In 2006,  the dulcimer world lost one its greatest talents and advocates, David L. Schnaufer,  to a battle with cancer.  He left behind legions of friends, admirers, and inspired dulcimer players who mourn his loss, and celebrate his life.  His music especially is in all of us who ever had the privilege of meeting him, hearing him, and learning from him, and his influence continues to spread as we continue to share what he taught us with others.  For more about David's life, check out the "Remembering David" page which you can get to from the Nashville Dulcimer Quartet's website.

September was David's birth month, so once again, I am taking this opportunity to post one of his original songs.  This month's offering is an arrangement of a song he co-wrote with Herb McCullough called "Wait A Minute".  David and Herb had previously collaborated on "Starry Lullaby", and this is another pretty waltz-time tune, though there are no lyrics with this one.  The goal was to write an instrumental "bump tune" - something that might be used as a musical "interlude" between radio programming segments.  As such, it was important for it to be about a minute in length, and this one definitely gets in under the wire!   It has been used as such for several programs on NPR over the years. 

The song was recorded on David's 1992 release "Dulcimer Sessions", as a dulcimer/violin duet that also featured Mark O'Connor.   David's original arrangement was done in the key of G, using a capo at the 3rd fret out of D-A-d tuning.  I've transcribed that arrangement, and in addition, have provided a version in the key of D that does not require the use of a capo. 

Enjoy the tune, and as David would say, keep on pickin'!

Cheers,

--Tull

Music by David Schnaufer and Herb McCullough
Copyright © 1991,  SFL Records
All Rights Reserved    Used by permission