quilting in folk music video

I was looking for videos of the great singer and dulcimer player Jean Ritchie the other day, and found this film of a family gathering with a sizable chunk about quilting in the middle (in glorious black and white):

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Think how much more there might have been if it hadn't been for Nixon...

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

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Jack Campin - bogus address
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I actually met Jean Ritchie back in the mid to late '60s. We were doing one of our regular "every-other-summer" trips and were back in that neck of the woods. My mother had been thinking about getting a dulcimer so she found Jean Ritchie's phone number in the local phone book. Called and asked about dulcimers. Jean gave directions to get to what Mother assumed was her shop, turned out to be her home. Sat down with Mother and actually gave her a sort of lesson on how to play. Mother ended up ordering a dulcimer from her. When it arrived in Tucson it was quite the experience. it came packed into a huge box, probably about 5 feet tall and 3 feet on a side. Lots of padding to protect the dulcimer. I think that my brother in law, who plays several instruments, may get the dulcimer when it is unearthed in Mother's stuff. Someone needs to have it who will understand the specialness of it.

Pati, > I was looking for videos of the great singer and dulcimer

Reply to
Pati, in Phx

Howdy!

Note that in 1955 Nix was NOT prez, but v.p. (from the blurb on youtube).

W/ a little more "colorful" language it could be my mom's family in Kentucky. Handquilting: excellent!

R/Sandy - singing & quilting: me, too ;-)

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

Well, I learnt something today, have never heard of this instrument before. Wow, wasn't that a film of times gone past, watching all the ladies sitting around quilting and singing...

Janner

France

Sandy Ellis> Howdy!

Reply to
Janner

I have a dulcimer that I named Sweet Georgia. But I haven't been able to find anyone to teach me how to play it. ;(

G> I actually met Jean Ritchie back in the mid to late '60s. We were

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Reply to
gaw93031

Well, Ginger -- you're in the wrong neck o'tha woods for dulcimer teachers. If you wuz to come out this way, you'd have to trouble finding a dulcimer teacher :-). The Parks & Rec. Dept. offered a beginning dulcimer class this spring. IIRC, there's a dulcimer shop up Hwy. 40 -- in Rabun Co. I do b'lieve. When we move back to Lizard land I will certainly miss the history that is ever present living in the Deep South! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

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Tia Mary

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Roberta

A couple of the great things about appalachian dulcimers is their versatility and how easy they are to play. In fact the hardest thing about them is tuneing. You see because of the way they are fretted and strung you pretty much have to retune for every new key. Once they are properly tuned it is easy, the two low strings are drones and you fret the high strings to make the melody. There are a lot of websites that tell how to tune them and have various methods of playing.I'll get some recomendations from DH and send them on if you like. If you really want to learn you can get an inexpensive digital tuner to help you out with tuning until your ears learn the instrument.

I got my first dulcimer very inexpensively in 1979 when a fella I knew desperately wanted to go to a Grateful Dead show and sold me his for $10. After I met DH a few months later, he fell in love with it. A few Christmases ago I got a new one for him. DH is the kind of guy that other musicians admire and want to kick all at the same time. He has perfect pitch and can play anything once he knows how to make a sound with it. Last Christmas I got lucky and found an Egyptian oud that I could afford for him, by that same evening he was playing songs on it. I think he has a little piece that he multitracked of himself playing dulcimer, oud and flute. I'll ask him if he kept it.

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist
[Appalachian mountain dulcimer]

Where it is called the "scheitholt". I am not making this up.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

****** I killfile Google posts - email me if you want to be whitelisted ******
Reply to
Jack Campin - bogus address

That was a gentleman in Mariposa County, in the town of Mariposa, off the west entrance to Yosemite. My ex and I had met him, he was a neat guy - we originally saw him on Huell Howser's California Gold on PBS. He has since passed.

I need to think more seriously to find someone to teach me.

G> snipped-for-privacy@msn.com wrote:

Reply to
gaw93031

I'm sorry I don't even know what a digital tuner is. I can carry a tune, and have a decent voice, but cannot play any musical instrument.

sigh G> A couple of the great things about appalachian dulcimers is their

Reply to
gaw93031

A digital tuner is nothing more than a small device that that will "listen" to a note you play and tell you what note it is. The kind made for electric instruments allows the instrument to be plugged into them, the kind for acoustic instruments only has a small microphone so it can "hear" the note, many will do both. A good music store will let you play with different ones to see which one you like best. Just don't let them talk you into one of the expensive ones made for piano tuners and their ilk, a guitar tuner that registers notes instead of just lighting up when the note is right for a guitar string will work just fine. Many musicians spurn the things, but if you pay attention when you are using it it can help you learn to identify the proper notes with your own ear. We used to carry one about with us for fast string changes onstage. It is often kind of hard to tune an instrument by ear in the middle of a rock show, and sometimes you just need a particular instrument for a particular sound.

NightMist Restra>I'm sorry I don't even know what a digital tuner is. I can carry a

Reply to
NightMist

'scuse me, my german is wobbly. Does that translate into "shit shovel"?

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist

Oh, this takes me back (far too many years!).

I once had a year's tuition on orchestral timpani. I loved it - but I simply *couldn't* hear the note well enough to tune it when other instruments were playing. A digital tuner would have been a huge benefit - I might still have been playing them. I had to give them up after the year, for the tuning reason, but also because I had a 'limping roll' >ggg< . Once I got as far as doing those marvellous drum rolls, I couldn't make both wrists work at the same speed >ggtuners and their ilk, a guitar tuner that registers notes instead of

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Patti

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Roberta

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