Course Content
Absolute Beginning-Level 1 Mountain Dulcimer Lesson-Steve Eulberg
5:52
Hi.
This is Steve Eulberg for Dulcimer Crossing, and we're in the beginning dulcimer playing series for mountain dulcimer.
We know what all the parts are now, so let's take a look at what has to happen with the left hand in order to play the dulcimer.
With any stringed instrument, the placement of the finger is what's changing the the length of the string and changing the pitch of that string.
And because the string vibrates from where you put your finger all the way to the bridge, this is going to be going up.
That is going to be going down.
So every time we go toward the bridge, we're going up, because it's going up in pitch.
Let's test and see if that's true.
As I get closer to the bridge, the pitch of the string gets higher, doesn't it?
When I go the other direction, it gets lower.
So as I go toward the knot, I'm going down.
When I'm going toward the bridge, I'm going up.
These up and down, they don't have anything to do with gravity.
It has to do with pitch.
The same is going to be the true for the base string, the thickest one that's furthest away from you, or the middle string.
Now, my dulcimer has doubled melody strings here.
Yours may only have 1.
It'll work either way.
Mine has got 2 melody strings.
They're laid out in a 3 string configuration though, with a bass string, a middle string, and the melody strings.
The bass string is the thickest one, and it's usually wound.
And it's the one furthest away from my body.
The middle string is the one in the middle.
The melody string or strings are the ones that are closest to me.
And, if you look at this on tablature, it's going to say bass, middle, melody.
Sometimes people abbreviate with a b, m, and an m e l for melody.
It there's different standards, but you might see it listed that way.
They'll also put the names of the notes that each string is to be tuned to.
Now how do you tune your dulcimer?
There's an article in the dulcimer crossing blog about hooing into the hole, which is the traditional way that people would tune their dulcimer.
They built it, and that's what I did when I built mine.
I hooed into the hole.
And there was a pitch at which the whole thing started rattling and shaking.
And I would tune the bass string to that pitch, and then I tune all the other ones relative to that.
Well, sometime in the late eighties, in this particular time in history, everybody decided we're gonna tune to the standard of d.
So the hooing into the hole has kind of passed by the wayside.
But if you're interested, take a look in the blog and take a look at that.
For the time being, I've tuned my dulcimer to a 155 tuning, or that's in relationships.
That's the first step of the scale and the 5th step of the scale, which is a very common tuning.
And, in fact, it's the one that adults wear with no extra frets is laid out perfectly to play.
Now what I've done, though, is choose d as my lowest pitch, or the name of my scale.
So D is the first string, D, E, F sharp, G, A, and A is what I've tuned the other two strings to.
Now, when I tune to D A A, that means my scale starts at the 3rd fret.
A B C Sharp D.
And if I walk up the scale, remember I'm going toward the bridge.
That's playing an octave.
And then whatever goes up must come down.
Coming back down, I started at the 3rd fret, and I went up 7 different notes before I got to the same name of note.
This time, let me say the names of the notes.
Why don't you say them with me because it'll help you remember?
D, e, f sharp, g, a, b, c sharp, d, an octave higher.
Coming back down, d, c sharp, b, a, g, f sharp, e, d.
Now some people find it easier to remember by fret eulberg.
And in fact, a lot of mountain balsamarin playing happens by remembering the fret numbers.
This instrument is very accessible, and my dad, who never felt like he was a musician, was actually able to build 2 of these later in his life and play and keep track of the songs he wanted to play by writing them in a little notebook using just numbers.
It's a perfectly legitimate way to play.
And what he would do is write down the fret numbers for every note he wanted to play.
Some people like to put their numbers on stickers and put them right beside the fret they're using.
That's a great way to get started too.
What I tell my students when they do that is go ahead and do that, and when the sticker falls off, you don't need to replace it because you don't need that sticker anymore.
That's a sign that you're ready to go.
Let's do the same scale using eulberg, fret numbers this time.
3rd fret.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Now going back down, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3.
Now, what about these other frets here that are below Do?
They actually take us down D C sharp B A to what is the 5th step in the D scale.
A B C sharp D.
There are a lot of songs that need those notes below DO.
And when we're set up this way, it's very easy to play those all on the melody string.
This sample lesson identifies the strings and notes on a mountain dulcimer.
This is the 2nd lesson in our 32 Lesson Absolute Beginning Mountain Dulcimer Course taught by our co-founder, Steve Eulberg.
This course is available as a stand-alone, ala carte course, AND is available to all levels of DulcimerCrossing membership, DIY, Workshop and Mentor.
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