Mountain Dulcimer article
Mountain Dulcimer for Beginners: A Complete Guide
The mountain dulcimer is one of the most accessible folk instruments for beginners. Here's how to set up, play your first notes, find good resources, and what to work toward in your first month.
If you are considering the mountain dulcimer as your first stringed instrument — or your first folk instrument — you have chosen wisely. It is one of the most accessible in the world, and you can produce something genuinely pleasing within your first hour of playing.
What You Are Getting Into
The mountain dulcimer is a lap instrument — you play it sitting, laid flat across your knees or on a table in front of you. It has three or four strings, and the melody is played on the string closest to you. The other strings drone continuously, filling out the sound beneath. This means you can strum freely and the result will almost always be harmonic — there is a very low barrier to making music that sounds good.
Your First Steps
Start by tuning to DAD: bass string to D, middle string to A, treble to D. Download a chromatic tuner app if you don't have a tuner. Get the strings roughly in tune before your first session — they will go flat quickly at first as new strings settle, but retune and keep going.
Place the mountain dulcimer flat across your lap, head to the left. Strum across all strings with a soft pick or feather quill while pressing the melody string at the fourth fret (counted from the nut). That note is the tonic — the home note of the key. Practice strumming evenly, then move the fret hand up and down the melody string while strumming. You are playing in scale already.
Learning Resources
A good beginner book is useful: Joellen Lapidus' "Beginning the Dulcimer" is widely recommended, as is the series by Stephen Seifert. YouTube has extensive free content — search for noter-drone beginner tutorials and follow along with one teacher consistently rather than jumping between multiple styles. A local folk club is also worth finding — dulcimer players tend to be a welcoming community.
The First Month
In your first month, aim to learn three or four simple tunes in DAD tuning. You do not need theory or complex technique to do this. Practice for short periods (15–20 minutes) consistently rather than long occasional sessions. The mountain dulcimer rewards regular, relaxed practice more than anything else.
Once you are comfortable with a few tunes and the feel of the instrument, it is worth reading the setup guide to check your action and tuning are optimal. And if you are thinking about upgrading from a starter instrument, the best dulcimers for the money is a useful next read.
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