After retiring several years ago, St. Paul resident Russell Paziuk decided to play it by ear, literally, and followed his passion while at the same time preserving some of his Ukrainian heritage.
“I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I thought, ‘I’d like to build a dulcimer’,” Paziuk remembered telling himself after numerous conversations with his wife shortly after he retired.
The specific type of dulcimer Paziuk envisioned building was a hammered dulcimer, or Tsymbaly, which has 120 strings and is not a common instrument that is played, let alone constructed from scratch.
“This instrument was probably brought into our county at the turn of the century when the early settlers came in from Ukraine,” he said. “I wanted to maintain a little bit of our Ukrainian heritage. I’d like to preserve some of our music.”
“We don’t hear the type of music we heard in the ‘30s, ‘40s or ‘50s,” he added. “The older people really enjoy it, but they know the music. I certainly can’t play rock ‘n’ roll on this.”
It might not be able to handle a Guns N’ Roses riff, but the hammered dulcimer can hold about 2,000 pounds worth of pressure when tuning the strings, according to Paziuk who also pointed out he had little instruction the first time he built one.
“It was a difficult build,” he explained. “Even though I owned it and I played it, you just don’t build a box like that. It’s got to be strong, it has to have sound and it’s got to be good looking. My first one took me about three years.”
“It has to be built exactly to the degrees necessary for tuning purposes,” he added. “You couldn’t tune it if it didn’t have the right angles. That was the biggest issue. Then you have to build a frame that’s strong enough to withstand the pressure.”
Starting out as a musician around the age of 10 and receiving encouragement from a teacher at the county school he attended, Paziuk said he often stayed after school to practice playing the dulcimer. He then performed at weddings and parties before eventually picking up other instruments like the guitar, bass and violin.
Now with a collection of homemade hammered dulcimers, which Paziuk said are for sale, and a number of performances at seniors homes, hospitals and other events, one of which was attended by the premier of Alberta, the musician/ craftsman is set on recording and possibly releasing a DVD containing instructions on how to build the instrument from scratch. He still prefers to play it by ear, though.
“To me playing by ear and playing from your heart is the way I want to play,” he said. “I play it the way I feel. To me that is music.”
Paziuk said if anyone is interested in learning how to build a hammered dulcimer or is interested in purchasing one of his, they can reach him at 780-645-2386.