Dulcimer - Art Sphere Inc.

The Dulcimer

The word dulcimer originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld “hammers”. It is suggested that dulcimer spread to central Europe from Persia about the 15th century.

There are different types of Dulcimer including:

Hammered dulcimer (England, Scotland, United States)
Hackbrett (southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
The original Appalachian dulcimer. Various twentieth-century derivatives, including the Banjo dulcimer, with banjo-like resonating membrane Resonator dulcimer, with inset conical resonator.
Bowed dulcimer, teardrop-shaped, and played upright with a bow.
Electric dulcimer, various types of dulcimer which use a pickup to amplify the sound.

European dulcimers like the Alpine hackbrett, the Hungarian cimbalom, the Romanian țambal, the Greek santouri, and the Turkish and Persian sanṭūr, as well as the Chinese yangqin—have for each note two or more metal strings stretched across a flat, usually trapezoidal sound box. They pass over one and under the other of two long bridges. The Appalachian, or mountain, dulcimer of the United States is a narrow folk zither with three to five metal strings running over a fretted fingerboard, which is set centrally along the dulcimer’s entire length. The pianoforte is a dulcimer in which a keyboard mechanism operates the beaters. One of its immediate predecessors was the pantaleon, a 5-foot (1.5-metre) or longer dulcimer fashionable in the early 18th century.

The word dulcimer is from the King James Version of the Bible. Dulcimer is considered to be one of the easiest instruments to learn how to play. They are an ideal instrument for beginners and children, another advantage is that the instrument is quiet so the player can play it anywhere.

The dulcimer (with numerous alternate names, as detailed later) belongs to the zither family and is characterized by its fretted strings. It commonly features three or four strings and has historical roots in the Appalachian area of the United States. The instrument’s body spans the entirety of the fingerboard, and its fretting is primarily diatonic in nature.

How do I play the instrument?

The player’s right-hand strums with a small stick or quill, and the left-hand stops one or more strings to provide the melody.

Are there any instrument silimar to this one?

Yes, there are several instruments similar such as

The santouri (Greece) instruments.
Santur (Iran and Iraq).
Santoor (northern India and Pakistan). Tsymbaly (Ukraine), tsimbl (Ashkenazi Jewish), țambal (Romania), and cimbalom (Hungary) may refer to either a relatively small folk instrument or a larger classical instrument.

How long does it take to learn?

Depending on the type of dulcimer a plectrum might be needed or a hammer. It takes 5 hours to learn how to play the instrument.

Is there special equipment needed for the instrument?

Rock with a Star!

Let’s enjoy the sound of this instrument through this wonderful performance by Otto Malmborg