Why Hammered Dulcimer Strings Are Going Viral Overnight - Away State Journal
The "other" dulcimer People use the word “dulcimer” to refer both to the hammered dulcimer and to the mountain dulcimer. Hammered dulcimer is the type we make, and it is played by striking the strings with a pair of special mallets called hammers. Mountain dulcimer looks more like a guitar (often hourglass-shaped) and is played by fretting and strumming the strings. Hammered dulcimer anatomy
Appalachian dulcimer and derivatives In the Appalachian region of the U.S. in the nineteenth century, hammered dulcimers were rare. There, the word dulcimer, which was familiar from the King James Version of the Bible, was used to refer to a three or four stringed fretted instrument, generally played on the lap by strumming. Variants include:
Dulcimer, stringed musical instrument, a version of the psaltery in which the strings are beaten with small hammers rather than plucked. European dulcimers—such as the Alpine hackbrett, the Hungarian cimbalom, the Romanian Č›ambal, the Greek santouri, and the Turkish and Persian sanáąĹ«r, as well as
The true hammer dulcimer is a close relative to the psaltery, the chief difference being that the psaltery is usually plucked and the dulcimer is usually struck. Early varieties were rather simple, having relatively few strings which passed over bridges only at the sides.
