The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted box zither native to the Eastern USA, often with a distinctive body shape sometimes described as figure eight but it's a rather squashed 8. Not all dulcimers have a waist at all, but the prototypical one does.

A dulcimer can have up to twelve strings, in many configurations, but three, four or five strings in three courses is most common.

The dulcimer is unusual in that the treble string is nearest to you, and the bass furthest away, the opposite of the guitar and most other stringed instruments. Perhaps partly because of this, dulcimer strings are often (not always) numbered from the string (or course) closest to you, and string sets are often listed in this order too. But on this page we will stick to our normal Standards and Conventions for numbering etc., which will be a bit confusing for some dulcimer players but we hope easier for the rest of us.

Using our standard numbering, on a four string dulcimer the third course is double, the others single. A three-string dulcimer is uncoursed (;-> (of course). A five string has double first and third courses.

The dulcimer is traditionally held similarly to a lap or table steel guitar, but some players hold it as a normal guitar or stand with it on a shoulder strap, guitar fashion, and there are still other playing positions. The frets are normally diatonic, that is, some semitones are omitted, so to play a scale on the third course for example you use successive frets and don't need to leave any out.

So there's lots to confuse a guitarist: Frets left out, highest and most used string(s) nearest you, strings sometimes numbered backwards. It's like learning a foreign language. And dulcimer players say that about the guitar.

Ionian D tuning (standard tuning):

• a a - a - d
• a - a - d
• a a - a - d d

Ionian C tuning:

• g g - g - c
• g - g - c
• g g - g - c c

Mixolydian D tuning:

• d' d' - a - d
• d' - a - d
• d' d' - a - d d

String gauges:

GHS D20: G .020, .C 012, C .012, C .012

GHS D20-I Jim Curley Signature Series Ionian Tuning: .022 .012 .012 .012

GHS D20-M Jim Curley Signature Series Mixolydian Tuning: .024 - .010

External links

• http://www.folkofthewood.com/page54.htm Dulcimer tuning for beginners
• http://www.folkofthewood.com/Images10/dulcdioniantuning.jpg a diagram that shows the stringing and tuning... for incredulous guitarists like me...