Is there a collection of Jewish worship songs written for dulcimer?
Just for clarification... I'm assuming that you mean "tabbed for dulcimer", as opposed to written for (composed for) dulcimer.
The request was for "Jewish worship songs." A lot of the common "Jewish songs" are holiday or folk tunes.
If you are looking for TABs for music for temple or synagogue, some of us here might be able to able to make them from sheet music, but we wouldn't have that or know what to look for.
I busked in the Toronto subway stations for years(fiddle).Amplification was allowed but I was a purist-so much so that I needed physio every couple years to alleviate the damage from playing too hard in order to be heard above the din.One quickly finds out which are the quieter station spots(corridors away from the trains) that may also have a nice echo.Fiddle projects way more than the dulcimer,both sound wise and appearance wise.I would advise a pickup and a lightweight amp you can carry in a knapsack if amplification is allowed.In Vancouver I finally bit the bullet...using backing tracks I made myself played through a small amp which I could also plug the fiddle into.It became much easier and I tripled my money. There were so few paying jobs for me at least in Vancouver that I had to do something to survive..there went purity but I had a ball making the backing tracks....Schatten in Kitchener Ontario makes a really good contact dulcimer pickup. and there are many cheap good quality small amps that run on batteries.P.S...I dubbed all of the backing tracks onto a Mini Disc player which I then plugged into the amp.Perfect small technology.
Hatikvah (The Hope) is available in tab form on a few websites and well as in a few published tab books. I think there are few others out there, like the dreidel song, but you can do an internet search for specific songs to see what's out there.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Hi,
Thanks for your email.
As far as I know, there's no collection of Jewish music for dulcimer, but I'd love to see one. I know Jessica Comeau is among players who has at least one Jewish song in her repertoire. My setting of Hinei Ma Tov is my album Three Strings and the Truth: New Music for Mountain Dulcimer. It's out of print (the label folded), but it streams on many sources. I've performed other Jewish songs as well.
I'm a composer (and Jewish) and have composed and performed a great deal of Jewish music. Thanks for asking about this. I hope someone rises to meet the challenge.
Best,
Is there a collection of Jewish worship songs written for dulcimer?
I think the loudest acoustic dulcimer I have is my Tennessee Music Box (TMB). It is home-built, and I described it in the thread
https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group/42/box-dulcimers
With the 1/2 inch plywood faces it is substantial enough to survive a lot of rough treatment. It might be used as a shield 
It has a screen door handle on one side so it doesn't need a case
There are very few dulcimers available with proper pickups installed for electric amplification. The piezo types - either built in or attached - will pick up both any bump on the dulcimer or sometimes other sounds not associated with the instrument such as passing trains.
John Knopf built a hybrid TMB about a decade ago. If you are buying, not building your own, at least exchange messages with him.
https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/1018/electric-hybrid-tmb
Amplification is allowed if I get a license for it (which I assume many of the musicians who busk in the subways must be doing, there are tons of people with speakers!). Thank you both for your suggestions—I may look into a louder dulcimer.
Hoopla, I'm working on mine!
Friends, Saturday 30 August, is the date for worldwide Play Music on the Porch Day. Please, feel free to post here about your PMOTPD adventures! Happy strumming!
@dan I hadn't thought that far ahead. :) I can start a thread.
This coming Saturday, 30 August, 2025 is worldwide PMOTPD!
Are you going to start a thread on this?
@ken-longfield I hope you both have a delightful 56th anniversary and happy strumming!
@dulcinina It's one of the best holidays-- a day for all to celebrate the joy music can bring to our lives!
Oh my goodness, Ken... that's both wonderful and amazing!
Big warm congratulations to you both! 
I'll not only be playing on the porch on Saturday, but I'll be serenading my wife as we celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary that day.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
I look forward to this every year. It warms my heart to know others around the world are playing their instruments. Nina
This coming Saturday, 30 August, 2025 is worldwide PMOTPD!
I just spent nearly an hour on Nina's site. I listened to most of the videos and viewed the photos. I am familiar with black Mountain. I have family in the Asheville and Burnsville area. Yes, Damon, that is what attracted me to that style. It may be miles down the road for this old man but everyone began somewhere and it was always at the beginning.
Very cool looks super easy to use ill definitely check that out later. Thanks for showing this
Gave it a quick look.....Sounds Amazing.....Group jam session without the guilt! We'll have to give it a go, [me n' the Mrs]
Thanks for the tip!
I'm amazed at how finger style sounds so fluid.
I don't play finger style, but my friend does Nina Zanetti does. Visit her website https://www.ninazanetti.com and you will find some good information on finger style playing. She has some free tabs you can download. If you try one or two of them you will get a feel for the style.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Nate, (and to anyone else that wishes to respond) I appears you have been playing the dulcimer for a while. I'm somewhat new at it. I have viewed several posts on "finger picking". I have been "note plucking" for a long time and found the finger picking sty very intriguing. It appears there are several "picking" patterns to choose as a person plays the piece. I have a ton of questions. Who or where can I get more info on the subject?
Thanks Nate, I have been working with wood projects since the 70s, but not until the past two years making dulcimers. I am a duck hunter and carved my own decoys for years. I love fishing, so I have several fish decoys and wall decors in the den. Building dulcimers just came naturally I guess. With me, I love to stay busy. I retired in 2004 and have many interests that keep me miles away from boredom.
Hi kids, yesterday when I was on the internet looking for information about a resonator I stumbled across this interesting app that looks like it has a lot of potential for practicing. Just thought people might want to check it out for those who don't know about it. I certainly didn't know about it till yesterday.
It says better than a metronome! Because it's all programmatic.
Welcome Paul!
The photos you have shared are super cool and i look forward to your input.
How long have you been building instruments? The work you did looks terrific.
I have always loved fossils. My grandfather owned some land with a lot of slate and shale, and i used to have a lot of fun cracking them open.
Hope to see more creations,
Nate
This is Shop Dad, I'm slowly catching on to the FOTMD system. My name is Paul Shutes, I have lived in Florida since 1942. I have several other interests other than music. I have had an interest in fossil hunting since my kids were young. I do anywhere from four to seven digs a year. I am a guide for Creation Studies Institute.
I also am a member of a local gym and work out on a scheduled basis. This began after some health issues myself, determined to stay healthy.
I am a father of four of the best kids in the world, one of which is with his heavenly father. My wife and I just celebrated our sixtieth anniversary.
Bottom line, I love life.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/448674886231259
This is the link and contact information for the Central Florida dulcimer Folks...They hold a fest North East of Orlando each year in the spring time. They have well over 700 members...I'm sure they can help direct you. A few of my recent customers were from "the Villages", but I looked and they would be quite a trip for you. Keep turning over the rocks....you are sure to find a player or two nearby.....
I just joined a few months ago. I do have a question and wasn't sure where to post it. Can anyone tell me if there is a dulcimer or strings group in Central Florida? Somewhere around Brevard County or, Vero Beach, Palm Bay, Kissimmee, or Cocoa?
Thanks, Nate. With only one exception, all the tunings I've used go low to high, which would eliminate some of those possibilities. The only exception was Eb D F# A.
Thanks so much, Robin, again!
At the risk of hubris, there's not a whole lot in the classical world that's written for mountain dulcimer, beyond what I've written and pieces written for me. I'm pretty sure composers avoid what they think are limitations, especially the traditional non-chromatic fretboard and three-string configuration. But these are things I love. I've never considered getting a chromatic dulcimer (not that I have anything against it), probably in large part because I've played guitar for decades.
It's perfectly possible to play chromatic music on a dulcimer with a traditional fingerboard, if you're interested, and it rmakes you find interesting combinations. Three basic ways of playing chromatically:
1) non-standard tunings
2) bending notes
3) harmonics
I hope some of you will listen to the album when it starts streaming soon. My earlier albums are easy to find online on many streaming services.
Have a wonderful week!
I have this album and like it ever-so-much! If you are musically curious about mountain dulcimer as a primary instrument in the world of classical music composition, this is a recording you'll not want to miss!
I would add that the 1.5 and 8.5 frets come in handy if you play a lot of very old music, such as medieval and renaissance music. I have found that those genres tend to have 'accidentals'... occasional notes that pop in or out of major/minor key creating an unexpected edginess to the tune. I have also used those two frets for unexpected minor/modal notes in older traditional American fiddle tunes which can be wonderfully quirky.
But if you don't think you'll be playing any of the types of music mentioned by Dusty or myself, I'd say you can be pretty safe just getting the 6.5 and 13.5 pair of frets... those two frets will give you lots of future-proof options.
The question of extra frets comes down to what kind of music you want to play. If you are going to play traditional tunes in a drone style, you don't need extra frets. You will get used to re-tuning your melody string to get the mode needed for each song.
If you are going to play with others, especially those who play chords, if you are going to join workshops and jams and learn songs from other people's tablature, you will want the 6.5 fret. The 6.5 fret has been standard now for several decades, and most tablature assumes you have that fret. The 13.5 fret is just the octave version of the 6.5. I would suggest getting it so that you have the same fret pattern in both octaves. However, if you are getting one of Ron's small dulcimettes, the frets may be too small up high for a usable 13.5 fret. Follow his advice on that.
If you want to play blues, jazz, ragtime, pop, rock, and other modern music, you may want a 1.5 fret (and an 8.5 as well). That is the configuration on my main dulcimers now. However, remember that we celebrate how easy the dulcimer is to play, and the more frets we add, the more complicated it gets.
And remember that you can always have frets added later on. My advice would be to get the 6.5 and 13.5 but hold off on the 1.5 and 8.5 until you know for sure what you are doing and why you would want those frets.
@salt-springs Such a lovely way to honor the life and legacy of David Schnaufer!
I've read Pluck a couple times-- so much to learn about modern mountain dulcimer history! Linda Paulus's work combined with Robert Force's autobiographical writings have taught me so much about how the mountain dulcimer traveled here in the U.S. and abroad.
Worldwide Play Music On The Porch day 2025 edition is two weeks away-- 30 August 2025!
If it's in your heart to go outdoors and make some music, I hope you'll have a lovely time!
1.5, 6.5, 8.5, 13.5. All or nothing.
You will occasionally encounter DAA TABs which have 6 1/2 fret notes. Don't avoid an instrument just because it has one.
Thanks again, Robin. You're very kind. I hope I'm making a contribution to the dulcimer world as well. As you can probably tell, I make some different tone colors on the instrument and I'd love to have an opportunity to share them. You can probably also tell that I use lots of different tunings and, on the album, four equidistant strings. Four strings was a new thing for me (I have an album called Three Stings and the Truth), but I'm hooked, althougn there are virtues in three strings as well.
The album should be streaming in a few weeks. I'll let you all know.
Thanks again and have a great weekend,
