"around tuning pins with square heads. (Ordinarily, 5 mm ""zither pins"" are used, similar to, but smaller in diameter than piano tuning pins, which come in various sizes ranging upwards from ""1/0"" or 7 mm.) The strings of the hammered dulcimer are often tuned according to a circle of fifths pattern. Typically, the lowest note (often a G or D) is struck at the lower right-hand of the instrument, just to the left of the right-hand (bass) bridge. As a player strikes the courses above in sequence, they ascend following a repeating sequence of two whole steps and a half"
"Appalachian music Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music (especially fiddle music), hymns, and African-American blues. First recorded in the 1920s, Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the early development of Old-time music, country music, and bluegrass, and were an important part of the American folk music revival of the 1960s. Instruments typically used to perform Appalachian music include the banjo, American fiddle, fretted dulcimer, and guitar. Early recorded Appalachian musicians include Fiddlin' John"
"Child Left Behind. Appalachian music is one of the best-known manifestations of Appalachian culture. Traditional Appalachian music is derived primarily from the English and Scottish ballad tradition and Irish and Scottish fiddle music. African-American blues musicians played a significant role in developing the instrumental aspects of Appalachian music, most notably with the introduction of the five-stringed banjo—one of the region's iconic symbols—in the late 18th century. Another instrument known in Appalachian culture was the Appalachian dulcimer which, in a practical way, is a guitar-shaped instrument laid on its side with a flat bottom and the strings plucked in a manner"
"the East and West Coasts (especially in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Pacific Northwest). A number of American classical composers, in particular Henry Cowell and Aaron Copland, have composed works that merge the idioms of Appalachian folk music with the Old World–based classical tradition. Appalachian old-time music is itself made up of regional traditions. Some of the most prominent traditions include those of North Georgia (The Skillet Lickers) Mount Airy, North Carolina (specifically the Round Peak style of Tommy Jarrell) and Grayson County/Galax, Virginia (Wade Ward and Albert Hash), West Virginia (the Hammons Family), Eastern Kentucky"
"of which were first held in the 1970s. Another notable festival is The Museum of Appalachia's Tennessee Fall Homecoming. It is held annually in Clinton, Tennessee, on the museum grounds. Appalachian music Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music (especially fiddle music), hymns, and African-American blues. First recorded in the 1920s, Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the early development of Old-time music, country music, and bluegrass, and were an important part of the"
"American classical tradition begun by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring. Unlike their first album, the three virtuosos spent several months on the compositions and arrangements, from July 19 to September 10, 1999. The album reached No. 1 on ""Billboard""'s Classical Albums chart and won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album. Appalachian Journey Appalachian Journey is the second album from the string trio of bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. James Taylor and Alison Krauss join the trio individually on two Stephen Foster songs arranged for the trio. Sony Classical released"
"dulcimer; plucked dulcimer; fretted dulcimer; lap dulcimer; teardrop dulcimer; box dulcimer; etc. The instrument has also acquired a number of nicknames (some shared by other instruments): ""harmonium,"" ""hog fiddle,"" ""music box,"" ""harmony box,"" and ""mountain zither"". Although the Appalachian dulcimer first appeared in the early 19th century among Scots-Irish immigrant communities in the Appalachian Mountains, the instrument has no known precedent in Ireland or Scotland. Because of this, and a dearth of written records, the history of the Appalachian dulcimer has been, until fairly recently, largely speculative. Since 1980, more extensive research has traced the instrument's development through several distinct"
"""roots music"" because it served as the basis of music later developed in the United States, including rock and roll, contemporary folk music, rhythm and blues, and jazz. Appalachian music is the traditional music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It derives from various European and African influences—including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music (especially fiddle music), hymns, and African-American blues. First recorded in the 1920s, Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the early development of Old-time music, country music, and bluegrass, and were an important part of the American folk music revival. Instruments"
"strummed like a guitar, although their fretting style is still overhand. They also describe playing ""autoharp style"" where ""the dulcimer is held vertically with the headstock over the shoulder."" Lynn McSpadden, in his book ""Four and Twenty Songs for the Mountain Dulcimer"", states that some players ""tilt the dulcimer up sideways on their laps and strum in a guitar style."" Still other dulcimer players use a fingerstyle technique, fingering chord positions with the fretting hand and rhythmically plucking individual strings with the strumming hand, creating delicate arpeggios. The Appalachian dulcimer is now a core instrument found in the American old-time"
"German settlers and spread into the Appalachian mountain region, where it later evolved into the Appalachian dulcimer in the late 18th century. The Appalachian dulcimer (or mountain dulcimer, or lap dulcimer), is a scheitholt fingerboard mounted on a larger sound box. The original scheitholt usually consisted of a wooden soundbox about 50 cm (19.7 in) long and 5 cm (2 in) wide, with a simple headstock and two or three strings. Besides brass, these strings were often also made of simple materials such as animal hairs, gut or waxed linen. There is no fingerboard but there are wires which are"
"Appalachians, itself a mixture of traditions from different races and cultures. Minstrel instruments were also a mélange: African banjo and tambourine with European fiddle and bones In short, early minstrel music and dance was not true black culture; it was a white reaction to it. This was the first large-scale appropriation and commercial exploitation of black culture by American whites. In the late 1830s, a decidedly European structure and high-brow style became popular in minstrel music. The banjo, played with ""scientific touches of perfection"" and popularized by Joel Sweeney, became the heart of the minstrel band. Songs like the Virginia"
"World War II, except for the Ossau Valley in Béarn. Evidence has been gathered also that with different names (such as ""salterio"") it was played along with the flute early in the 20th century in small areas of High Aragon. From the 1970s on, the instrument has shown renewed vitality. It is a very simple form of psaltery or box zither, made of a wooden sounding box, with strings stretched from end to end, lengthwise. Its construction is similar to that of the Aeolian harp or Appalachian dulcimer. The Pyrenean version of the instrument numbers 4 to 10 strings but"
"Hammer-on A hammer-on is a playing technique performed on a stringed instrument (especially on a fretted string instrument, such as a guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off. Passages in which a large proportion of the notes are performed as hammer-ons and pull-offs instead of being plucked or picked in the usual fashion are known in classical guitar terminology as ""legato"" phrases. The sound is smoother and more connected than in a normally picked phrase, due to the absence of"
"individual player. This device is used by folk musicians, one-man bands and singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Tom Harmon, Neil Young, Eddie Vedder, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and blues singers Jimmy Reed and John Hammond Jr. The HarpArm is a magnetic harmonica holder that is offered in two varieties: a standard neck rack version, and a model which attaches to standard straight or boom microphone stands. Some advanced silencer can reduce the sound down to 20%. The chromatic harmonica uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate, though one design—the"
"videos depicting Appalachian crafts and craftspeople are displayed in the ""Appalachian Heritage"" exhibit of the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge. United States embassies around the world keep tapes of ""The Heartland Series"" broadcasts as an information resource on life in Appalachia. The theme music for ""The Heartland Series"" is an arrangement of the ancient Gaelic ballad ""He Mandu,"" which is played on the hammered dulcimer by folklorist Guy Carawan. The Heartland Series The Heartland Series is a series of television programs about the culture of Appalachia, produced by WBIR-TV of Knoxville, Tennessee, over the 25-year period 1984 through 2009. The"
"Harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of"
"manufacture is easily improvised, is considered above all as a game of girls. Tahardant, feminine of ahardin, is also the name of a plucked string instrument, a kind of guitar played throughout the region of the Niger River loop, by ""court craftsmen"" in the Tuaregs and by griots in the Songhai. Ahardin Ahardin is a musical bow played by southern Tuaregs consists of a curved branch held with a twisted rope of raw leather or bark of acacia. Serving as a sound box, a reversed calabash is placed on the curved part of the bow on the ground. To hold"
"(1891–1958) was an Old Time Country and Southern Gospel singer and guitarist who recorded at the famous Bristol Sessions in 1927. He was known for songs such as ""I'm Bound for the Promised Land"" and ""To the Work"". His records are the only known use of the harp-guitar in Old Time Music. Harp guitar The harp guitar (or ""harp-guitar"") is a guitar-based stringed instrument generally defined as a ""guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking."" The word ""harp"" is used in reference to its harp-like unstopped open strings."
"with the trumpet and flugelhorn, the two instruments are easily doubled by one player, with some modification of breath and embouchure, since the two have identical range and essentially identical fingering. The cylindrical baritone offers a brighter sound and the conical euphonium offers a mellower sound. The ""American baritone"", featuring three valves on the front of the instrument and a curved, forward-pointing bell, was dominant in American school bands throughout most of the 20th century, its weight, shape, and configuration conforming to the needs of the marching band. While this instrument is a conical-cylindrical bore hybrid, somewhere between the classic"
"typically used to perform Appalachian music include the banjo, American fiddle, fretted dulcimer, and guitar. Early recorded Appalachian musicians include Fiddlin' John Carson, Henry Whitter, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, the Carter Family, Clarence Ashley, Frank Proffitt, and Dock Boggs, all of whom were initially recorded in the 1920s and 1930s. Several Appalachian musicians obtained renown during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, including Jean Ritchie, Roscoe Holcomb, Ola Belle Reed, Lily May Ledford, and Doc Watson. The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on"
"and performed alongside old-time and traditional music at Appalachian folk festivals. Appalachian music has also influenced a number of musicians from outside the region. In 1957, British skiffle artist Lonnie Donegan reached the top of the U.K. charts with his version of the Appalachian folk song ""Cumberland Gap,"" and the following year the Kingston Trio had a number one hit on the U.S. charts with their rendition of the North Carolina ballad, ""Tom Dooley"". Grateful Dead member Jerry Garcia frequently performed Appalachian songs such as ""Shady Grove"" and ""Wind and Rain"", and claimed to have learned the clawhammer banjo style"
"Sue Harris Sue Harris is an English musician classically trained as an oboeist, but best known for her folk music performances with the hammered dulcimer. Harris is fluent in reading and writing music and switched from her original instrument, the oboe, to the dulcimer in the mid-1970s. In making that switch, she became one of the foremost performers on that folk instrument, though at the time it seemed just a matter of expediency. She was married to John Kirkpatrick, a prominent melodeon virtuoso in England, was pregnant with their first son, and found herself unable to maintain the breath control"
"finger pick adjacent strings. Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed (especially on fretted string instruments such as guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off. Traditionally, this technique is supplemental to conventional picking, being used to achieve legato and ornamentation effects. This is connected to the fact that hammering imparts less energy to a string, so that hammered notes are less audible. With electric instruments, it becomes possible to use these techniques much more extensively. Tapping is a guitar"
"Natural horn The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the ancestor of the modern-day (French) horn, and is differentiated by its lack of valves. It consists of a mouthpiece, some long coiled tubing, and a large flared bell. Pitch changes are made through a few techniques: This instrument was used extensively until the emergence of the valved horn in the early 19th century. The natural horn has several gaps in its harmonic range. To play chromatically, in addition to crooking the instrument into the right key, two additional techniques are required: ""bending"" and ""hand-stopping"". Bending a note is"
"The ""New World"" ballad tradition, consisting of ballads written in North America, was as influential as the Old World tradition to the development of Appalachian music. New World ballads were typically written to reflect news events of the day, and were often published as broadsides. New World ballads popular among Appalachian musicians included ""Omie Wise"", ""Wreck of the Old 97"", and ""John Hardy"". Later, coal mining and its associated labor issues led to the development of protest songs, such as ""Which Side Are You On?"" and ""Coal Creek March"". One of the most iconic symbols of Appalachian culture— the banjo—"
"harp, plays fiddle and hammered dulcimer with Celtic trio Banshee in the Kitchen, and was previously with Celtic duo Briar Rose. Brenda Hunter Brenda J. Hunter is an American musician and composer best known as a hammered dulcimer player. She also plays Irish fiddle, Celtic harp, and classical piano, with the latter influence evident in her particular style on the dulcimer and harp. She won the National Championship in 1995 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, receiving as her prize a Masterworks hammered dulcimer built by Russell Cook. She has also played a Rick Thum instrument, and currently"
"Instruments of this family, formerly widespread throughout Europe, are now primarily found in Norway (the langeleik), Iceland (the langspil), Flanders (the hummel), Hungary, as well as France. A parallel instrument, the Appalachian dulcimer is found in rural mountain areas of the Eastern United States. This instrument is first attested in accounts dated 1730. The primitive version with four strings evolved into a five-string model. The Val-d'Ajol épinette is of small size, between 50 and 60 cm, in the form of a parallelogram with a wide base. The frets, originally numbering fourteen, increased to seventeen in the 19th century. The fretting"
"John Bannerman suggested that this was the Crwth or Crowd, a stringed instrument similar to a lyre and played with a bow, which is mentioned in later Scots poetry and English minstrel lists. Giraldus Cambrensis also notes that these instruments used steel strings, rather than cat gut, but exactly to which instruments he refers is unclear. Stone carvings indicate the instruments known in Scotland, including the harpists on the early Medieval Monifeith Pictish stone and the Dupplin Cross. Two of the three surviving Medieval Celtic harps are from Scotland: the Lamont Harp, dated to about 1500 and the highly elaborate"
"which the bark of the tree is peeled back, and a fingernail or the blunt end of a tool, such as an axe is knocked against the wood to determine if the hollow produces the right resonance. Once a suitably hollow tree is found, it is cut down and cleaned out, the bark is taken off, the ends trimmed, and the exterior is shaped; this results in a finished instrument. This instrument may be painted or left undecorated. A rim of beeswax may be applied to the mouthpiece end. Traditional instruments made by Aboriginal craftsmen in Arnhem Land are sometimes"
"rock. However, the positive statement of what, exactly, constitutes the true and authentic delineation of old time fiddle music is not necessarily unambiguous. Different sources draw a sharper distinction than others, and there is a good deal of overlap which purists will acknowledge to a varying degree. The areas of overlap are primarily with bluegrass, Western swing (Texas swing), country and even rock. Art Stamper played in both Appalachia Old Time and bluegrass styles. In autobiographical material posted on his artist website, the writer asserts Stamper's contiguity with ""old time and mountain"" music, that he learned ""the Appalachian fiddle style"""
"Psaltery A psaltery () (or sawtry [archaic]) is a stringed instrument of the zither family. The psaltery of Ancient Greece (""epigonion"") is a harp-like instrument. The word ""psaltery"" derives from the Ancient Greek ψαλτήριον (""psaltḗrion""), ""stringed instrument, psaltery, harp"" and that from the verb ψάλλω (""psállō""), ""to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch"" and in the case of the strings of musical instruments, ""to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, and not with the plectrum."" The psaltery was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound production. In the King James Version of the Bible, ""psaltery"","
"Hands in Harmony Hands in Harmony: Traditional Crafts and Music in Appalachia is a 2009 photography book by photographer and author Timothy Lee Barnwell. The work was first published on October 12, 2009 through W.W. Norton and like prior works, focuses on the culture and history of Appalachia. The book's contents focuses on the traditions of hand crafts and old time and bluegrass music, and the work contains photographs of the interviewees as well as an accompanying CD of bluegrass music. The book explores the history of folk music and traditional handcrafts, and includes interviews with the musicians and craftsmen"
"Brenda Hunter Brenda J. Hunter is an American musician and composer best known as a hammered dulcimer player. She also plays Irish fiddle, Celtic harp, and classical piano, with the latter influence evident in her particular style on the dulcimer and harp. She won the National Championship in 1995 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, receiving as her prize a Masterworks hammered dulcimer built by Russell Cook. She has also played a Rick Thum instrument, and currently uses a Nick Blanton Compact model on stage. She performs and teaches nationally on hammered dulcimer, also performs on solo Celtic"