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Noters?

I seem to have seen dulcimers played with a "noter", that seems to just be a short dowel. Is that still in practice. Seems that it would make it easy on fingers for newer players. Have not built a dulci yet, but put a pick up in a friends strum stick type instrument and really enjoyed playing it.

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Permalink Reply by Dave V on October 16, 2009 at 7:44pm

There are "noters" and "finger dancers." Both are legitimate playing methods, and each have their place in the dulci world. I personally like chording and finger picking. Noter playing is more single string melody lines and drone strings, played with a pick or quill rather than plucked with fingers.

I started dulcimer playing after buying a strum stick. The one finger playing was fun, but I enjoy the depth and range the full chords offer.

There's a place for Dulcimer players of all kinds at www.everythingdulcimer.com It's just about as friendly a place as this is.

Permalink Reply by steve (Roots) on October 17, 2009 at 1:04am

Dave's right, the old time dulcimer players played with noter on the melody strings. But they were mountain lap dulcimers and the melody strings were closer to you and you held the noter and played the melody string like a modern lap steel player plays. A strumstick or cb dulci usually haves the melody string on bottom like a guitar and it is harder to use a noter. I have used a slide on dulci strummers but the action needs to be higher than normal. I am a member of a large dulcimer club who has several festivals and jam sessions and no one uses a noter. They are more advanced and uses chord progressions and fingerpicking. If you google Tennessee Music Box there is some interesting reading on the history of dulcimer in the 1850's. They used noters and turkey quills on these boxes.

Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on October 29, 2009 at 2:11pm

There is a video there of a fella playing a fretless lap cigar box dulcimer with what looks like four strings, and he "notes" with a scrap of metal. Sounds great! There are not lots of videos, so it will be easy to find his.

Randy S. Bretz said:

There`s also a dulcimer sitethat is very simalar to the nation. It`s Mountaindulcimer.ning.com . I myself have just joined and alot of the members of the nation have joined. You should check it out, I think you will like what you see there.

Permalink Reply by Randy S. Bretz on July 5, 2012 at 10:03pm