Appalachian Dulcimer / Mountain Dulcimer
Looking for my CD? It's called Dulcimers Are Go.
About the Appalachian Dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer, or mountain dulcimer, is a fretted folk zither that is semi-indigenous to the mountainous areas of the eastern United States. Evolved from older European instruments (especially, it seems, the German scheitholt), the dulcimer has two defining characteristics:
The dulcimer typically features a diatonic fretboard. That is, on any string you can only play all the notes of a major scale with a flat seventh (e.g., a mixolydian mode). Most modern models also include a major seven on the so-called 6 1/2 fret; a few are starting to feature 1 1/2 frets as well — or even full chromatic fret boards — for expanded musical options.
Lately, I've been developing pretty keen interest in obtaining or building such a chromatic dulcimer. Some folks wouldn't have called such a beast a dulcimer, I don't think. Regardless, it's an instrument I want to play.
As mentioned, the dulcimer is a zither, in that its strings are stretched across its resonating chamber rather than extended away from the chamber upon a neck (as is the case with lutes).
See and Hear the Appalachian Dulcimer
Since I was born under a bad sign, I also play electric dulcimer.
Playing the Instrument
Generally, the Appalachian dulcimer utilizes 3 string courses. Often, the string along the top of instrument (closest to the player when the instrument is in the lap) is doubled, with the middle and bass strings standing alone, though some models double all strings. That oft-doubled string closest to the player is usually referred to as the "melody string," so named for its use in traditional playing styles wherein the player picks at a melody on that string while the other strings serve as drones. A traditional method of fretting this melody string is to hold it down with a wooden noter, with the open strings only used as drones for a modal, bag-pipe sort of feel.
However, I'm among the number of modern dulcimer players who approach the dulcimer as a chordal instrument, utilizing all 3 string courses (see the videos to get an idea of how this works). Even with this modernized approach, the instrument retains the trancelike droning modal qualities that make it such a treat.
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Many players play the instrument sitting flat on their lap — to such a degree that the Appalachian dulcimer is sometimes referred to as the "lap dulcimer." Me, I play in an upright overhand style, which, though not uncommon, is not the traditional angle of approach.
Dulcimer Scordatura?
Playing chromatic music on a diatonic instrument leads to unusual tunings. You can get some pretty interesting scordatura happening — and dulcimer scordatura is powerful mojo, with different scales becoming available as you retune each string. What kind of music will you make when one string makes available all the notes in E major and another adds the notes of E minor? One of the songs ("Greensleeves in Blue") on my 2007 CD, Bukka's Bad Trip does just that — check it out.
Read more about scordatura on wikipedia.
My Dulcimer Recordings
You can find my most recent release at Dulcimers Are Go, but I put up new dulcimer videos frequently on the homepage.
Many of the of dulcimer recordings below are featured on my 2002 cd, The Dirt Roads of Nations. A 2007 CD, Bukka's Bad Trip, also includes several dulcimer tracks.
From Bukka's Bad Trip:
- Pigeon River Blues excerpt mp3
GCC dulcimer, guitar, harmonica - Greensleeves in Blue excerpt mp3
Andy on banjo, Michael on dulcimer (EGD tuning), banjo, and synth bass
From Dirt Roads of Nations:
- Driving to New York 2.8M mp3
GDC dulcimer, electric 'wah' dulcimer, bass, loops - Olive Woman 3M mp3
GCC dulcimer, loops - Vacancy 2.8M mp3
dulcimer, electric guitar (Andy), computer - Primal Man Therapy 3.7M mp3
open-D electric guitar, dulcimer, loops - Spice Road 2.4M mp3
DGD w/capo@4 dulcimer, electric guitar (Andy), loops - The Ruined Rune Bar 3.4M
DGD dulcimer, electric guitar (Andy), loops
Here's an extra track (the source files for this mix are lost, sadly):
- Bamako
Andy on the acoustic guitar (oh my!); Michael on the dulcimer, synth bass, and banjo
Dulcimer Articles
Identifying the modes associated with particular tunings can be a little daunting once you get away from DAD. In 2002, I whipped together an article on this issue: Modal Tunings on the Mountain Dulcimer
Dulcimer Links
In no particular order...
- Mel Bay's Dulcimer Sessions
- Everything Dulcimer
- In Search of the Wild Dulcimer — the definitive book on mountain dulcimer playing
- Dulcimer Player News — dulcimer magazine that also covers hammered dulcimer
Other Dulcimer Musicians
Again, in no particular order...


