Timothy's Blog

In February of 2000 I purchased my present dulcimer, a Dusty Strings D600 (the eighth one out of the shop, the one Ray Mooers sent to Sam Rizzetta to confirm the design) --- and I decided to try developing a new technique using separated hands, stylized sort of like a pianist does it, together with the rich low range of this particular dulcimer model.

So I chose the key of A, and I chose to use all of the major and minor chords from the key so I could explore the use of each of their locations on the bass bridge.

There are many different ways we can arrange an exquisitely slow melody! 

One option is to mix and match all sorts of techniques for a colorful and interesting presentation.

The third and final installment of our series of ideas for hammered dulcimer arrangement of simple tunes brings up yet more significant challenges, but all of these are extremely useful if you want to make your music really sing! 

Numbers 16 and 17 take a bit more focus and practice, but when you develop them you’ll find that in the resulting effect ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!’

Continuing the list of ideas for arranging a melody, here are six techniques you can mix and match to fill out and color and personalize a piece!  Sometimes I stick to just one technique for an entire arrangement, and sometimes I use many of them in a very complex (but fun) pattern of uses, and most are a combination somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of complexity.

7. Arpeggio chords -- chords suggested between melody notes by adding notes that complement the melody, resembling the effect of a fingerpicked guitar.

When I start to play a new solo tune on the hammered dulcimer, I tend to look right away for approaches I can take that will make it my own: arranging so it says something I want it to say.

Usually I start simply: either choosing a slow and simple but exceptional melody, or I take a faster one and slow it down a bit to make room for adding arrangement details.  (Faster tunes can be arranged with lots of colorings and special details too, but often I do choose to work with a slower melody line that allows lots of room for additions.)

When I recorded this celebrated English traditional carol for the Christmas album Hope from on High in 2008, I took advantage of the studio setting to develop it into a creatively enhanced ensemble work, changing keys and lead instruments and rhythms and moods --- on hammered dulcimer, guitar, bowed psaltery, bamboo flute, silver flute, etc. --- to have it develop in the form of the action story of which the words tell.

In retrospect, why did I feel the need to do it that way?  Well, perhaps I intuitively was concerned that the beautiful, fetching folk melody, though quite lyrical, has a lot of repetitious features, and as an instrumental it would benefit from special treatment, rather than merely being played as a tune.

 Here is a fairly simple arrangement of the great Christmas carol ‘Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming’ ('Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen') that I’ve played on hammered dulcimer (and sometimes bowed psaltery --- it's in the key of C, so it's all on one side of the psaltery!) for a quarter of a century and recorded on my album Incarnation.  If you’re a hammered dulcimer player, perhaps this can be something you develop for your own playing during this wonderful season!

When I made the video today, I decided to use the bright-toned wooden side of my hammers, and it sounded pretty nice --- but then when I recorded it again with the suede sides, it more fluently spoke the language I was looking for.  So what you hear here is the suede, piano-like sound.