TUNING YOUR MOUNTAIN DULCIMER
Here's a story I've heard countless times from dulcimer owners:
"I fell in love with the instrument, bought one while I was on vacation, took it home and played it some. Well, after a while it got so it didn't sound right. I put it away in a closet till I could find somebody to tell me how to tune it."
There are actually a confusing number of possibilities for tuning a mountain dulcimer. Since the dulcimer revival of the 70s, the majority of classes and dulcimer clubs around the USA tune to either D-A-A or D-A-D. Many teachers get their students started with D-A-A, and then introduce D-A-D.
Here are the instructions for tuning your dulcimer four different ways. Each one is designated with "D" as its tonal center, then one of the medieval church mode names [a mode is one kind of musical scale--a group of pitches arranged in order from low to high], followed by the actual tuning in parentheses.
NOTE: When your dulcimer is in one of these traditional tunings, only the melody string plays the mode, and you must skip the 6+ fret if it is present. Middle and bass strings are relegated to dronal accompaniment. Modes form the basic fabric of dulcimer music and of American-Anglo-Celtic folk music traditions in general.
A mode is NOT the same thing as a key or a tuning--but the tunings given below are ways of tuning into four of the most useful modes in Anglo-Celtic folk music. Discussion of the theory behind modes is often thorny and confusing--I wrote about them in a very bare-bones appendix to my book Music Theory and Chord Reference for the Mountain Dulcimer.
D Ionian (D-A-A)
- Step 1. Tune the 3rd or bass string of the dulcimer to the D below Middle C (this is the same note as the open 4th string of the guitar).
- Step 2. Hold the 3rd or bass string just to the left of the 4th fret and pluck this note (A). Tune your middle or 2nd string so it exactly matches this pitch.
- Step 3. Tune the melody or 1st string to the same note as the open middle string. Now play the Ionian mode from frets 3 through 10 and back down. Skip the 6+ fret!
D Mixolydian (D-A-D)
- Steps 1 and 2 are the same as for D Ionian.
- Step 3. Hold the 2nd or middle string down at the 3rd fret and pluck this note (high D, one octave above the open bass string). Tune the melody or 1st string to this note.
- Caution: From Ionian D-A-A, you must raise the pitch of the melody string, putting considerably more tension on it, to get to D-A-D.
- Play the Mixolydian mode on the melody string from the open string to fret 7 and back down. Skip the 6+ fret.
D Dorian (D-A-G)
- Steps 1 and 2 are the same as for D Ionian.
- Step 3. Hold the 3rd or bass string at the 3rd fret and pluck this note (G). Tune the melody or 1st string so that it exactly matches this G.
- Note: you'll have to lower the pitch of this string, loosening the tension slightly, from D-A-A to reach D-A-G.
- Play the Dorian mode on the melody string from frets 4 to 11 and back down. Skip the 6+ fret.
D Aeolian (D-A-C)
- Steps 1 and 2 are the same as for D Ionian.
- Step 3. Hold the 3rd or bass string at the 6th fret and pluck this note (C). Tune the melody or 1st string to this note.
- From Ionian D-A-A, you'll have to tighten the melody string somewhat to get to D-A-C. If you're coming from D-A-D, you'll have to loosen the melody string slightly in pitch to get to D-A-C.)
- Play the Aeolian mode on the melody string from frets 1 to 8 and back down. Skip the 6+ fret.
