2026, Family, Music, Uncategorized

Pulling Strings

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Many years ago Husband’s dad and stepmother gave him a mountain dulcimer. You can see it in the header photo. He played it on rare occasions, but it mainly sat in its case. He spent more time on his cello and guitar.

Since retiring, Husband has been playing all his string instruments more often. In addition to getting the dogs groomed in Sioux Falls on Tuesday we also picked up the dulcimer, which had been restrung. We would have taken it to my cousin in St Peter who is a luthier, but he is retired now.

I think the first song on a dulcimer I remember hearing was one by Joni Mitchell. I love this song.

Husband ‘s dulcimer never sounded like Joni’s when he tried to play it, I think because he didn’t know how to tune it or maybe the strings just weren’t installed properly. The mountain dulcimer is an odd instrument. I know it is used quite a bit in traditional Appalachian music, and is descended from the zither. I am so glad he got it restrung, since the luthier tuned it properly for the first time. As I strum it I can tell it sounds right.

I am getting closer and closer to sitting down at our piano and practicing things on my own as well as the accompaniments for some of Husband’s cello pieces. I can’t let him be the only instrumentalist in the family. There are some simple Bartok pieces I have my eye on. What else is retirement for if not to play music!

What musical instrument would you want to learn now? What instruments did you play as a kid? Favorite Joni Mitchell songs or other dulcimer songs?

26 thoughts on “Pulling Strings”

  1. Maybe percussion/timpani? Or Autoharp.
    I already play piano but need to practice more. Just got some piano solo music by Florence Price which is fun (& lovely) to explore. The more I play the better it goes. before I moved to present senior living apt, I did get rid of old exercise books (ie Hanon etc) that had been around forever. Now for emotional succor and fun, I play what I like ie Grieg, Brahms, some Chopin, Beethoven, Joplin, Gershwin, and Broadway.

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  2. I can re-string your instruments for you. I re-string my own guitars and mandolins. I have a mountain dulcimer too. I’ve never re-strung it, but it can’t be much different from a guitar.

    I’ve been playing quite a lot of music lately and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve mentioned the Eclectic Strummers from FiftyNorth and our inappropriately grumpy leader – well, another smaller group spun off that one, and I was included. We threw a few songs together and played for the crowds at Riverwalk Market Fair last Saturday. It was so much fun! The leader of this new group is very laid back. I’ve known him for a while. He was a victim of one of Bob’s tongue-lashings at a recent Eclectic Strummers jam, and he won’t be back. He borrowed a few of us from the group, and I’m really enjoying it.

    You named my favorite mountain dulcimer song. There is another dulcimer song – hammered dulcimer – but I can’t remember the artist’s name. I’ll try to find it and post it. I really liked it.

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  4. I’d like to re-learn guitar. I took some lessons years ago, had my mom teach me a few chords and stuff when I was a kid, but never stuck with it. Piano is another instrument I never kept up on but should have. Oh well. Too busy with other things to find the time to practice daily.

    I played cornet/trumpet as my main instrument in school, added French horn in 8th grade through HS, then learned the basics of all the band instruments in college. Stuck with trumpet through my 30s, then got away from playing in community bands when we moved to Chicagoland in the mid-90s.

    Not a huge Joni Mitchell fan but “Both Sides Now” is a classic. I also like “Big Yellow Taxi.”

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. Thanks for this, Renee – somehow I’d never put it together that JM played Case of You on a dulcimer, had never seen a video… Of Course! I wonder if she did a special tuning like she did on a lot of her guitar work.

    I just looked, and three of my favorite Joni numbers are from early on, and not on dulcimer – Chelsea Morning, Sisotobelle Lane, Ladies of the Canyon.

    Instruments: Kind of like Chris – I’d like to learn some classical guitar. I only ever learned chords before. Not sure if my hands would be up to it, though, at this point.

    There’s also an active drumming group here, and I see I could learn a lot from them. And steel drum, I have a small one that I’ve never really used.

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  6. RIse and Shine, Baboons,

    I had to consider this question for awhile. I realized I have no desire to learn any more instruments at this point in life. The visual arts/crafting I do along side the gardening is enough to keep me happy. I enjoy a wide variety of music, though, and am ever grateful to have that in my life.

    As a kid I played clarinet and piano. I was terrible at the piano because these hands did not want to work together. The clarinet was a good instrument for me. I played until the 2000 when my TMJ became painful and interfered.

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  7. Maybe with my double vision I should learn to play organ.
    I have no musical talent, so never tried or wished to play anything except violin. The music in my life right now is the birds singing in tree tops outside my window. I hear two sort of over talking each other. Maybe I have double hearing too.
    Ccllyyddee

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  8. Claudia Schmidt is an artist I have loved an admired for fifty years or so. She’s an incredible performer, and I have seen her live numerous times. Like many performers, she put out videos with some regularity during the pandemic, this is one of those videos. If you have the time, I recommend listening to it in its entirety, it’s really something special (if you like that sort of thing):

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    2. This video session is devoted to the dulcimer. According to Claudia, she taught herself how to play it, and claims that it’s an easy instrument to learn.

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  9. I’m not sure I know any songs that have a dulcimer in them. How do you know that??

    I took some guitar lessons when I was maybe eight or 10 years old, and then I started playing trumpet the summer between fifth and sixth grade and played that all through high school. I think I’ve mentioned before I convinced Mom to buy an organ rather than a piano because it made funny noises, but also the letters of the keys lit up so I could kind of learn that way. I don’t think I did. But I played it a lot and I’m pretty good at faking stuff by ear.

    And then I worked on the banjo for a while and even bought a ukulele, and I sure do admire a good guitar player.
    I’m a very good air guitarist and air drummer.

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  10. I played piano when I was a kid. My aunt gave us her piano, otherwise my mom would never have thought to get one or have us take lessons. I also played guitar a bit, but didn’t get far. I also wanted to learn violin but mom wasn’t in favor of it.

    I’d like to really learn to play guitar. Husband bought me a very nice guitar several years ago. I’ve tried teaching myself but I think lessons would be better.

    My favorite Joni Mitchell song is River (also a favorite Christmas song). Other favorites are Circle Game, Both Sides Now, Carey, Big Yellow Taxi, Case of You.

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  11. I have a dulcimer, though I don’t know how to play. My sister bought a dulcimer kit when she was a teenager, and assembled and stringed it. She passed it along to me.

    For many years the dulcimer lived above the doorway to my kitchen, held there on pegs.

    At some point I was pounding a nail into the wall and the dulcimer abruptly fell. The head separated from the body, breaking a couple of strings, but the instrument was otherwise essentially undamaged. I reattached the head, using wood glue and some long clamps I borrowed from a woodworker friend. It is not an easy thing to clamp a dulcimer.

    I still have to get some new strings and get those strung. Maybe then I can learn some simple tune, just to see what it sounds like.

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  12. I started to study the piano when I was five and went all the way up into high school. My last piano professor was somebody that my folks found who dealt with advanced students who didn’t really want to be part of the whole recital scene any longer. I did like him a lot, and we played a lot of duet pieces during my weekly lessons. Dabbled with guitar and recorder in high school as well… just a smidge.

    Absolutely no interest in learning a new instrument at this point. Got more than enough on my plate!!

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  13. I’m an excellent appreciator of music, but not a producer of it. My working theory is that musicians thrive with an audience and I’m happy in that roll. I do love listening to a skilled guitarist. A guy in our senior co-op has a monthly jam with several players from out building and some other friends of his. Mostly guitars and the occasional banjo, harmonica, and autoharp. I love attending those. ~Occasional Anonymous

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