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Fret Spacing - standard and not

Thought it would be nice to have this all in one place.

Most dulcimers include the following frets from the chromatic (all of 'em) fingerboard:

0 2 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 - octave 1

12, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24- octave 2

24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36 - octave 3

I also use a simplified one:

0 2 4 5 7 9 11 12, etc.

For both of those, you can capo up to the 2 fret and also play in minor.

And here is the blues-cimer. I just made two and the are lots of fun to play, you can easily use Shane's videos over in "how to play" to get lots of ideas for improvising.

0 3 5 7 10 12 (optional 6) (edited 1/26/10 to include 5!)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Sanabia on October 11, 2009 at 4:39am

Great stuff Diane. I hope folks learn how useful these scales can be. I use them all the time jamming, especially when I am not familiar with the tunes. If the know the tune then I am usually the "melody guy", if not then I become the "harmony guy". Always adds a nice edge to our tunes.

Permalink Reply by Matte Resist on October 12, 2009 at 10:27am

I just started building diddley bows with diatonic scales. I've really been enjoying playing them too. I might have to try your blues scale. I'm also going to have to make a capo so I can try playing in minor, that sounds cool!

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on October 12, 2009 at 1:31pm

The capo is really great -- the same instrument and two different keys and feel just by slapping it on. I use the elastic uke/banjo one: small, simple and cheap. #7828, I think. Watch out - the others are made for 6 strings and are crazy big for cbg purposes.

If you look at the pictures, it is just a metal bar, a bit of heavy elastic and some grommets. But once you gather up those materials, you might as well just give the man the $6.

But I bet a dowel and a stout rubber band would serve in the short term!

(You can even play mixolidian if you capo further up the neck and if you do "standard" dulcimer tuning and include the 10th fret. I forget exactly where to capo, I'd have to noodle that out. So then you can play some of those Appalachian tunes like Kitchen Girl and Pretty Little Dog and I think even Red Haired Boy, and like that.)

Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on October 13, 2009 at 11:04pm

Diane said:

(You can even play mixolidian if you capo further up the neck and if you do "standard" dulcimer tuning and include the 10th fret. I forget exactly where to capo, I'd have to noodle that out. So then you can play some of those Appalachian tunes like Kitchen Girl and Pretty Little Dog and I think even Red Haired Boy, and like that.)

Standard mixolydian would be to capo at the fifth (like playing G to G on the white keys of a piano). Red-Haired Boy is normally played in A mixolydian, see the huge pile of dulcimer tabs on everythingdulcimer.com.

Permalink Reply by Mama Mojo on October 23, 2009 at 6:43pm

This is great, Diane! Thanks for posting and giving me a better idea of what folks are experimenting with in their playing.... I have a Dulcimer, but haven't built my own yet.... I'll try it out soon!

Permalink Reply by Travis Gaines on October 26, 2009 at 4:48am

Does this mean you simply use a standard scale calculator for whichever length you want and only put on those frets? What if your fretboard is 15" or 17"? I'm confused on what values to use in the fret calc. for bridge length, scale length, number of frets, etc.

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on October 26, 2009 at 7:29am

Yes, use whatever fret calculator you like, and include only the designated dulcimer frets. The only measurement that matters is scale length (nut to bridge). I usually include a goofy big number of frets if they are asking, to be sure enough to make it to the end of my fretboard. I like Fretfind, because it prints you a PDF template (specify multi-page) They ask a crazy lot of questions, so I also give them number of strings and width at nut and let the rest go. After printing, I highlight only the frets I"ll be using, fold the template down the middle, align it up with my fingerboard and mark with a sharp pencil.

Travis Gaines said:

Does this mean you simply use a standard scale calculator for whichever length you want and only put on those frets? What if your fretboard is 15" or 17"? I'm confused on what values to use in the fret calc. for bridge length, scale length, number of frets, etc.

Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on October 26, 2009 at 4:45pm

I'm still not quite clear on dulci fretting, it should be simpler right!? So, in the 0 2 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 example, is "10" the 61/2 fret? Or am I totally off base?
Thanks in advance for the clarification!

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on October 28, 2009 at 12:37am

Yes! the "optional 10" is the same as the "optional 6 1/2" in dulcimer-speak. They number the frets differently over there, as you'd see when you looked as musical notation for standard dulcimer.

If I were building for a new player, I'd leave it out. If I were building for me, I'd put it in.

Bluesheart said:

I'm still not quite clear on dulci fretting, it should be simpler right!? So, in the 0 2 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 example, is "10" the 61/2 fret? Or am I totally off base?
Thanks in advance for the clarification!

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on October 31, 2009 at 7:54am

This is not quite true. The optional 10 is good for adding accidentals and for capo-ing higher up the neck, and works when most of our tunes are in a major scale.

But the 6+ fret on a dulcimer is actually the 11 fret, because mountain/lap dulcimers were mostly played in ionian mode back in the day and they didn't need the 11. If you want to know more about this, here are some helpful blog posts that explain it all, but it helps to have your dulcimer handy.

http://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2009/06/golly-modes-arent-so-scary-after-all.html

click to "newer posts" to go through the series.

Fret correspondence chromatic to dulcimer are:

0 0 open
2 1
4 2
5 3
7 4
9 5
10 6 - optional on modern dulcimers, like us
11 6+ - optional on traditional dulcimers, wanting to play beyond ionian
12 7
etc.

So much to learn, so little time!

Diane said:

Yes! the "optional 10" is the same as the "optional 6 1/2" in dulcimer-speak. They number the frets differently over there, as you'd see when you looked as musical notation for standard dulcimer.
If I were building for a new player, I'd leave it out. If I were building for me, I'd put it in.
Bluesheart said:
I'm still not quite clear on dulci fretting, it should be simpler right!? So, in the 0 2 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 example, is "10" the 61/2 fret? Or am I totally off base?
Thanks in advance for the clarification!

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on January 9, 2010 at 4:24am

And this is why the optional #10 comes in handy, when you are tuning ionian (DAC)

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/video/blue-hand-medieval-song

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on January 9, 2010 at 8:53am