Here are two words that may be unfamiliar to you, but which I find most helpful for determining where to look to play tunes on both mountain and hammered dulcimers:  Authentic and Plagal. (for more on Plagal, see below)

Authentic Tunes are those whose notes are generally found between Do and the octave do.

Plagal Tunes (in a use of the term by ethnomusicicologists) are those which are centered on Do, from Sol below Do to sol above Do.  This is illustrated by the chart below:

Now how is this information useful on a dulcimer?

Hammered Dulcimer:

This is very easy to demonstrate:

Authentic tunes are generally played “in the box.”

Plagal tunes are generally played straight up and down, or like a ladder shape.

Mountain Dulcimer:  

1-5-5 or DAA tuning:  Authentic tunes are played on the melody string(s) between frets 3 and 10 (not using the 6-1/2 fret).

1-5-5 or DAA tuning:  Plagal tunes are played on the melody string(s) between frets 0 and 7 (not using the 6-1/2 fret)

1-5-8 or DAd tuning:  Authentic tunes are played on the melody string(s) between frets 0 and 7 and REQUIRE the use of the 6-1/2 fret.

1-5-8 or DAd tuning: Plagal tunes either start on the middle string at 0 and are continued on the melody string up to the 4th fret;

or are played on the melody string(s) between frets 4 and 11 (not using the 6-1/2 fret)

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More on the unusual word:

Plagal is an unusual word, but it describes something that is very recognizable.  For example, a Plagal Cadence (or ending) is commonly called the “Amen Ending”, for what was once a common convention in Christian hymnsinging in the mid-20th century.  The move from the IV (or subdominant) Chord to the I (or tonic) Chord produces this sound, demonstrated here:  Plagal Cadence.]

Finding just the right gift for someone who plays dulcimers can be difficult because the preferred instruments and accessories are so personal.  My father-in-law once said that about camera lenses when I asked to have one as a gift; and he was right!  They can’t be picked off of the rack—they have to be tailored to each individual.

So here is the perfect gift: support and challenge that nurtures each individual’s growing skill-set and helps them play the music they want to play, in the way they want to play it.  That’s what we aim to deliver in our lessons at dulcimercrossing.com.

Yes, these lessons are pre-recorded, but we are using the experience of teaching in our private studios, the questions and insights gained from our students, and adjusting our lessons based on the feedback from our subscribing students to tailor them to fit.

At dulcimercrossing, we can help you give that kind of gift to the dulcimer player in your life!  We now have Gift Certificates for lessons.

Here’s all you need to do:

Click the Gift Certificate link, print out the PDF, fill in the blanks, and print your own copy.   Contact us for payment details and we’ll set it up.  Then slip it into an envelope or a Christmas card and your gift is ready to be received.

(And you know what?  If you want to give yourself the gift of these lessons and slip it into your own stocking, we won’t tell!)

Congratulations!  You’ve got a dulcimer and now you’re ready to play it.  And we’ve got a brand-new series of lessons to help you successfully meet that goal.

String-Side Up Detail

This String-Side Up/Absolute Beginner Series of lessons on www.dulcimercrossing.com is designed to take you from square one in a step-by-step fashion, through sequential lessons designed to answer your questions, demonstrate and encourage best practices and get you playing music quickly.

Best of all, because you’ll understand what you are doing, you can transfer that knowledge and these skills to the other music you want to play in no time!

“String-side up” means we start from the very beginning in focused lessons for both mountain and hammered dulcimers, answering all the questions that our beginning students have asked us over the years.

If you have further questions that we’ve missed, please contact us with those questions so we can address them!

People always ask me if it is necessary to read music in order to play the hammered dulcimer.  My answer is always the same, “No, it is not necessary.  But it can be good tool.”

It IS necessary to know which notes you have on your instrument in order to tune it, however.

And learning that is a LOT more fun if you have a game to play to help you learn!

When I first started playing hammered dulcimer, I used a vocal pitch pipe to match pitches with the strings and I found it a lot easier to play and tune all of the “Gs” for example, than constantly spinning the pitch pipe around in my lips.  (I also found it hard to hold the pitch pipe with my lips–or teeth–ew! while breathing and trying to get the reed to vibrate at its most accurate and not blow too hard or too softly to play the pitch in tune.

I gradually moved to a single A-440 tuning fork (like I used for my guitar), and found that if I played the “A” note and held it on the soundboard it would make the instrument ring.  Then I would tune all of the “As” on the the board.

Of course, because the other side of a 5th-tuned bridge has a corresponding note, an “in-tune A” on the right side of the treble bridge would give me an “in-tune E” on the left side of the same bridge on the same course, so I could chase all over the instrument and find all the “Es”, once the “As” were in tune.

I found this non-linear way of learning where the notes were on the instrument very helpful (because I am primarily a non-linear thinker!) and it became a game to me.  (e.g. How fast can I find and tune all of the “F# notes”?)

You can play the tuning game, too!  (It’s in the free section of Available Lessons at dulcimercrossing.com)

On my recent tour of the Pacific Northwest, I was able to finally meet Lance Frodsham of Vancouver, Washington.  Lance is a teacher and performer of the mountain dulcimer with several recordings and books of music for dulcimers published by Mel Bay.  He is also one of the coordinators of the annual Kindred Gathering (which celebrated its 37th gathering in the Pacific Northwest this past August!)

Lance and I have corresponded but had never met face to face, or had the opportunity to jam.  We fixed that right off, then he pulled out this epinette des vosges (a 6-string French ancestor/cousin of the mountain dulcimer.)  This one had been built for him by Christian Toussaint in France.

Epinette scroll head

Epinette tailpiece detail

The fretboard is diatonic beneath the paired the melody strings, but chromatic beneath the “middle string” which allows Lance the opportunity to play a mixed mode tune with the major (Ionian) melody on the melody strings and move to the middle string to play in the parallel minor mode (Aeolian) for the second part of the tune before returning back to the melody strings to repeat the A section again.

The extra strings provide wonderful, resonant drone accompaniment.  This was a real treat, thanks, Lance!

Author Annie Dillard counsels that things come to the one who is observant.  (warning–non-dulcimer content:  She’s a terrific author–I highly recommend Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek, An American Childhood, and Teaching a Stone to Talk.  Now, back to dulcimer content:)

There was an open door at the end of the hall on the floor where the Private Guerilla Showcases were being held and I peeked inside to see what kind of music was happening there (I was at the FarWest Regional gathering of the Folk Alliance, in Eugene, Oregon, Oct 20-23) and couldn’t believe my eyes.

Was that really a cimbalom sitting there?  I stepped back out, cleared my eyes and looked back in.  It certainly was!

Joshua Horowitz, of Veretski Pass (Music from the Carpathian Bow) was the player and he and the cello player (Stuart Brotman) were engaged in a conversation with a youthful listener about German traditional music and the effect of the Nazi war machine on how people feel about their traditional music today.

I began talking with Joshua and then he began playing on the cimbalom as the cello and later the seated fiddler (Cookie Segelstein) joined in.  Here is an excerpt of this performance of tunes from the Ukraine.

This video is dark (due to the hotel room lighting) but Joshua is playing the traditional cimbalom style with hammers between his first and second fingers, and they are cotton-wrapped, and he is making use of his dampers as well.

At the FarWest Regional meeting of the Folk Alliance in Eugene, Oregon, Oct 20-23, 2011, I was able to hear this lyrical hammered dulcimer player for the first time.

Carolyn Cruso, from Orcas, Washington, plays in a spirited way bringing music from mystical places.  As we talked, I realized that my workshops at Dusty Strings (Seattle) the previous weekend, included one of her new beginner students.

Let her know you appreciate her playing!  www.carolyncruso.com

Typical Mountain Dulcimer Fretboard (e.g. McSpadden Baritone)

The mountain dulcimer has “Half the strings, and half the frets, but ALL the music,” so quipped my friend and colleague, Joe Collins at the Western Carolina Dulcimer Week this summer in Cullowhee, NC.

He was comparing a 3-string, diatonic mountain dulcimer to a 6-string, chromatic guitar.

Many people like ask me if a dulcimer is “easy to play.”In my experience there are no instruments that are “easy to play.”  But, there are some instruments which are more accessible than others.

A devout appreciator of a wide variety of music, my father was someone who believed he was a musician who could only play the radio.  But once when he came to visit me, I coaxed him to start playing my mountain dulcimer.  He looked up, surprised and exclaimed, “this is fun, Ole Buddy!”  He had discovered that the dulcimer was accessible to him because he could play the music he knew very quickly!

He was so motivated that he went home and built two dulcimers to play!

How could this lover of music, but one who felt he had no musical talent make such a sudden shift in his 60′s?

While it is not impossible to play a “wrong” note on a dulcimer, as Mike Clemmer of Wood-N-Strings Dulcimers in Townsend, Tennessee likes to say,  ”they took off the bad notes,” and it is easier to find the songs you want to play.

Guitar Fretboard (e.g. classical guitar)

The genius of modal or diatonic instruments (which have only 7 steps in a scale, compared to chromatic instruments which have 12 steps in a scale) is that all the notes belong to the scale or mode one is playing.  If you accidentally go too far, or not quite far enough on the fretboard, you are probably close to the note you intended to play, so you can just quickly slide to it!

This makes it easier to play by experimentation, which I call “noodling.”

On a chromatic instrument, however, the player is always worrying about which notes NOT to play, skipping over the un-needed ones and if accidentally landing on them, hearing some sour tones, which can be very discouraging.

So even though the guitar, as a chromatic instrument, has more notes to choose from, I can get a whole bunch of the music I want to play on a dulcimer, which has fewer notes!  It is just more economical that way and I save a whole bunch of energy that is not wasted on worrying and channel that into playing the music!

Less actually IS more!

I’ve got to agree with Joe:  the mountain dulcimer has “1/2 the frets, 1/2 the strings,  but ALL the music!”

(If you want to know more about the modes visit the Available Lessons section of dulcimercrossing.com and explore the Music Theory and Map of the Mountain Dulcimer free lessons.)

While one tour this month in Bettendorf, Iowa, I was given the opportunity to provide workshops for hammered dulcimer players at the home of Linda & Reg Shoesmith.

On the morning I was leaving, Linda brought out a treasured “find” to share:

A mountain dulcimer built by Homer Ledford, one of the famous Kentucky builders of the 20th century!

Homer Ledford Dulcimer

A unique feature of this instrument is that the only fret that went under all 4 strings was the 3rd fret.

Only 3rd fret crosses the entire fretboard

3rd Fret Detail

Tailpiece carving det

Holding Homer's dulcimer

What an exciting opportunity!

Click here to listen to me playing my tune Soaring on this lovely instrument!  I use that 3rd fret on the bass string.  (I also stopped the bass string where the 4th fret would be for the finish of the tune–playing in fretless style!)

(You can learn to play this tune on both mountain and hammered dulcimers in our lessons at dulcimercrossing.com!)

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