Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

It seems like I haven’t had a lot to say about dulcimer doings lately — I suppose that’s partly because we’re more preoccupied with getting ready for a baby.

So what has been going on?

Just a handful of things since Chattanooga. Playing at Alterra, at the Johnson Museuam, at a baptism, at a wedding this past weekend, and not playing much at the Farmers Market, once because of rain and once because they couldn’t fit me in.

This month looks a little busier, especially for The Hanshaw Trio. We have gigs tomorrow night (Music in the Hollow), this Saturday (a private party), next Thursday (Market), and the last Thursday of the month (Pourhouse). In addition, I’ve got another Alterra date early next week.

Next month there’s at least the Upper Potomac Dulcimer Fest, assuming I get the all-clear to travel at our next prenatal visit, and one more Hanshaw market date.

In October, I have one wedding booked the first weekend, with a substitute lined up just in case, and otherwise I don’t plan to book any gigs, since we’re due November 8. I know it’s more likely for a first baby to be late, but it seems wise not to take chances.

I continue to offer private lessons, and will do so through October, but the workshops are on hold indefinitely. Of course, if a group of folks plans a workshop or group lesson on their own, I’d be happy to teach.

I’ve been working on learning another Bach prelude, in spurts. I started before the tendinitis hit last fall, and occasionally this summer I’ve worked on it a bit more. Learning classical music — for me — usually involves a lot of discipline. I work a phrase at a time, then string phrases together, then work on that section until I’ve basically got it memorized. So far on this prelude I have learned the first page and part of the second (it’s two and a half), but since I haven’t been disciplined about working on it every day (or even every week), I haven’t memorized it yet. It’s also difficult because of the technique involved; the hammering pattern is just a bit awkward, and there are lots of big reaches. Some day!

A closer look at my Rizzetta cimbalom-grip angled flexible shaft hammers.

You can see the top half of the grip in my left hand — the bottom half is exactly the same, and the curves fit around my first and second fingers. You can hold them between fingertips, but holding them the way I do requires no gripping at all. My right hand is too tense, too fist-like — I tend to tense up playing fast or difficult passages.

The shafts are flexible and set into the grips at a 45° angle so that my wrists are in a more neutral position.

Sacrificing the visual

One of the main reasons I was excited about this festival was that Jerry Read Smith was going to be there. I haven’t seen him in several years, and I wanted him to look at my dulcimer, sort of give it a checkup, especially to see if anything needed to be adjusted to make tuning easier for me.

Basically he did two things he’d told me I could do myself, but that I hadn’t wanted to do without an expert there in person to make sure it was the right thing to do. First of all, he took a hammer to any pins that were sticking or slipping, seating them further into the pinblock.

Secondly, he moved some of the strings up or down on the side saddles. I confess that I’ve always hated this idea. I find it visually distracting to have some strings not absolutely parallel to the others. And it bothers my idealism — ideally, the strings should all be absolutely parallel and tune just fine. Seems to me there must be something else wrong if they’re straight but not tuning properly. Jerry — and Dan — would like to persuade me that sometimes it’s just the best solution, and that the visual aspect is simply not that important. Sigh.

Loosening up

The first meaning…

Sunday afternoon Dan watched me play with regular hammers, and he thinks the way I play with my left hand is likely to lead to injury. My left hand doesn’t work the way my right does, at least not naturally or automatically. To compensate, I’d developed a finger flick — hitting the back of the hammer grip with a middle finger — that helps me get a nice clear tone and good accuracy with my left hand.

I know there are other players who do this — Nick Blanton and Tim Seaman among them. However, maybe they use their wrists better than I do. I didn’t think I moved either of my wrists while playing, and I didn’t think it mattered. In fact, I thought it was a good thing, preventing carpal tunnel syndrome. Dan said my right wrist does move just a little, nice and loose, but that my left one is locked stiff.

Those of us standing around talked about the whole ergonomics thing for a while, and the consensus seems to be that the more muscle groups involved, the better, and the more loose and relaxed these muscles are, the better. Dan doesn’t even really hold his hammers — they balance on his finger, and his thumb keeps them from falling.

So I need to think about what I can do to loosen up my left wrist, and the grip of both hands on the hammers.

The second meaning…

I tend to think fear is safer than arrogance. I suspect people will like me better if I need to be encouraged, reassured, than if I need to be taken down a few pegs.

It’s not really that simple. Being too fearful is just as annoying — but in a different way. It gets old pretty fast to those who have to do the encouraging and reassuring; the fearful person makes a high-maintenance friend.

The most comfortable people to be around are neither overly fearful nor arrogant, but comfortable with themselves.

For whatever reason — yet another symptom of pregnancy, lol? — I felt just a little bit more comfortable with myself at this festival than I have at similar occasions in the past.

It was nice.

Hammers

Several people noticed my flexible shaft, angled cimbalom grip hammers from Sam Rizzetta. One person who has arthritis thinks she’ll look into getting a pair for herself. Other folks, including Dan and Christie, found them awkward. Dan said it would be impossible to play the kinds of things he plays with those hammers — percussion stuff is too fast, and the flexibility loses too much energy and requires more muscle. Interesting. So far, I still like them for keeping my thumbs loose, but I admit that I miss the sound of my old regular hammers.

Last night I got back from the Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival. I have so much to say about this weekend that I think I’ll break it up into several individual posts. Meanwhile, here’s a few pictures:

Alyce, Sharon, and Carol traveled together from Ohio. We stayed in the same guest house along with luthier Jerry Read Smith and Doug, who works in Jerry’s store. We had a great time hanging out together for breakfast, dinner, and evenings. This picture was taken with Sharon’s camera, but I forget who took it for us!

Those of us in the guest house all arrived Thursday evening. The festival began Friday morning with two 90-minute classes followed by lunch, another class, a break for jamming or practice, dinner, then the evening concert. Saturday’s schedule was about the same.

During lunch both days there was a mini-concert. I played on Friday, and Stephen Humphries on Saturday. I did a bit of classical, several originals including the one I’m singing in the picture, and “What Child Is This? / Menuet.”

This picture is one of the many Brad Bower took over the weekend.

Sunday everyone who was sticking around headed downtown to jam at the aquarium.

Some of us had to stop for snacks occasionally.

Kathy Angus (wife of Rob, who is seated at the right playing the Nick Blanton dulcimer) took these two pictures.

See more photos at the official festival site.

This week my PT is retiring.

At our appointment, we agreed that since we’re seeing maintenance rather than progress at this point, we might as well stop. If my hands get worse in the next few months, I can get a new referral, but perhaps I can continue the maintenance.

Even though my hands aren’t 100% wonderful, I have made progress since all this started in the fall — as measured by the PT’s pinch tests and a weighted questionnaire and by both of our evaluations. I can play longer, I’ve started knitting again, and when I do hurt it is less severe and doesn’t last as long — of course I still have to be careful not to overwork, to be aware of my hands and when I need to rest and stretch.