I'm happy you folks enjoyed seeing this!  

I've tried a striker yet wasn't very good at it.  I've tried to make my husband use a striker on the mountain dulcimer (much like a person would use fiddlesticks) while I played it yet he wasn't interested in sticking it out with me.  

Very fascinating. I first started playing dulcimer using a colored pencil for a striker. At the time i was listening to a blues artist named eddie jones who played a diddley bow with a whittled stick and thought maybe i was bringing a new technique over to the dulcimer. Of course it makes sense that a great player has already thought of it and developed mastery with it. I gave up pretty soon on the colored pencil so it's awesome to see what a skilled version of what i was trying looks like. Personally I found it very difficult to utilize the percussion while still keeping the sound sweet and pretty and I made a striker wrapped in felt, which i found gives the dulcimer a sound almost like a piano.

WOW!!!  Would love to learn such cool stuff.  Life keeps happening~which is GOOD~but I am not really progressing.  Love this so much!

I've been away down in Tyler, Texas with my brother that has also taking to making instruments.   He's made several ukulele's and guitars and his intruments are awesome.  So we finished 2 dulcimers and had sooooooo much fun working in his shop.   He has a big shop and one shirt that says it all, "I'm one tool away from greatness".  I missed going to this site daily like I do when I'm home.  I've loved using a little hammer, Lois displayed the one that I use now.  I'll see if I can get someone to film me playing THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY while using my striker.  I LOVED seeing the videos of folks using the "fiddlesticks" I Use that expression ALL THE TIME........now I have a visual of how they are used and what they're called.  OH TOOOOOOOOOOO FUN.  aloha, irene

Thank heavens this site offers a way to review as I'm in only intermittently lately.  Saw this about strikers & wanted to show a simple one I was given (so they must be inexpensive).  It was part of last year's Christmas dulcimer workshop at Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan, so they may carry them.  It's about an 1/8th of an inch thick & my husband thinks it may be oak.  I'm adding a photo as many of you could make one.  I'm using mine for the last verse of Good King Wenceslaus.

striker.jpg  •  40KB

@marg I hadn't thought of weighting the chopstick some way when I've given using a striker tries.  Thanks for the idea!

This is from a few years ago, I was just trying to hammer a tune. I wanted something other then strum strum with a pick. I am using a chopstick with a brass sleeve over the end I strike with. 

Thanks Robin for such a lovely video. I use a hammer from my hammered dulcimer. HD hammers have just the right balance, making it easier to pick out individual notes, and create that distinctive bouncy sound... Robert

@bryan-fridlund I've imagined Doug Thomson's hammer is used that way.  It may feel more balanced in the hand than a found object of some kind used as a striker.

Doug Thomson at www.banjomer.com makes a fretted dulcimer hammer. I wonder if it could be used as a “striker”?  

Thank you for the name correction, @pierre-yves-donnio and @john-shaw!  I've edited the posting.  

From my experience of trying to use a striker, John Shaw's pointing-out the important factor of having a loose well-balanced hold is true.  

I've tried this with knitting needles.....to me, playing this way is about as easy as touching your nose with your elbow!

John Molineux uses a chopstick or a ball point pen.  The "secret" of his technique is that he holds the stick very loosely, well balanced so that it bounces a little and does a few further light hits on the string.  (This is something I've never been able to manage, as I can't stop myself holding it far too stiffly.)

Be sure to look at these two other fun discussions on the use of strikers (also called "fiddlesticks" technique)... they include a video showing use on an epinette, which is like a small mtn dulcimer:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/general-mountain-dulcimer-or-music-discussions/4572/fiddlesticks#r4575

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/general-mountain-dulcimer-or-music-discussions/22623/oh-fiddlesticks

That use of a striker is fun and intriguing. I will try this but anyone seen any videos of mountain dulcimer instructors using this technique? 

The player is not John Renbourn (who is the one with the guitar, on right at the beginning of the video) but the great John Molineux

I do not know what was being used as a striker in the video yet I've used a chopstick when I've tried the technique.  

Irene showed us how to do this @ the Berea Gathering!

Chopstick?

I was fascinated with the striker, too. Wonder what he was using as the striker?

His playing and singing are good enough (you gotta love the little smile as he sings the slightly bawdy lines) but the rhythms he gets with that striker are just amazing.  I'm in awe.

That was a really neat video. Loved the song and the music. Thanks for sharing. 

Though it doesn't come until near the end of the video, I was fascinated with seeing how Mr Molineux used the striker.