Whats a “chromatic” dulcimer?
Most chromatic dulcimers add courses to the normal fifth-interval tuning (shown on page ix of Striking Out and Winning!) to complete the chromatic scale for much of the dulcimer’s range. Extra courses often mean extra bridges, usually placed above and/or below a normal 15-14 set-up, or sometimes on the left side of the dulcimer (an example of the latter is shown on the back cover of Striking Out and Winning!). It’s important to note that what a builder calls a 16-15 chromatic dulcimer may actually have a normal 14-13 fifth-interval tuning, plus two more each of treble and bass courses holding chromatic tones. It’s also important to find out if any of the chromatic tones replace what’s usually part of, say, a 15-14 tuning. What are the advantages of a chromatic dulcimer? 1) It certainly has more notes! 2) I’ve found my chromatic 15-15, Meshach, to be useful for playing concertos with orchestras because of its chromaticism. (I don’t, however, find them enormously useful when jamming to j
