Hammered dulcimer: German musical instrument

The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument that has strings stretched over a trapezoid sounding board of the instrument. Typically, the musical instrument is set on a stand, at an angle before the player, who holds small hammers in each of his hand to strike the strings of the instrument. The Graeco-Roman dulcimer took from the Latin word ‘dulcis’ which means sweet and the greek word ‘melo’ meaning song. The version of the musical instrument in which the strings are beaten with thin hammers was fabricated from the psaltery, in which the strings are also plucked.

source of  picture: missinglynxmusic.com

Many versions of the hammered dulcimer are played in Iran, India, Southwest Asia, China and some parts of Southeast Asia, central Europe, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The musical instrument is also performed in Great Britain and the United States, where the traditional use of the instrument in folk music saw a notable renewal of the instrument in the 20^th century.

The musical instrument comes in different sizes, identified by the number of strings that cross each of the bridges of the instruments. The strings of the hammered dulcimer are often found in pairs, two strings for each note. Each set of strings of the instrument is tuned in unison and is known as course. Like the piano, the aim of using multiple strings per course is to make the musical instrument louder, but as the course are rarely in perfect unison, a chorus effect often comes out like a mandolin. The musical instrument, like an autoharp, harp or piano need a tuning wrench for the tuning, since the strings are wound around tuning pins with square heads.

The strings of the musical instrument are always tuned diatonically, according to a circle of fifths style. The lowest note is found on the lowest right-hand corner of the musical instrument, just to the left of the right-hand bridge of the musical instrument. As the player of the instrument strikes the courses above in sequence, they come down to the diatonic scale based on the G or D. with this tuning the scale is broken into two tetrachords of four notes. For instance, on a musical instrument with D as the lowest note, the D major scale is performed beginning in the lowest-right corner and rising the bass bridge; D-E-F#-G. At this point, the player of the instrument returns to the bottom of the musical instrument, and shifts to the treble bridge to perform the higher tetrachord A – B – C♯ – D. this shifts to the nearby bridge is needed due to the bass bridge’s 4^th string G is the start of the lowest tetrachord of the G scale. If the player of the musical instrument ascend the first 8 strings of the bass bridge, they will meet a flatted 7^th, due to this note is drawn from the G tetrachord. This style continues to top the musical instrument and to the left-hand side of the treble bridge of the instrument. Moving from the left side of the bass bridge of the instrument to the right side of the instrument’s treble bridge is simil.at to moving from the right side of the treble bridge to the left side of the treble bridge.

The hammered dulcimer took its name from the small mallet that players use to strike the strings of the dulcimer, known as hammer. Hammers are often made of wood, but can also be produced from any material, including the metal, or the plastic. In the western hemisphere, the hammers are often stiff, but in the Asian world, the hammers are flexible. The head of the hammer can be left bare to produce sharp attack sound, or can be covered with the use of adhesive tape, tape, leather or even fabric for a softer sound to be produced.