It's that time of year again

Aunt Dora Baggins

Aunt Dora Baggins

Immortal
when I bring you a birthday mathom. As usual, it's not much, but I figured I'd share one of the presents I got: a stick dulcimer My playing is pretty amateur, but that's the whole point of a stick dulcimer, that they make beginners sound good. I learned the tune from Bob McNally. I feel a little guilty that I didn't buy one of his instruments, but the competitor undercut him by a rather huge margin (without outsourcing; the Rock-it Stick is advertised as made in the USA).

Edit: While I'm on the subject of huge margins, I also found this little guitar at Goodwill for $7 and strung it with three banjo strings :-D

After church we're off to see the aspens. So I guess I'll also share, from a previous year, some of my photos of Lothlorien

By the way, this year is kind of special because my age is the last two digits of the year I was born. I'm not sure if there's a name for that, but there should be.
 
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It's so nice to take a stroll through Lorien accompanied by dulcimer music. [:)]

Thanks for the mathoms, and have yourself a wonderful and happy birthday! [heart][cool]
 
Ooh, a math problem: "my age is the last two digits of the year I was born". So:
a = 2012 - (1900 + a)
a = 2012 - 1900 - a
2a = 112
a = 56! You're 56 years old, and were born in 1956! [:)]

The stick dulcimer doesn't sound different from a standard dulcimer (to me), and would make a great "travel" or hiking instrument, it's so compact. The compact guitar reminds me of a ukulele, but of course does not have any hint of a "tinny" sound - in fact, it sounds quite nice! (Especially when looking at the Aspen pics.)

And I recognized most of those tunes! As a "thank-you" for your mathom, here's a bit of background for one of the melodies you played (this is from my own program notes):

"Our next song has a curious history. Its title comes from the first line of one of Robert Burns' most romantic poems, which was set to this melody. The tune itself was a collaboration between an Edinburgh writer, James Miller, and Stephen Clarke, who was the English editor of the collection of folk songs entitiled "Scots Musical Museum".

"According to a letter written by the poet in 1794, he related that the two were discussing Scottish music, when Miller expressed a desire to be able to compose a Scottish air. According to Burns, Clarke, as a joke, told Miller to "keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, and preserve some kind of rhythm, and he would infallibly compose a Scots air." A few days later Miller did produce such a piece, to which Clarke added some touches and corrections, and thus this tune was born.

"It was first published in 1788 with the title "The Caledonian Hunt's Delight", but has since become known as Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon."
 
but saw (by following the link for the tutorial) that it wasn't the same tune, but similar.

I love dancing Mairi's Wedding.
 
You and Magpie are perfect matching bookends for a double treat day.

I hope you had a very wonderful day!:)

Your music lulled me back the the Renfaire of past years. I missed it this year, but you made up for that. You brought mrs. sil running in to catch the concert. And you got a laugh from her when you said "Not bad for 7 bucks." LOL!

Cheers Aunt Dora:)[heart]
 
of that (Mairi). Here's a link I found (not my string group!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnc29VMiynE

Wish I could dance to i--that must be a ton of fun!
 
And many other wonderful things, too!

Happy Birthday to you and thank you for the pleasure of your company, here and "there"...[:)]. If every web-community had its own Aunt Dora, the world would surely be a nicer place!

Here's hoping for a very fine year ahead for you!
 
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Have a wonderful day :) [heart]
*hugs & love*
Kel x
 
About the time we got married, a bunch of us went to the Ren Fest in Larkspur. As we were walking in the gate, a strolling band of musicians played Mairi's wedding, and we lined up and did the dance. Passing folks probably thought we were performers, but we were paying customers like anyone else.

Our group stopped doing Scottish dances decades ago when our numbers dwindled and we lost most of the men. A few years ago we were at another dance group and they did Mairi's Wedding and I was so excited to do it again. But when we lined up with a group, another couple edged us out, probably thinking that as outsiders we didn't know what we were doing, so we were sidelined. It kind of confirmed for me the reputation that group has had for forty years of being unfriendly to outsiders, but so it goes. I was pretty disappointed. But I can still do the dance in my head, I guess.
 
I started my folk dancing life learning from a man who was Scottish and heartily disliked the RSCDS. I danced with him for a year or so, then under a gifted dancer who was part of that group when George didn't want to teach us more than the 4-6 dances he had.

When the second person stopped teaching, I tried the RSCDS but it just wasn't the same vibe.

(Royal Scottish Country Dance Society - a highly structured and codified system of teaching and dancing)
 
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