Can any of you offer suggestions or recommendations for hanging dulcimers on a wall? I’ve seen dulcimer hooks online that are quite simple, but priced at $12 and up! I would appreciate your suggestions and ideas.
@ken-hulme You may wish to edit your posting to make your email and mailing address available by pm. Just a thought.
We are now accepting registrations for the 2020 Gathering, to be held at Berea College, Berea, KY May 14th -- 17th
Send your Contact Information to: berea.traditional.gathering@gmail.com
Registration Fee -- $20 -- applies directly to your dorm lodging. If you are not staying in the dorm, the money goes into our Coffee & Snack Fund so we can buy a pot and coffee and snacks for folks to share... Send Registration via Paypal or by paper check. PM me for the addresses...
Please do not respond here....
Hi there Marc, and welcome!
To answer your question- yes any videos or audios of the playing of non-public domain tunes/songs must be added to posts in the Rockin Free World group. That is to keep our site's Video and Audio collections free of copyrighted materials that are part of our hosted collections. Doesn't matter if you arranged the version or not in this case.
(And of course if you composed your own material you can post it even if you copyrighted it..you own the copyright.)
Hope you enjoy it here.. 
Hello! My name's Marc, and I'm currently living in northern Virginia. 2020 is going to be my year for diving headfirst into all things dulcimer. Thanks everyone who's already sent their kind welcome messages. :)
One quick question, if that's permissible here: seems like if I want to share any videos of myself playing non-public domain or non-traditional music (i.e. covers of licensed songs) then they need to go in the "Rockin in the Free World" group. Is this important even if the arrangement is my own?
Thanks for your help folks, and I will make this thing better! It does otherwise seem like a nice instrument IMO, and there’s certain aspects that I like better than a guitar for me - lighter string pressure, quieter, smaller, etc., and it is something new to try. For some silly reason I’ve always preferred the more hourglass shaped ones, but I can get over it😀
Cheers!
Glen
Thanks Brian. I'll check those links. I think I'm trying to play tunes too soon. I've only had my dulcimer a week. I really should focus on fundamentals for a while. Most definitely not a natural.
Just think of the nice callous you are going to have! I know I am still working on mine. ~L~ That and a nice stripe on the left thumb.
Beats the heck out of the most hardcore callous builder I ever heard of:
Heat up an iron skillet to around 400° then put your fingertips on it. Pretty nasty for several days, but it builds a pretty decent 'playing' callous...
Old jazz musician trick (alledgedly)
~cringe~
Having all strings in tune when open but all sounding sharp when fretted... in this case with the photos I think it's fairly obvious that two factors are causing this- the action is too high (causing the strings to overbend and pull sharp when fretted), and the nut (and maybe bridge too) is leaning in towards the center (causing the scale to be artificially shorter while the frets remain in the same place, causing sharp fretting). The pix show poorly fitted nut and bridge that were put in later, perhaps the originals had their slots altered too much and messed up. The dulcimer is a Berg and thus highly unlikely to have its frets in the wrong position.
This dulcimer deserves to have a nice well fitted new nut and bridge. And of course lovely new strings once that's done. :)
Glen, because you can tune the open strings to sound correct yet when you fret them at the 1st fret they sound sharp, will almost certainly mean the action at the nut is too high. Lowering the nut action so that the action is low and easy at that end of the fretboard will instantly get rid of this note sharpness problem in that area of the fretboard. The only thing that would prevent this simple solution from working is if the nut is incorrectly positioned and even more so if it's incorrectly positioned in combination with an incorrectly positioned saddle/bridge. All this is assuming the frets are correctly positioned, if they are not then that would complicate things a great deal.
Also, it's probably best to not rely too much on tuners for tuning, other than tuning one initial open note in order to set the pitch. After you get that open note accurate then tune all other notes via your ear taking into account the relationship of the subsequent notes to each other and to the initial note.
And one final fact, no fretted stringed instrument can be tuned perfectly for everything. Perfect tuning requires specific fret placement combined with specific tuning techniques, and those placement and techniques differ depending on the music played. In other words, what's perfectly in tune for one type of music can be quite imperfectly out of tune for other types of music. That's why throughout the cultures around the world there's many different and complex approaches to fret placement.
That is really cool. I didn't realize that Sears was still selling instruments as late as 1979. It looks to be well taken care of. What a special instrument. How does it sound?
The nut/bridge position could be an issue with sharpness; but it is more commonly from bending the strings down from a very high action when fretting.
You could be seeing minor inaccuracies, Or you could be experiencing the "golly-gee that's neat" phenomena of using something more accurate than a tuning fork!! 
A few cents sharp here and there are no big deal, really; and only someone with perfect pitch will be able to hear it. Sharp pitches will slack slightly during play anyway as the strings stretch from being used.
Some of us, myself included, tune everything a tad sharp. With traditional violin type wooden tuners I find that that works best.
Hi Ken, thanks for the reply! The nickel & dime info from your article is why there was no doubt in my mind because armed with that info, this one was obvious to me😀 Good thing I asked here about the nut and bridge before I started adjusting the action and changing the strings. I tend to be fussy about stuff like this and try to consider “going with what I was dealt” to compensate. It could have been some sort of traditional craftsman technique for all I knew🙄
I will contact Bill for his advice/help as you suggest.
I am enjoying getting to know the dulcimer as I try accurate tuning with a Korg CA-1 tuner and the PanoTuner app. The last time I tuned my guitar it was with an “A” tuning fork - times have changed😀 Per chance, could inaccuracy in nut position cause what I have already noticed with all strings: if I tune the string naturally, and as accurately as possible, then any fretted notes are a tad sharp (OK, almost all of them). I was wondering about this before I got here because after tuning the D and then fretting it to use it for tuning the A, I noticed the result was a tad sharp every time. Just a little. For fun I tried nudging the D to be a tad flat in order to make its fretted notes a bit more accurate. Perhaps I am just seeing trivial inaccuracies in this instrument with these accurate meters.
Cheers!
Glen
Lisa, I've been playing the dulcimer for decades and find the following rule to be 100% accurate for me "the more you play the easier it gets, especially if you're having fun doing it".
I’ve seen a lot of “Global Music Instruments “ guitars on eBay.
How terrific! I wonder if Global was the distributor to Sears.
@rain-dog It's cool you have the box and everything!
@geezer , I agree with what Brian G advised. With your experience, there really is little need for you to be looking for tab books. Though dulcimers are not tuned to the same intervals as guitars, thus you'd have to learn different fingerings and chords than you use on your guitar. But you should be able to figure out lots of contemporary tunes you already are familiar with, on your own.
If you read sheet music, you can skip looking for dulcimer tabs books and instead do google image searches for tunes you want to play. Keep in mind that if a tune is contemporary, it will more likely be under copyright and this limits your ability to get copies of it for free and/or online... whether it's dulcimer tab, standard sheet music, guitar tab, etc.
@Gennaro - there are skilled dulcimer players around who play complex modern music, blues, baroque music, etc on their dulcimers, and they do it beautifully. But do keep in mind that mountain dulcimers were created in the 1800s in imitation of yet older European folk instruments that were used by 'common folk' to play relatively simple folk tunes and hymns... hence the diatonic fretboard and traditional basic tunings using the tonic note and a fifth for the most part (DAd, DAA). It's a little more challenging to play modern or complex music on a diatonic dulcimer than it is to play such music on a chromatic six string guitar. Some people who play various types of instruments will have different repertoires that they choose for a particular instrument, based on what that instrument is best at doing. There are no actual limits, but know that some things can be easier or more challenging!
If you play other instruments as well, you have a general musical jump start and advantage. But, you won't be able to play the same fingerings/chords you are used to between dulcimer and guitar or banjo.
The wedged in nut and bridge which lean into the center are NOT "standard stuff". They don't have to be 'hammered-in tight' or glued in place, but should not need wedges to hold them either. Neither should the lean in to center, although the tops can be angle cut so that they are thinner on the outside, and may appear to be leaning... Looking at the photos -- that poor of workmanship in the fit of the nut and bridge is not something that Bill would allow out of his shop! My guess is that someone (naming no names) lost the original nut and bridge (perhaps by replacing all the string at once instead of one-by-one) and what you see are improper replacements...
You might call or email Bill, give him the model number of the instrument and explain the situation. Give him the slot measurements and ask him to send you a new nut and bridge. His contact info is on his website:
https://mountainmademusic.com/
The wooden dowel is what we call a Noter and is used to fret the melody strings in the traditional style of dulcimer play called Noter & Drone.
On a 5 string setup, it is not uncommon for the bass couplet to consist of a Dd pair rather than a DD pair. The octave bass couplet gives a richer overall sound. Although I would have used another .010 string rather than a .008 and I believe that is what Bill uses. Perhaps your friend broke the thin bass string and replaced it with what he could find. Overall the other gauges seem fine for that tuning.
No reason you can't change over to a 4-string setup. Just don't put a string on the outer-most of the melody couplet tuners.
Action -- a generally good place to start with the action is what we call the Nickel & Dime. Lay a dime next to the first fret and lower the strings (by sanding the bottom of the nut) until the strings just touch the dime. Then balance a nickel on top of the 7th fret and this time lower the strings by sanding the bridge until the string just touch the coin.
Fretboard 'bow'? I don't see enough there to be an issue as long as it doesn't cause any fretting issues. Most folks don't play as far up as fret 14 anyway!
Thank you Cynthia, Gordon, Robin - I am happy that you like it...and Robin thank you in advance for your participation with your "guitar man" 
Oh Dusty - that would be great! 
Hi folks, I inherited an older friend’s 5-string Berg dulcimer via his widow asking me if I would ever want to play it. And 5 or 6 years later I have finally pulled out to get acquainted, along with my decades’ ignored guitar. And guess which one fascinates me at this time😀 Ken’s “I just got a dulcimer.....” article was most helpful and has got me off to a good start.
There is no doubt in my mind that the action is too high. There was a wooden dowel with the dulcimer, so I guess my friend was using that to play because it would have otherwise been too tough on his fingers. The nut and bridge are narrower than than the slots provided and they are held in place with outboard wedges that appear to be the same wood as the fret board. I am guessing that this is standard stuff? But are the wedges generally reusable? The nut and bridge lean over towards the middle a bit.
After I am satisfied the with lowering of both the nut and bridge, I will replace the strings. I confess that if this was a 4-string I would have purchased a D’Addario string set on Amazon and been done with it. My friend had apparently only recently purchased this before he passed and I might assume that the string setup would be original, but who knows, eh? The 27.5” (vibrating) string setup diameters and rounded Hz as measured by me are:
D: .022” 147 Hz
d: .008“ 294 Hz
A: .012” 220 Hz
d: .010” 294 Hz
d: .010” 294 Hz
I was surprised that the one “d” was smaller than the other two. The 4 strings off Amazon.ca are .012, 012, .014, .022 and I am happy to mail order elsewhere.
Also, I notice a slight bow in the fretboard mainly around the 14th fret (model aircraft builder, can’t help it, hehe). Hopefully not significant.
Any advice would be appreciated and yeah, I get somewhat wordy, LOL. Existing string sizes, setup OK? Leaning nut/bridge normal?
Cheers!
Glen
I'm also looking for something more contemporary. Bought a 70 song tab book and am only interested in one song. Cat Stevens' Morning has broken. Won't do that again. Found one fellow teaching Norwegian Wood on stick dulcimer but just a lot of strumming. I must be old to consider a 50 yr old song contemporary, but compared to most I see, it is.
Hi Gennaro,
The melody of Morning Has Broken is actually a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune called Bunessan. (And the lyrics for Morning Has Broken were actually written by Eleanor Farjeon and set to this melody). You can find the tune here:
As for Norwegian Wood, I play an arrangement that is not just strumming. In case it helps you in any way, you can see it here:
I'm also looking for something more contemporary. Bought a 70 song tab book and am only interested in one song. Cat Stevens' Morning has broken. Won't do that again. Found one fellow teaching Norwegian Wood on stick dulcimer but just a lot of strumming. I must be old to consider a 50 yr old song contemporary, but compared to most I see, it is.
Hi Geezer,
I would normally suggest getting yourself a software program that can read ABC files (at a minimum) and then using that software to turn those files into tablature. Such software can be found for free, and there are many ABC tune files available for free online.
But if you've been playing classical guitar for 40 years, you can read music, and you can skip the conversion to tab and just look online. There are countless tunes available online for free. To give one example, you can go to http://abcnotation.com/. From there you can get to over 600,000 tunes as abc files, sheet music pdfs, MIDI files, etc. It's truly amazing how much is available.
Enjoy your dulcimer. It's a fantastic instrument. (This is coming from a guy who also studied classical guitar, though I don't play too much anymore, and I haven't played for 40 years.) :)
Yes. I've been playing guitar for 60 years -- mostly classical for the last 40. That might sound impressive to a lot of people, but I'm really not all that good at it. I'm hoping some of what I can do will transfer to some extent.
That festival is only 2 hours away!
Thanks for the info!
Hi Geezer, do you play other instruments or will dulcimer be your first?
Celtic music works beautifully on dulcimer. Many tab books are available (look for Irish, Celtic, O'Carolan in the titles) and you can download free tabs here to get started: https://www.dulcimer.net/dulcimer-celtic-tabs/
Blues is also surprisingly well suited to dulcimer. Bing Futch has the book you need. The festival you need is coming in April: https://fotmd.com/carla-maxwell/event/221/delta-blues-dulcimer-revival-clarksdale-ms#cm165388
A 1-1/2 fret is very useful for blues players. Not mandatory, but it makes life easier.
Jazz standards are tricky. They require notes you can't easily find on a traditional dulcimer fretboard. If that's your music, I suggest you start with a chromatically-fretted dulcimer and check out Stephen Seifert's books and online classes. There is another option: use a regular diatonic fretboard and try Janita Baker's four-string chromatic tunings from her Blues and Ragtime book: https://www.bluelioninstruments.com/books_cds.html
Neither of those options is particularly easy. Quite frankly, if you are a beginning musician and your heart's set on playing Gershwin as soon as possible, then I am honor-bound to tell you it'd be easier on ukulele. There are tons of books and lessons for learning the Great American Songbook on uke. It's hard to find similar materials for dulcimer.
Of course, hard-to-find is not the same as impossible. Here's Misty on dulcimer: https://www.tullglazener.com/instruction-packets/misty
There are probably thousands of books out there now which have tab for a wide variety of musical styles; in particular Celtic. Mel Bay publishes a ton of tab books. Individual artists also make and sell tab books on their own websites. Old jazz standards and blues tab for dulcimer is going to be much harder to find. You can always contact Stephen Seifert directly, and Bing Futch for jazz.
Most of what you mention are not particularly suited for beginners, however. We find that often the best beginning tunes are those which you have imbedded in you since childhood.... tunes you can sing/hum/or whistle on demand. Learning to pick out those sorts of tunes is an excellent way to learn what your dulcimer is capable of.
I'm thinking about trying the dulcimer. I'm going this week to a dealer to look at some instruments. Where can I find music other than Appalachian and hymns? I like old jazz standards such as Misty, The Nearness of You, Someone to Watch Over Me, etc.
I'd also like some Irish/Celtic tunes --- calm, mellow, slower tunes -- maybe even some blues. I've watched a few Stephen Seifert YouTube videos. He play some stuff I really like.
What a fine idea!
Let's see if the muse offers up a new tune . . .
Thank you all for your replies. For some songs, I agree that the percussive click adds a cool rhythm element, just like it does on guitar. It made a really big difference when I switched from the thin, large triangular pick that came with the dulcimer to one of my thicker guitar picks, where I don't have as much of the point exposed. As a new dulcimist, I wouldn't have reached those conclusions on my own this quickly without your help!
Last night, I realized I'd learned all but one chord to James Taylor's cowboy lullabye, "Sweet Baby James," so I looked up Bm and started playing. Suddenly, it felt like I was back on the steps at my grandparents' home in south Arkansas in 1972, struggling to change through the same chords on my first guitar. So my new-to-me dulcimer has already brought back some wonderful memories and enabled me to appreciate the joy of learning an old, old favorite--all over again in a new way.
Welcome to the group, Rain Dog! This is a great resource for dulcimer new-bies. Ask a lot of questions if you like. One of us (at least) should be able to help you out. Have a good day!
