Forum Activity for @marko

Reasons NOT To Get a Chromatic

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Thanks to Alex for bringing this thread back to the original topic, with some compelling reasons for not getting a chromatic. Although I am capable of playing chromatic instruments, the one chromatic dulcimer in my collection mainly collects dust. Diatonic dulcimers are more fun, and instead of thinking about notes, I just play, focusing on sound and rhythm. Jerry Rockwell has called the dulcimer a musical possibility box, which is an apt description. And if we take Bonnie Carroll at her word, a standard three-course dulcimer has thousands of possible tunings. Let's explore these possibilities instead of getting bogged down in definitions.

Reasons NOT To Get a Chromatic

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Although words do have to mean something, meanings change. Language adapts to accommodate a changing world. This has been confirmed to me many times in my 50-year career as a translator. And while I strongly believe that we need to respect tradition, there is no way to stop change. What I think we are seeing is that the term dulcimer is taking on a broader meaning. There will increasingly be a need to modify the term dulcimer with such adjectives as traditional or contemporary.  More and more makers are building a type of hybrid dulcimer with a guitar-type bridge, which to me is a positive development because it makes this wonderful instrument appealing to a wider range of musicians. 

I have always loved the sound of the dulcimer, but as a banjo and mandolin player, I was often disappointed by the lack of clarity. So I started building my own experimental instruments, which are designed for playing instrumental music using a mix of banjo, mandolin, and dulcimer technique. My attempts have been successful in at least one respect: the world has one more -- contemporary, hybrid, experimental -- dulcimer enthusiast.

Reasons NOT To Get a Chromatic

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

A guitar player friend once said about my dulcimer: Too bad some of the frets are missing. But then, too, are some of the strings, compared to a guitar. I wanted more strings, but instead of getting a guitar, I built a dulcimer with five separate strings. Is it a dulcimer? I would say it is 'quite' a dulcimer.

Just for fun, I added frets to a 4-string dulcimer to make it chromatic, and I can now play tunes that would otherwise be impossible. For strictly diatonic tunes, I use one of my diatonic dulcimers (well, they all have both the 6 and the 6+ fret, but I still consider them diatonic--that has become the tradition). 

Those of us who have been playing for a while probably have more than one instrument. Meanwhile, I play five dulcimers with different string/fret configurations: 3 strings, 4 strings with the double melody course, 4 separate strings, 5 separate strings, some with the 1+ fret, one chromatic. Each of those instruments has its own allure, its own possibilities and restrictions. I see no reason not to get a chromatic, and no reason not to call it a dulcimer.