman of sound. It is not located (traditionally) in the centre if the table to project the sound of the strings-the top, or table, does 99% of that; there’s no other reason for its front-and-centre location than to achieve the most efficient structure of the instrument which works against the tension of the strings-and, coincidentally, to look nice and symmetrical aesthetically. (I know luthiers who make their instrument’s vent-hole a distinctive shape, and locate it somewhere off-centre in their own, distinctive ways. I suppose one wouldn’t locate it where some part of the player’s body would block the venting…) With respect the relatively small area or this kind of stick-dulcimer, the little triangle, I should think the vent-hole through the table should be as small as possible (I bet you could get away with an even smaller one than the one you display if you were to calculate the amount of air that has to woof in and out of the sound box to allow maximum, non-damped, vibration of the table, which is a function of the table’s area and the sound box’s volume) and therefore be placed on the back or side (or sides-like violin f-holes, there can be more than one vent-hole) in order to maximize the limited area of this table’s vibration, the source of projected sound and timbre that the auditor hears. Best thing, in addition to your spoken lesson, is holding the instrument up close enough to the camera so we can see how it is made, its dimensions in human scale, its different woods, &c. Just seeing that, even without sound, I can almost hear the timbre of the instrument’s material composition. Thnx so much!
Yes, doubled top register string(s), in this case the ones closer to the ground / farthest from me, versus being closest to me if it were a traditional lap dulcimer.
I had not intended to do so, no. I would encourage folks who want to take a crack at instrument making in the dulcimer style to pick up Ressler’s book on how to build a pickin’ stick (aka strumstick)
Sounds great! I wish I could noodle around like that. I sound so, how should I put it, careful and exacting. It's how I sound at the piano, too. And ukulele, not that I can even play that very well yet. I guess I don't discriminate amongst my instruments, LOL.
Ahhh, then what you need (ahem, sales hat) is a river dulcimer, an instrument that has no rules, and expects nothing from you… exacting or otherwise 😉 Very forgiving. Easy to sound great. Noodling made easy 🥳
@@HeyInglewood - Well, a few months ago, before I found your channel, I bought a McNally Strumstick. I have yet to really sit down to try to learn it. Hoping I'll get there soon, though.
That is amazing. If you feel comfortable doing so, please send me some pics! (hey@heyinglewood.com) I'm told there's a little museum up there in KY to him. I want to go. :)
