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HISTORY OF THE DULCIMER   (credit Wikipedia)

The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family,

typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region

of the United States.

Although the Appalachian dulcimer first appeared in the early 19th century

among Scots-Irish immigrant communities in the Appalachian Mountains,

the instrument has no known precedent in Ireland or Scotland.

Because few historical records of the dulcimer exist, the origins of the instrument were open to speculation until recently when Ralph Lee Smith and L. Alan Smith reconstructed the instrument's history by analyzing older dulcimers. The organological development of the dulcimer divides into three periods: transitional (1700 to mid-1800s), pre-revival or traditional (mid-1800s to 1940), and revival or contemporary (after 1940).

Charles Maxson, an Appalachian luthier from Volga, West Virginia, speculated that early settlers were unable to make the more complex violin in the early days because of lack of tools and time. This was one of the factors which led to the building of the dulcimer, which has less dramatic curves. 

Few true specimens of the mountain dulcimer exist from earlier than about 1880, when J. Edward Thomas of Knott County, Kentucky, began building and selling them. The instrument became used as something of a parlor instrument, as its modest sound volume is best-suited to small home gatherings. But for the first half of the 20th century the mountain dulcimer was rare, with a handful of makers supplying players in scattered pockets of Appalachia. Virtually no audio recordings of the instrument exist from earlier than the late 1930s.

The instrument achieved its true renaissance in the 1950s urban folk music revival in the United States through the work of Jean Ritchie, a Kentucky musician who performed with the instrument before New York City audiences. 

 

Meanwhile, the American folk musician Richard Fariña (1937–1966) was also bringing the Appalachian dulcimer to a much wider audience, and by 1965 the instrument was a familiar presence in folk music circles.

Brian Jones, of The Rolling Stones, played the Electric Appalachian Dulcimer on their 1966 album Aftermath, notably on "Lady Jane". He can be seen playing the instrument during their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was influenced to use the instrument after hearing recordings of Richard Fariña.

 

One of the most famous players of the Appalachian dulcimer is, perhaps, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, who first played the instrument on studio recordings in the late 1960s and most famously on the album Blue (1971), as well as in live concerts. Cyndi Lauper is also a high-profile mountain dulcimer player.

TECHNOLOGY

 

Dulcimers, like other instruments, have a "tab" (tabular) notation for learning songs. The bottom four lines represent the strings, and the numbers represent the fret that is played.

Source: Free Dulcimer Tabs from revelsmusic.co.uk

 

  

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Some of us have replaced our music binders with an inexpensive app from the App Store called UnRealBook, which allows you to import pdf copies of your music to an Ipad

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unrealbook/id370135173

You can search all your songs quickly, create and modify set lists, and it allows bookmarks and keywords.

To take it a step further, there is an electronic bluetooth page turner pedal, www.pageflip.com

 

Last but not least, if you want to play along with a virtual guitar, there is a website called strummachine.com. It breaks down songs from its library (or you can add your own) into chord layouts, and it is easy to change the key or speed.

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If you like to play along with a METRONOME*, there are quite a few inexpensive and/or free apps in the Apple app store and elsewhere.

*A metronome is a device that will tell you how many beats per minute are playing in a work. You can listen, find the beat, and match it to the metronome - OR - you can set the metronome to a certain number of beats per minutes, and as you practice, it will click and let know you if you are with the beat, or OFF the beat. It is the little box that people hate - because it is never wrong.

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