I think you might appreciate the Sweet Stick Dulcimer

I know these are not ululele videos, and I am not giving up ukulele (NEVER) but I had the chance to play around on a Sweet Stick Dulcimer and want to show off the fruit of my labors:

That's a sweet instrument you got there! Am I correct that it only has three strings? How is it tuned? Thanks for sharing!

Miss Michele said:

That's a sweet instrument you got there! Am I correct that it only has three strings? How is it tuned? Thanks for sharing!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, three strings, tuned D/A/D. The string closest to your head when playing it is a drone string, but unlike ukulele it is tuned low, not high. Then there is the middle string which is an A and then the last, a D one octave above the drone string. I guess it does not have to be a drone, of course, as I fret it and use it in songs. It is tuned D-diatonic, kind of like a harmonica, so you only have notes in the D scale plus a flatted-seventh. I did not do any reading on how to play it, but most people seem to play it with a pick. True to my usual "just play it" mentality, I just started goofing around with it and came up with the two songs and have already found a few more. Oh, by the way, for the notes you are missing in the non-chromatic scale you can always bend the strings to get them. Thanks again for your comments - I thought ukulele players would appreciate this. Mike

Very, very cool. Thank for sharing.

I got one of those! Mine was called a "strumstick" i think from tennessee. The body on mine is a bit bigger. There are about a million ways you can tune a dulcimer. Some really cool minor tunings. Also, mine has four strings, the bottom 2 being a pair. I got it about 15 years ago and love it!\
Sounding good!!!