The bridge bumper is a tool that should be used with extreme care, and by people who know what they are doing, so get guidance if you feel that you need it. If you use a bridge bumper without proper care, you can mar the finish on the sound board, or break the bridge of your instrument completely. This is a stick with some padding on it that can be used to move the treble bridge into its proper position or alignment for tuning. The bridge bumper should only be used against the bottom of the bridge. Finally, the leather pad is used to protect the sound board's finish should you happen to be using a bridge bumper for tuning purposes.

The next question to ask yourself is about how often you need to actually tune your hammered dulcimer instrument. The solution to this is actually relatively simple: You should tune only when you actually need to tune. Most hammered dulcimers will naturally stabilize over time, allowing them to be less frequently tuned. Newer hammered dulcimers on the other hand typically need to be often tuned at least in the first few months before their assemblages can normalize. If you are playing a new instrument, then you should expect to sit down and tune it on a fairly regular basis.

Hammered dulcimers are going to need to be retuned in situations where significant humidity changes are in place, because high humidity can cause the wood to absorb moisture, and this will expand the wood. Expansion of the wood will cause the instrument to play more sharply than it is meant to. On the other hand, low humidity will cause the wood to lose moisture, which will shrink the wood and cause the instrument to go flat over time. If you change to heating from air conditioning or from air conditioning to heating, you should plan on retuning your instrument. If you control the humidity in your home more effectively, you will not need to tune your hammered dulcimer as often.

There is some debate regarding whether you should begin at the bottom or the top when tuning your hammered dulcimer. It really does not make much difference though, so the best advice that you can take is simply to begin where you want to. Do what is comfortable for you, tune to the right level for your play, and you should be just fine.

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Originally posted 2009-02-26 05:04:55. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Acoustic Guitar Basics The first thing you think of when you think about acoustic instruments is likely the acoustic guitar. What most people do not know is that “acoustic guitar” is a retronym. Until electric guitars were invented, they were simply called guitars. The differentiation was necessary upon the invention and adoption of......
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As you continue to gain experience playing and tuning the hammered dulcimer, you will likely discover that there are different ways to tune the instrument, each leading to a different level of accuracy. For example, if you are simply looking to enjoy a jam session, then you want a good enough tuning level that you are not embarrassing yourself or bothering anyone that you are playing with and this should only take 20 to 30 minutes to achieve. On the other hand, if you are simply learning to play, or playing in the comfort of your own home, you can simply tune your hammered dulcimer to taste, which can take a mere 10 minutes to accomplish when done correctly. If you are performing for people or recording your play on the other hand, the accuracy level must be much higher, and this may take an hour or more for you to accomplish depending on your aptitude for tuning such instruments.

The first thing that you need to do is to ensure that you have the right tools for this process. The best way to learn how to do something is to learn as accurately as you possibly can, and then you can ratchet things down from there to meet the circumstances of your needs. The following instructions are designed to help you with both quick and basic tuning, and optimal tuning as well.

The following tools are going to be necessary in order for you to tune your instrument accurately:

- An electronic tuner as well as an alligator clip cord that can be plugged in.

- A tuning lever.

- A bridge bumper and a striker, as required.

- A leather pad, for use with the bridge bumper.

The electronic tuner and cord is the handiest available device for someone who owns and plays a hammered dulcimer. This is an essential tool and can be purchased for less than $30 dollars in most cases. The plug-in alligator clip cord is a cord that plugs into the tuner and then clips on to a tuning pin or hitch pin on the instrument, allowing the tuner to pick the vibrations up from the cord, ignoring any other noise that may get in the way. You can buy something like this for less than $20 dollars and it really does come in handy when tuning your hammered dulcimer.

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Originally posted 2009-02-25 05:49:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Acoustic Musical Instruments Defined Acoustic musical instruments are musical instruments that are capable of creating sounds entirely via acoustic means as opposed to by way of electronic means. Before electronic instruments came along, there was no need to define instruments as being acoustic as every instrument was acoustic by nature. Acoustic music, or generally......
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• Hammered and Lap Dulcimer Instruments The Hammered Dulcimer What the dulcimer is, is a stringed instrument that has perceived to be an ancestor to the modern piano. It possesses a number of courses of between two and five strings for each note, and they are stretched across a shallow trapezoid shaped box that is made......

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The name dulcimer is Graeco-Roman in origin, meaning sweet song. The instrument is a classical instrument, having been around for thousands of years. There are variations of the instrument all over the world, having seen play in Europe, Asia, and other areas. The instrument has seen a revival of play in modern days, with a variety of play techniques being utilized.

The strings of a hammered dulcimer are alternately strung across two bridges. The number of strings is variable and is a measure of the dulcimer. For example, a 14/15 dulcimer has 14 strings on left and 15 on the right. The strings are typically tuned diatonically, following a circle of fifths. This will result in a most of a chromatic scale being implemented. Modern players may add additional strings with a small bridge in order to implement the missing notes.

The hammer of the hammered dulcimer is used to strike the strings in order to create the sound. These are traditionally made from wood, but can be made of any material. Typically, there is a pad or soft covering at the end of the mallet where it strikes the string to produce a smoother, softer sound. The traditional shape of the mallet is a tear drop shape at the end of a handle. Western dulcimer hammers are typically stiff, while eastern are usually flexible, enabling a rapid double or triple strike depending upon the striking gesture.

Several hammered dulcimer players have developed their own technique for striking the strings, as well as differing hammers and string setups. Many musicians have used items such as hacksaw blades, steel wire, and other items, each giving their own characteristics to the sound of the dulcimer as it was being played. The traditional striking technique involves holding a mallet in each hand with a bit of balance going on between the thumb and first finger. Just by shifting the fingers slightly, the hammer will swing over its length. Striking involves a combination of finger and lower arm motion to enable the strike and rapid recover for the next strike. Based upon finger tension and motion, the hammer may vibrate, enable very rapid strikes of strings.

More recently developed is a four hammer technique, where the first two hammers are griped between thumb and first finger, and the second two are gripped between the second and third fingers. This enable much more rapid play for a given hand speed, as well as being able to chord four notes instead of two.

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Originally posted 2009-01-30 05:45:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Tuning the Hammered Dulcimer pt 2 The tuning lever is available in a couple of different styles, including a T Handle and a Gooseneck Handle, and personal preference should be what governs which you use. The Gooseneck tends to offer more leverage, but it does not let you fine tune the instrument quite as well. The......
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• A Little About Dulcimers A dulcimer is a fretted instrument that most commonly includes three or four strings. The fretting is usually diatonic and spreads along a fingerboard attached to the instrument's body. It became popular in old-time American music in the 1800s. It is believed to have been brought over from Scotland or......

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The Hammered Dulcimer

What the dulcimer is, is a stringed instrument that has perceived to be an ancestor to the modern piano. It possesses a number of courses of between two and five strings for each note, and they are stretched across a shallow trapezoid shaped box that is made out of wood. Players are responsible for striking the strings using hammers, which are shaped similarly to spoons, in order to produce a brilliant range of different tones on the metal strings. There is also a pedal, connected by way of a cord to the instrument's box, which behaves as a sound damper in order to create modifications to the instrument's tone.

The dulcimer is rumored to be a descendant from the santir, a Persian instrument. The dulcimer originated from the middle eased and then was carried through to Spain by around the 1100s and then to China by around the 1800s.

The dulcimer ended up becoming a common folk instrument all throughout Europe, and it went on to acquire a number of different names all throughout different countries in the region. For example:

• In Switzerland, the hammered dulcimer is known as the hackbrett.
• In the Czech Republic, the hammered dulcimer is known as the cimbal.
• In Hungary, the hammered dulcimer is known as the cimbalom.
• In Greece, the hammered dulcimer is known as the santouri.

The first completely chromatic instrument standing on legs while featuring a pedal like a piano in order to dampen the tones was the Hungarian hammered dulcimer, the Cimbalom.

Because the instrument known as the zither is also referred to as a dulcimer in the US, the way that the two instruments are differentiated is by calling this one the hammered dulcimer, referring to the way that the instrument is played. The other type of dulcimer is the Appalachian mountain dulcimer or the lap dulcimer is not actually hammered, but rather it is plucked using either a plectrum or the fingers.

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The Lap Dulcimer

The Appalachian mountain dulcimer is a descendent of the zither that is diatonically fretted. The zither was an instrument with strings that were stretched over a box lacking a neck. Fretting this instrument, because it is a diatonically fretted instrument, creates the tones in the major scale. There are also some Appalachian mountain dulcimers that possess an extra fret capable of providing another note in addition to the eight standard tones produced in the Western major scale.

This type of dulcimer is made out of a lot of different materials because there is no real constraint for builders to adhere to based on preceding instruments. Early instruments were made out of poplar but now cherry, walnut, redwood and maple are also common.

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Photo Credits: MariyaZ

Originally posted 2009-09-30 03:50:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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The standard method of playing the dulcimer is to place it on one's lap and pluck the strings with your dominant hand. The other hand is used to fret the notes on the fingerboard. To amplify the dulcimer's sound, it can also be played while sitting on a chest of drawers or a table. To fret the notes, you can either press down on all of the strings to produce notes and chords or you can fret only the melody string. Using the second method, the other strings act as drones to the melody string, which is generally fretted by using a short dowel or bamboo rod. This creates an interesting buzz sound on the melody string, while the sound from the drone strings rings clearly.

A number of fretting styles have been used throughout history. There are photos going back decades showing people playing dulcimers with a bow, with the end of the instrument resting in the musician's lap and the headstock sitting on a nearby table. Others have discovered evidence of dulcimers being played similar to guitars, with a strap around the neck holding the instrument near the musician's body. The dulcimer can also be played like a harp, held vertically while plucking each string with the fingertips. Fingerpicking styles can be used to create a distinctive sound, similar to fingerpicking on an acoustic guitar. This allows the musician to experiment with different sounds, such as new chords or arpeggios.

There are a variety of musical styles that can be played on the dulcimer, from folk music to electric dulcimer music. There are now solid-body electric dulcimers to amplify the instrument's sound. Dulcimers can have anywhere from two to twelve strings, with the two-stringed instruments generally being called monochords. A variety of body styles are available, including violin-shaped, rectangular, teardrop, trapezoid, elliptical, fish-shaped, and lute-back models. With a bit of work, a dulcimer can be altered so it can be played with a bow, similar to a violin. Another variation is the courting dulcimer, which is designed to be played by two people during a duet. Courting dulcimers have one large body in the middle, with two fingerboards connected to it. The instrument must be played laying across the lap of the two musicians, hence its name as the "courting" dulcimer.

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Originally posted 2008-12-01 05:58:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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