Theory-Dulcimer Range Comparison

Good morning, friends, and welcome to Dulcimer Crossing's Wednesday livestream. I am coming to you from my studio here in in Idaho, and I we talked about jamming last week. And one of the things I wanted to talk about today that relates to that, we were looking at how do we re re re re guitar chords. And it just put me in the mind of remembering that sometimes we don't know where our instruments are comparing to other instruments. And so we're gonna do comparing of several acoustic instruments, and these are the kind that are gonna show up when we are jamming with friends.

And, there may be ones that we already learn, and let's see here. I just wanna make sure this is going so I can respond to your comments or questions. There we go. Okay. So now do this, turn off my sound, and we are, whoops, ready to go.

So what I'm gonna do is start. Let's take you away and you are set for that. So let's start. I had the guitar here before, and so let's pick up from guitar. It's very familiar with with a lot of people.

It may or may not be an instrument that you've played or have tried to play, but this low e is the e that's below the bass clef on a guitar. It shows up on music as the e that's below the treble clef, but that's a convention that was developed years ago that the music on a guitar would look an octave higher than it physically sounds. So this is the e below the bass clef. This is the a that's the lowest space on the bass clef. This is the d that's the middle line on the bass clef.

The g is the top space on the bass clef. The b is the one that sits right above the bass clef and is one note below middle c, and the e is the one that's just above the middle c. So it would be the lowest line on the treble clef, or if you're looking at things from the bass clef, it's gonna be one that's 2 it's the second line above where the c is. That's the physical pitches of what's on a guitar. Now an instrument that's very much like the guitar is the ukulele.

And here is a baritone ukulele, and I have these here together because ukulele has 4 strings. The baritone does not have the my dog have fleas. It doesn't do that, but has the same pitch names as the highest four strings on the guitar. And and high has to do with pitch. It does not have to do with location compared to the floor.

So the baritone ukulele is b, g, e, e. Its music, like the guitar, looks an octave higher than it sounds, but it is on the bass clef except for the highest string. Now maybe you don't play the baritone ukulele, but you know the soprano ukulele. This has 4 strings. This has 4 strings.

That's a lot higher. Right? A lot shorter. That's the reason why. But there's a special relationship between these 2.

So if I put my capo at the 5th fret of my baritone ukulele, this matches that. So the the soprano or the standard ukulele is the same pitches pitch names as the baritone at the 5th fret. The difference is this is called a reentrant tuning where you have a high note first, but the name of the note is still d. Actually, it's not a d because we've got the capo here. So this is, e, a, e, c, gcea.

That's what it is. Gcea g c a. So those relate to each other in the same way, and that's how they compare with the guitar. This one, because we're up where we are, the c that's here is the middle c that you'd find on a piano. Now let me move the ukuleles out of our way.

And let's compare with another instrument that's got a reentrant tuning, which means it's got a string that's high before you get to the low string. Now this is a banjo that's tuned to an open g tuning. It's got 5 strings, 4 here, 1 here. The short one is higher than the others. This is not the only tuning, just like a mountain dulcimer.

It's not the only tuning that we use on on in playing, but this is a g, which is the same if I would fret my my guitar g at the my high e, I mean, at the high the high e string at the 3rd fret, that pitch is the same as the high g on a banjo. And then it goes down and gets a d, which is the same as the d string on a guitar and a g, which is the same as the g string on a guitar and a b, which is the same as the b string on a guitar, which is why we heard this song. And there was a dueling banjos. It was originally a tune called feuding banjos, but the dueling banjo is a banjo and a guitar duet. Ronnie Cox was playing the guitar, for the movie.

And, it they they really work together. They have they're in the same sonic space in terms of pitch, but the timbre of a banjo is different than the timbre of a guitar. So they work well together even though they're in the same place. Some similar to people in a chorus or a choir that you have a flute voice and a reed voice next to each other, a round or a thin voice, and together, they they carve out some sonic space for each other. Now let's move to the dulcimer world.

We've talked about these other instruments. How does the dulcimer compare? And so let me get my this is my standard. But where where oh, I've got this one in a weird tuning because I had a student who was talking to me about that. So this d d a d.

We're used to seeing d a d on table edit music. This looks like it's the d that's at the bottom of the treble clef. That's not where it actually sounds. So let's do a side by side comparison with the guitar. The low d on the mountain dulcimer is the same as the the d string on the guitar.

They're the same pitch. Now the other strings, when we're tuned, d, a, d, don't match any of the other strings on the guitar, but we have the same common string right there. So the d on the mountain dulcimer is in the middle range of the hammered dulcimer I mean, the, the guitar. And that note is oh, we didn't get to that instrument yet. We still have to do that.

We'll come back and do that one. Okay? Hang on. This is mountain dulcimer d a d. This d is just a little bit is one step lower than the high e on the guitar.

So when I put my finger here, we're coming to it. Jay and Jim, hang on there. This e here is the same as the high e string of a guitar. So that's where the range is. Now, of course, in the old days, people would whoo into the hole, and they would they would, tune their base string to wherever that string that pitch was.

Now this one wants to be Really wants to be Wants to be around in the e flat kind of area, but it'll it'll work really fine here. So a standard 158 tuning, I'm calling the steps of the scale 158. 8 being the octave of the one puts us in that range on a standard mountain dulcimer. Now how does that we're gonna come to other mountain dulcimers in a minute, but how do all of these things compare to the hammered dulcimer? Mine has got a big extended range.

This is a dusty strings d 650, which means I have low notes that I have on I haven't played on any instrument yet. But this c on the bass bridge, which needs a little retuning, it sounds like from yesterday, that is middle c. So when we are comparing to other instruments, that's the middle c that we were comparing to. But the d that's on the base, the bottom of the mountain dulcimer is right here. And that's where many hammered dulcimers that's their lowest string is this one right here.

There are some smaller hammered dulcimers that stop at g, which would be the same as the g on the guitar, the, g string on the guitar. It would be the same as the g string that's tuned open on a banjo. It would be the same as the 3rd fret on a mountain dulcimer, the bass string. So the mountain and the hammered dulcimer really shared a lot of the same range. The middle c here would be like the 6th fret on the bass string of the mountain dulcimer.

Now this d that I have down here, if I was to play the notes that the, guitar is actually playing. Down here. I've got an a a d g. Those are the physical pitches on the guitar. So if I have a smaller hammered dulcimer, which ends at a d right here, my guitar has a couple of lower notes.

And when I'm putting things together between the guitar and the hammered, dulcimer, the guitar is gonna gonna be the one who can physically play the pitches that are lower than what I have. On this instrument, I can play the lower pitches. Now I also go up higher that e way up there is so I'd have this e, which is my e string. I've got an octave e. I've got another octave up there.

I'd have to really keep on going high on my guitar strings to match that. Now because this instrument has lower pitches, I can walk down from my d c sharp b a, And then I can go further a. I've got a b flat, f, a g. So a g. And now I've retuned this one to f natural.

A, d. And then a c natural. And a. So if this is the e that's below the bass clef on the guitar over here, and I'm going even lower. That's the line that's below bass clef.

This is the next space below that one. This is the next line below that one. This is the next space below that one. And this is the a on a piano that would be called a 2. Each one of the octaves, according to the piano, is how we determine where things are because the first note on the lowest part of a typical piano is an a one.

The Bose and Dorfert pianos, which have a reverse set of keys, has another octave below that. But we're not gonna we're not gonna worry about that right now. We're going to just talk about a 2, which means the next day that shows up is an a one and a 3. Let's see. We got a a 2, a 1, a.

A 2, a 3, a 4, which is why c middle c is called c 4 because a is wherever all the numbering starts on the piano. So c4, c5, c6, that's a way to compare. So this instrument has a very broad range, which is one of the reasons it works very well with a fiddle. And now we're gonna come to the instrument that is tuned exactly the same as a fiddle, a mandolin, open 5th tune. And my lowest g here, g d a e, is tuned exactly the same as the fiddle.

The difference here is that I've got doubled strings in 2 string courses. So this g, how does it compare to the other instruments? It's the same pitch as the g string on the guitar. And then the a or the d that's above that is like playing the 3rd fret on the b string of a guitar. The a is the a above that, and this e is an octave higher than the e string on the guitar.

So it gets stretched out. Let's let's do this. Where's my a there? It is. So the range compared to the guitar is what puts this one above that and gives it the the space above that much more sopranoy.

And that's part of why the bluegrass ensembles work because everybody's carving out their own space. Oh, comparing to the double bass, the the the notes on the guitar, the double bass is playing notes an octave lower than that. Its notes are the same as the bottom four strings on a guitar, but an octave lower. So that puts those instruments together, but the question was raised, what about a baritone? And, Doug Doug, you're saying your hammered Alzheimer's at 1211.

Is your your lowest note is a g. Correct? Oh, that's very interesting. I didn't know that about bells that they would use a different, terminology. Yeah.

Same same sounding kind of thing. Right? Here's a question that was asked earlier. How does a standard mountain dulcimer compare to a baritone mountain dulcimer? And, this is where the ensemble question shows up.

For a long time, standards standards are just what they are. And people would tune them to play as they wanted to. But now let me put these guys next to each other. We have a whole course on Dulcimer Crossing, which does this comparison. Aaron May Lewis and I talk about that.

And there is a baritone lab here on Facebook that the DJ Humores hosts where there's a lot of talk about this too. The typical tuning, the way these are usually built, I've got mine tuned to g right now. That's not typically what they are. They're typically a, so let me I have a student who plays hers in g. So the the a string on the the aea, the 158 tuning, is the same same pitch as the middle string of a standard instrument.

The e here is the same as e on the bass string at the 1st fret and then the a that's the lowest string on us. Baritone is an octave below this And this is gonna get to where Jim is asking about, viola and and those instruments. So hang on. Because if I put my bass next to my baritone, Now I've got 4 strings on my base, so I tune it in an unusual tuning. But my a that's on the on the lowest on my baritone is the what would be the equivalent of the middle a on my bass.

And my bass d so this is a d a d. I've tuned it d ac natural d so I can get some extra notes on this one string. But d a d, this is an octave lower than my standard, but it it's like if I built a standard, a baritone, and a bass altogether, I could have all the strings on there. And that's what, Richard Ash at Fulcrath has done with the Max Dad. It's put it's like putting 2 of these together, and if you play the middle, it's you're similar.

So let me do the octaves. So now this has a note that's lower than my guitar because if I wanna make my low e of the guitar match, I play my first fret on the mountain the bass mountain dulcimer. That's the e. But if I lower it to the open d, it's like retuning my guitar to drop d tune. So oops.

We can put you over here. There's a stand for you. We also have some base lessons on on Dulcimer Crossing as well with Elaine Conger teaching that. Let's do let's answer this question. In the string orchestra, this is a the violin and fiddle, same instrument.

Some people say the same hardware, different software. If you're playing a violin, you're playing the same pitches as this. If you play a viola, your highest string is the same a as a violin, and you've got a d and a g, and then you've got a c below that. And that's the 4 strings of viola. If you play a cello, you have the same strings as a viola, but an octave lower.

And if you play the double bass, it's the same pitches as the electric bass, which is an octave lower than what's on the guitar. So you've got this whole, spectrum of sounds. Now if there are people who build what's called a mandola, which is like a mandolin for double string courses, but it's tuned like a viola. So you'd have the mandolin that's like the violin. You've got the viola and the mandola.

And then there are people who build mandocellos, which also have doubled strings, but they're all the same pitches as what a cello would be. And there's bass mandolins as well. And in the twenties, there were, there were banjo and mandolin orchestras that were very popular. People like to play music together. We're in this period of time, and people like to play golf course together.

A 5 string fiddle. Yes. There are a lot of there are there are people who build guitars with 7 strings so they can get a low b. Dan Creery is a marvelous flatpicker. And I remember being at Winfield listening to him play.

He said, I just got this new guitar, and he starts going, and I popped up. I was laying back on my my back just enjoying the sounds, and I popped up. And he said, yeah. You're right, folks. This one's got a low b.

And recorders are pitched. Yeah. I like the the joke in there about how they're pitched. Soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and then there's the sopranino, which is an or a 5th higher than soprano. Now I told you I won that, baritone at the Walnut Valley Festival.

It was the first instrument I won, and I didn't quite know how to play it with other people. I knew how it played by itself. But then this is another one I won at that festival, the ginger. This is a smaller fret length compared to the other ones. This these both come from Xpadden.

But this one is pitched because it's a smaller body, and it's voiced so it would play good in f or in g. And when it first came to me, it was in GDG tuning, and I struggled playing with other people the same way I struggle with the baritone. And what I that's what led me to creating instrumental arrangements where people could play different tunings together and play beautiful music, and that's what morphed into becoming the dulcimer orchestra library. And, let me go grab that for a minute. I can give you that link.

There we have, over 30 titles in this at, Almaat Music, which is my website. But that's information about that. I've conducted the Colorado Dulcimer Orchestra and the Berkeley Dolcemar Orchestra, which is currently on hiatus. But the reason I wanna mention the Berkeley Dulcimer, gathering, which is coming up in just a couple of weeks, is registration closes tomorrow. There's still some seats available.

In fact, all the classes are going. They all have students in them, but there is room for you. And, if you have some conflicts, talk to Deborah Hamoras if you are if if there's a particular thing you're interested in. But I wanna call attention to something, that's happening on Sunday, and that is the first ever. We haven't done this before.

And let's share the Berkeley dulcimer gathering. Yep. So if I click here to the schedule, you can see here's the schedule. On Sunday, there's a special thing happening called an arranger roundtable. We are gathering some people who arrange dulci-bro instrument multipart arrangements for multiple instruments often played by dulcimers, both mountain and hammer dulcimers.

And this is a conversation that gathers Ashley Ernst from Dulcimer Players News is gonna host that. But there hasn't been one of these before, and this is gonna be 12:45 to 2 PM Pacific time. If you are if you've registered for the festival or you purchase concert tickets, you have you you gain access to that arranger's roundtable. It takes place on Zoom. So, arranger's roundtable, Sunday, 12:45, 2 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

Sunday, 55 5:15. And, that's that's taking place there. You're afraid you're gonna get lost in the shuffle? Take the cards you get at the beginning and don't don't, turn any in. Maybe that's the the secret for that.

What we're gonna do is let is people are gonna be sharing let's see. We're gonna I don't wanna do that. I want to here's what I gotta do. Yep. Is we're going to have different people talk about what they do as they're arranging.

What is their approach? And Tull Glaser will be there. Kirk and Judy House from the First National Dulcimer Orchestra will be there. Patty Emelott from Southern California who arranges a lot of Celtic music, sometimes for 2 hammered dulcimers that are very rich and exciting because she and Brenda, Hunter both play marvelous arrangements together, and I'll be one of the people there. So we'll talk about what are our strategies for arranging and how we do that.

It's exciting to me that there are so many more people arranging dulci-bro arrangements. The the First National Dulcimer Orchestra has been able to find arrangements to play from a bunch of people, and they do that every Tuesday night. So that's one of those things to pay attention to. They've been doing it for over a year, and I'm gonna put you can find on Facebook. And so that's an exciting thing that's happened in, that's one of the things that happened in the pandemic.

Berkeley the Berkeley Dulcimer gathering in its concerts is gonna feature performance past performances, archive performances of the Berkeley Dulcimer Orchestra from when we could play in person. Okay, Doug. You're saying there's only one that has a part specifically written for baritone. Okay. Well, there's more coming.

And I know that, that Deborah Hemoris is writing more, and I understand that, yes, you told me you're playing in the playing an ensemble with them, which is very exciting. So there's more coming. You get to be part of the development of that. But what I wanted to do, my goal in this this, focus today is to compare the instrumental ranges so we can have a better understanding of where our voice fits in ensembles, and maybe that can open up some possibilities. It can answer some questions.

It can excite curiosity. And as always, if you have further questions, please contact me. And, here, you can do it by leaving a message here. You can write to me steve@allmountmusic.com, and I'll do my best to come up with responses for your questions. At Dulcimer Crossing, I just wanna show you let's see.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

The Quarantine Notes from our festival website or registrations open this weekend. I'm gonna log out so that you can see this. We've been I've been doing some some updating of the Dulcimer Crossing home page. So now we have a little bit different menu at the top. We have our history.

We have our offerings. This all looks very familiar, the same as it's been. But if you look at our offerings, it's where you can find our membership, the a la carte courses, sample lessons. You can click we've got a whole course of sample lessons from all the different skill levels on all the instruments we teach. So if you're just trying to see if this is something you wanna do, you can take a look there.

You have access to see who our teachers are, our blog, and with all of our posts. You can sign up for a newsletter. If you go to the member site and you're not logged in yet, it's gonna ask you to log in. If you aren't a member, then you become a member, and that's how you get your your access. And I gotta re that's got something old cached That's not displaying correctly.

But the, form is showing up on this page, and our upcoming events are showing up here. Actually, one of the things we're doing is we're inviting people members to come and tell us a story about how you got started with your dulcimer. How did you get started? We're we're fascinated by that. And if we were at a festival, we would all be having that conversation around lunch.

So that's what we're inviting you to do is use our festival tent forum as a way of talking with your neighbors. So it's time for me to head out, but thank you again for being here today. I believe let me go look at the calendar just to be sure. Is it next week? Uh-huh.

In 2 weeks, Aaron May is gonna be joining me. We're gonna talk about some improvisational soloing, but next week, it'll be me again. So I'm gonna say goodbye now. This will be archived on our YouTube channel on our Facebook page, as well as in the live events section of dolsonercrossing.com. Bye.

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