One of our most memorable vacations to Tennessee was in September of 2004 when we visited Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and stayed in Townsend. The most memorable part of that vacation was our stop at the Wood-N-Strings dulcimer shop during the day and our evening of listening to Tennessee mountain music on the Pickin’ Porch out back of the shop.
We stopped in to have a look at the instruments just to check them out. While I suppose I’ve seen a hammer dulcimer before this was my first real exposure to the instrument and I immediately fell in love with it. The sound of a hammered dulcimer is like nothing you’ve ever heard. Well, we played around on the mountain dulcimers and hammer dulcimers and after we came back for an evening of entertainment we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to own one of these things.’
That’s as far as it went even though we’ve talked about it from time to time. Jean really surprised on Christmas Eve when I received a huge wrapped package that contained a Songbird hammered dulcimer. I was completely stoked! It sounds beautiful and I’m really thrilled to be learning to play it.
I’ve been playing drums for 38 years and currently play the praise band at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Palm Bay Florida, but I never really learned to read music so this is going to be a bit of a challenge. However, at this point I am able to use some of my drumming skills to get a good feel for using the hammers.
It’s a pretty cool thing. Pictures to follow.
Alan
Tags: hammer dulcimer, pigeon forge, dulcimer, townsend tennessee
Posted by alan in Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg Attractions