Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

Today is tuning day. About once a week I tune my dulcimer; lately that’s been Thursdays because The Hanshaw Trio is recording on Thursday evenings.

Tuning is my least favorite thing about the hammered dulcimer. That’s putting it mildly. My screensaver says “Tuning is evil.” I’ve called it my nemesis. It’s sometimes had me in tears, and once almost ready to quit dulcimer altogether. It’s been a while since I’ve felt that bad about it, and in fact lately I’ve been feeling, if not enthusiastic, at least less frustrated.

A little background on what it’s like to tune a dulcimer. Mine has ninety strings, all of which are tuned by turning little squared off pins with a T-shaped, star-bit wrench. Thirty-eight of these strings are on the treble bridge, which is the only bridge that divides the strings into two playable notes. So for these thirty-eight strings, I have to pay attention to both sides, making sure both notes are in tune.

Most dulcimer players can tune in twenty minutes, maybe forty, rarely an hour. I, on the other hand, have a history of tuning times averaging two hours, sometimes taking as much as twice as long. Now the first thing to remember is that I take a lot of time to do everything, and another thing is that I’m a hypersensitive perfectionist. These two things probably explain my longer tuning times. I’ll also note that it’s worse when I’m recording, because I’m even more perfectionistic and sensitive about something as permanent as a recording than I am about live performances.

Here are some of the issues that hinder tuning quickly:

Wrench / tuning pin issues: Sometimes the wrench seems to be turning the pin, but when you let go the note slips back to where it was. Sometimes the pin is really stiff and difficult to turn; then you might finally get it to move and it goes too far. Other pins are a bit loose and turn too far even when you’re very careful. These issues just have to be endured.

String issues: Each of my strings is doubled; that is, it starts at one tuning pin, goes across the dulcimer, around a hitch pin, and back across to a second tuning pin. Sometimes tuning one half of the string affects the other half a little; it helps to go back and forth between them. The treble strings sometimes have trouble because of tension and friction. One side may be in tune, and if the string sticks a little on the main bridge or the side saddles, the other side may not be in tune. Lifting the strings gently off the bridge and setting them down again helps; sometimes pushing on the sharp side of the string or the top of the bridge also helps. Occasionally the treble bridge itself is not in exactly the right position, so that it doesn’t have the necessary perfect fifth interval from one side to the other. I have a tool for adjusting the bridge position, but it’s a last resort.

Tuner issues: I used to use a digital tuner with an LED display of lights and a “needle.” Then I switched to a tuner with a mechanical needle. Both would sometimes have a delayed response, or would respond differently to the same input, or waver. The mechanical one was a little more steady. I suppose there are three issues here. One is that these tuners are not that precise; I think it’s maybe +/-3 cents. Another is that these tuners use sampling, rather than continuous real-time reading. The other issue is with the dulcimer: so many strings means some are going to resonate sympathetically, which could interfere with the tuner’s reading.

I tackled the first two issues by getting a strobe tuner, a Conn Strobotuner ST-11 from the 70s. Strobe tuners are precise to I think +/-1/100th cents, maybe 1/10th. They also read continuously in real-time. I also really like the display. It’s a wheel with a black and white pattern on it, spinning at the frequency of the desired pitch. Behind it are lights flashing at the frequency of the input. When they match, the pattern appears stationary. It seems to rotate left if it’s flat, and right if it’s sharp. Sometimes I get good strong clear readings. Sometimes sympathetic vibrations — the third issue — cause a little wavering. I can usually help that by hand damping the other strings that have the same pitch.

Ear issues: The more I concentrate on what I’m doing, and the longer I’m at it, the more sensitive my ear gets, so that I hear, or think I hear, awful dissonances even when the tuner thinks the strings are in tune. Taking breaks helps, by allowing my ear to relax. (You might think that my more precise tuner would make this worse, but it actually makes it better. “Really close” on a digital tuner rarely sounded good enough to me, but the lack of precision meant I couldn’t really do anything about it other than trust my ear, which, getting too sensitive, would not be very trustworthy. “Really close” on my Conn is so precise I can relax and know it’ll sound great even if my ear doesn’t think so at the moment.)

Will issues: All of the above issues are real and need to be dealt with. But the one issue that has made me dread and hate tuning, that has made me cry over it, is the issue of Will. Coming up against one of the above issues, I might will myself to overcome it; but you can’t overcome these things by will. Just because I want the tuning pin to move a certain way doesn’t mean it’s going to. Just because I want the tuner to give a clear reading doesn’t mean it has to. And, most of all, just because my ear insists that a) the note is off and b) I should keep at it until my ear likes it doesn’t mean that I’ll succeed. My ear is ready to hear dissonance, and the more I try to please it the more it’ll resist. I’ve learned that I need to practice caring less about precision, trusting my tuner. And I need to treat the strings like problems on a math test. If I have trouble with one, I should move on to the next and come back to it later. Most of the time, when I come back to it, my ear has relaxed and likes it just fine.

I have often thought that it would be nice if I could approach tuning the dulcimer the way I approach changing my guitar strings. I love changing guitar strings. I get to sit down with my guitar and take good care of it, removing the strings, polishing the body, putting a treatment on the fretboard. And I know how great it’ll sound with new strings. In the same way I know tuning my dulcimer is taking good care of it. I also dust the thing and clean / polish the strings whenever I tune. I think, as I’m making progress with this issue of Will, that I’m getting closer to the time when I can enjoy tuning like I enjoy changing guitar strings.

This week has been warm. The patches of grass have conquered most of the snow’s territory. I’ve even been outside, digging up those nasty thorny thistles and cutting back last year’s overgrowth in the roadside ditch.

Wednesday it was so nice I took my dulcimer downtown to the Commons. Ithaca has created a pedestrian shopping / hang out area by replacing one street with a broad sidewalk, dotted with seating areas, covered pavilions, and playgrounds. It was lovely to play outside again. The challenge is getting used to playing for hours at a time again, something I haven’t done since late last summer. (Funny, too, how suddenly life changes. January until now, I’ve been mostly occupied with how to use all the time on my hands. Now all the sudden I feel like I have to make time to do all the things I want to do.)

Anyway, three interesting things happened while I was busking on Wednesday.

This fellow with a baby was standing around at a distance, listening, then came and talked to me during a break. Said he just moved here, built a dulcimer once, and also does some music, and we talked a bit about the music scene here. Turns out to be Joe Crookston. He had such a kind, easygoing, engaging way about him, neither self-effacing nor self-aggrandizing. I’d read about him in the mass of music information that a local jam organizer sends out each week, but it’s different to meet someone in a quiet ordinary way than to read their promotional material in the midst of everyone else’s promotional material. When I got home I did look up his website and downloaded one of the songs to hear and liked it quite a bit. Maybe I’ll catch one of his shows sometime.

Later I heard the unmistakable noise of approaching heavy machinery. So I stopped playing and looked around. Here comes a dump truck and a bulldozer, and they’re stopping right next to me. Are they going to dig? I don’t see anything that needs to be repaired. The bulldozer lowers its scoop and proceeds to… pick up a small pile of snow!?! The City of Ithaca has no better use for its heavy machinery? A guy with a shovel could have removed that snow just as quickly, with less noise and less waste of fuel and equipment. Wow. This is the last town I would have expected to do something like that, here where everyone’s an environmentalist.

Finally, the woman who makes the gorgeous velvet shawls and such at Shangri-La came over and asked me about playing for their private fashion show this Saturday evening. She offered me a dress in exchange. These dresses are amazing. Flowing silk velvet with intricate burnt-out designs, fringe, and subtle colors. The one we liked best for me is black with paisley and touches of lavender. I’m a little concerned that it might not allow enough movement (I have to be able to bend and squat in order to set up my dulcimer, and I like some freedom of movement while playing), and it’s also so elegant I don’t know when I’ll get to wear it. I’ll be wearing it Saturday night, and then I’ll be able to tell if it’ll work for me or not. Meanwhile I was thinking wouldn’t it be cool to have a fabric featuring my logo, the inner rosette from my dulcimer. She makes the fabrics, so if the black dress doesn’t work, maybe we could negotiate for something custom, perhaps in exchange for another performance sometime.

I also saw some folks from church, talked to a variety of other people, had a sausage and peppers sandwich, and made some money in tips. What a lovely spring day. Except for the bulldozer.