Wendy Songe - "King of the Fairies" on Mountain Dulcimer 

On the contrary, it is hard to make a dulcimer sound bad my man. You should try!

Dulcimer is weird. It’s intended to make simple songs even simpler, and it succeeds, specifically playing in major keys. It was created by Appalachians, for Appalachian music. But what that also means is that if you see someone playing something intricate and complex on one, they had to work twice as hard to get past the natural plateau of the inherent limitations of the instrument itself.

I play guitar but I'm not very good at all. I picked up a dulcimer and within 5 minutes I was making it sound decent.

Me too!

+Wonkey Ninja Lots and lots of people play it. I do :) You just have to know where to look! :D

go to Branson Missouri

Visit Warren May in Berea, KY (about 40 minutes from Lexington) if you're ever in the area. He's been making dulcimers for over 40 years, and could give you a great number of pointers to get started playing for yourself. His instruments are also pretty affordable (about $350 for a basic poplar dulcimer). I worked for him for a while, and he's a great guy. A former landlord of mine in Berea, Mr. Truman Fields, sometimes tells people that the three most friendly people in Berea are Silas House, Truman Fields, and Warren May, in that order. Of course, he tells them this before they know his name, so its a shock for them to find out who told them he was number 2 most friendly!

Are these more for playing solo or does it get along with fiddle and guitar? Does it have enough volume

greeneking77 While they certainly *can* be played solo (and traditionally were, as they would be the only instrument in a household), they can blend well with other instruments too. They can be a bit on the quiet side, but if you're worried about that, you can just get a bigger bodied one. The ones I made with Warren May were mostly slightly bigger bodied, giving them a fuller sound, and the walnut ones had a more guitar like timbre.

This is an old instrument originating in England, Scotland and Ireland and was brought over by Scottish and Irish immigrants who settled in the Appalachia Mountains. It is also a promient instrument in Blues, Cajun, and other folk and Irish music.

While the tunes (like this one) are often Celtic, the instrument itself is more likely from the Pennsylvania Dutch and German immigrants drifting down the Appalachians. Great, in any case.

The Instrument, Is an Appalachian mountain dulcimer originating from the Mountains of south western Virginia. It was Irish and Scottish immigrants who began using it to play songs from their homeland. This is the one truly American instrument.

Although the lap dulcimer found a home among settlers, early on in Appalachia, it did not originate in the USA. I remember seeing a very similar instrument called a langeleik on a LP jacket of traditional Icelandic music. But the lap dulcimer was, as far we can tell, never played in Ireland, England or Scotland, despite fitting the modal folk music from those countries (and any other country you can name). So, it came from somewhere else. Wikipedia has some interesting research on the origins, and why it was adopted by some many "home" musicians in the mountains. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_dulcimer In any case, it fits traditional Appalachian music superbly well. Another reason for this is, most of the old modal songs the settlers brought with them were originally sung unaccompanied in the old country, but the droning dulcimer fit them far better than the later banjo and guitar. I have played all three for decades. Cheers.

What a nasty man.

check out Brett ridgeway tutorials on you tube... they helped me

@Terry Eugene

it certainly would. Love her.