I have a confession to make. When I first became intrigued by the hammer dulcimer I couldn't afford one, so I built one from scratch. (No, it did not work very well, but it was serviceable.) Anyway, I didn't know how to tune it, so I tuned it chromatically and it was ridiculously difficult to play. When I finally got a book that showed how to tune it "properly" (fifth-tuned diatonic) it was so much easier.

As all hammer dulcimer players know, the wonderful thing about diatonic tuning is that if you hit the wrong note, it's usually at least a note within the scale of the key you're playing in so it doesn't sound too horrible. If you're playing in the key of C, you have to really go out of your way to play a C# instead of a C natural. With chromatic tuning all those nasty sharps and flats are right there within easy mistake range. Gives me the heebie-jeebies to even think about it.      

I'm sure that this piano dulcimer instrument would be great for a piano player to do hymns and airs on, but I sure wouldn't wanna try anything clippy on it.

Bruce