Hello mountainmusiclovers from old Germany! Quite a while ago I stumbled across the mountain/Appalachian dulcimer. Curious as I am I started researching its roots. The mountain d. Is just a variation from much older instruments like the Ungarian Hirten-Zither, and before that, in the Middle Age, the poor folks had the scheitholt! And when you add a corpus to the scheitholt, which was usually put on a table, the resonator for the bodyless scheitholt,, then you have types of Hummel, which were played in the late middle ages and still exist! So we can call us happy, that People from all over the world always wanted to make music, wherever they went, wherever they had to flee....so the Germans, the Ungarians etc fled to the New World and took their traditions with them, that is how music came to the New World....the funny thing is, I recently discovered the Greek baglamadaki, a small neat kind of baglama, which is tuned like our wonderful dulcimer! D-A-D........just watch the gorgeous film „Djam“ by Tony Gatliff, there you find super music played with this instrument! How old is this instrument? I‘ll have to find out!
the 'only indigenous instrument in America' - apart from the asinazi flute, tsii' edo'a'tl, courting flute, pow-wow drum, yuchi, medicine rattle, ocarina, eagle bone whistle, wooden jaws harp, water drum.... and all the other instruments played by actual indigenous people long before those Irish and Scottish immigrants.
@@ordyhorizonrivieredunord712 YES ! ! The BANJO was invented here ! ! ! Those other instruments you mentioned should be included, too, so there are a lot of instruments here and elsewhere, who would have guessed.
@@dulciboy I meant the modern banjo as we know it. No doubt all string instruments originated with the bow and evolved in many shapes and forms and many of the sting instruments we know today have their origins in Africa. 🎸🖐🌞✌🎻
My passion is medieval and renaissance music. The gittern is a small medieval stringed instrument like the stick dulcimer. It was probably unfretted and became fretted. Modern reproductions are four string and fretted chromatically, closer to the mandolin, but I wonder if the stick dulcimer perhaps was also invented earlier. Middle Eastern music has the saz, a long neck 3 or 4 string instrument, but fretting is in Arabic or Turkish scales. I think I may have to add a stick dulcimner to my collection.
I believe the mountain dulcimer is indeed an indigenous American instrument, but for people of European descent. There are several instruments that are indigenous to native peoples prior to European contact. I have a couple of mountain dulcimers, and hammered dulcimers but not yet a stick dulcimer, but maybe ....
The main reason I watch this was to see which one to get. I play both stick dulcimer and Mountain Dulcimer. it's just a really don't have one at home. so I'm trying to decide which one to get, so later on I can have one, even though in the future I will probably end up having both a stick dulcimer and a Mountain Dulcimer anyway I'm just wondering which one I should get first.
Jake 63 "the magician" .....well a tough decision...if you use tabs to learn from there is more material for mountain dulcimer...also more instructional videos and I think you have more playing techniques available .....
@@Cj12sings What I do is learn to play on the lap dulcimer, and once the tab is stored in my brain, it's much easier to translate to the stick dulcimer
Thanks for introducing me to the instrument....quite fascinating the instrument is so long that they use blocks for frets instead of a traditional type fingerboard ... very cool..!!!!
I think I know what I'll be doing after I build a few kalimbas. I have a picture in my head for how to do that longer fret board you were talking about, but I've got a bit more figuring out to do.
There are drums, rattles, and flutes native to the americas. The mountain dulcimer is the only string instrument native to the americas. I appreciate your video.
@@jamesbaldwin7676 hello and thank you for the reply. I have learned, since leaving this comment, that the Appalachian dulcimer is decended from a few European zithers like the German scheitholt. The banjo and the diddly bow are both originally from Africa, the resonator and electric guitars are decended from the guitar which is from Spain. Which itself decends from the lute, which came from the oud of the middle east. In my research, the only stringed instrument that is for sure native to America (been here as long as the natives have) is the mouth bow. It is uncertain whether the apache fiddle is from the pre or post contact periods, as we don't have much in the way of writing about it.
@@jamesbaldwin7676 thank you for the compliment. I greatly appreciate it when people accept that I know things. I did go to school to study music since leaving the first comment. I am autistic and my special interest is music, especially organology (the study of musical instruments) and ethnomusicology. Thank you very much for not reacting negatively. I appreciate it so very much.
@@nvdawahyaify I recently visited a musical instrument museum in Phoenix Arizona. I'm not a musician and I thought I was going to be bored. Wrong. Three hours passed like three minutes. I highly recommend it. Google it.
No disrespect to the Mountain Dulcimer, but not the only pure American string instrument . The dobro ( aka lap style resonator ) is also pure American invention . But the Appalachian Dulcimer did come first .
@@walteryoung2025 the banjo might have had earlier forerunners in the Caribbean a hundred years earlier, but it's hard to say where one instrument ends and another begins. We could say 3 and 4-string cigar box guitars are also from African-American tradition, but there are so many variations and no "standard" cigar box guitar. The ukulele is derived from the Portuguese "machete", but maybe it's enough of it's own instrument to be considered "native"? In the end, I think the original claim that the "mountain dulcimer" is the only native/pure American stringed instrument kinda seems a desperate attempt at bona fides.
The other commentor said "native to the Americas", but there's tons of unique Latin American stringed instruments, not to mention those from the Caribbean. I've been building 3-string "cigar box" guitars and ukes, and in researching, the history gets very fuzzy. Is a 3-string guitar it's own instrument? Is the ukulele it's own instrument? What about all the European dulcimers that came before the mountain dulcimer? The claim sounds like a needless grasp at respectability. I say let the music speak for itself.
The banjo is an American instrument. Then you have things like the synthesizer and the turntables too but that's, I guess, a different kind of thing. Also, one might include electric guitar and electric bass depending on how you look at it. The bones are American but then, there are probably cultures all over the world who do something similar. And there are various novelty items like the kazoo and washboard and the jug and there are improved versions of other instruments like the sousaphone and theatre organ but as far as real actual recognized instruments go, it's pretty much the dulcimer and the banjo. Now I'm probably going to take shit from synthesizer players or something for saying their instrument isn't recognized. The synthesizer is the end result of many years of experimentation in electronic music from all over the world. I don't know if I'd really count that as a truly American instrument. There's always some small caveat like that. But not with the dulcimer or the banjo. In fact, the history of the banjo is fascinating. I guess that was kind of a comprehensive TH-cam comment Lol. Once I get going you kind of have to stop me.
Don't Stop..!!! Excellent observations...I think we can lay claim to the synthesizer... the electric guitar, I do believe we can attribute to Lloyd Loar as the first experimenter in the early 30's, I sure folks will argue that one.... I guess the best thing is that no matter how the instruments got here, we have them, time to get cracking and learn them all.... happy playin...cj
@@brianhamill4986 Sort of. A banjo is essentially a guitar stuck on a drum. Lots of cultures all over the world have gotten the idea of sticking a guitar on a drum. What makes a banjo different is that it has a short drone string at the top for your thumb to play. When you trace the banjo back far enough it comes from slaves. The slaves invented the banjo, everyone agrees on that. Now when you look over to Africa, there's an instrument called the akonting and it has that short drone string. So you're right that the roots of the banjo lye in Africa but I think it's stil fair to call the banjo an American instrument because an akonting is not a banjo. Those early slaves must have wanted some piece of home. They would've looked around and made their instruments with whatever they had available. Then over the years they would've wanted to play the songs they were hearing in the American south so they would've added the extra string and the tuning pegs and then you have a banjo. Those early banjos were a bit different from what we're used to. They used gut strings and were fretless. It's really a fascinating story. Everyone should look into it. Also, not a lot of people know this but there's a deep tradition of black fiddlers and banjo pickers in the south. People tend to think of early traditional American music as a white thing but that's not true. Also check out a group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops. They're fantastic. They're helping to rediscover some of that early music.
@@PaulTheSkeptic Sadly, African-Americans have avoided the banjo for decades because of it's association with minstrel shows. It's really a shame. Personally I think the best music always comes from cross-pollination. The divisions are artificial; music should unite everybody.
![⭐ฮิตในTikTok!! ( หมูเด้ง MooDeng ) Ver. แดนซ์โจ๊ะๆ ReMix BY [ ดีเจกิต รีมิกซ์ ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3krsyfWUeHU/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello mountainmusiclovers from old Germany! Quite a while ago I stumbled across the mountain/Appalachian dulcimer. Curious as I am I started researching its roots. The mountain d. Is just a variation from much older instruments like the Ungarian Hirten-Zither, and before that, in the Middle Age, the poor folks had the scheitholt! And when you add a corpus to the scheitholt, which was usually put on a table, the resonator for the bodyless scheitholt,, then you have types of Hummel, which were played in the late middle ages and still exist! So we can call us happy, that People from all over the world always wanted to make music, wherever they went, wherever they had to flee....so the Germans, the Ungarians etc fled to the New World and took their traditions with them, that is how music came to the New World....the funny thing is, I recently discovered the Greek baglamadaki, a small neat kind of baglama, which is tuned like our wonderful dulcimer! D-A-D........just watch the gorgeous film „Djam“ by Tony Gatliff, there you find super music played with this instrument! How old is this instrument? I‘ll have to find out!
Thank you for the info
the 'only indigenous instrument in America' - apart from the asinazi flute, tsii' edo'a'tl, courting flute, pow-wow drum, yuchi, medicine rattle, ocarina, eagle bone whistle, wooden jaws harp, water drum.... and all the other instruments played by actual indigenous people long before those Irish and Scottish immigrants.
what about the banjo💚
@@ordyhorizonrivieredunord712
YES ! !
The BANJO was invented here ! ! !
Those other instruments you mentioned should be included, too, so there are a lot of instruments here and elsewhere, who would have guessed.
@@ordyhorizonrivieredunord712 The banjo is from Africa
@@dulciboy I meant the modern banjo as we know it. No doubt all string instruments originated with the bow and evolved in many shapes and forms and many of the sting instruments we know today have their origins in Africa. 🎸🖐🌞✌🎻
You play the stick dulcimer beautifully! I was mesmerised! Sounds amazing, thank you for sharing🌹
Thanks for watching and taking time to comment... !!!
My passion is medieval and renaissance music. The gittern is a small medieval stringed instrument like the stick dulcimer. It was probably unfretted and became fretted. Modern reproductions are four string and fretted chromatically, closer to the mandolin, but I wonder if the stick dulcimer perhaps was also invented earlier. Middle Eastern music has the saz, a long neck 3 or 4 string instrument, but fretting is in Arabic or Turkish scales. I think I may have to add a stick dulcimner to my collection.
I believe the mountain dulcimer is indeed an indigenous American instrument, but for people of European descent. There are several instruments that are indigenous to native peoples prior to European contact. I have a couple of mountain dulcimers, and hammered dulcimers but not yet a stick dulcimer, but maybe ....
The bow was the first string instrument as plaid by Buffet St-Marie, banjo also as for dulcimer we know it came with the sailors ...
The main reason I watch this was to see which one to get. I play both stick dulcimer and Mountain Dulcimer. it's just a really don't have one at home. so I'm trying to decide which one to get, so later on I can have one, even though in the future I will probably end up having both a stick dulcimer and a Mountain Dulcimer anyway I'm just wondering which one I should get first.
Jake 63 "the magician" .....well a tough decision...if you use tabs to learn from there is more material for mountain dulcimer...also more instructional videos and I think you have more playing techniques available .....
@@Cj12sings What I do is learn to play on the lap dulcimer, and once the tab is stored in my brain, it's much easier to translate to the stick dulcimer
@@MrATN800 good idea.. !!!!
McSpadden is made in Mountain View Arkansas by the way. The Dulcimer Shoppe there is a great place to visit.
I think the dulcimer you are interested in making sounds a lot like a "hegalong" or "Kutiyapi" a type of boat lute from the Philippines.
Thanks for introducing me to the instrument....quite fascinating the instrument is so long that they use blocks for frets instead of a traditional type fingerboard ... very cool..!!!!
I believe the title is "resin the Bow ' meaning a fiddle bow
I think I know what I'll be doing after I build a few kalimbas. I have a picture in my head for how to do that longer fret board you were talking about, but I've got a bit more figuring out to do.
Hello my friend!!! thanks for checking it out would love to see your instruments, and the extended fret board!!!! happy buildin Cj
I've so far only built one kalimba...and it was less than successful. It's also very sloppily made. Still a good learning experience, though. :D
Just liking finger-picking guitar you can finger pick a stick dulcimer
You may try a seagull M4
I have to get the stick dulcimer.. so cool
Thanks fpr putting this up CJ thats another tune I now want to learn
I've played mtn. dulcimer since the 70s. Tried a stick last year. Not the sound or versatility of the dulcimer. I'll stick with what I have.
Beautiful sound.
There are drums, rattles, and flutes native to the americas. The mountain dulcimer is the only string instrument native to the americas. I appreciate your video.
Oops, you forgot the banjo the auto harp, the diddly bow, the resonator guitar and the electric guitar.
@@jamesbaldwin7676 hello and thank you for the reply. I have learned, since leaving this comment, that the Appalachian dulcimer is decended from a few European zithers like the German scheitholt. The banjo and the diddly bow are both originally from Africa, the resonator and electric guitars are decended from the guitar which is from Spain. Which itself decends from the lute, which came from the oud of the middle east. In my research, the only stringed instrument that is for sure native to America (been here as long as the natives have) is the mouth bow. It is uncertain whether the apache fiddle is from the pre or post contact periods, as we don't have much in the way of writing about it.
@@nvdawahyaify Sounds like you know what you're talking about. I'll defer to your knowledge.
@@jamesbaldwin7676 thank you for the compliment. I greatly appreciate it when people accept that I know things. I did go to school to study music since leaving the first comment.
I am autistic and my special interest is music, especially organology (the study of musical instruments) and ethnomusicology.
Thank you very much for not reacting negatively. I appreciate it so very much.
@@nvdawahyaify I recently visited a musical instrument museum in Phoenix Arizona. I'm not a musician and I thought I was going to be bored. Wrong. Three hours passed like three minutes.
I highly recommend it. Google it.
No disrespect to the Mountain Dulcimer, but not the only pure American string instrument . The dobro ( aka lap style resonator ) is also pure American invention . But the Appalachian Dulcimer did come first .
The Banjo was invented in the US as well. It was invented by slaves, just before the civil war.
@@walteryoung2025 the banjo might have had earlier forerunners in the Caribbean a hundred years earlier, but it's hard to say where one instrument ends and another begins. We could say 3 and 4-string cigar box guitars are also from African-American tradition, but there are so many variations and no "standard" cigar box guitar. The ukulele is derived from the Portuguese "machete", but maybe it's enough of it's own instrument to be considered "native"? In the end, I think the original claim that the "mountain dulcimer" is the only native/pure American stringed instrument kinda seems a desperate attempt at bona fides.
The other commentor said "native to the Americas", but there's tons of unique Latin American stringed instruments, not to mention those from the Caribbean. I've been building 3-string "cigar box" guitars and ukes, and in researching, the history gets very fuzzy. Is a 3-string guitar it's own instrument? Is the ukulele it's own instrument? What about all the European dulcimers that came before the mountain dulcimer? The claim sounds like a needless grasp at respectability. I say let the music speak for itself.
Mayans had flute, drum, rattle and tone drum made from logs
"Im not very good at it" then plays pretty lol
I would like to get one of each 👍🇺🇸.
old Betsy from Pyke
South America has a whole bunch of stringed instruments. I don't get your point.
Indigenous??
The banjo is an American instrument. Then you have things like the synthesizer and the turntables too but that's, I guess, a different kind of thing. Also, one might include electric guitar and electric bass depending on how you look at it. The bones are American but then, there are probably cultures all over the world who do something similar. And there are various novelty items like the kazoo and washboard and the jug and there are improved versions of other instruments like the sousaphone and theatre organ but as far as real actual recognized instruments go, it's pretty much the dulcimer and the banjo.
Now I'm probably going to take shit from synthesizer players or something for saying their instrument isn't recognized. The synthesizer is the end result of many years of experimentation in electronic music from all over the world. I don't know if I'd really count that as a truly American instrument. There's always some small caveat like that. But not with the dulcimer or the banjo. In fact, the history of the banjo is fascinating.
I guess that was kind of a comprehensive TH-cam comment Lol. Once I get going you kind of have to stop me.
Don't Stop..!!! Excellent observations...I think we can lay claim to the synthesizer... the electric guitar, I do believe we can attribute to Lloyd Loar as the first experimenter in the early 30's, I sure folks will argue that one.... I guess the best thing is that no matter how the instruments got here, we have them, time to get cracking and learn them all.... happy playin...cj
@@Cj12sings Thanks.
The banjo came from Africa.
@@brianhamill4986 Sort of. A banjo is essentially a guitar stuck on a drum. Lots of cultures all over the world have gotten the idea of sticking a guitar on a drum. What makes a banjo different is that it has a short drone string at the top for your thumb to play.
When you trace the banjo back far enough it comes from slaves. The slaves invented the banjo, everyone agrees on that. Now when you look over to Africa, there's an instrument called the akonting and it has that short drone string. So you're right that the roots of the banjo lye in Africa but I think it's stil fair to call the banjo an American instrument because an akonting is not a banjo.
Those early slaves must have wanted some piece of home. They would've looked around and made their instruments with whatever they had available. Then over the years they would've wanted to play the songs they were hearing in the American south so they would've added the extra string and the tuning pegs and then you have a banjo. Those early banjos were a bit different from what we're used to. They used gut strings and were fretless. It's really a fascinating story. Everyone should look into it.
Also, not a lot of people know this but there's a deep tradition of black fiddlers and banjo pickers in the south. People tend to think of early traditional American music as a white thing but that's not true. Also check out a group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops. They're fantastic. They're helping to rediscover some of that early music.
@@PaulTheSkeptic Sadly, African-Americans have avoided the banjo for decades because of it's association with minstrel shows. It's really a shame. Personally I think the best music always comes from cross-pollination. The divisions are artificial; music should unite everybody.
I've never heard a stick dulcimer that sounded anywhere near as good as a mountain dulcimer
They should call them by another name - stick dulcimers are NOT dulcimers.