Description: The Appalachian dulcimer is a plucked zither and member of the chordophone family of musical instruments. Alternate names include “lap dulcimer”. The French, Eppinet, Swedish hummel, Norwegian langleik, Icelandic langspiel and the Hungarian citera. The roots of the Appalachian dulcimer in North America were established by the Scotch-Irish, English and German settlers who arrived in Pennsylvania around in 1720 to 1770. Traditionally the music of the Appalachian dulcimer played is called "old time" music. Playing the Appalachian dulcimer involves strumming, picking or sometimes using a wooden “slide”. This slide would be pressed against the string just behind the fret on the first D string. It is a technique based upon French Eppinet playing. Many contemporary techniques such as a tapping are played on the dulcimer, along with chords, single notes or harmonies.

 

 

Anatomy of the Dulcimer: The profile of the Appalachian dulcimer is based upon "hour glass" shape. The frets are arranged in a diatonic configuration in a Myxolidian scale. In the case of my specimen the scale becomes D Myxolidian D / E / F# / G / A / B / C / D. Due to the addition of the 8th fret as one chromatic semitone the dulcimer's fret scale becomes D / E / F# / G / A / B / C / C# / D. The four string Appalachian dulcimers are configured as “D'd-A-D” a course of parallel strings and two single strings. The second most common profile is the backpack or travellers dulcimers. Other models of the Appalachian dulcimer are the "Virginia" and the "concert" models. The “Ozark” method of stringing the Appalachian dulcimer is where each of the four strings are individual single strings.

 

 

Appalachian Dulcimer Tunings

Name	Key	3-stringed	4-stringed
Ionian	A	A-A-D	A-A-a-d
Aeolian	C	C-C-D	C-C-a-d
Mixylodian	D	D-A-D	D-D-a-d
Dorian	G	D-G-D	D-D-g-d
Ionian	G	G-G-D	G-G-a-d
	A min	E-A-G	E-A-g-e
	E	E-E-B	E-E-b-e