Learn Stick Dulcimer Chords Lesson 2

How to Play Stick Dulcimer Chords Pt. 2

Watch How to Play Stick Dulcimer Chords Lesson 1!

Now that was all kind of theory stuff the way I like to play my chords. The easiest ones are either to play the D chord this way, the one chord this way, or to play it this way so: ring, middle, index. I like that one a lot because then you can control the sustain on it by just simply lifting your fingers. They're still resting on the strings. The strings are now dead right. So I like that one a lot for that reason. The other reason I like it is I can just shift my whole hand down, take my index finger away, maintain the shape, and I've got the six minor or the B minor chord. That motion between either 6 minor and 1 or 1 & 6 minor is so stinkin' common so you're gonna need that.

Similarly there's where your 4, 4th of the scale. If you wanted the power chord before then you’d bar right there. I usually use my pinkie. Some people use ring. I just feel like the spacing when I do it this way makes it easier, possibly because I'm used to something similar on guitar. But, you can also do ring on the bottom string, pinky on the top string, index finger back here. Now that's not the complete three notes of the chord, but it suffices because it's got the root and the third. So that's how I like to play it a lot too, because again thinking about shapes and ease. My ring finger doesn't move if I'm going to play the D, the one chord [Music]. So maybe I'm just being lazy, I don't know. Makes it easier. 

Then the five, which is A, is the same shape as the G, then the 4 chord, then down to the 5. Again you could play it this way with the bar, which is nice because then you get a little bit higher register as opposed to this (music). The other thing about this shape that's nice is that I can move my pinkie off, put my middle finger here, and we’ve got a five seven chord. So a dominant seven chord on the A so it's an A7 chord. Then I've got a nice little [Music].

There's a lot of songs that'll use that as a good way to push you back towards the one chord. I know that there's a lot of tabs out there that show you how to do what I just showed you a second ago. [Music] Personally it's fine, I'm sure there's something out there that you can use that for, I haven’t run into it yet, but I'm a pretty simple guy who likes to just sing along with chords. You could just move that shape up and down and you would just name the chord you're playing.The root note here, so this is a five chord. I'll move it down again. I would just leave that off, so you could also play that with ring and index. So there's my four chord another way. In fact that's nice because then you get the full chord all three notes instead of what I was doing.

Just for point of reference the two minor, which is E minor in this case, so the two minor is here, the three minor (which is f sharp minor) is here. You don't need those cords nearly as often in most music. Most music is comprised of the one chord, six minor, four chord, five chord, A and so that's D, E minor, G and A in the key of D that we're in.

I’m throwing a lot at you just trying to wing it here and give you some stuff to work with. That leaves us up here on the seven. You could do a third, that gives you what's called a diminished chord. Probably doesn't sound real pretty to you. Not exactly sure where you're gonna run into needing a diminished chord in most music you're playing, but you could always do that or do this and you're gonna get a bit more of a minor chord. So that would be a c-sharp minor as opposed to c-sharp. If you end up finding yourself in need of a c-sharp minor, there you go or a power chord version.

Now I'm sure not very many people have made it this far in the video, but just in case, there are chords that pop up sudo frequently in pop music. A chord that I use a lot and is used often is a minor four chord. You can't play it on here, it's only a major. Yep see still major. You need minor and you don't have a minor, so you've got to have power cord. This is why power cords are helpful because now we can imply a third. [Music] So you would get that out of the melody or just let people hear it for themselves naturally. Sometimes your ear implies for you so you don't have to worry about that. A good case in point would be that section of Follow You Into the Dark. If you know what I'm talking about go listen to that video. You'll find it or go listen to the song it's by Death Cab for Cutie. there's minor chords in the chorus. Oh man I feel like I just will move on to the next thing. Thanks.