Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019 - 45

1972. It took me two weeks while I was
teaching shop in a local high school in
Eastern Kentucky. Everybody there plays
music. So I applied some of my guitar
skills, and it sounded beautiful. I could
play it! And that was the beginning of my
dulcimer woodworking life."
Five years later, May and his wife,
Frankye, left teaching, relocated to Berea,
bought a farm, raised three daughters, and
built a full-time woodworking business
(which also includes heritage furniture
and small items).
May does all the work tranforming
boards of wood into finished instruments at his home workshop and storefront locations.
"Each piece of wood, and combination
of woods, makes slightly different tones.
For example, walnut will be really mellow. Cherry will be a bit brighter, more
'note specific.' And, poplar has the most
authentic genuine mountain sound," he
explains. "Sapwood at the outer edges of
trees brightens the tone, and the choices
for the fretboard are very important, since
this is where the noting and musical quality happens. I can sometimes customize
this to fit how a person wants to play-
chording, finger picking, strumming, and
so forth."
May also uses some reclaimed boards,
such as poplar from buildings erected in
the early 1900s or before. As we were talking, a local man came in the shop carrying massive rough-cut walnut and black

cherry boards. I eavesdropped while they
reviewed grain quality, color, thickness,
knot placements, and other mysterious
properties that would translate into stunning, world-renowned dulcimers in this
woodworker's hands.
May can be found in his shop, located
in the College Square area of the artisandense town of Berea, Kentucky, carving,
installing frets, and tuning strings. As he
works, he shares, "The word dulcimer is
Biblical from the Book of Daniel. I think
the name was chosen to legitimize making music for religious people who may
not have approved of instruments. It was
okay as long as you played good wholesome songs and mountain ballads," he
says, smiling. "Our Kentucky or Appalachian mountain dulcimer is made to be
played on the lap. It's a quiet sound, and
is usually played by itself.
"Dulcimer popularity kind of languished for a couple of centuries until the
1970s' folk music revival," he continues.
"The instruments became more accurate
and more standardized with more sophisticated music configurations. I chose to
retain the original Kentucky style with its
warmer tones and hourglass shape, edgebeading, hand-carved scroll, and softer
voice fret spacing." Over the decades May
has developed his signature asymmetrical
shape called the Hourdrop© -
a combination of the hourglass
and teardrop.
Sometimes, he also gives

impromptu lessons to whoever stops by
his store. During our interview the front
door bell jingled, and a lady tentatively
walked to the counter hugging a dulcimer.
"I bought this at an estate sale some years
ago, and recently found your tag on the
inside," she said to May. "I don't know
how to play anything except the radio,"
she says with a nervous laugh. "Will this
dulcimer still make music?"
May turned the instrument this way
and that, examining the construction
with expert eyes. His tag on the inside
was numbered in the 9,000s, meaning he
had made her dulcimer approximately 24
years ago. With a couple of light turns to
the keys, he strummed a basic three-chord
sequence found in many songs. Fifteen
minutes later, with a tear of joy in her
eyes, she was able to strum a few basic
notes of "You Are My Sunshine."
The customer left her dulcimer for a
thorough check-up and tuning. And as
she closed the door on the way out of the
shop, May says more to himself than to
me, "Helping people play music - that's
what I love."
Looking ahead: "I've harvested enough
wood for the rest of my lifetime. So I'll
keep making dulcimers for anybody who
wants to play music, and I'll build furniture for my children."

Starter Kit/Insider Tips from Warren May
LEARN TO PLAY:
➻ Study the older instruments.
➻ Buy a premade kit - "you can learn a lot just working with the pieces and
parts."
➻ Watch videos and read books.
➻ Construct a simple version first, focusing on how it feels to work with thin
wood to create something that's easy to play.
➻ Don't worry about cosmetics at first. "The consistency and playability are
the hardest to master."
➻ Have your dulcimer professionally tuned if it's not been played in several
years.
➻ Small repairs or damage don't affect the tone of the instrument very much.
Warrenmay.com
Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen - kyguild.org
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

http://www.warrenamay.com/ http://www.kyguild.org

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019

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