Appalachian dulcimer

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Appalachian dulcimer

The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and its fretting is generally diatonic.

Origins

Although the Appalachian dulcimer appeared in regions dominated by Irish and Scottish settlement, the instrument has no known precedent in Ireland or Scotland. However, several diatonic fretted zithers exist in Continental Europe, which bear a strong similarity to the dulcimer. Jean Ritchie (The Dulcimer Book, 1974) and others have speculated that the Appalachian dulcimer is related to similar European instruments like the langeleik, scheitholt, and epinette des Vosges.

Playing

A traditional way to play the instrument is to lay it flat on the lap and pluck or strum the strings with one hand, while fretting with the other. The dulcimer may also be placed in a similar position on a piece of furniture such as a table or chest of drawers, to enhance the sound. There are two predominant methods of fretting. First, the strings may be depressed with the fingertips of the fretting hand. Using this technique, all the strings may be fretted allowing the player to produce chords. Second, the melody string, the string closest to the player, may be depressed with a noter, typically a short length of dowel or bamboo (see photo at left). Using this method, only the melody string is fretted and the other strings act as drone strings (the melody string may be doubled so that the melody can be better heard over the drones). In this second style of playing, the combination of the drone strings and the buzz of the noter on the melody strings produces a unique sound.

In practice, a wide variety of playing styles have long been used. Jean Ritchie's The Dulcimer Book (1974) has an old photograph of Mrs. Leah Smith of Big Laurel, Kentucky, playing the dulcimer with a bow instead of a pick, with the tail of the dulcimer held in the player's lap, and the headstock resting on a table pointing away from her. In their book In Search of the Wild dulcimer (1974), Robert Force and Al d'Ossché describe their preferred method as "guitar style": the dulcimer hangs from a strap around the neck, and the instrument is fretted and strummed like a guitar; they also describe playing "Autoharp style" where "the dulcimer is held vertically with the headstock over the shoulder." Lynn McSpadden, in his book Four and Twenty Songs for the Mountain Dulcimer, states that some players "tilt the dulcimer up sideways on their laps and strum in a guitar style." Still other dulcimer players use a fingerstyle technique, fingering chord positions with the fretting hand and rhythmically plucking individual strings with the strumming hand, creating delicate arpeggios.

Contemporary players have also borrowed from chord theory and guitar analogues to create a variety of more complex ways to play the dulcimer. Some dulcimers are constructed with four equidistant strings to facilitate playing more complex chords, particularly for playing jazz. In another line of contemporary innovation, electric dulcimers have been used in rock music. The Appalachian dulcimer is both easy to learn to play, and capable of complexity, providing scope for a wide range of professionals and hobbyists.

Strings and tuning

The frets of the Appalachian dulcimer are typically arranged in a diatonic scale. Traditionally, the Appalachian dulcimer was usually tuned to DAA, or notes with this 1 5 5 relationship. The key note is on the bass string and the middle string is an interval of a perfect fifth above it. The melody string is tuned so that the key note is at the third fret. This facilitates playing melodies in the Ionian mode. The melody played on the top string (or string pair) only, with the unfretted drone strings providing a simple harmony, gives the instrument its distinctive traditional sound. To play in a different key, or in a different mode, a traditional player would have to retune the instrument. For example, to play a minor mode melody the instrument might be tuned to DAC. This facilitates playing the Aeolian mode, where the scale begins at the first fret.

Modern instruments usually include an additional fret a half step below the octave position, the so-called "six and a half" fret. This enables one to play in the Ionian mode when tuned to DAD, the traditional tuning for the Mixolydian mode, where the scale starts on the open fret. This arrangement is often found to be more conducive to chordal playing, as opposed to the more traditional dronal style. Among modern players, it is fair to say that the instrument is most commonly tuned to DAD. So-called "chromatic dulcimers" are sometimes made, to permit play in any key without re-tuning.

While currently the most common tuning is DAD, it is often easier for the beginning player to tune to DAA or the so-called "Reverse Ionian" tuning, (DGD). "Reverse" tunings are ones where the key note is on the middle string and the bass string is the fifth of the scale, but in the octave below the middle string. This is sometimes suggested as an easier tuning. From (DGD) one can put a capo on the first fret to play the Dorian mode, or retune the second string to (A), to play the Mixolydian mode, then from Mixolydian capo the first fret to play the Aeolian mode. DAA tuning should not be thought of as simply a "beginner" tuning, however. Many accomplished, innovative players use this tuning.

Usage

The Appalachian dulcimer is widely used in the American old-time music tradition. The instrument first appeared in the early 1800s from the Scots-Irish in the southern Appalachian Mountains, and is thus also called a mountain dulcimer. The instrument became used as a parlor instrument, as its sound volume was well-suited to small home gatherings.

The Appalachian dulcimer achieved a renaissance in the 1950s urban folk music revival in the United States through the work of Jean Ritchie, a Kentucky musician who introduced the instrument to New York City audiences. In the 1960s, the American folk musician Richard Fariña (1937–1966) became the first to utilize an Appalachian dulcimer in a less traditional way, pointing out its similarity in tone to some Middle Eastern and Asian instruments. Styles performed by modern dulcimer enthusiasts run the gamut from traditional folk music through popular and experimental forms, although most perform in more or less traditional styles. The increasing popularity of solid-body electric mountain dulcimers can be evidenced through performers such as Lindsay Buckland Bing Futch, Butch Ross and Quintin Stephens Dulcimer festivals take place regularly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, as the Appalachian dulcimer has achieved a following in a number of countries.

Variants

As a folk instrument, wide variation exists in Appalachian dulcimers.

Number of Strings: Dulcimers may have as few as two or as many as 12 strings (in six courses). Instruments with fewer than two strings would more properly be termed monochords.

Body Shape: Dulcimers appear in a wide variety of body types, many of which are recorded in "A Catalog of Pre-Revival Dulcimers." A representative array would include: hourglass, teardrop, trapezoid, rectangular, elliptical ("Galax-style"), violin-shaped, fish-shaped, and lute-back.

"Courting Dulcimer": One unusual variant is the "courting dulcimer." This instrument consists of one large dulcimer body with two separate fingerboards. The instrument is laid across the laps of two facing individuals (the eponymous "courting" pair) and used to play duets.

"Bowed Dulcimer": Dulcimers can be modified to be played with bows, with extensive modifications.

Production

Appalachian dulcimer manufacture is often conducted by small, family-run businesses located in the American South and particularly in Appalachia. John Bailey's book tells you how to make one yourself:

Bailey, John Making an Appalachian Dulcimer. 1st, The Folk Shop Instrumental Series, The English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Musicians who use the Appalachian dulcimer

The group Little Big Town used the dulcimer on their second album, The Road to Here.
Many British folk-rock groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s used it as well, including:

The dulcimer is prominent in the Rolling Stones song "Lady Jane"; it was played by Brian Jones.
David Massengill
Margaret MacArthur recorded 10 albums singing, and playing the Appalachian dulcimer
Jeff Buckley used a dulcimer in his song Dream Brother featured on his record Grace released in 1994.
Joni Mitchell used a dulcimer on the 1971 album Blue.
Vancouver musician Randy Raine-Reusch played the dulcimer on the Aerosmith album Pump (1989), in the track "Dulcimer Stomp;"
Cyndi Lauper, on A Night to Remember - 1989, Sisters of Avalon - 1996, and The Body Acoustic - 2005
Joe Perry later recorded with a dulcimer on Aerosmith's Get a Grip album (1993).
Rob McMaken of Dromedary plays the dulcimer in gypsy styles.
Amanda Barrett of The Ditty Bops is also known to play the dulcimer.
The cello-rock band Rasputina has employed the dulcimer on their albums Frustration Plantation and Oh Perilous World! and the band's lead member Melora Creager has used the dulcimer on her solo album Perplexions, released in late 2006.
Nashville-based David Schnaufer, who recorded with The Judds, Kathy Mattea, Johnny Cash, and Mark O'Connor, was responsible for many of today's studio dulcimer recordings. Schnaufer was also a historian of the instrument and the world's first and only dulcimer professor; he served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Dulcimer at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music from 1995 to his death in 2006.
Jerusalem-based multi-instrumentalist Bradley Fish's dulcimer loops on Sony Digital Pictures are the most widespread in the world. Fish became known for using the instrument with an Eastern-influenced style and electronic effects on his 1996 collaboration "The Aquarium Conspiracy" with Sugarcubes/Björk drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson.
Singer-songwriter Bing Futch has used electric mountain dulcimer as the main instrument in his band Mohave since 1999, using various effects pedals to alter the sound.
Singer-songwriter Holly Brook uses dulcimer on her debut album Like Blood, Like Honey.
Singer-songwriter Heidi Muller and Bob Webb uses the dulcimer on her albums.
Australian musician and busker Lindsay Buckland plays almost exclusively an electric dulcimer suspending it from his neck like a guitar. Filtering the instrument through MIDI circuitry, he makes it produce the sound of saxes and other instruments.
Was used in Nine Inch Nails' album Ghosts I-IV on song "22 Ghosts III" by Alessandro Cortini.

Guitarist John Pearse was one of the first persons to introduce the dulcimer to English folk clubs in the 1960s, but one of the most masterful - and reclusive - of the English players is Roger Nicholson, who made a seminal album called "Nonesuch for Dulcimer" with an English guitarist & singer called Robert Johnson.

Experimental dulcimer variants

Banjo dulcimer: also called a Banjo-mer resembles a standard dulcimer, but with a banjo-head on the body. Invented by Doug Thomson a well known dulcimer player in the bluegrass community.

Resonator dulcimer: a standard dulcimer, with a resonator added to the body, in imitation of the resonator guitar. This variant was first explored by Homer Ledford and called the "dulcibro."

Aquavina: a dulcimer employing a metal resonator filled partially with water. The resonator is agitated while playing, producing an eerie oscillation of the harmonic

External links

In Search of the Wild Dulcimer - online version of the book on the author's site.
Dulcimer Players News, a magazine in publication since 1974, for hammered and fretted "dulcimer" enthusiasts.
Everything Dulcimer - Highly popular community on the web featuring articles, listings and discussion forums.