Some Assembly Required

Six months ago I bought a new Kantele kit, which I never mentioned here in my blog. Why would a zither enthusiast like myself not mention this you may ask? After all, I was incredibly excited about the opportunity to build my own kantele, and I poured over the videos showing my how to build it. But it was a secret, because I bought one for my twin sister Jane too, and our birthday is June 17th. So I kept them in the closet and only brought them out once in a while to look over the woods and kit parts. She still can't believe that I never even dropped a hint as to what I did, getting us twins each a kantele kit. I had to get them in January because they were on sale. It's my Finnish frugality flexing it's muscles I suppose. So now, FINALLY, I get to gush about this new project that I'll be working on. Jane's not going to have much time until fall to build hers, but I might just have to start mine early. I've already waited six months after all!

So that's what I will be making for myself, and helping my sister make hers as well. I am so looking forward to having a 10 string kantele! It's going to be so much fun learning new songs and having someone to play some duets with. I bought the kits from Music Makers, and they came with all the parts including the correct size drill bit for drilling the holes for the zither pins. When I stumbled upon it online, I was so excited that I knew that both my twin and I needed one, and since Jane loves woodworking, it was the perfect gift. Since I found them just after Christmas, the next best thing was a birthday present. The other thing I loved about it was the chance to order from a Minnesota based business, think globally and buy locally as they say. The only catch was keeping it all a secret for six months. Only my husband knew what I was up to, and he kept the secret as well. Did I mention I was EXCITED! And honestly, I can hardly believe I kept this whole thing a secret myself. But now the kits are out of the closet and I can start assembling my new 10 string kantele. Yay! Another instrument to play!

1 1/2 Fret - or more than you wanted to know about a Mountain Dulcimer

As I struggle to play C as a bar chord on the 6th fret, my Mountain Dulcimer teacher took a moment to mention to me, that my life might be easier if I have a 1 1/2 fret added to my dulcimer. What's that you might ask? It's an extra fret between the 1st and 2nd fret. This would enable me to play a C chord as an easy transition from Em, AND play an F chord, which does not exist on my lovely diatonic dulcimer tuned to D A D. I told you it was more than you wanted to know. Why do I love obscure zither instruments anyway? Why couldn't I have just tried taking up the guitar...again.

Well the guitar route failed me twice, and I do so love the sound of an Autoharp, the drone of the Mountain Dulcimer, and the ringing of a Kantele. So here I am, learning a song that would be so much easier with a 1 1/2 fret. For now I must do it the hard way, but once my music party is over, she might be put into the hands of a luthier to make my life that much easier. Because I want to play in the key of C as well, without having to re-tune. Call me crazy, but I think that variety is the spice of life. The instrument pictured above has both a 1 1/2 and 8 1/2 fret.

Also, an instrument doesn't have to be hard to learn to play to make beautiful music. The mountain dulcimer provides that, and as it turns out, allows for a little more customization in order to play it the way you want it. My first custom change was to remove the second melody string, turning my four string into a three string, it simplifies chording and allows equal play on all three strings for the melody. Now I want to add an extra fret. Technically, I already have 2 extras, the 6 1/2 and the 13 1/2 which are very common on modern mountain dulcimers. Heck, you can even get a fully chromatic one these days, which is kind of like taking up a guitar.

So, I will check with Hoffman Guitars, and see how much they would charge to add an additional fret...or two.