Remembering a legend

Editor’s Note: Howard “Howie” Mitchell was born on February 22, 1932, in Lexington, Virginia, and passed away on February 9, 2023, also in Lexington, Virginia. His son David Mitchell hosted a memorial on Zoom in October 2023, where friends and family shared memories and made connections. Howie was mentioned many times and featured twice in DPN. The articles are abridged below. 

An Evening With Howie Mitchell 

Vol. 2 Nos. 1 & 2 (1976)

By Kevin Roth

Kevin Roth: How did you get interested in playing the Mountain Dulcimer?

Howie Mitchell: Well, I remember being in my last year of college about 1954; I heard some recordings by Jean Ritchie and I liked the sound of it so I became aware of the dulcimer at that point. I was already in a folk club at Cornell University and shortly after that I had the chance to visit a Doctor Ascher Treat, in Dumont, New Jersey. He had two dulcimers that he had collected. He had been interested in collecting some folk music also. One evening he showed these to me, and played a few songs; and about 10:00 he indicated that he was ready to retire for the evening and left me with the instruments. I remember being fascinated with them and playing on them for what seemed to be just a short while but when I looked up it was about three in the morning. I was thoroughly hooked at that point. That was my conscientiously aware point of getting into it.

KR: You are very well known and respected for taking on a new idea as far as the four-string dulcimer is concerned; the relief cuts and all the ideas that you wrote about in your book and record set on Folk Legacy: “How to Make & Play the Mountain Dulcimer (After a Fashion).” Did you find recording and writing the book to be much of a problem as far as getting your ideas across in a way that would be helpful to others?

HM: No. It’s kind of funny. The writing of the book started to take form from the gradual growth of my enjoyment of working with the instrument. So it wasn’t a deliberate, separate action of NOW I am sitting down and starting to write about it. I gradually began to think about it and then I began to try a trial presentation of the brochure. The recording sessions pretty much went along the same way in that I thought and created ideas right there on the spot. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, but mostly we created things right there on the spot.

KR: Are you pleased with the results? You seem to be in the eyes of many the father of the dulcimer. (Much laughter)

HM: Oh sure. It’s great.

KR: What are your feelings towards the electric dulcimer and the use of the dulcimer by such artists as Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, and other pop artists who play the dulcimer in concerts, recordings, etc.?

HM: I don’t think I have ever heard an electric dulcimer. I tend to have a prejudice about it and a resistance towards it, and I know from experience that a lot of times when I have a resistance towards a thing I have never heard it is not necessarily valid, so I recognise this feeling is based on a non-experience rather than an experience.

KR: How about the idea of getting away from the traditional style of playing the dulcimer?

HM: Well, I sure had fun doing it (laughter). My musical background was classical, and the classical guitar music that I grew up with as a child had some effect on me so that at one point in trying to play dulcimer I attempted to emulate that kind of sound. It didn’t bother me.

KR: On the dulcimer there is sometimes an extra fret called the 6 ½ fret or “H” fret. Was the idea of the extra fret started here at your home?

HM: That’s a surprise to me. I never knew about that although I know that when I was building the instruments I did decide to add that fret without being influenced by anyone. Basically, it enables you to play a major scale starting at two different places on the instrument, thus you don’t have to re-tune as much as if you didn’t have the extra fret.

KR: Did you know any of the well known dulcimer players, like Richard Fariña?

HM: Yep. I had talked to Richard just a little bit. I met him a couple of times and remembered him as a very interesting and warm, quiet and gentle person. When I met him – it seems to me it was in the early 60s – I remember he was just setting up a wood shop and was about to construct a dulcimer, so that was before he learned to play. I remember that it felt good to be with him.

KR: What other dulcimer people have you had contact with that have influenced your life as far as dulcimer playing is concerned?

HM: Jean Ritchie I would say is one of the few. I met her when I was in the Navy. I visited with her one weekend while I had a few days leave, and I can remember being impressed by her fame. I wasn’t sure that she would accept me at the stage of development I was in at that point in time, but it turned out that that wasn’t true. I knew her husband built dulcimers and so I figured it would be ok if I’d invite myself in terms of learning how to build a dulcimer from him, and maybe get to see Jean Ritchie at the same time.

KR: In your stages of construction and development, what did you find the most interesting as far as development is concerned?

HM: Well, it sounds kind of funny, but the most significant thing I found was that there was nothing significant to know about. It was not that I didn’t find anything significant, it’s just that I discovered that I didn’t have to use any particular shape or wood or material to build a successful dulcimer. As a matter of fact, there was one week where I was trying out different materials, and in order to do that I created a stick with frets and strings on it and I would press it against the walls, the floor, on the trash can, on the window pane and on the desk and I found that these objects and these surfaces emitted amazingly good tone. This revealed to me that even objects that were not deliberately made for the purpose of music will release music anyway. So that was very comforting, because you then know that most anything you use will work. It is also a little hard on the ego if one thinks that it is skill that makes an instrument sound good when anything will tend to work anyway.

Hey Howie, It’s Been A While

Vol. 17 No. 3 (1991)

by Erik Blomstedt

Howie’s interest in the dulcimer began in the early 1950’s, and Jean Ritchie recalls his visit. He was serving on the aircraft carrier USS Leyte and had made a dulcimer. While she didn’t like his use of plywood, she did like the instrument and they made a few tapes that evening.

Howie’s work with the dulcimer led him to think of possible developments. He considered such questions as, “What will happen if I put four strings on instead of three? What if I pair up light and heavy strings together, tuned an octave apart like a 12-string guitar? What will happen if I depart from tradition and fret all the strings instead of just the melody string?” (Remember, we are talking about the early days of the dulcimer revival.) He is also generally credited with another major innovation, the 6 1/2 or H fret. Howie also used dulcimer building as part of his physics course at the Hawthorne School in Washington, DC, where he taught for 20 years. Remember the “dulciless?” That was a strung fretboard that he would place on a table top or suitcase to prove that unconventional sources can make good soundboxes. He built over 75 instruments (including some hammered dulcimers).

“Most important for me was that Howie provided creative ideas to try and the impetus to do so. This caused me to experiment more than I might otherwise have done. He inspires people to think creatively.”

Bonnie Carol

Mitchell’s involvement with the dulcimer was part of his interest in intuitive functioning, fantasy-coincidence and creativity in the general sense. 

The 1970s were a time of major changes in Howie’s life. His interest in music (including the dulcimer) faded; there was a divorce and relocation to Florida. He became intrigued with personal computers and explored photography, ultraviolet light phenomena, high-voltage Tesla coils, and silk screen. This was all part of the general flow of his creative interests.

In 1981 he moved to Lexington, Virginia, to care for his mother. He developed new interests. Spending more time at home as his mother’s health declined. 

His correspondence with “exquisite and nurturing friends” across the country continued. Bonnie Carol, noting her long “journal-like” correspondence with Howie, writes, “Howie’s influence on my dulcimer building is obvious. I learned the arched fingerboard from him, the use of an extra fret, different tunings, a style of playing after classical guitar players and using four equidistant strings. His version of “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes” transformed my idea of the sensitivity of which the instrument is capable. Most important for me was that Howie provided creative ideas to try and the impetus to do so. This caused me to experiment more than I might otherwise have done. He inspires people to think creatively.”

Mary Lou Orthey saw Howie’s “giftedness” in his recent visit to their home and dulcimer workshop. “You picked up a dulcimer after years of drought and made the air literally rain with music, almost tangibly so,” she wrote to him. Howard feels this giftedness or “genius functioning” isn’t just for a chosen few, but are processes that can be learned.

If anything, Howard’s changing interests should remind us not to be limited in our pursuits, even with the dulcimer. Technical mastery shouldn’t be the final 1goal, but rather to enjoy your dulcimer playing and construction. Whether or not you can chord, if you spent $200 or $2,000 on your instrument or if it’s made of laminate or some exotic hardwood, who cares? More importantly, what are you doing with that dulcimer?

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Memories of Howie

By Jerry Rockwell

I had known about Howie from my earliest days playing and building mountain dulcimers, and he was certainly an important figure in the more recent history of both hammered and mountain dulcimers. I remember hearing all the Golden Ring albums and I appreciated his singing and playing.

I think the first time I actually met Howie was in 1999 or 2000, when we were both teaching and performing at the week-long workshop at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. At that event, Howie actually purchased one of my 6-string Large Hourglass model dulcimers, which filled me with joy!! I think he put much thicker strings on it later and used it as a bass dulcimer.

A few years later, perhaps in 2002 or so, Howie programmed his brand-new GPS system (probably a Garmin) for a trip from Virginia to Athens County, Ohio, where Mary and I were living at the time. I think there were a few glitches in the directions, but he arrived safe and sound, and he was charmed at this new technology!

I can remember singing and playing on our front porch, and hearing some great stories from Howie. Some of the most intense discussions we had were about the various methods of fret placement for the dulcimer. Howie was well-known for favoring mean-tone temperament and he had a fascinating way of laying that out graphically. I have studied tunings and temperaments fairly diligently from my time in music school at Ohio State, and my money has always been on 12-tone Equal Temperament, which is what all of our modern fretted instruments are tuned in. So we basically agreed to disagree on this! 

Howie and I exchanged many letters over the years, and he was an avid letter-writer with many people he knew. He was interested in all sorts of things, from various spiritual authors, to Colloidal Silver, to all kinds of rubber stamps he used to decorate the outside of the envelopes he sent. I really miss Howie!!!

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