Appalachian dulcimer - Wikipedia The Original Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer was a Diatonic Mountain Dulcimer that has been converted by adding 5 Extra frets (0+, 1+, 3+, 4+, 6+) in all Octaves so it can play in every key for more flexibility
How to Play a Dulcimer - A Detailed Beginners Guide In this article, we discuss how to play a dulcimer – specifically a mountain (or “Appalachian”) dulcimer Dulcimers have a long and proud history They’ve seen use all the way back to the early half of the 1800s
6 Best Mountain Dulcimers Reviewed in Detail [Jun. 2025] Finding the best mountain dulcimer on the market that will suit your need is by no means an easy task To help make your shopping easier, we considered features like weight, scale length, size and many more that affect the performance and the sound quality of the instrument
Bear Meadow Fine Appalachian and Mountain Dulcimers My goal is making Appalachian dulcimers of superb beauty, projection, voice and action The information in these pages will give you lots of details about what models I offer and my dulcimer building techniques, which you can use to learn how to build a mountain dulcimer
Choosing Your Dulcimer - The Dulcimer Shoppe No matter your level of experience, there’s a perfect dulcimer for you McSpadden mountain dulcimers are an excellent choice for a beginner The quality will ensure a beginning player will not become frustrated with an inferior instrument
History of the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer The mountain dulcimer is a true American folk instrument developed by the people of the Appalachian Mountains But like the early emigrants to America, it has many relatives from the old country The German Scheitholt
How to Choose a Mountain Dulcimer Here are the criteria I use and suggest to my students when they ask me what they should look for in purchasing a mountain dulcimer 1 Beware of DSOs! (Dulcimer-Shaped-Objects) At the beginning of the dulcimer revival in the late 1960s and 1970s many people began building instruments that were shaped like dulcimers but were ultimately unplayable
Dulcimer: a Guide - Owl Mountain Music, Inc. There are two main kinds of dulcimer: the Mountain Dulcimer (lap, fretted, strummed) and the Hammered Dulcimer Origins Of the board Zither family, the Mountain Dulcimer was derived from the German Scheitholt which was essentially a narrow board with partial frets drone strings
Uncovering the Irish Roots of the Mountain Dulcimer The mountain dulcimer, also known as the Appalachian dulcimer or the hog fiddle, is a stringed instrument that you can play by plucking or strumming the strings with a pick or a plectrum (or a feather quill as they did back in the day), and using a small stick or dowel, known as a noter, to hold down the strings
HISTORY OF THE DULCIMER The Mountain Dulcimer is a true American instrument It dates back to the early 1800's, originating in the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia Western Europe had many kinds of fretted lap zithers from the Norwegian Langeleik, the Swedish Hummel, and the French Epinette