Whew!

David Beede's home page - more quasi esoteric folk stuff on assorted semi-obscure instruments...

Man - it's good to get caught up, sort of.

In a nutshell, I had that Mac meltdown and had to scramble to get everything back and operating so I could continue my video biz, which makes the money (as much as I'd like to suggest that being a musician has led to a life of ease, it still only butters one side o' the bread.) To complicate matters, while all this is going on, we've been adding a room onto the house here at Casa de Milagro; a new studio for me. Something a little larger than the broom closet I've been working in since Jae and I married almost four years ago. Now, that room is finished and I've moved in, so life has gotten a little less hectic, thankfully, even in the midst of Christmas craziness.

I've been enjoying "Helen", my new Mike Clemmer double-neck dulcimer - she's something else. Great tone - LOVE the 1+ and 8+ frets - so much has opened up because of them and, I know, I'm skirting dangerously close to chromaticism - but as Butch Ross says, "I can quit anytime."

The Ken Light flute has been extremely soul-opening. I've taken to playing it whenever the mood strikes me, which is often. Walking through the house, standing in the backyard. I even take it with me wherever we go, just in case I'll have a moment to play a little bit - it's become that much a part of my day to day life. Well, when it rains, it pours. At the gig this past weekend, Roger's friend Tom brought along a bunch of his NA flutes for me to try, and I played one during my set. The very next day, Jae surprised me with an Island Flute by Ray Wood. Now, I'm sort of spoiled on the plastic flute, but I'll take that one traveling with me, since it's pretty much indestructible.

Today, I began working on my first structured piece for Native American flute. The chord changes are:

Bm/Em/D/F#m repeated

then G/Bm/D/F#m as a bridge.

At least that's how it's going now. These changes all mesh well with the flute, which is in F# - and I'm bouncing in and out of major and minor modes. I couldn't have picked something simple to start with, could I?

On the dulcimer front, thanks to the new fret additions, I've been noodling with quite a few tunes. Seems like I'm doing a lot more arranging than learning tab these days. And some pretty odd stuff is floating into my brain to try. I have a list here on the desk with titles like:

"Drowsy Maggie"
"Fun, Fun, Fun"
"Moon River"
"Whiskey In The Jar"
"Dead Man's Party"
"Every Breath You Take"

and a tune I'd pledged never to learn, "Margaritaville." Why? I don't know why. But there it is.

Check out this instrumental version of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree." Jae's going to lay vocals on it tomorrow morning - she's so stoked! It's like her inner Lucy finally came to the surface and she wants to be in the band.

The next big event is The Suwannee Dulcimer Retreat, January 11 and 12th at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida. There's a link to organizer David Beede's home page above and here is a direct quote blurb thingy about the event isself:

SUWANNEE DULCIMER RETREAT
Date: Friday & Saturday, January 11 & 12, 2008.
Description: Come enjoy a weekend of music and fun at the Suwannee Dulcimer Retreat on January 11 & 12, 2008 at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in historic White Springs, Florida. The weekend offers workshop sessions taught by foremost mountain & hammer dulcimer and autoharp players from throughout the United States. In addition, there will be concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:00 pm that will feature your favorite musicians. This year’s Mountain Dulcimer instructors include: Karen Mueller, Steve Eulburg, Bing Futch, Joel Paul, Mary Z. Cox, Susan Boyer Haley, Jan Milner, Aaron O’Rourke, Doug Felt, and David Beede. Hammered Dulcimer instructors include Steve Eulburg and Ray Belanger. Our autoharp instructors are Karen Mueller and Cheryl Belanger. The entire retreat costs $85.00, which includes entrance to both Friday and Saturday concerts and workshops.

I'm stoked to be a part of this event and really looking forward to it!

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