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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on December 1, 2009 at 4:59pm

Head on over to the dulcimer group. There is a discussion there of which frets to include and which frets to eliminate for a diatonic build. As for scale, that's up to you!

But first you might want to go to Shane's how to play videos, up there on Free Resources/Lessons. He'll show you which frets you need for playing slide.

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Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on December 1, 2009 at 5:15pm

The dulcimer / diatonic scale is just the "chromatic" scale with some frets left out. So enter the number of frets you would want on a chromatic scale (24 would be two octaves), and then omit the unneeded frets, leaving only the following (for each octave): 2 4 5 7 9 11 12.(where 11 is the "six-and-a-half" fret).

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Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 1, 2009 at 5:45pm

If you are playing slide it doesn't matter if you install 12 frets or 22 frets. You can still play the in between notes without frets.

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Permalink Reply by Tam Givens on December 1, 2009 at 8:23pm

I play my 3 string CBG tuned DAd like a dulcimer and play melodies using a slide on the same notes as the dulcimer. My CBG has frets like a guitar, it's easy to play tunes that way. dulcimer frets work just the same, a little easier to find the melody notes.
Tam

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