WEBVTT

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Hi. Steve Eulberg for dulcimer crossing in our string side up absolute beginner series.

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We're now going to take a look at how can we play the hammered dulcimer.

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We know the parts, but we're trying to figure out where do we go to play it.

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Well,

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if you've noticed by observing that there are some there's a pattern here

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in these little pieces of plastic that are are on top of the bridges that the strings go over, that's gonna be a really important clue.

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In this particular instrument, there's a marked course, which is white.

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There's a black one, a white, 2 blacks and a white, 2 blacks and a white, 2 blacks and a white.

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And this would be the equivalent of 2 blacks and a white, although the builder has used brass up there instead.

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Now the first thing you might think of if you've had some connection with piano is, are these like the black and white keys, but why doesn't look the same?

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That's a good first thing to think.

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The hammered dulcimer is actually laid out like the white keys of the piano.

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It's not laid out chromatically. It's laid out diatonically.

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And when you play the white keys of the piano from c to c, you get the major scale that we're used to hearing and which is very, very common in the Western world.

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The way the hammered dulci-bro laid out is if any time I start on any one of these marked courses,

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in my case they're white and some instruments they're dark or the reverse,

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but if any time I start on one of those and go up 4,

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cross over from where I started,

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and finish the scale,

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you see I played in what we call the box.

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1, 2, 3, 4, and I cross over,

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5, 6, 7, 8. That gives me the major scale, and what goes up must come down.

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Now the beauty here is that pattern of playing in the box

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works anytime I start on any one of the marked courses.

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If you don't believe me, let's test it. We started here.

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I'm gonna let you know that in my that's a d where I started.

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So that gave me a d major scale.

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Now if I was to go up to the next one where I started, a g,

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d, e, f sharp, g.

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What do you know? A g major scale.

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If I go g, a, b, c,

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a c major scale. Now, obviously, I'm running out of room up here.

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So let's go back down to the lowest marked course on the treble bridge.

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There's an a major scale.

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Now what works across the treble bridge in this way

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also works between the bridges in this way. So if I start at this low marked course over here,

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and I come to the corresponding marked course over here, this is like going horizontal. Right?

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I'm leaving my hammer separated so you can see where I'm going.

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I'm not going to play it that way, but I'm going to demonstrate it that way.

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So this is another D box.

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This is a D box.

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If I start on the G, like I started up

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here,

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what do you know?

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I've got a G major scale.

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Now, let's start on the C.

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I got a c major scale. Let's start on the f.

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So the short thing to remember is that if I start on a marked course, play up 4, come back to the other side of the marked course, or the corresponding marked course, I'm always gonna get a major scale no matter where I am on the instrument.

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Now, there is one caveat.

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There are some instruments, it's called a Michigan tuning or an octave bass tuning,

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where the 5th relationship across the bridges, like we're playing right now, the boxes all work.

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But the bass bridge is tuned to an octave away, and so it might not work on those kinds of instruments.

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Bill Webster builds some of those, and there are others who have built and tuned them in those ways.

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But in the the wider dulcimer world in the United States,

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more people are using 5th tune bridges, in which case everything works

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everywhere.

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So that's playing in the box, the first really important thing to remember.

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I'll see you in the next lesson.