I take weekly group lessons with Don Pedi and play noter style in all tunings Don plays in .

I am not a traditional player and my dulcimers all have a 6.5 fret, but I definitely enjoy playing melody drone with a noter or my thumb in Dad. If I didn't have a 6.5 fret, well it might be fun to mess around with but definitely wouldn't be the same.

I can understand that. I also do a lot of finger dancing. Folks think at playing noter style is easy, but it takes practice to make it sound good. Keep on doing what you're doing.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yeah, I'm more of a finger-dancer, rather than just using one finger.  I have used a noter, and yes, it's not that hard to still hit the middle string with your finger.  But finger-dancing came more naturally to me after years of playing chord-melody style and I never got very good with the noter.

I often play noter style in DAd. After a little practice you can manipulate your noter to fret the middle string. Of course, there is no reason you can't use your finger to do that. I think playing with a single finger rather than a noter changes the traditional sound. The zing of moving from one fret to another just seems not to be there for me. Another option is finger dancing where you use several of fingers to press down the melody. Watch some of Don Pedi's videos. It is fun to discover new techniques in playing. There is no right or wrong way to play the mountain dulcimer. Enjoy whatever way you choose to play it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

@tonyg, I'm glad to hear of your discoveries on the instrument.  In traditional, modal dulcimer music, the tuning is dictated by the specific notes of the melody.  DAd gives you the lowered 7th note (found on the 6 fret), which does not exist in DAA (it would be on the 8+ fret).  So certain tunes such as Going to Boston or Old Joe Clark can only be played in DAd.

That lowered 7th note defines the mode as Mixolydian.  DAA, beginning on the 3rd fret, provides the major scale or Ionian mode, which has a regular 7th note on the 9th fret.

If you have a 6+ fret, you can play the major scale or Ionian mode in DAd, which is presumably why that extra fret became so popular.  And if you are fretting with your fingers and are comfortable moving to the middle string, then you can overcome the main limitation of playing trad tunes in DAd only on the melody string, which is that no notes are available below the open melody string (the root or tonic).

But the short answer to your question is that traditional players tune DAd whenever the melody requires that lowered seventh note.

After abandoning chord melody playing (former long time guitar player), I've been playing drone style, (but no noter though) using more traditional tunings, and have really come to appreciate the old time sound of the dulcimer.  However, the other day I tuned to DAD for the first time in a long time, and was pleasantly surprised to find how good this tuning sounds played drone style without any chords.  Since I don't use a noter, I can easily play a couple notes on the middle string when necessary.  It would seem most DAD players use chords, but I was wondering if any of you traditional players use DAD?  I guess you could say I'm becoming a  semi- traditional  player, ((no chords but no noter) using not-so-traditional chords (DAD/DGD).  Hmmmmmmm........