Three Years in Murphy!!

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The piano didn't come to Murphy with me when we moved here three years ago.  Trying to successfully move a baby grand would have been quite a task so I put it under consignment at Piano Depot in Holly Hill with Herb Young.......the shyster.  (which I didn't know at the time. But that's a whole story in itself.)  Anyway, I've missed playing the piano, been lost without making my music.  Over the past year I've thought about buying just a piano keyboard or taking guitar lessons.  Then attending the John Campbell Folk Concerts got me to thinking about Appalachian music so I began researching the different instruments, their sounds, and levels of difficulty in learning to play.  The mountain lap dulcimer has been an important part of Appalachian history for over 300 years.  The light bulb went on!  I love this area and it's history.  Today I bought a McSpadden hourglass lap dulcimer.

I just recently found out we have the KelischekWorkshop for Historical Instruments in Brasstown.  It is the most fascinating place.  Anyone with a love for musical instruments would feel like they were among the elves in Santa's workshop.  They make hurdy-gurdies, gemshorns, pennywhistles, Baroque and modern violins, mountain dulcimers, and so many other instruments that I had never heard of.  This musical family moved to Brasstown from Germany about 50 years ago and their emphasis is on early music and folk music.  The Geigenbaumeister (Master Violin Maker) himself spent about an hour with me educating me on the Appalachian dulcimer, playing them for me so I could hear the different tones and sounds.  He will be 81 years old tomorrow and still runs the Workshop.  What an absolutely fascinating man. 


 I have the one on the left.
the family outside of their home and shop in Brasstown

Since I got home and starting plucking my new dulcimer, I can now play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and I'm working on "Amazing Grace."  I still have to count the frets before placing or sliding my fingers.  The hills are alive with the sound of the dulcimer!

Three years ago on Monday, the 19th, I retired!!  And on the 20th we moved to Murphy. 

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