Folk Legacy, Sandy Paton here on Mudcat, has two booklets and cassettes, unless they've put them onto CD's by now, of Howie Mitchell's work with both Hammered and Plucked Dulcimers. He discusses building each instrument, various ways of tuning the plucked dulcimer, as well as several different ways of playing this dulcimer as well. He starts off with the usual tone and drone strings and progresses to chording the instrument and playing it like a banjo or guitar. Howie and his wife do a very beautiful four part harmony of Babylon is Falling, playing two parts on dulcimers and singing the other two parts.

The cassette or CD gives you a musical feel for the various modes of tuning a dulcimer, or playing music, which for a beginner has to be worth every dollar it costs.

Dave