Mt. Dulcimer book?

[brewerpaul]

Couple of years back, my wife and I bought a mountain dulcimer kit, meaning to build it together. Well, life got in the way and the kit sat partially done for a long time. I recently exhumed it and have mostly finished it up to give Charlene for Chanukkah.
Can anyone recommend the best book for learning this instrument? I know that in the simplest technique, you simply play the melody on the double strings using the others as a drone. Don't need a book for that! However, the instruction sheet notes that there are more advanced techniques which require that the strings be evenly spaced. My nut and bridge are already slotted for that. Both my wife and I read music well, so a more advanced book is not a problem. Thanks.

[fearfaoin]

Stephen Seifert, a member here, produces DVD lessons which he sends out as
a subscription service. You can also buy the "back issues" separately. Stephen
is an excellent dulcimer player, and his teaching techniques are quite good.

http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/st ... StoreFront

[missy]

Second anything Steve produces (besides, he's a nice guy!)

You may want to pop on over to www.everythingdulcimer.com

There articles on playing, some great beginners things, 400+ TABS, and a wonderful discussion board. You "may" also recognize quite a few of the names of members, too!!!

[chattiekathy]

Hi Paul,

I agree with Missy that Everythingdulcimer is a must. I will third anything that Steve Seifert has done!

There are very few books out there that are written for the equidistant dulcimer that I know of. I have 42 dulcimer tab books and out of all of them, only 3 of them have any tab for equidistant playing and they only have a few in each of those books. There is actually a couple tabs for the 5 string dulcimer in them too. The three books that I have that have the EQ tabs are "2000 dulcimer", Fingerpicking Dulcimer by Janita Baker, and Hands-on dulcimer by Mike Casey all of these are Mel Bay books. But, again, there only a few EQ tabs in each of these and they are pretty advanced.

There is one person who I know could help you with this. He posts most of the free tab on ED. I think that he almost exclusively plays in Equidistant tuning. He is Steve Smith from NC. You can contact him through his North Carolina Dulcimer Club. The web address is here: http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/wncdc/CD's.htm Click on the "More information" button to email Steve.

I am going to make a suggestion. Before you finish your dulcimer, cut the slots in your nut and bridge that are for regular tuning also. Most of the builders are doing this now to make the dulcimer more versatile. That way if you want to change back and forth, you need only loosen the strings a little and put them in the other slots. If you have any questions about doing this, there is a builders forum on ED that gets a great response to questions about building them. The builders on ED are very helpful.

Kathy

[brewerpaul]

The dulcimer kit's nut and bridge already have both sets of slots. Thanks for everyone's help.

[DanD]

Very few play the dulcimer with the noter (although there are some tunes and some people who sound terrific that way!!) Most play the traditional string set up (doubled melody string) but use their left hands to fret and chord. The best book IMHO is by Larkin Bryant, and is available at Riverlark.com. It's a great introduction to strumming and fingerpicking, and explores many of the different tunings.
Janita Baker is probably the biggest advocate for equidistant strings - her book has already been mentioned.
Don't dismiss the traditional setup - I started with it over 15 years ago, and am still learning new things - there's alot more possibilities than just sliding a stick up and down.
Find a festival (yes, there are dulcimer festivals!!) and have some fun!