Finding a comfortable key to sing in and accompanying dulcimer chords

John W. McKinstry
02/23/14 01:12:51PM
@john-w-mckinstry

Hi fellow Singing with the dulcimer people. Since joining FOTMD a month ago I have learned a lot. I thank Ken Backer for pointing out that the voice is the key thing in singing while the dulcimer plays an accompanying role. I thank Mary Macgowan in her videos for showing how an simple accompaniment can be so effective. I am thankful for Dawn Collins suggesting ways to find your singing range, even using a chromatic electric tuner. Now I want to add a little something about how I recently found a comfortable a comfortable range in singing and providing a simple chord accompaniment. I am preparing a video singing a new Easter hymn the words of which you will see on my blog. The hymn tune Beach Spring which I will be singing is in the Key of F. To get there I originally tuned the dulcimer to CGC and with a capo on the third fret. I still found this a little high for me so here is what I did. I took out my guitar which I am more familiar with and found that the Key of E was more comfortable for me. Knowing I would be using mostly E and A chords I went to the back of my Larkin Dulcimer Book where dulcimer chords are listed. Now in DAD, I capo on 1 and I found the E chords and A chords that could provide a simple accompaniment. So that is my story. Perhaps others of you can share how you arrive at your comfortable singing range and simple chord accompaniment. By the way, you will see on my upcoming video what chords I chose.Smile.gif