Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

Hi folks,

I am in the process of updating this website to incorporate a blog. Blogs are “web logs,” like online journals. Usually there’s a main page with the most recent entries or posts, plus a column of links to archives, individual entries, categories, and so on. Most blogs also allow visitors to make comments. My site already has a photo gallery, journals about recording three CDs, and a sadly neglected news page; I think a blog would be a great way to integrate these things, and will hopefully make it easier for me to keep the site up-to-date.

Some of the things that I’ll need to do include:

• creating a template so the blog pages match the other pages at this site
• transforming existing journal-like stuff into blog pages
• creating categories

I think this will likely take me some time, so please bear with me through the process. Thanks!

This morning I found out the weather was going to be in the 70s. Woo-hoo! I decided I had to try for one more day at the Farmers Market.

That meant tuning.

It was 9:25 (market opens at 9), and I said to myself, “Self, you’ve got until 10:00 — see what you can do.” By 10:00, I think I was on F# or G. But I finished the last B at about 10:30. Folks, that’s right, I tuned in a little over an hour. Admittedly, I ignored the highest two courses on the bass bridge and the little chromatic bridge top left, figuring I didn’t need them for today or tomorrow. But still! That’s almost half my usual tuning time!

Will I be able to do that again?

Anyway, I got to the market by 11, and there was room for me to play at the boat landing. It was lovely out, a little breezy, sunny, comfortable. I got to chat with a bunch of folks who had questions about that thing I was playing. Got to hang out with a couple who are students of mine (who shared an apple and pecan Belgian waffle with me, with a lovely mound of whipped cream on top). My favorite lunch place, the Cambodian stuff, was in the closest booth, instead of all the way at the other end of the market where they usually are. CD sales and tips were slower than in the height of the season, but I didn’t care.

What a lovely day.

I sometimes wonder what it’s like for other dulcimer folk — or other musicians — who busk. I’ve got a pretty big repertoire, so technically I can play maybe five hours without repeating anything. But only a fraction of that is stuff that I’ve really arranged. Do other folks have four or five hours full of really good stuff, or are they like me, stretching their time with simple things, bare melodies, that sort of thing? Is that okay?

The other thing that was interesting was I tried singing “For the Beauty of the Earth,” which I’ve been doing fine in practice all week. My voice just wasn’t there — cracking everywhere, no support — perhaps because I was outside and had to put more oomph into it than I have to at home in my quiet music room? I hope I’ll be able to do it well in the concert.