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Make aRay Jacobs’RockyMountainDulcimermake thisGORGEOUSsoundinginstrumentfrom a 2x4,cardboard, &plywood. It’scheap, beautiful,& easy-to-buildand-play.by Kiko Denzer,with helpand inspiration fromRay and Shirley JacobsHandPrintPress.com
“IN THE END,WE SHALL HAVEHAD ENOUGHOF CYNICISM,SCEPTICISM ANDHUMBUG, ANDWILL WANTTO LIVE-MORE MUSICALLY.”*Ray’s wifeShirley isholding one ofRay’s cardboardguitars. Ather foot is adulcimer.* Vincent Van Gogh, to his brother Theo, 24 Sept., 1888 in Arles.Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger,ed. Robert Harrison, no. 542. http://webexhibits.org
OT H E R S B Y K I KO D E N Z E R :Build Your Own Earth OvenDig Your Hands in the DirtMake a Simple SundialHand Print PressMake a Ray Jacobs’ Rocky Mountain Dulcimer: Build this Gorgeous SoundingInstrument from a 2x4, Cardboard, & Plywood. It’s cheap, Beautiful, & Easy-toBuild-and-PlayKiko Denzer, January, 2013ISBN: 9780615748931Published by Hand Print Press (paper & PDF) under a creative commons license:Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)You may share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for any non-commercial purpose— but please do let us know! And YES! holler if you have ideas for a derivative project.Downloadable PDF available free from www.handprintpress.com:(AND 0RINT 0RESS s 0/" s "LODGETT /2 s s 541-438-4300Also contact us! about dulcimer kits & (discounted!) bulk paperback orders
ContentsForeword . 2Introduction . 3Tools & Materials: what you’ll need . 5Step 1: The Neck . 7Neck Dimensions (chart) . 8Step 2: Frets: Locating Fret Slots . 12Cutting Fret Slots . 13Get Your Frets in Place . 14Fret Chart . 15Prepping Frets for Glueing . 16Glueing the Frets in Place . 18Filing the Frets . 19Fret Ends . 20Initial Shaping of the Neck . 21Fiddle Break! (Instrument photos) . 22Step 3: The Plywood Back . 26Cutting the Blocks for Attaching the Neck . 29Glueing Blocks to Base . 30Glueing Neck to Body . 31Cutting Brace Blocks for the Cardboard . 32Step 4: Selecting & Cutting Cardboard . 34Glueing Sides & Top . 36Preview: How to Determine the Proper Bridge Height . 38Step 5: Lacquer Finish for the Neck . 39Step 6: Fitting the Cardboard Top . 40Step 7: Remanufacturing Tuners . 42Step 8: Tuners: Installing. 44Mounting Tuners . 45Step 9: Mounting the Bridge . 46Step 10: Mounting Strings & Finishing the Bridge . 47Play your Dulcimer . 48Basic Chord Chart . 50Musical Resources . 51STORIES: Meeting Ray . 52FAME: An American Teacher & her Czech StudentsLearn About Language & Harmony . 59About Hand Print Press (other titles) . 61Dulcimer Kits & Cottage Industry: ordering & participating . 62
IRay Jacobs one May in California; he wasteaching people to make something that lookedlike a 3-string banjo out of cardboard and scrapwood — but it sounded.amazing!METIt looked so simple, I thought “shoot, Icould play that!” Ray told stories about 20years of teaching fourth graders, not justso they could make and play these simple,3-stringed instruments but so they couldparticipate in the world. He put an old V-8engine in the classroom and challengedthem to take it apart and put it together;he took them to a local pond to squelchand splash and take buckets of pond water back to class, where they put it in split55-gallon drums so they could play andlearn when their “other work” was done;he shepherded 20 generations of kids into5th grade, many of them with dulcimersthey had made themselves, on which theycould all play melody and chords — extraordinary gifts!I thought, “someone should put this intoa book so every 4th grade teacher can dowhat Ray did!” I’ve been a “teaching artist” in the Oregon schools, and know howWLJKW WKH EXGJHWV DUH DQG KRZ GLIÀFXOW LW is for kids to get good, hands-on activities.When teachers are so bound by schedules,test requirements, and policy that theycan’t afford to engage kids in anythingQRW VSHFLÀHG LQ WKH FXUULFXOXP LW WDNHV DQ outsider to do the creative projects.Life and beauty grow by exchanges ofgratitude, grace, and peace, by which welearn about love and feeling and how tobelong to something larger than our own2small selves.It comes naturally, askingonly that weparticipate.Participationmakes community, and communitymakes the soil where beauty feeds andculture grows.Ray’s dulcimer is the kind of gift thatmakes it possible . But to measure theexchange only in dollars is like trying togrow a garden on concrete. Seeds — life!— need dirt, and dirt came as a gift longbefore we divided and converted it into aspeculative commodity. Real estate, property, (intellectual or material), belongs tolife, as we do. If we make merchandise ofeverything we think, feel, say, or make,we enslave ourselves. A free people sing,celebrate, and share. Ray told me, “if Ican spend an hour or two making music,it’s a good day.”This book is published under a creativecommons license: please share the freePDF. The paperback can be had fromHand Print Press or Amazon; that pricehelps pay production, distribution and,(perhaps) some living and working expenses for author and family. Ray alsosells instructional CDs, insruments, aswell as his and Shirley’s music. Writethem at POB 794, Eureka MT 59917.Make A Ray Jacobs’ Rocky Mountain Dulcimerhandprintpress.com
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¼ µ ¼ µ II¼ ¼ IIIµ IV¼ ¼¼ VI¼ µVII¼ µ µ V VIII ¼ µ ¼(22 5¼8”) ,; ;¼ µ µ the fret chart Iray numbers the notes in roman numerals on the neck so you caneasily see them when learning; note the 2 unnumbered half stepsUsing this chart7KH ERWWRP EDU LV \RXU GXOFLPHU QHFN Z H[DJJHUDWHG IUHW EXPSVµ DQG 5D\·V 5RPDQ 1XPHUDO VFDOH QXPEHU 9,, LV WKH WK QRWH RI WKH RFWDYH VLQFH WKH VWULQJ DORQH LV D QRWH 7KH VPDOO DUDELF QXPEHUV LQGLFDWH WKH SURJUHVVLYH FRPSDVV DUFV IRU DOO WKH KDOI VWHSV RQ D FRQYHQWLRQDO JXLWDU RX·OO GUDZ RI WKHP EXW \RX·OO RQO\ DFWXDOO\ LQVWDOO IUHWV 7KH VODQWHG QXPEHUV DUH WKH DFWXDO PHDVXUH IURP WKH FHQWHU RI HDFK IUHW WR WKH FHQWHU RI WKH QXW Go slow, be careful, pay attention!15Make A Ray Jacobs’ Rocky Mountain Dulcimerhandprintpress.com
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Make a Ray Jacobs’ Rocky Mountain Dulcimer: Build this Gorgeous Sounding Instrument from a 2x4, Cardboard, & Plywood. It’s cheap, Beautiful, & Easy-to-Build-and-Play Kiko Denzer, January, 2013 ISBN: 9780615748931 Published by Hand Print Press (paper &
