About
Folk Notes
Folk Notes is a folk instrument shop
specializing in dulcimers, and located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It
is owned and run by myself, Dennis Den Hartog, and my wife Linda.
I acquired my first mountain dulcimer in 1994. The dream of
owning our own folk music and dulcimer shop began sometime in
1996. I began building dulcimers for myself and my family
in
the fall of 1995. The dream became a reality in February 1997
after I began building dulcimers for sale to others. Folk Notes
first opened as a retail space in an antique and craft mall, but we
soon
realized that we needed to be present to sell the dulcimers, and
the time spent on sales cut into my building time. My first
mountain dulcimers sold quite quickly, and we began ordering dulcimers
from
other
builders in order to keep up inventory and offer more variety. We soon
added other folk instruments and accessories. By summer the store
moved into a separate space in the same building. A couple of
moves
later, after Linda and I bought a larger home with more space and a
large separate
workshop, Folk Notes was moved into our front room and several others, so it now occupies almost half our house
while the
rest is our personal living area(except
for the bundles of boxes under the bed).Folk Notes is run as a one person shop on weekdays, while Linda works at an outside job so we can have health insurance. It was at her insistance that Folk Notes was started, and it is due to her support that I can work at something I love so much. On weekends and at festivals she helps me with customers, and she also is the bookkeeper.
On weekdays I teach mountain dulcimer and autoharp lessons. Please call to schedule your visit with us so we can serve both you and our students better. I am sometimes out performing or running errands, and when I can make the time for it, may be out in the shop working on dulcimers or banj-mos with a noisy planer or router
running,
so if you
call and we aren't here or are unable to take your call, please leave a message.
Dennis DenHartog
Visit my personal site: Denny's Dulcimer Den
Our greeters; Sammi(left), and Jack(right)
Meet Our Greeters: Our two Jack Russel Terriers, or sometimes: Jack Russel Terrorists
Their full names are:
Samantha, and Jack'B'Nimble. Sammi is a
standard
'smooth coat' JRT. Jack is what
they call a 'rough coat' JRT. They
love everyone, and really enjoy visitors. Sammi often has to be shut up
in her
crate when customers are here because she
is very demanding that people play with her, dragging out all her toys until someone plays 'fetch' with her.