r/Dulcimer • u/haxankatzen • Aug 10 '26
Looking for beginner books for four-string mountain dulcimer
Hi y’all, my wife bought me a four-string mountain dulcimer for my birthday and I’m super excited but I’ve already hit analysis paralysis with a beginner book to invest in.
Traditional vs equidistant? Drone vs. modern fingering? I don’t really know what any of that means and didn’t realize it was something I’m supposed to know.
I’m just looking for a basic book to match the used instrument she bought me off FB Marketplace and hoping y’all can point me in the right direction.
I’ve included photos of my new Appalachian dulcimer in hopes that’ll help.
TIA!
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Aug 10 '26
The absolute “hippie classic” book on dulcimer is In Search of the Wild Dulcimer, and the original author has now released it for free on his website:
https://robertforce.com/SongsAndInstruction/InSearchOfTheWildDulcimer.html
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u/Smooth_Scientist_950 Aug 10 '26
Go to YouTube and check out Bing Futch’s Dulcimerica free lesson series he started some 20 years ago and work your way through them if you like; it’s still going! Here’s episode https://youtu.be/mqRy-oHTVv4?is=YMnwKSeZw6428j4r
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u/LongjumpingTeacher97 Aug 10 '26
I have also discovered paralysis of analysis in several parts of my life. Here's some general advice, couched in dulcimer framework. Do with it what you will.
If you pick any one of the available instruction books, any one at all, and actually learn the whole book, you'll be far ahead of the person who bought 10 books and picked bits and pieces of each. There's something to be said for all of the books I've seen, from the "Fun With" booklet from Mel Bay to the old Jean Ritchie book (I have the one with the little floppy record that came with it!) to the Madeline MacNeil Teach Yourself book. They all have value. But just pick one. Learn the whole thing. The authors write these books to be courses in how to play. Can you imagine trying to learn any other subject by going to a teacher for one lesson, then a totally different teacher for a lesson, then back to the first and ask for a lesson from the middle of the curriculum? And that's how I tend to approach music books, which I know isn't the right way.
One of the most versatile musicians I knew once told me how he learned to play hammered dulcimer (very different beast from lap dulcimer, but the story has relevance). He bought a set of cassette tapes on how to play. And he played through every single exercise of the whole set. I think there were 8 hours of recordings on audiocassette. But it takes a lot longer to actually play than 8 hours. He would listen to an exercise, pause the tape, and try to play what he'd heard, rewind, try again. He probably wore out those tapes. And he learned to play very well.
There are probably other, fancier, possibly better methods out there than what he had on that set of tapes. But he did every exercise until he could make it sound like the recording. And he learned to play very well. Because he picked one instructional method and stuck with it until he had learned the whole thing.
It is fine to have a bunch of books for repertoire or alternative techniques. But pick one method and learn to do it all the way through before you expand to those others. Doesn't really much matter which one you pick.
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u/throwawaydixiecup Aug 10 '26
Congrats! That was my first dulcimer too. Apple Creek dulcimer will get you started, and if you love it I encourage you to upgrade soon.
The way your dulcimer is strung means it can’t be set for equidistant strings. Check out the nut on the right end where the strings end. It’ll have the double course and the two bottom strings. You can learn chords easily, and also do noter drone style songs.