Tempering a hammered dulcimer
Randy Marchany
: I built a 15/14 hammered dulcimer (that looks similar to a Dusty
: Strings) a few months ago and am still struggling with tuning and
: tempering it. Oh, I can get it playable but I'm not very satisfied
: with some of the intervals I end up with - surprise wolfs sometimes,
: just sour sounds other times.
There is a pamphlet out by Rick Fogel (from Seattle, WA) called
"Physics, Music Theory and the Hammered Dulcimer", published by his
own Whamdiddle Press. I think the name of his company is Whamdiddle
Instruments. I don't have the address handy but maybe someone on the net
does. It may help you out.
-Randy Marchany
INTERNET: randy.m...@vt.edu
Keith Rogers
Strings) a few months ago and am still struggling with tuning and
tempering it. Oh, I can get it playable but I'm not very satisfied
with some of the intervals I end up with - surprise wolfs sometimes,
just sour sounds other times.
I've been reading a few books on tempering and tuning but they deal
mainly with keyboard instruments and I'm having difficulties applying
what few concepts I've managed to extract so far to the dulcimer. The
main problem is the trebble bridge which forces (at least in my single
piece bridge) the fifths on either side to the same interval. When I
first strung the instrument up I made them beatless. I'm now
beginning to question that. I gather that a general rule for
tempering is that you exchange purer fifths and fourths with poorer
thrids and sixths and I'm indeed having most difficulties with thirds.
I also don't have any kind of method to my madness. I start the
tuning with my C523.3 fork and then select courses more or less at
random which are octaves and fifths away from something currently in
tune until I've done them all, leaving the bass b-flat for last.
Is there something I can read that can help me tune this beast by ear?
The McCutcheon video I have is of no help as he just tells you to use
an electronic tuner. That certainly works but I was hoping for
something better than equal temperament. And the fixed fifths across
the trebble bridge limit what I can do with other "wohl" (well)
temperaments. I would think some kind of meantone or just scheme
would work with my kind of HD, i.e. not fully chromatic, but I don't
know which one.
Help and recommended readings would be greatly appreciated. You get
extra brownie points if I get to keep my beatless fifths across the
bridge so I don't have to loosen all the strings and move it :-) You
score a triple bonus if I don't have to saw the trebble bridge up into
separate bridges. Not that that's scary to me, I built the thing from
scratch after all, but it would be enough of a hassle that I'd rather
not do it on this instrument (though it's surely going to be the case
on the one I'm currently building).
Thanks in advance,
--
Keith Rogers
kro...@xmission.com
Marc Leonard
> There is a pamphlet out by Rick Fogel (from Seattle, WA) called
> "Physics, Music Theory and the Hammered Dulcimer", published by his
> own Whamdiddle Press. I think the name of his company is Whamdiddle
> Instruments. I don't have the address handy but maybe someone on the net
> does. It may help you out.
>
the following address:
Rick Fogel (aka R. F. Printing Service)
10615 Prospect
Strongsville, OH 44136
Marc Leonard
C...@eclx.psu.edu
Russell kay
fifth-across-the-bridge layout and go to a non-equal-temperament (should I
say temperamental?) tuning. One way out of this, probably not for the
already-built instrument, would be to incorporate movable bridges or
perhaps bridge caps. I know that Chinese yang quins use cylindrical rollers
as bridges in many positions, and they are relatively easy to move left or
right--much more so than the standard wooden bridge, whether individual or
in-line. You might try some sort of wider bridge cap that can incorporate
two contact points, so that you can adjust the string length independently
on each side.
Just a few thoughts; I don't know how practical they may turn out to be for
you. Good luck. And let us know how things turn out.
=========================================================
Russell Kay, Technical Editor, BYTE Magazine
russ...@bix.com 603-924-2591
DulciMark
> There is a pamphlet out by Rick Fogel (from Seattle, WA) called
> "Physics, Music Theory and the Hammered Dulcimer", published by his
> own Whamdiddle Press. I think the name of his company is Whamdiddle
> Instruments. I don't have the address handy but maybe someone on the net
> does. It may help you out.
>
In the Winter issue of Dulcimer Players News, Whamdiddle's address is
given as:
Whamdiddle Dulcimer Company
1916 Pike Place
Box 906
Seattle WA 98101
(206) 784-1764
-- Mark W. Stayton (dulc...@aol.com)