Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional
Musicians
General Volume (with DAA
Dulcimer Numbers) 2002 Revision
Now Available with
Information Here
Autoharp Volume (with
Autoharp Melody Chord Numbers) 2002 Revision
Now Available with
Information on Its Own Page
Open Printable
Order Form in New Window
Updated
The Dulci-More Public Domain Songbooks are designed to allow
people a chance to learn and to play some of the songs that Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional
Musicians members play regularly at meetings and events. The arrangements
give melody lines in standard musical notation. Accompaniment chords are
included. Words are included with the music (rather than in extra lines below
the music) to allow for easier playing while singing. Numbers for the melody
string(s) for fretted dulcimers are also shown (usually for dulcimers tuned in
a DAA tuning). To play by numbers in another dulcimer tuning (DAD, DGD, or
others) or on another instrument, read the music or write in your own numbers.
Different chord names can also be written in to allow playing in different
keys.
All songs are believed to be in the public domain. There are many
technicalities involved in how music enters the public domain (and these
continue to change as laws are rewritten) but a basic explanation for United
States copyrights at the time of this writing includes songs copyrighted over
75 years ago, or ones with a published source at least that old whether
copyrighted or not. Once the song is in the public domain, new adaptations and
arrangements of the song can be made and copyrighted without getting permission
of the author or copyright owner.
Suggestions for club songs are taken from members. Selections are
then researched, adapted, and arranged for the club songbook by Bill Schilling.
For those wanting to order with credit cards, these books are
carried by Elderly Instruments
. They
say, “Huge songbook---almost 300 titles---with melody, lyrics, guitar chords
and numbers for dulcimers tuned D-A-A. Chord charts for D-A-A, D-A-D and
D-G-G-tuned dulcimers, too, as well as notes about basic theory and harmony.
All songs are in the public domain, including 45 songs for Advent and Christmas.
Great for singers and other instruments, too! Spiral-bound.” For
convenience, the direct link for this book is http://www.elderly.com/books/items/597-1.htm
for those who want it.
Autoharp Volume Now Has
Its Own Page
General Volume (with DAA
Dulcimer Numbers)
As of July, 2002, there is available a 2002 Revision of the
original May 1999, General Volume (with DAA Dulcimer Numbers) of the
Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians Public Domain Songbook including
the Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians Public Domain Songbook
Christmas Volume. The General Volume 2002 Revision is in 8.5" X 11"
format printed on both sides of paper and assembled in book form with a ¾”
plastic binder comb. The songs include melody lines in standard musical
notation, accompaniment chords, and words for most songs. Numbers for the
melody string(s) for fretted dulcimers are also shown (usually for dulcimers
tuned in a DAA tuning). All of the songs listed below (including the Christmas
songs) are included in the 2002 Revision. There are a few pages that have more
than one song on them (including the revision of a couple of the pages of
Christmas music so that there are now a cover page and 45 pages of music in
that section rather than the 47 pages mentioned elsewhere, however all of the
songs are still there). The 2002 Revision includes 14 introductory pages, 250
pages of music in the general section, 1 cover page in the Christmas section,
and 45 pages of music in the Christmas section for a total of 310 pages printed
on both sides of 155 sheets of paper. The usual format for the book includes
heavier protective cover stock around those pages bound with a standard 19 hole
¾” black plastic binder (for mail orders, unbound copies with no holes punched
or unbound copies with three holes punched appropriate for three ring binders
will be sent if you specify either of those as your preference rather than the
plastic comb binder. The price for this book is $30. In the
Updating Earlier General
Volume (with DAA Dulcimer Numbers) Songbooks
The 1999 Volume of the songbook has 119 pages of songs and the
Christmas section has 47 pages of songs. There are a few additional pages of
chord charts and instructional information. All songs from Volumes 1, 2, 3, and
the Christmas Volume are included, and updates are now available to include all
of the songs in the Dulci-More Public Domain Songbook 2002 Revision. If your
book does not include the songs in the list below that starts with Be Thou My
Vision and ends with Wonderful Words of Life, then this is the update you need.
It includes two new pages of Table of Contents and 133 pages of songs. They are
printed on only one side of the paper so that they can be arranged in order
with the other songs already in your book. Make sure to specify whether you
want three hole punching or whether you do not want three hole punching when
you order. This update for the earliest volume of the songbook is priced at
$13.50. In the
Sometime in 2000, 25 pages of songs were added to the General
Volume of the Dulci-More Public Domain Songbook without a price increase. If
you received 144 pages of songs plus 47 pages of Christmas songs plus a few
additional pages of chord charts and additional information including all songs
from Volumes 1, 2, 3, and the Christmas Volume and the songs in the list below
that starts with Be Thou My Vision and ends with Wonderful Words of Life, then
this is the update you need. It includes two new pages of Table of Contents and
108 pages of songs. They are printed on only one side of the paper so that they
can be arranged in order with the other songs already in your book. Make sure
to specify whether you want three hole punching or whether you do not want
three hole punching when you order. This update for the 2000-2002 volume of the
songbook is priced at $11.00. In the USA, include $5.00 shipping/handling for
each 2000-2002 General Volume Update ordered. Make personal checks or money
orders payable to
Included with the index listings below are some examples of songs
from the pages of the songbooks:
Original Dulci-More
Songbook Volumes
The original songbooks are in a convenient 5.5" X 8.5"
size (folded 8.5" X 11" sheets) with heavy card stock covers for
extra protection. The music notation for all of the books is done using the
Finale program for computers, so it is like standard notation used in books by
major publishers. The original musical notation for Volumes 1 & 2 was distinctive,
but easy to read. Bill put all of the songs in the early versions of the books
together using the draw part of the Ami Pro word processing program -- drawing
each note or symbol and then using cut and paste techniques to place them
properly.
The songbooks feature information about Dulci-More Festivals since Volumes
1 & 2 were first released at Dulci-More Festivals 1 & 2.
Only Volume 2 of the 5.5” X 8.5” Volumes is currently available. Others
will become available as decisions are made about the best way to include new
songs for other volumes (by subject or in mixed volumes by date added to the
Dulci-More repertoire as has been done previously) and whether everything
should be in 8.5” X 11’ format with plastic binder combs or whether to continue
with 5.5” X 8.5” Volumes. Input from users is encouraged for help in making
these decisions. Copies of Dulci-More: Folk & Traditional Musicians Public
Domain Songbooks previously available from Bill Schilling included: Volume 1 (40
pages), Volume 2 (40 pages), Volume 3 (44 pages), and the Christmas Volume (48
pages) are $7.50 each. In the USA, include $2.00 shipping/handling for the
first book ordered, and $.50 more for each additional book. Make personal
checks or money orders payable to Bill Schilling, 984 Homewood Avenue, Salem,
OH 44460-3816. Credit card and on-line orders cannot be accepted. The contents
of the books are indexed below for your information. As these decisions are
made, Volumes 4, 5, and 6 and/or specialized volumes by subject matter may be
added to include the songs in the revisions to the General Volume (hopefully by
late summer, 2002).
Volume 1
Amazing Grace; Angel Band; The Ash Grove; Aunt Rhodie; Banks of
the Ohio; Boil Them Cabbage Down; The Crawdad Song; Danny Boy; Do Lord; Down in
the Valley; Fairest Lord Jesus; Faith of Our Fathers; Flop-Eared Mule; Frere
Jacques; Gentle Maiden; God Be with You till We Meet Again; Grandfather's
Clock; Hard Times Come Again No More; He's Got the Whole World in His Hands;
His Eye Is on the Sparrow; I Love to Tell the Story; Life's Railway to Heaven;
Michael, Row the Boat Ashore; Mississippi Sawyer; Old Joe Clark; Red River
Valley; Shall We Gather at the River; Shenandoah; Simple Gifts; Skip to My Lou;
Soldier's Joy; Somebody Touched Me; Southwind; Sweet Hour of Prayer; Swing Low,
Sweet Chariot; This Little Light of Mine; Wayfaring Stranger; What Wondrous
Love Is This; When Irish Eyes Are Smiling; When the Saints Go Marching in; Wildwood
Flower; and Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Volume 2
All Good Things Are Passed and Gone; All Through the Night;
America (Round); The Camptown Races; Chinese; Clementine; Come Life, Shaker
Life; Come Take a Trip in My Airship; Daisy Bell; Dona Nobis Pacem; The Glendy
Burke; Hand Me Down My Walking Cane; Holy Is God; Home on the Range; Kumbaya;
Loch Lomond; Long Green Valley; Lorena; Love (Round); Love Is Little; Music
Alone Shall Live; My Old Kentucky Home; Nonesuch; Oh, How Lovely Is the
Evening; Oh, Susanna; Oh, Them Golden Slippers; Old Dan Tucker; The Preacher
and the Slave; Redwing; Rock of Ages; Row, Row, Row Your Boat; The Shakers;
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain; Skye Boat Song; Stepstone; Sweet
By-and-By; Three Blind Mice; Time Has Made a Change in Me; Turkey in the Straw;
The Uncloudy Day; Wabash Cannonball; The Water Is Wide; When the Wagon Was New;
and Whispering Hope
Volume 3
Am I a Soldier of the Cross; America; America the Beautiful; Auld
Lang Syne; Battle Cry of Freedom; Battle Hymn of the Republic; The Blue Tail
Fly; Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine; DAA Chord Chart; DAD Chord Chart; Drowsy
Maggie; Fairy Belle; For the Beauty of the Earth; Gentle Annie; Greensleeves;
The Gum Tree Canoe; The Hour for Thee and Me; How Can I Keep From Singing;
Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair; Liberty; Little Brown Church in the Vale;
Little Brown Jug; Little Joe the Wrangler; Marching through Georgia; My Home;
My Own Home; Nine Hundred Miles; Old Folks at Home; Our Bright Summer Days Are
Gone; Over the Waterfall; Planxty George Brabazon; Planxty Irwin; Rosin the
Beau; Saint Anne's Reel; Sandy River Belle; Si Bheag Si Mhor (in D); Si Bheag
Si Mhor (in G); Some Folks; Wait for the Wagon; Westphalia Waltz; When I Can
Read My Title Clear; Whiskey Before Breakfast
Christmas Volume
Angels from the Realms of Glory; Angels We Have Heard on High; As
with Gladness Men of Old; Away in a Manger; Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella;
The Cherry Tree Carol; Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus; Deck the Hall; The First
Noel; The Friendly Beasts; Gloria Medley; Go Tell It on the Mountain; God Rest
You Merry Christians; Good Christian Friends, Rejoice; Good King Wenceslas;
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing; He Is Born, the Holy Child; Here We Come
a-Wassailing; The Holly and the Ivy; The Holly Bears a Berry; Hush, My Babe,
Lie Still and Slumber; I Saw Three Ships; In the Bleak Midwinter; Jingle Bells;
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas; Joy to the World; Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming;
Manger Medley; Mary Had a Baby; O Christmas Tree; O Come, All Ye Faithful; O
Come, O Come, Emmanuel; O Holy Night; Once in Royal David's City; Silent Night;
Still, Still, Still; Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night); There's a Song in the
Air; The Twelve Days of Christmas; Up on the Housetop; We Wish You a Merry
Christmas; What Child Is This; When Christ Was of a Virgin Born; and While
Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
Early General Volume (with
DAA Dulcimer Numbers) and Autoharp Volume (include all above)
Also Included in General
Volume (with DAA Dulcimer Numbers) sold from 2000-2002
(Includes all above)
Be Thou My Vision; Blessed Assurance; The Girl in the Wood; God
that Madest Earth and Heaven; Hey, Ho, Nobody Home; In the Garden; It Is Well
with My Soul; Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross; John Ryan’s Polka; Just as I Am;
The Land Where We’ll Never Grow Old; List to the Bells; Maggie in the Woods;
Make New Friends; Off to California; Paddle Song; Savior. Again to Thy Dear
Name; Take My Life, and Let It Be; There Is a Balm in Gilead; Thou Poor Bird;
‘Tis the Old Ship of Zion; We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder; We Are Going Down
the Valley; Were You There; What a Friend We Have in Jesus; Where the Soul
Never Dies; Wind that Shakes the Barley; Wonderful Words of Life
New in General Volume
(with DAA Dulcimer Numbers) 2002 Revision Volume
(Includes all above)
A B C; Abide with Me; Angelina Baker; Another Year Is Dawning;
Aura Lee; Black Eyed Susan; Blackberry Blossom; Blessed Be the Name; Blest Be
the Tie that Binds; Blow the Man Down; The Boatman Dance; The Bonnie Blue Flag;
Breathe on Me, Breath of God; Buffalo Boy; Buffalo Gals; Canal Boat Wedding; A
Canal Dance; Careless Love; Chester; Chinese Breakdown; Cindy; The Clever
Skipper; Cluck Old Hen; Cockles and Mussels; Come, Ye Thankful People, Come;
Cornwallis Country Dance; Dixie (Dixie’s Land); Down Among the Cane-Breaks;
Eating Goober Peas; The Erie Canal; The E-ri-e Canal; Erin’s Green Shore; Fairy
Boy; Fairy Palace; Flow Gently, Sweet Afton; Fortune; The Fox; Froggie Went
a-Courting; Get that Boat; God Leads Us Along; Grandma’s in the Cellar; Green
Corn; Ground Hog; Happy the Home When God Is There; Hard Crackers; He Leadeth
Me: Oh Blessed Thought; Holy, Holy, Holy; Home, Sweet Home; How Firm a
Foundation; I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow; I Ride an Old Paint; I’ve Been
Working on the Railroad; I’ve Got Peace Like a River; In Christ There Is No
East or West; In the Good Old Summertime; It’s Pleasant to Run in Full Moon;
Jesse James; Jesus Loves Me; Just After the Battle; Just Over in the
Glory-Land; Keys to the Kingdom; Lady Mary; Last Trip in the Fall; Leaning on
the Everlasting Arms; Let the Lower Lights Be Burning; Little Sally Waters;
Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days; The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want;
Mairi’s Wedding; Mary Had a Little Lamb; The Mules Ran Off; My Hope Is Built;
My Old Canal Mule; Oh, the Lamb; The Old Canal; The Old Skipper; On Top of Old
Smoky; Planxty Fanny Power; Polly Wolly Doodle; Pop Goes the Weasel; Ragtime
Annie; Rainbow Waltz; Revive Us Again; Rock the Cradle, Joe; Roxanna Waltz;
Sally Ann; Shady Grove; Sipping Cider Through a Straw; Softly and Tenderly, Jesus
Is Calling; Streets of Laredo; Study War No More; Sweet Betsy from Pike; Taps;
Tenting on the Old Camp Ground; That Old Towpath; The Titanic; Tramp, Tramp,
Tramp; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; The Vacant Chair; We Gather Together;
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross; When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder; When You
and I Were Young, Maggie; Worried Man Blues; Yankee Doodle; Yellow Rose of
Texas
Information about the
Autoharp Volume Is Now on Its Own Page
Using the Dulci-More
Public Domain Songbook General Volume
Many
beginning level musicians like to have some explanation about why things are
set up the way they are here. Some people wonder why there are more notes than
in other arrangements of the same songs. Some players want to know if they can
play these songs in other tunings. People who don't play dulcimers wonder what
the melody string tablature numbers are all about. This is an attempt to answer
some of the common questions and to offer some explanations for how to work
with the music to your best advantage. This information will help some and will
only create bigger questions for others. If you fall in the latter category,
just play what is here for a while, and then come back and try to understand
the information later. If it still doesn't work, go to a workshop for your
instrument, read explanations in other books more devoted to these subjects, or
take some lessons.
This
songbook is designed to allow people a chance to learn and to play some of the
songs that Dulci-More plays at meetings and events. The arrangements give
melody lines in standard musical notation. Accompaniment chords are included
above the standard notation. Lyrics are below the standard notation. Below the
lyrics (or below the standard notation for instrumentals), melody string
tablature numbers for lap dulcimers are shown (usually for DAA tunings).
Some
people may choose to use these arrangements to make their own adaptations to
suit their needs (rewritten, not copied to avoid violating copyright laws).
Typical changes might be making other tablature (3 line dulcimer tab in DAD,
DAA, or other in 3 or more lines; 6 line guitar tab; 5 line banjo tab; 4 line
mandolin tab; or other), otherwise adapting the songs to fit your instrument or
tuning, eliminating parts that you don’t use (some use just music for
instrumentals, others use just lyrics for singing, and others use lyrics and
chords for singing with basic accompaniment), or transposing the song to
another key for ease of playing on your instrument or for singing in your vocal
range. Understanding a little bit about the mechanics of these operations will
allow some to make many of the changes right in this book. Owners may want to
write in or cross off some numbers, notes, lyrics, chords, or other things to
make the music easier to understand and/or to play and/or sing. A suggestion
might be to lightly write in pencil so that additional changes can be made or
so that one can revert to the original as one gets used to using the book
(especially for sharing books), but permanent changes with ink, markers, or
highlighters may work best for some.
Some
players and singers may choose always to read music, using this or other books
as references, guides, and tools whenever they practice or perform (to become
paper trained as some would say and as many classical musicians are). Others
may choose to use the book only enough to become familiar with the songs before
beginning to play the songs by ear and/or to convert the melodies, chords,
and/or words to memory (to make the songs their own as some would say and as
many classical musicians do). Both methods have their places. The arranger uses
both methods at times and encourages you to do what works best for you and
suggests that what is best may change over time and in different circumstances.
Since
these arrangements are done by someone who is primarily a singer, the notation
may be a little harder to understand than some other arrangements. The key to
these arrangements are the dotted line ties and slurs. When there are different
numbers of syllables in different verses, notes are broken into smaller
components (for instance, a quarter note might become an eighth note and two
sixteenths connected by dotted line ties) to show the timing of the lyrics in
the different verses. Thus, singers and those who want to play the melody
exactly as done by singers might use a quarter note for one verse and some
combinations of notes (two eighths, an eighth and two sixteenths, or a dotted
eighth and a sixteenth) for the other verses depending on the phrasing of the
words. Naturally, the syllables are below the note on which one would begin to
sing them, and they are generally held until the next syllable begins (although
sometimes a rest is appropriate before the next syllable, more often for
slurred notes than for ties). The arranger used the phrasings shown at some
point (and may still use them). They are general suggestions, but the arranger
and others may find that variations in the phrasing might work better than what
is shown, depending on interpretation and effects wanted.
The
chords shown above the standard notation are generally acceptable accompaniment
chords (often the simplest possible accompaniments, but very complicated
arrangements for some songs). Other color chords may be chosen and written in
for variations in the arrangements. The arranger likes the sound of V7 chords
compared to V chords (also written 57 compared to 5 and referring to A7
compared to A chords in the key of D). They are often interchangeable, but for
the ears of some players or for some kinds of music the V chord is more proper
than the V7 chord (like old-time music played by traditional string bands). Use
your own judgment, the preference of your ear, or the choices being used by
others you are playing with to determine whether to use the V or V7 chord. As
with other things in the book, the owner may choose to cross off, add in, or
somehow highlight the 7 until playing it in the preferred way becomes natural.
Chords shown in parentheses are alternate chords. Generally folks in a group
should decide before playing a song with alternate chords whether to stay on
the previous chord or to switch to the alternate chord (although both may work
together).
For the
mountain dulcimer (also called the lap dulcimer, the fretted dulcimer, the
Appalachian dulcimer, and other names), a single line of dulcimer tablature is
shown for each song. Generally these are for a dulcimer tuned in a DAA tuning.
The simplest way of playing the dulcimer is to play the melody on the one or
two strings closest to you by holding them down just to the left of the frets
indicated by the numbers and allowing the two strings farther away from you to
sound without being held down. Those two strings produce the same sound with
each strum and are referred to as drones. Since many early dulcimers in some
areas only had frets under the melody strings, playing songs with the melody
and drones is a very effective and traditional way of playing the dulcimer. It
is how the music in this book is basically set up for the dulcimer, but other
methods of playing can also be used with the book as described below.
The
single line of dulcimer tablature represents fret numbers played on the melody
string of the dulcimer. The letters B or M following some numbers indicate that
those notes are played on the bass or middle strings respectively. Some
dulcimers have extra frets (commonly referred to as half frets because they are
about half way between two standard frets and provide a tone half way between
the other tones for accidentals between the do re mi fa sol la ti do of major
scales).
In a
DAA tuning, a major scale starts at the third fret and goes to the 10th
fret. If the sound of a simple tune that you should be able to recognize sounds
wrong, then you may have one or more half frets. The majority of dulcimers
produced currently probably have a 6½ fret. It seems to be getting more common
for some dulcimers to have 13½, 1½, 8½, and occasional others. There are even
some chromatic dulcimers with frets spaced to produce all half tones like on a
guitar, banjo, or mandolin. Many of the songs in this book use a 6½ fret. The
version of In the Garden here uses an 8½ fret. For dulcimers without half
frets, some tunings may allow you to find the notes on another string (use the
illustrations at the top of the chord chart pages to help find them). For notes
not found anywhere in your tuning, it may be possible to play something else
for your arrangement of the song (see Study War No More for an example),
to play a harmony note, to simply play the drones, to play other notes in the
chord, or to do something else (like bending the notes as discussed below)
depending on what sounds acceptable to your ear and the ears of those around
you. Some players choose never to play songs that require a different tuning or
technique than they are used to. Some find one song that they love which
requires a new tuning or technique and learn to use it for that song (and then
find that a whole new realm of songs is open to them). Proceed at your own rate
for these things. One way to get notes not represented by a fret position on
the dulcimer is to bend a note, stretching a string by pulling or pushing it to
the side along a fret to raise a note half a tone above the tone usually
produced at that fret using your hearing to tell how far to stretch the string
to get the correct tone.
Those
preferring a different dulcimer tuning can read the musical notes or write in
different numbers to allow playing by the numbers. After doing this for a few
songs, some people become adept at converting the numbers in their heads and no
longer have to write them on the pages. It would probably be most common for
people to try to convert to DAD. Here are a couple of hints to help with this.
The general rule is to subtract 3 from the number shown in DAA to get to DAD.
This will not work for 0 (the melody string played open without being fretted
anywhere), 1, or 2. The notes for 0, 1, and 2 should simply be played on the A
string that is left (the middle string) at the 0, 1, and 2 positions. Otherwise
notes stay on the melody string where 3 becomes 0, 4 becomes 1, 5 becomes 2, 6
becomes 3, and so on. However, there is one difference in the spacing of the
frets to watch out for. If 9 is converted to 6, the notes will be a half tone
flat (or low). Thus, 9 becomes 6½ rather than 6. Notes on the bass string stay
in the same place since that is a D string in either tuning. Some people may
subtract all of these numbers in their heads very quickly as they come to them.
Others may just think of the numbers in these different locations or visualize
the fretboard as having these different numbers on them (even using stickers on
the fretboard for a brief time to get used to them) since many people and clubs
prefer to play in a DAD tuning, but want to incorporate songs found here).
If a
song is shown in a different tuning (DAC, DAG, DAD, DGA, DGG, DGD, or something
else) it is necessary to retune to that tuning to have the melody string sound
properly with the drones for the song. Since many dulcimers have 4 strings
rather than 3 strings, and some players may not have access to other
information about the tunings, here is a little explanation. Except for a few
dulcimers strung for left handed players, the tuning pegs should be to the left
and the strum area to the right as you hold your instrument. The string
farthest away from your body is the bass string (generally heavier than the
other strings). The one next to it is generally called the middle string. The
one closest to you is the melody string. If there are four strings and the two
close to you are closer together than the other strings, then there are two
melody strings. They are always tuned alike and referred to as just one melody
string. Fretting should be done by placing a finger or noter just to the left
of the fret without actually touching the fret to give the clearest sound. (If
your dulcimer has 4 equidistant strings, 5 strings, 6 strings, or some other
number of strings, it may be best to check with an experienced player to find
out how they are all related). The tunings referred to here are in the order of
bass, middle, and melody strings. In a DAA tuning, the melody and middle
strings are tuned to an A higher than the D of the bass string (musically a
fifth higher, and the dulcimer tunings shown below the first staff line of each
song reflect the relationship of the strings to each other). To change from a
DAA tuning to a DAC or DAD tuning, tune the melody string higher; to a DAG
tuning, tune the melody string lower; to a DGA tuning, tune the middle string
lower; to a DGG tuning, tune the melody and middle strings lower; and to a DGD
tuning tune the melody string higher and the middle string lower.
A
dulcimer player may choose to tune all the strings higher or lower (keeping the
relationship between the different strings the same) to play in a different
key. Some examples of notes used for different keys are on the chord chart
pages.
Another
way to play in a different key (although this can be very limiting for finding
all of the needed notes) is to use a capo. In this book, the dulcimer tunings
below the first staff line show the actual notes that the dulcimer is tuned to
and the resulting open string notes at the capo when a capo is used. The
numbers with a capo are given for the actual frets as in all of the other songs
except that 0 refers to the capo position since that is where the string is
being played open because the capo acts as a replacement for the nut.
Naturally, frets to the left of the capo are not listed since they will not
produce different sounds.
If you
are chording to provide backup for singing or other melody instruments, use the
diagrams shown on the chord charts, putting one finger (or the thumb) just to
the left of the fret for each string that needs to be fretted and strum across
all the strings. By knowing a few chords, it is easy to accompany many songs.
Knowing a few more chords allows you to accompany songs being played in some
keys different than the basic key in which your dulcimer is tuned. Many players
prefer the sound of chords to the sound of drone strings and chord while
playing melodies. Dulcimer tablature written on three lines is often designed
to give this sound. With the one line dulcimer tablature in this book, you need
to figure out your own chord accompaniments by learning several positions for
different chords and then using the chords shown above the standard notation
along with the melody line if you prefer that style of playing. As you do this,
you will recognize several patterns for your left hand that will be used
regularly, and playing melody with chords will become natural and easy with
practice for those who want to have an alternative to playing with drones.
A few
songs (particularly some instrumentals) are shown twice. The difference may be
only showing DAA versus DAD melody tablature numbers so that people can get an
idea of how these two tunings compare and to let people realize that the two
tunings can be played simultaneously by two players since they are both in the
key of D and complement each other well. In other instances, a second key with
a different tuning is shown for the song to help players realize that there are
different ways to play these songs on the dulcimer. Often the key other than D
is considered the standard key for the song by most people who play it, but our
club voted early in our existence to try to keep most of our music in the key
of D with fretted dulcimer tablature in DAA (and the songs can be played that
way when not played with someone using the more standard tuning). A few songs
give a possible harmony part.
Several
songs in G, D minor, E minor, or other keys with alternate dulcimer tunings and
tablature are in the book.
The
vocal ranges of some (or many) songs in this songbook are too low or too high
for many people. Sometimes people play with instruments not based in the key of
C like Bb trumpets, clarinets, tenor saxophones, Eb alto saxophones, F French
horns or with instruments that can only play in the key of C like many small
harps, many basic harmonicas, and some whistles. Transposing the songs from the
key of D (or other original key) may be needed in these situations. Whenever an
alternate key is used, everyone must switch to the new key by doing whatever is
necessary whether it involves playing different chords and notes, retuning,
using a capo and playing the song as written, or some other method.
Mountain
dulcimers (and some others) can often use the trick of retuning all the strings
to a different key and playing the numbers written rather than changing all of
the notes in the song. Hammered dulcimer players will need to move to another
set of marked bridges (and may have a limited number of keys available). Many
stringed instruments can play the chords written or can play easier to form (or
more familiar) chords by putting on a capo at a specific fret and playing
relative chords in a different key by understanding how to transpose. Others
may need to transpose each individual note in each song those playing melody.
Those singing or playing by ear can do the transposing just by listening and
finding the relative pitches.
The
Chart shown below can be used to change the notes or chords in a song from one
key to another. To use the transposing chart to change the chords in a song,
decide what new key would work best. Finding the key of the original song can
usually be done by finding the final melody note of a song or the final chord
of a song (unless the song sounds like it doesn’t come to a conclusion in which
case it’s best just to refer to the key signature and to whether the song feels
like it is in a major or minor key).
To use
the chart choose rows for the original and the new keys and find the original
and the new notes or chords in the columns. For notes, decide whether to go to
higher or lower tones. Watch out for accidentals not in the major scale.
Guitar,
banjo, mandolin, and other players not wanting to play everything in the key of
D might capo at the second fret and play the songs in this book in the key of C
(or capo at the seventh fret and play G or capo at the fifth fret and play A).
Chords played on any instrument with a capo should be played as if the capo is
a new nut with all finger positions relative to the capo as they would be to
the nut without the capo.
Transposing Chart
Key Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do
C C D E F G A B C
G G A B C D E F# G
D D E F# G A B C# D
A A B C# D E F# G# A
E E F# G# A B C# D# E
B B C# D# E F# G# A# B
Gb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F Gb
Db Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db
Ab Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab
Eb Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb
Bb Bb C D Eb F G A Bb
F F G A Bb C D E F
Contact
Bill Schilling by e-mail.
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