Carolina Rockman 40 Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 For those players that would like to play contemporary music on their dulcimers, a chromatic dulcimer would solve that problem; however, there is an easier solution. If you have a 1½ fret added to your instrument, you will be able to play in additional keys. I have found that with the added 1½ fret and the bending (for half tones)of one or more strings in a song, you will be able to play almost any song. My experience is that most contemporary and classical songs usually require the bending of no more than 1-2 strings throughout the song. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Don Grundy 0 Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 What strings and frets do you most often bend? I don’t know how to describe it but I bend the melody string between the 3rd and 4th frets, on a couple of songs. Darn! I thought I had invented this really cool thing. Can you tell me more? Keep in mind I don’t read music and wouldn’t know a G chord from an A chord. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Suzi Wiggs 0 Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 On 1/24/2020 at 7:08 AM, Carolina Rockman said: For those players that would like to play contemporary music on their dulcimers, a chromatic dulcimer would solve that problem; however, there is an easier solution. If you have a 1½ fret added to your instrument, you will be able to play in additional keys. I have found that with the added 1½ fret and the bending (for half tones)of one or more strings in a song, you will be able to play almost any song. My experience is that most contemporary and classical songs usually require the bending of no more than 1-2 strings throughout the song. Wondering if it’s preferable to add 1+ fret across all the strings or just the middle string area? When retrofitting would you also add 8.5 as well? Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NoterMan 14 Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 If you're gonna add all those extra frets and take the instrument totally away from being a dulcimer by having Dulcimer-Shaped-Object made with a chromatic fretboard. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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