subject: Playing A Musical Dulcimer [print this page] What is a dulcimer and how do you play it? This instrument has been around since the early 1800's.
There are two kinds, one is called an Appalachian and the other is called a hammered. The Appalachian is a fretted, plucked instrument that is also known as a mountain, lap, or a hog fiddle.
The hammered is shaped like trapezoid and is played by being struck with a hammer. The most common one is the Appalachian and is quite different from the hammered kind.
The hammered kind is played using mallets or hammers in each hand. All of the strings are stretched over the trapezoid shaped board.
This instrument is considered part of the percussion group (which includes drums and other things that are played using mallets) and can also be considered a type of string instrument as well. The Appalachian dulcimer has a fret board just like a guitar but it can only be tuned to one key at a time.
So every time that you want to play a song in a different key, you must first change the notes by tuning it to that specific key. Like a guitar, it is plucked by the strings using a pick.
Unlike a guitar, you must lay it flat against your lap instead of holding it up against your upper body. You still use two hands to play it and the fretting on the board helps you to figure out where to place your hands so that you can play the correct note.
It is a fretted string instrument that is part of the zither family and has either three or four strings. They first appeared in the regions that were dominated by the Irish and Scottish people in America.
Even though there is no history of it in Ireland or Scotland, there were other instruments that were closely related to the Appalachian dulcimer. These other instruments were also types of diatonic fretted zithers found in Europe.
It was widely used in old American folk music and was played a lot in small home gatherings around that area in the mountains. Jean Ritchie was a Kentucky musician who introduced it to New York City audiences in 1950 to try and achieve an urban folk music revival in the United States.
In the 1960's, another musician by the name of Richard Farina became the first person to play the dulcimer in a less traditional fashion that it was known for. He showed how similar it was in its tone to other Middle Eastern and Asian instruments.
They have since developed an electric dulcimer which is incorporated in some modern music. They also have regular festivals which feature this instrument in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
It is typically known as an older generation type of music but it is slowly gaining more popularity among the younger generation. It is fairly easy to play which makes it easy to learn.
They are fairly expensive but teachers use them in educational settings whenever they can because students can easily learn how to play them. Some of these music classes actually make their own home made dulcimers from cardboard since most schools do not have enough funding to provide students with musical instruments.
Some other types of these include courting, bowed, banjo, cardboard, resonator, electric, aquavina, stick and double neck dulcimers. They are all basically the same thing and can achieve the same type of sound but they are designed for different purposes.
They are all played with two hands with one hand that can pluck or strum the strings and the other hand that can fret. When you play it this way, you are able to produce whole chords instead of just a single note at one time.
After you pluck the strings, there is a constant drone that you can hear in the background which sounds similar to bagpipes and it continues with each note or chord that you play. With the combination of both the buzz and the droning strings, it produces a very unique sound that is can only be heard on the dulcimer.
