McSpadden dulcimer with chromatic fretboard, also including a chart of the chromatic fretboard compared to the diatonic fretboard to help with "translating" song tabs.
Mainly because I am not coming from a diatonic dulcimer background; rather, I am starting with the chromatic dulcimer and the diatonic numbers don’t make sense to me. So I learned to translate them quickly into their chromatic counterparts, when needed.
What seems to be helping most is just reading the music on the staff, since I know where the notes are on the fretboard, and only checking the tab to get an idea of which string is the suggested string to play.
Why learn two entirely different sets of numbers? If playing the dulcimer, why not use the common dulcimer fret terminology to begin with when learning to play or reading tab? -as in calling them the 6, 6.5, and then 7th fret at the octave for high D, and the 1, 2, 3 fret (and a 1.5 fret if there is one for D#). The fret markers seem to be at recognizable spots for traditional labeling (the double dot at the octave 7th fret for example)- those are there to serve as handy visual cues/landmarks on the chromatic highway. It just seems like a whole lot of extra work to me when you can just learn the instrument's generally accepted fret labels/numbers to begin with. Is there other tab or sheet music you plan to play that would require you to use the other (chromatic) fret numbers? If not, then it seems like unnecessary extra work and confusion to have to learn both sets of fret numbers.
Mainly because I am not coming from a diatonic dulcimer background; rather, I am starting with the chromatic dulcimer and the diatonic numbers don’t make sense to me. So I learned to translate them quickly into their chromatic counterparts, when needed.
What seems to be helping most is just reading the music on the staff, since I know where the notes are on the fretboard, and only checking the tab to get an idea of which string is the suggested string to play.
Maybe my brain works in weird ways? 😃
My personal view on this-
Why learn two entirely different sets of numbers? If playing the dulcimer, why not use the common dulcimer fret terminology to begin with when learning to play or reading tab? -as in calling them the 6, 6.5, and then 7th fret at the octave for high D, and the 1, 2, 3 fret (and a 1.5 fret if there is one for D#). The fret markers seem to be at recognizable spots for traditional labeling (the double dot at the octave 7th fret for example)- those are there to serve as handy visual cues/landmarks on the chromatic highway.
It just seems like a whole lot of extra work to me when you can just learn the instrument's generally accepted fret labels/numbers to begin with. Is there other tab or sheet music you plan to play that would require you to use the other (chromatic) fret numbers? If not, then it seems like unnecessary extra work and confusion to have to learn both sets of fret numbers.