Hammered Dulcimers

Hammered dulcimers come in many different varieties. We’ll describe the most popular American version here with the traditional fifth interval tuning. Most instruction materials are designed for this type of dulcimer.

Figure 1-A
diagram: top view

Figure 1-B
diagram: side view

skip navigation links

Strings, Hardware, and Bridges

Dulcimer strings are usually small-gauge steel music wire, similar to those on banjos or mandolins. Sometimes other metals (such as phosphor bronze or brass) and wound strings are used.

Each dulcimer string is anchored into one pinblock using a hitch pin. The string then passes over a side bridge and the treble (or bass) bridge, and goes through an opening in the opposite (i.e., bass or treble) bridge. Finally, the string passes over the other side bridge and is anchored to a tuning pin. Often called zither pins, these are smaller versions of piano tuning pins. They have tiny screw threads that hold the pin tightly in the pinblock with friction. Special tuning wrenches fit over the squared heads of the pins for tuning.

Strings are grouped together in courses, with all strings in a course tuned to the same pitch. Some older instruments had three, four, and as many as six strings in each course, which made tuning laborious. Those instruments also had to be built quite heavily to prevent collapse under the string tension. Current builders tend toward lighter weight, more responsive instruments that can produce all the volume a player needs with a very manageable two strings per course.

[TOP | CONTENTS]

Figure 2
diagram showing relative pitches

Figure 3
diagram showing relative pitches

Treble bridge strings

The strings that pass over the treble bridge are divided into two separate lengths, so they produce different notes, a fifth apart, on either side of the bridge. If a string struck on the right side of the bridge is taken as the first note of a major scale (Do), the same string struck on the left side will sound the fifth note of the scale (Sol), which sounds like the first two tones in “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” This allows a complete major scale to be played in four courses (see Figure 2).

[TOP | CONTENTS]

Bass bridge strings

The bass bridge strings are also divided into two lengths by their bridge, but generally only the left, or longer, segment is tuned to a useful musical pitch.

The bass bridge strings are arranged so that a pattern similar to that used on the treble bridge can be used to play a major scale. The pattern begins on a bass bridge string and is completed on the right-hand side of the treble bridge (see Figure 3).

[TOP | CONTENTS]

Bridge markings

The bridges of instruments tuned as described above are usually marked in some way to show each tonic, or beginning note, of the available major scales. In the diagrams on this page, these notes are indicated by large dots.

[TOP | CONTENTS]

Back to: Hammered dulcimers

Next page: Range, keys, & tuning

Hammered Dulcimers

Models

Info

Downloads

General information about hammered dulcimers

Contents

Strings, Hardware, and Bridges

Treble bridge strings

Bass bridge strings

Bridge markings