Alex, in general I think the more experience with music of any sort, the easier it is to learn any instrument.  There may be challenges, but they pale in comparison to the challenges faced by someone with no musical experience.

I came to the dulcimer from the guitar and mandolin, and yes, it took a little bit to get used to the bass string being on the other end of the fretboard.  But I found the diatonic fretboard the real obstacle.  There were notes in my head that did not exist on the instrument.  And whereas on the mandolin, for example, once you learned a G major chord, you could slide up a fret to get an Ab, another fret to get an A, another fret to get a Bb, and so forth, moveable chords do not work as simply as that on the dulcimer.  It was indeed confusing.

However, the techniques I had developed for right-hand fingerpicking and flatpicking both transferred over with minor adjustments, and even my left hand, though resembling more piano than guitar technique, was also more advanced than that of a beginner.  No one had to teach me what a hammer-on is, for example, or how to bend a string or get harmonics, or how to strum to get a waltz rhythm, and so forth.

Learning a new instrument is difficult, but experience with one instrument makes learning the next one that much easier.

As challenging as it may have been to understand the diatonic fretboard, some people come to the dulcimer with no knowledge of music at all. They don't know what a note is or what a key is.  They ask questions like "how do I know when to strum?" which is not something someone who has already played another string instrument would ever ask.

--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator

As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
updated by @dusty: 07/22/25 08:40:18PM

Hi All,

Greetings from Minnesota and a good week to you.

Mostly for curiosity, I'm asking those of you who teach dulcimer whether it's generally easier to teach someone with prior string instrument or none.  Although I don't teach dulcimer, as a teacher of music composition, I often assign students to write for it, as it's a challenging instrument to learn in that capacity.  On occasion, I've noticed that guitarists struggle with the "reverse" order of the strings, while non-string players don't have that issue.

In an analogous way, I have a colleague from Ghana who teaches West African music, both non-music and music majors, the latter mostly classical musicians.  He often finds the former take to African rhythms more readily, not being nearly as acclimated to the very different rhythms of classical music.

Thoughts?

Many thanks in advance,