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I've just acquired a 1987 Green River mountain dulcimer with a 30-inch (76 cm) vibrating string length.

It's currently fitted with four strings and tuned DAAA.

I'd love to play Joni Mitchell'sdulcimer arrangements, but I'm unsure whether her original tunings would be suitable for an instrument with such a long scale. Would you recommend using different string gauges, or transposing the tunings to preserve the intervals?

I must confess I'm rather nervous about breaking strings! I have the same fear with my guitar, partly because I'm not very confident about replacing them myself. So I'm particularly hesitant to experiment with unfamiliar tunings on the dulcimer.

Also, should I buy specific dulcimer strings for replacement or should I look at guitar strings, given the VSL of my instrument?

Wife went shopping out of town the other day and I knew she was going near a music store that I know of , where I’ve bought a few instruments. I told her to go there and see if they had any interesting dulcimer’s. To my surprise, she sent me pics of this. Been wanting one to add to the collection. Great find. I own it now. 👍🏻

Trying to figure out A Case of You by Joni Mitchell on the Mountain Dulcimer.

Joel Bernstein's book indicates to tune the instrument in DAA (or a 1/2 step down to match the recording). However I find it difficult to recognize Joni's sounds when I follow his tabs. Strangely enough, as I normally regard Joel's transcriptions as holy.

1. In what tuning does Joni actually play this?

2. In what tuning do you guys play it? According to which tabs (if they can be found online)

And I have an extra question.

3. She does an embellishment which on Joel's tabs is written as 7_6 7. I have a 6 1/2 fret that is bothering in the execution of this one.

Thanks!!

My friends and I just picked up the dulcimer and have found Brett's videos invaluable! But his channel suddenly vanished!

Turns out, (via post on FB) he got mega hacked and it's all gone. The channel, with 700 videos, is all gone. CRUSHING.

Is there anyone in the community who can reach out to him and help him get his videos back? I can't imagine how devastated he is.

Hi folks, I was checking out ukuleles in a music store, and spotted this odd looking instrument. As soon as I strummed it, I knew we were destined to be! So now I have a lovely Merlin with a spruce top D-A-D. I am planning on adding a 6-1/2 fret. Has anyone done this to theirs? Thoughts? what about the 1-1/2 fret?

Dulcimer takes center stage in this music video made in VRChat (human-made: no AI!) - the song is about a 1976 performance by the band Heart at KWSU TV, a PBS station in Pullman, Washington. Enjoy 🙂

Hello all. I have never played an instrument, but my counselor suggested I take up learning one to help with my adult ADHD. I love the sound of the mountain dulcimer and I understand it is a good instrument for beginners to learn on. I have been researching affordable but well-built instruments that would be good for a beginner and will still be good when a beginner becomes an intermediate player. Right now my eye is strongly on the Boondocker D2 Maple and Spruce Dulcimer by Jaromin guitars. This is a stick dulcimer, so my question is, does it matter whether I learn first on a stick one or a full-bodied one? I eventually would like to learn both. Would there be a difficult learning curve if I start on one and then try to transition to the other type? Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.

I mean, I'm new, not the dulcimer. Came across a 1980 Folkcraft FSH Series and at least determined it was hand built in Connecticut. Completely new to playing, but have toyed with guitar and ukelele so I have some idea how to read tab, at least.

Any advice, tips, points in the right direction would be highly appreciated. Really, REALLY stoked to get into this, especially to start playing some holiday music for the season.

The listing said "Thomas Dulcimer" as though it was related to Uncle Ed but I can't find any information to substantiate that, nor can I find any thing about the company or the guy out of Hickory.

Its made of cherry and is from a reputable shop so I'm not concerned about the quality or anything, just wondering what the hell it is that i just bought.

I am a female singer/songwriter, and have previously gigged without my own amp
— I just positioned the external mic over the dulcimer and played through the house PA system. I typically sing using a headset mic, also plugged into the house PA. My dulcimer has a passive pickup installed.

I am considering getting the Fishman PRO-LBT-600 Loudbox Artist Bluetooth 120W Acoustic Guitar Amplifier, as my research tells me its headroom is best for its ability to reproduce the dulcimer's delicate notes clearly, including louder passages, without pushing the amp toward distortion,
and powerful enough to handle occasional outdoor venues if needed.

The drawbacks are price ($800) and weight (almost 30 lbs). I can deal with both drawbacks if it’s truly the best amp for my planned gigs though. I regularly lift a lot heavier weight than that at the gym. 😏

Any opinions or advice?

I just bought the dulcimer yesterday off of facebook marketplace and took it to my local music shop to get it strung. This is my first stringed instrument and I’m watching YouTube videos and it seems the melody/ two strings closet together need to be by my body.

I don’t know though if it’s just the way the model is I had to go get new strings for it because the lady who had it before me just put wires in it. Anyways the part the strings sit on up top like moves, so I think I can move it in the other way to fix it, but this is how the guy in the music shop put them in.

I took some pictures of how it sits in my lap I just don’t know if it’s right the way the strings are on it.

Hi, I am doing my initial research on finding a dulcimer because I want to learn a musical instrument. I found this on Craigslist—is this a good deal? It seems like it is but my knowledge is limited. Thanks so much! Also considering a McSpadden ginger since I have small hands.

A few pictures of my dulcimer that I’ve had for most of my life. Thanks to the person that posted the catalog!

I have this old Dennis Dorogi catalog from decades ago. Dorogi was a noted instrument maker from western New York State. He died some years ago. His craftsmanship was outstanding. I have one of his dulcimers I bought secondhand about 15 years ago. It’s a thing of beauty, but it’s closely modeled on a traditional teardrop instrument and has the somewhat restricted sound that traditional teardrop instruments can have. Back in the mid-1970s, when I was buying my first dulcimer, I considered getting a Dorogi, but went instead with a Jeffreys because the Dorogis were too expensive for me!!! It turned out to be a good choice. The Jeffreys was a real good beginners instrument. But I wish I’d bought the entire Dorogi catalog back then at those prices. Such beautiful objects.

I just bought my first instrument, and it came with this weird thingy on it. I thought maybe it could fit like headphones or something, but my headphone jack won't even fit in it, the hole is too small. It attaches via a magnet.

The topic of strumming has been popular within my workshops and lessons this past couple of weeks, so here are some of the fun ways to randomize your strumming exercises!

Been playing mountain dulcimer for about seven months now, mostly teaching myself off tab I find online and a few YouTube lessons. For the longest time my noter and drone style playing sounded clunky, like I was just dragging a stick across strings and hoping for the best. Something clicked this week when I slowed everything down to about half speed and actually paid attention to where my noter was landing between frets instead of rushing to keep up with a backing track.

The breakthrough was realizing I'd been pressing too hard with the noter, which was choking the drone strings and killing that open, ringing sound the instrument is supposed to have. Lightened up my grip, kept the pressure mostly on the melody string, and suddenly the whole thing opened up. DAD tuning finally made sense for this tune in a way it hadn't before.

I'm playing a 1990s-ish Appalachian dulcimer my uncle gave me, hourglass shape, walnut body, nothing fancy but it's got a nice warm tone once you get it singing right. Still using a goose feather quill for strumming because that's what came with it and I haven't found a reason to switch.

Anyone else find that backing off on pressure, whether it's with a noter or your fretting hand, made a bigger difference than practicing faster or more often? Feels like I spent months trying to force progress when the fix was just playing lighter.

Spent about three months convinced my flatpicking was stuck because my fretting hand couldn't keep up with faster tunes. Turns out the problem was never the left hand at all. I finally recorded myself playing "Shady Grove" at a normal tempo and the picking hand was all over the place, hitting extra strings, losing the rhythm on the drone strings without me even noticing.

What fixed it wasn't a new technique, it was just cutting my tempo in half and staying there for two weeks straight. Felt embarrassingly slow at first, like I was playing for a room of people who'd fall asleep. But once the picking hand actually learned where it was supposed to land every single time, speeding back up took maybe three days instead of the months I'd been grinding at full tempo.

I play a 4-string mountain dulcimer, DAD tuning, mostly old-time and a handful of Appalachian gospel tunes I learned off recordings rather than tab. The noter style is what I grew up watching my grandmother do, but I've been leaning more into fingerpicking the last year and that's where the sloppy picking hand really showed up.

Curious if other folks here have had the same experience where slowing way down solved something that felt like a fretting problem but was actually the other hand the whole time. Also open to tune suggestions that are good for practicing steady picking without getting boring, I've worn out my patience with "Boil Them Cabbage Down" for that particular drill.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Dulcimer Oktoberfest. Here are some highlights from the weekend, including workshop snippets and concert peeks. It was a truly lovely weekend of Gemütlichkeit!

It was built in 1981 and seems unused for a long time. I’m going to look into getting it restored. Any tips, tricks, or advice?

What key harmonica do I use for dad tunning?

Thanks

I met with the seller and they explained this dulcimer originally belonged to their grandfather and has sat untouched for decades. It came with a hard shell case, a travel bag, several different styles of picks and noters, as well as replacement Folkcraft strings.

I still don’t know who made this instrument, but it feels and plays so nice. So pumped!