Last July, when we were at our big dulcimer festival, we bought another instrument for me to play, a marimbula. I didn’t want to give up my autoharp, but we felt the strong beat of the marimbula would enhance our music.

The photos to the left are of a marimbula. It sounds like an upright bass but easier to tote around. The thought, when we bought it, was that I could learn how to play it with our Florida group, Kings Strings.

(Kings Strings is made up of four of us: Wayne Conklin and my husband John play hammered dulcimer, and Linda Conklin and me are on autoharp. John occasionally also plays tenor banjo, Wayne sometimes sings and adds ukulele, and Linda sometimes plays Irish drum aka a bodhran, in addition to her autoharp.)

I’m really not very musical and definitely lack confidence. I was easily discouraged when John picked it up and played my new instrument perfectly, while I was struggling.

We brought it with us when we came south in October but I only played the autoharp and the marimbula sat idle in our dining room.

At a recent practice, the Conklins convinced me to try playing the marimbula. We needed the beat and that instrument would help. With their encouragement I made the effort. I’ll admit, it sounded pretty good so I practiced after that and prepared to play three or four tunes with our group, when we performed for a pizza party on April 4th. (I picked tunes with a Latin beat.)

The day of the performance arrived. I was tense and John didn’t feel well. Tension and illness don’t help a performance. The last minute run-through went smoothly but a good dress-rehearsal is said to be a bad sign.

During our show, although my playing of the Marimbula was successful, I was concentrating on the marimbula so intently that I lost it on the autoharp. I’ve never played worse (on the ‘harp). In fact all four of us had problems on one tune or another.

The audience may not have known that we weren’t playing as good as we usually do. We were disappointed but our audience loved us.

Since that night, we’ve had gobs of favorable comments. Audiences don’t notice small flaws and I think folks felt supportive of my playing because I told them it was my first public exposure with my new instrument. That helped get them on our side.

Next time I’ll feel more comfortable with my big baby, the Marimbula. I am determined to do better!!!