Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

The Ithaca Farmers Market has been going since the first weekend in April. I made my first appearance today, and was fortunate to be able to play.

There are still lots of empty booths, but soon enough the market will be full.

It was a lovely sunny day, even though a stiff wind from the lake kept me chilled, standing in the shade of the market’s pavilion.

I was able to play about three hours, which is exciting, considering the tendinitis situation. I might have even played longer, except I was cold and running out of ideas and thought it would be better not to push it just yet. After all, since the Christmas season I haven’t played longer than an hour, even practicing at home.

It was nice to be back at my favorite venue. To see the friendly crowd and some familiar faces of vendors and visitors. And the chicken curry over udon noodles was a lovely lunch for a windy day.

I have one more “gig” — playing the offertory in church this Sunday (”Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” with Camille on flute) — and one more recording session on Tuesday (Craig’s tune “Cherry on Top”), and then that’s it for this holiday season.

It’s been a nice full one this year, starting with the weekend craft show at Mom’s Place in mid-November. The busiest time was the weekend before last, when the trio had two gigs in Corning (about nine hours including travel and a dinner break) and then a gig near Albany the next day (about twelve hours for that one, yikes!).

Though I’m a little sad to be almost done with playing for a while, it’ll be good to have a break.

For one thing, we can get back to the trio CD. I’ve burned copies of what we’ve got so far for me and the guys to listen to and evaluate. I think I need to revisit some of the mixes — many seem to need more volume on the guitar and some need more dulcimer, too. I’ve also started thinking about possible track orderings, and I’ve been experimenting with traycard designs. At some point I’ll have to think about how to actually make the booklets and traycards — maybe buy software and paper myself, or maybe see about having them done at a local printer.

By the way, here’s a track list, in alphabetical order for now:

• Banish Misfortune / Swallowtail Jig
• Carolan’s Welcome
• Cherry on Top (© Craig Higgins)
• Down the Brae / Ballydesmond Polkas #2-3
• Dubuque / Spootiskerry
• Hills of Lorne
• Irksome Girl / Midnight Maze (both © Marcy Prochaska)
• O’Keefe’s Slide / Derrane’s / Trip to Durrow
• Out on the Ocean / Morrison’s Jig / Kesh Jig
• Star of Munster / Old Copperplate
• Staten Island / Julia Delany
• Winter East and Kensington (© Marcy Prochaska)

For another, it’ll give my hands a rest. I’ve been dealing with an inflamed tendon in my left hand since October or so — tuning and playing the dulcimer aggravate it a little. I’m not convinced the dulcimer caused the problem, but there might be ways I can adjust my methods to be easier on my hands.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the nail side of the tip of my thumb sometimes hurts while I’m playing; when I demonstrated the dulcimer for my physical therapist, she noticed that I tend to overarch the left thumb. I think this has to do with the finger-flick technique I use to compensate for being right-handed. By flicking the back of the hammer grip with my ring finger, I can get a clearer, stronger sound. Having a big arch in my thumb seems to help with that technique, perhaps by providing a nice shape for the hammer grip to rotate around, which seems to also help me keep the hammer from wobbling sideways. Perhaps there’s a way I can be more aware of that thumb — maybe I can keep it arched but not overarched, and keep it relaxed and not rigid.

Or perhaps I can train my left hand to do what my right hand is doing.

Upper Potomac Dulcimer Fest

I love going to the UPDF each September.

This year the highlight of the festival for me was having a whole day of interesting classes with Dan Landrum (which has its own blog entry).

I also enjoyed seeing friends and meeting new folks, jamming, and the hospitality of my gracious and fun hosts.

Dan and I in this first picture. Below are my hosts Fred and Sarah on the left, and on the right are Don, Joanie, Butch, Christine, Nick, and Christie standing, with me and Kitty seated. Unfortunately I don’t remember all the names of the folks in the final picture.

(Can you tell I forgot to scan these until after I’d already cropped them and stuck them in my scrapbook? Guess which one overlaps Dan on the album page…)

 

A few other things

Also in September, our pastor hired The Hanshaw Trio to play at a presbytery dinner featuring a lecture on arts and the church.

In October, I celebrated five years of dulcimer with an anniversary concert at Cornell’s Johnson Museum. (See the concert flyer in another blog entry.)

The show began with the duo Pas de Deux, and closed with The Hanshaw Trio.

Then there was a surprisingly gorgeous day in November when a bunch of us got together to jam at the farmers’ market.

Here’s Rick Biesanz who books for the Peaceful Gatherings Coffeehouse in Corning and singer-songwriter Joe Crookston.

In the second picture, that’s Debra Chesman, who runs a jam and house concert series near Corning, Rick, Joe, and Gary Kline, a fellow Rick plays with in the Seneca Moon String Band.

So… yesterday I celebrated my fifth hammered dulcimer anniversary with a concert.

The venue was the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. The concert was upstairs in a beautiful gallery, with a huge landscape behind us, a persian rug for kids (and flexible adults) to sit on, a couple of benches in the back, and chairs lining the sides.

The museum is a wonderful space acoustically; the instruments carried well, and the natural reverb made my voice sound nice. I felt that the trio’s faster pieces got a bit swallowed up in the big space — they didn’t feel as lively to me as they should have, but that may have just been my nerves.

The room was comfortably full; someone estimated maybe fifty people were there. I don’t think I’ve had more than thirty before, so that was great.

Many thanks to the museum director, Frank Robinson, and director of development, Lynne Williams, and other museum folks for making the event possible. To Sherj and Katherine for running the refreshments and CD sales; to Mary Ann, Sheryl, Stephanie, and Mom for making / bringing / mailing food; to Lisa’s husband for videotaping; to Lisa, Jerry, and Craig for their part in the performance; and, especially, to my patient and supportive husband.

Here’s the set list. Originals are marked with *. Except for the songs Rad Te Mam and In the Cool of the Day, all pieces feature hammered dulcimer:

Pas de Deux
(Duo with Lisa Fenwick, harp and flute)

• La Rotta / Bunch of Rushes / The Chanter (harp)
• Carolan’s Draught / Sleepers Awake (flute)
• Allemande (harp)
• In Him Will I Trust* (flute and voice)

No Loose Threads
(My first CD)

• Variations on a Three-Year-Old Theme*
• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (flute)
• Rad Te Mam* (guitar and voice)
• Road to Lisdoonvarna / South of the James*

Unrecorded

• In the Cool of the Day* (guitar and voice)
• Praeludium for lute
• Sheep May Safely Graze (guitar and flute)
• Third Street Market*

break

What Child Is This?
(My second CD)

• Fallen* (fiddle and guitar)
• What Child Is This? / Menuet
• Easter Thursday (fiddle and guitar)
• Noel Nouvelet / Wexford Carol

The Hanshaw Trio
(With Jerry Drumheller on fiddle and Craig Higgins on guitar and mandolin)

• Out on the Ocean / Morrison’s / Kesh (fiddle and guitar)
• Staten Island / Julia Delany (fiddle, mandolin, and guitar)
• Irksome Girl* / Midnight Maze* (fiddle and guitar)
• Winter East and Kensington* (fiddle, flute, and guitar)

Encore:

• Dennis Murphy’s / John Ryan’s

On October 2, I went to a house concert: Carolyn Cruso, who plays hammered dulcimer, flute, and sings with guitar.

Joe Crookston, a recently-arrived local singer/songwriter, organized the event and also performed a short set of his own songs. I met him this spring when I was busking on the Commons; his little girl liked the dulcimer, so he stayed a while and we chatted a bit. He’s another one of those people who seems to be comfortable in his own skin. I saw him and another singer/songwriter, jazzy-folky Linda Stout, in a concert this summer. I really like his music. He’s got a driving rhythm, great guitar licks, a warm rich voice, and a way with lyrics.

The email “flyer” for the house concert said something about jamming afterwards, so I brought my dulcimer. No one else had brought an instrument, but the three of us — Carolyn, Joe, and I — jammed anyway. What fun! We did some traditional tunes — Morrison’s, Staten Island, Julia Delaney — and some Irish songs, and improvised in Am. That was the scary part, for me — but I managed to throw in some interesting ideas.

This morning Joe sent me this picture: