Silent Night

Just a little something my wife and I made for our Christmas card. roll truck roll on dulcimer, roll truck roll's wife on pennywhistle and tambourine, the rain on rain sounds.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by roll truck roll (8 comments total)

Really relaxing. Plus, indie-fab.
posted by Corduroy at 5:22 PM on December 20, 2008

And would you mind saying what tuning you're in?
posted by Corduroy at 5:23 PM on December 20, 2008

Whoops, did not see the dulcimer thing. Would you be able to say what each string you pluck is tuned to? Since it sounds like three or four.
posted by Corduroy at 6:16 PM on December 20, 2008

Sweet!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:18 AM on December 21, 2008

Thanks, all.

I understand dulcimers can vary quite a bit, and my book has sections for several different tunings (only a few of which I'm really comfortable using). But the tuning I used here (and, I understand, sort of the standard one) is G-D-D-D. You use the top two strings for playing the melody and the other two as drones. This makes it ridiculously easy for complete beginners (which is, more or less, what I am) to play something that sounds pretty.

When someone else is playing the melody, I change the middle string to a B and play chords or arpeggios.
posted by roll truck roll at 5:18 PM on December 21, 2008

Also, it's funny that you thought it was a guitar. This was the first time I really played with the different instrument settings in Garage Band. Messing a little bit with the tone and reverb gave it a much more full sound than other things I've recorded on dulcimer.

I also discovered that I can totally make my dulcimer sound like Lenny Kravitz. So I'm working on that song next.
posted by roll truck roll at 5:23 PM on December 21, 2008

This is verrrry relaxing.
posted by ORthey at 6:56 PM on December 21, 2008

I love you guys.
posted by lauranesson at 7:05 AM on December 24, 2008