rave: hammer dulcimer

[cellio]

tigerbright requested a rave on the hammer dulcimer. (See? I haven't forgotten after all! :-) ) The hammer dulcimer is a nifty instrument -- neat and distinctive sound, adaptable, and not nearly as hard to play as it looks. Really. Don't be scared off by all those strings -- it's a very logical instrument.

One of the nice things about this instrument is that if you correctly play even a naked melody line -- no chords, no ornaments, no fancy frills -- it will sound good, in a way that doing that on a piano doesn't. And then you can add in some of that other stuff and move from sounding good to sounding great. And the dulcimer is a percussion instrument, so some issues that come up with other instruments -- like intonation -- just don't apply. Sure, there are other subtleties, like in how you hold the hammer, but failures there do not result in playing the wrong notes. The dulcimer isn't the magnet that the harp is, quite, but it's pretty easy to sound decent even when you're a beginner. And then there's all sorts of room to do spiffy stuff that will impress you, your friends, and other dulcimer players.

Mind, you do have to tune all those strings, and that kind of sucks. Once an instrument settles in, though, it's not that big a deal for casual play. I've played concerts where I spent more time tuning than performing (and much moreso for recordings), but rehearsal-grade tuning absent wacky weather or long-time neglect takes 15 minutes, maybe 20. That's not bad at all. (As for weather, any wooden instrument is going to be sensitive to changes in temperature and pressure. But the dulcimer seems to be a little worse in that regard than guitars and woodwinds.)

The dulcimer lends itself particularly to diatonic music. For the non-musicians, very loosely that means playing a standard scale without accidentals, like playing C to C using only the white keys on a piano. (Musicians should forgive me the over-simplification.) Now if you're playing folk music, or even renaissance music (the types of music I most often play), there are certain accidentals that you need to add in and they're in useful places on the dulcimer. So really, if you're not trying to play some of the wacky 20th-century stuff, it works. And you can play very complex music on the dulcimer, though you're more limited than on a keyboard because you only have two hammers versus ten fingers. For those who know the piece: I once had Earl of Salisbury Pavane -- all of it minus about three notes -- up to performance level. It was high-maintenance, though, so it didn't stick around. Should have recorded it first; oh well.

Oh, and using hammers does not require the same kind of dexterity that playing many other instruments does, which has two implications: first, people who have problems with dexterity, like from arthritis, may find the dulcimer easier to play, and second, you can impress the hell out of people by playing very very quickly.

Comments

[cellio]

How far back does the dulcimer go?

Unclear. The word is old. There is speculation that it came to Europe during the crusades. The first hard evidence I know of is a manuscript painting from the early 16th century. And, of course, even if it did come to Europe during the crusades, we shouldn't automatically assume that it was in continuous use from that point.

How hard is it to learn?

I found it very easy to get the basics. My background up to that point was: six years of childhood piano lessons; a year or two messing around on the mountain dulcimer; utter inability to grok guitar.

Of course, as with anything, you can spend years fine-tuning the craft. But you won't spend years sucking the way people do with some other instruments. Assuming basic musical clues (like rhythm :-) ), a beginner will be playing recognizable tunes correctly within the first few hours.

In an ideal world you'd be able to borrow time on one for a little while before committing to a purchase. Depending on what the folk-music scene is like where you live, this might be possible. Failing that, come to Pennsic. :-)

Now, about period music: the style of play that the dulcimer most easily lends itself to is a later folk style. Playford dances and Irish jigs will roll trippingly off your hammers -- but if you want to play 15th-century music, you'll be doing some different things. A lot of folk ornamentation revolves around chords, and earlier music doesn't have that approach. This doesn't mean you can't play earlier music on the dulcimer -- I certainly do! -- but you will do some combination of playing "naked" melody lines (which does sound fine) and working up your own arrangements (not as scary as it sounds, if you're starting with multi-part music anyway). By the way, the dulcimer works well in a dance band with other stringed instruments.

Good luck! Let me know if I can help you further.

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info - I don't know if it's something I'm going to follow up on, but I can't sing, and I'd like something musical to do in an SCA context. Needless to say, the 10 years of piano lessons just don't carry over! :-) It's not something I've researched at all yet, but ideally I'd like to play something that a lady in 1410 might have played (if they did play instruments, if not, well... something that SOMEONE would have played in 1410 then).

[cellio]

Needless to say, the 10 years of piano lessons just don't carry over! :-)

Well, 1410 is probably too early for virginals (I haven't checked), but I believe it's smack in the middle of when portative organs were played. I couldn't say if they were played by women, but it might be a line of research for you. (A portative organ is usually about two octaves; you play the keys with one hand while manning a small bellows with the other.)

I think of keyboards as being "linear" instruments (as opposed to guitars and most woodwinds). Another linear instrument that's solidly documentable is the harp. You might also be able to wrap your brain around some woodwinds.