Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on December 1, 2009 at 11:46pm

The fretting on a dulcimer or dulcimer style CBG is "diatonic", that is to say it's only got the notes of the major scale (doh -re-mi...etc). This means it's fine for playing in a major scale, but there are no sharps or flats available, so playing in a minor key or using sharps and flats which are needed in so many forms of music just are not available. That's the limitation of a diatonic instrument, but also bear in mind other instruments are diatonic, such as harmonicas, cajun squeeze boxes, so you just have to be bit creative to make music with these limitations.

Slide guitar is not as easy as it looks, as it depends on absolute accuracy to hit the notes, so fret markers are useful..and it does depend on a certain ability to feel the music..but you won't play decent slide on 'feel' alone, you need a lot of accuracy too.

Diatonic fretting is a nice introduction to playing, as the frets give you the absolute accuracy in term of pitch, and the major scale fretting removes those 'wrong' notes in terms of unwanted sharps and flats.

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Permalink Reply by Bull Dogg on December 2, 2009 at 12:00am

Thanks that makes sense.

Then its my understanding that a dulci scale is the same spacing as a guitar scale of the same length just with the sharp and flat frets skipped? If that's so, would I be able to lay out a guitar scale and then using different colored frets (toothpicks) distinguish the dulci frets from the others? For instance, lay out the guitar scale in black frets and then replace the appropriate dulci frets with red ones. Then for dulci scale I play with only the red frets and for guitar scale I use both colors?

Thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on December 2, 2009 at 1:14am

Si... for the most part. Strings act in a certain way when different lengths are applied (ie: frets). The "scale" or total length of the string from nut to bridge and its proportions to the frets are directly related. The longer the scale, the more distance between the frets. From a luthier website:

Let’s say the scale length of the instrument we want to calculate fret positions for is 25.5”. This is typical for Fender electric guitars and a lot of other guitars as well. To calculate the distance from the nut to the first fret, divide the scale length by 17.817:

ScaleLength = 25.5

NutToFret[1] = ScaleLength / 17.817 = 1.431

Simply change the scale and the fret distances are changed. One thing to remember, as Chickenbone says, it's diatonic but usually has a flat 7th added.

-WY

Bull Dogg said:

Thanks that makes sense.

Then its my understanding that a dulci scale is the same spacing as a guitar scale of the same length just with the sharp and flat frets skipped? If that's so, would I be able to lay out a guitar scale and then using different colored frets (toothpicks) distinguish the dulci frets from the others? For instance, lay out the guitar scale in black frets and then replace the appropriate dulci frets with red ones. Then for dulci scale I play with only the red frets and for guitar scale I use both colors?

Thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Ben on December 2, 2009 at 3:23am

As I was reading from the top down, I was thinking "this guy should color-code his frets." Glad to see you thought the same thing.

Bull Dogg said:

Thanks that makes sense.

Then its my understanding that a dulci scale is the same spacing as a guitar scale of the same length just with the sharp and flat frets skipped? If that's so, would I be able to lay out a guitar scale and then using different colored frets (toothpicks) distinguish the dulci frets from the others? For instance, lay out the guitar scale in black frets and then replace the appropriate dulci frets with red ones. Then for dulci scale I play with only the red frets and for guitar scale I use both colors?

Thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Tim on December 2, 2009 at 4:01am

if you happen to be one of those freaks of nature with perfect pitch then the frets on a slide are useless. put a slid guitar in a fiddle players hands and see what happens.

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Permalink Reply by Nathan King on December 2, 2009 at 6:39am

On a fretless guitar, a lot of folks will put marks on the sides of the neck, which correspond to where the frets would be. It helps give a visual reference point to where the notes are. But like pretty much everyone said, slide playing is a lot more based on actually listening to the instrument to tell you when you hit the right note.

Another potential limitation to a dulci fretted instrument (as I see it...) is that it's a lot harder to play in different keys. Say you tune the instrument to G. It's really hard to play in any other key than G Major. You can play in E minor if you know what you're doing, but unless you have a capo, that's about it. Although, using a capo opens up all sorts of different keys/scales/possibilites of it's own, which is pretty darn cool.

I personally like the colored toothpick idea... I've seen a few folks do it... but I've just never done it myself. Keep us updated!

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Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on December 2, 2009 at 1:51pm

I've found that the people I give a quick lesson to, when I make a sale learn a lot faster with the dulci fret scale marked.
They seem to not be as intimated with less frets.Since I mostly play slide and they seem to want to do what I'm doing ,I usually have them playing very basic licks in short order.
But then I also explain during the sales pitch that you have to be careful with slide CBG's ,,due to the fact that the instrument is a "chick" magnet and on and on LOL

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