Cardboard Dulcimer Mute

I discovered today that the cardboard mute, mentioned below, also works on dulcimer. I had to fiddle with it a bit to keep it from migrating to the middle of the strum area and damping everything down. I actually turned in upside down and slid it tight against the bridge. It worked great, especially on loud and fast pieces.
For slower pieces, I found I didn't like to use it so much. I can play softer and like to hear the strings ring on a song like Ashokan Farewell.

My brother mentioned that the hair ties, or scrunchies work on the nut end of a guitar. I have some scrunchies somewhere - just couldn't find them. (the story of my life.) I'm not sure how one would get them over the scroll and tuning pegs and still be tight enough to mute. I'll try it sometime when I find them...
Can't wait to get the bass mute.I won't have any excuse now not to practice!

Bass and Ukulele Mutes

After my very kind neighbors commented on how much they enjoyed listening to me practice, I thought I'd better get a bass mute. I do make some horrible noises trying to play with a bow. I ordered one from Amazon. Waiting for that one to arrive.

I thought I'd like one for the ukulele too. I couldn't find one online but I did find directions for making one out of some kind of clay. Then it hit me that plain ole cardboard might work! I pressed a strip of cardboard on the strings just enough to make an indentation. Then I cut a little way up on each mark. I cut one too close to the edge so I just made a single string mute for that string.

I slid the cardboard up against the bridge and it works fine. It sounds kinda plunky, but it does cut the volume and that's what counts.

Jammin' on Skype

I got to jam with my sister today via Skype. It's not the best venue for duets but it's better than nothing.

The first issue we discovered is the time lapse. We can't really sing or play together since one of us is a couple of beats behind.
That doesn't bother us much though since we discovered that we can't hear both parts at the same time anyway. I mean, who ever is loudest gets the bandwidth. If I want to hear her play and sing, it works better if I just turn off my microphone. Otherwise, she'll be cutting in and out. Just have to remember to turn it back on.
We also get dropped calls. I thought it would be better since my WiFi was upgraded. We lost connections about 4-5 times today. It kept telling me I wasn't connected, but my computer told me I was. I hope the new version of Skype fixed that problem. That one is really annoying.
In spite of everything, we keep trying to play together. I can see what she is doing and I can try out my new songs. Maybe when she returns to the mainland things will go better. She's in Hawaii right now and the distance is a definite factor.
Still, with all the issues, it's great to see and talk to my sister. She's really getting pretty good on the banjo and her singing has really improved. I wish we lived closer so we could see each other from time to time, but in the meantime, we'll just jam on Skype.

Soloing

I'm finally figuring things out. All those years of practicing scales, I never connected how to use them. Now I'm determined to learn to solo, even if it's just a few simple bars of  bluegrass. I've made myself some backing tracks and now I see the reason for all those scales.
I have a free program called Audacity. I just love it. It makes it really easy to record myself playing chords and I can then save it as a MP3.

One of my main reasons for wanting to have a ukulele, was the ability to play in any key. My sister has just decided to take up the banjo. She loves bluegrass, and everything she has learned so far is in the key of G. My dulcimer is in the key of D and G is hard to get to.
The other reason is that I can't find a comfortable place to play the dulcimer. It won't stay on my lap and I hate being strapped in to whatever I'm doing. I jump up and down too much. Besides, I don't have much of a lap left. I don't have a comfortable chair for the dulcimer either. My only two chairs are a low slung lawn chair and a straight chair that is falling apart. The dulcimer is too long to fit on the first and the second is stationed in front of the loom and not easy to access.
The little ukulele fits right in my lap and takes up hardly any room. I can relax in front of a movie on the computer in that low slung chair and practice chords or strumming.
My fingers are pretty large and I'd love to have a tenor uke. But for now, I'm happy to have this little antique.
Here's a video of some members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing even smaller ukes.

Starting From Here

 My sting bass fell apart. A friend said he could fix it. He never did. I left to move back home without it. I had sold my wonderful Fender fretless jazz bass to pay the mortgage. I lost my house anyway. I started really playing my lovely dulcimer, but being limited to one or two keys was frustrating. I wanted a ukulele. .By some miracle, I was given one. I'm having a blast with it.