Contact Us

The Hammered Dulcimer Treasury of Tunes
arranged by  Sally Hawley

A World of Music for Hammered Dulcimer

Reaching Out and Making Friends

Including more people in the fun:
Picture this: on the sidewalk one balmy summer evening crowds gather 'round as you serenade them with beautiful Celtic and old time American ballads and dance tunes on your Hammered Dulcimer. Passer- bys look on and smile, everyone is happy, and children are dancing: a pleasant evening, for sure.

Now picture this: the same night crowds gather 'round as you surprise them by adding several exciting and unexpected international pieces to your presentation. The sound is so different, everybody takes notice! Now the already fascinating appeal of the Hammered Dulcimer has attracted even more amazed listeners who surely never expected to hear music from their homeland flowing out of your dulcimer.

You look up you see even bigger crowds than before, with more people than ever smiling, dancing and laughing. "That song is from my country!" someone exclaims. "My grandmother used to sing that song all the time!" another says.

As you play, cell phone calls are being held up so the listener on the other end can share in the unexpected surprise of your beautiful dulcimer music, and cell phone photos of you in action are being snapped and sent to someone, somewhere, who will instantly appreciate being included in the magic of your music. If you're really lucky, you sometimes see that you've made a new friend or two who will return often, bring new listeners, and generally share the joy. Now that's what I call fun!

Every Country Has Cool Traditional Music
For most instruments there is an unwritten list of excellent tunes that new players commonly learn, and this can be very handy when jamming with a new group. Ask any Hammered Dulcimer player what should be on the "gotta learn" list and it might include great tunes like: Golden Slippers, Liberty, Westphalia Waltz, You Are My Sunshine, Soldier's Joy, Amazing Grace, Redwing, Greensleeves, and several others. Great traditional tunes like these have stood the test of time and retained their popularity within the American dulcimer community for good reason, but after getting several of these under your belt it is truly exciting to try traditional music from other countries.

We talk a lot to our audiences during concerts, and one of the first things we explain is our name: Kattywompus String Band. Because 'Kattywompus' is an older term meaning topsy-turvy or mixed-up, we originally thought it would be a very descriptive name for us. Musically speaking, our band commonly flits at will from country to country in one performance, with Hammered Dulcimer leading the way! "We play traditional music from around the world...music from our collective backgrounds...songs from people and places that we love. Hold on tight as we go around the world!"

But Where Can I Find International Music?
Believe it or not, online music stores are excellent resources for folk and traditional world music, as are companies like Mel Bay. When browsing for new material, don't limit yourself to just the ‘Dulcimer' heading. Taking the time to actually look through catalog listings for guitar, harp, mandolin, fiddle and piano can unearth some really cool music that can easily be adapted to your Hammered Dulcimer. Type "traditional folk music" into the search box of online music sites and you'll be amazed at the variety of choices that come up. Some sites sell CDs and individual songs for $.99 or less, and some companies specialize in selling books and sheet music, but either way it's well worth the time it takes to search these gems out.

It's also really helpful to develop the ability to play by ear. Although I realize that even mentioning this can make some dulcimists pretty nervous, this skill has been a very valuable tool for our band through the years as we learn new material from recordings. Often we just can't find sheet music for a piece that we're determined to play, so I normally do the initial ground work by listening to a recording repeatedly until I can play it by memory, then I teach it to the rest of our band during rehearsals. I've used this method a lot as I teach dulcimer in our music studio too: the student brings in a CD, we listen to it over and over, break it down by phrases and then start memorizing and refining it. Although this takes more time and patience than using sheet music, it is also really rewarding: there's nothing like having the confidence to know that you can learn tunes in many different ways!

Play International Tunes - Make More Friends
The formula seems simple, doesn't it? Engage more people with your music and everybody has fun! The scenes I described in the first paragraph are real: they come from my own experience playing Hammered Dulcimer during a minimum of 60 or so live concerts every year with our band. For us success is looking up and seeing the sidewalks filled with happy, dancing people including gray-haired grannies and teenagers with tattoos and body piercings!

After playing only standard dulcimer tunes for a few years we began to sprinkle our performances with traditional folk songs from Armenia, Greece, Mexico and the Arab world – and then the magic began! Right smack in the middle of a piece we'd hear an unexpected zaghareet: "La, la, la, la, la, la, la!" (hear zaghareets in our song, Aman, Aman at www.SoKattywompus.com ). Looking up we'd see husbands and wives, grandparents and grandchildren all laughing and dancing to our music, and not only middle eastern folks, but people from all walks of life and of all ages.

Being suckers for a good time, we've increased our play list to include lots of international tunes, resulting in happy and friendly audiences from around the world. We've been featured in The Chinese Los Angeles Times as well as on several local middle eastern cable TV shows and other media, all adding to the variety and fun at our live concerts. Wow, who knew life could be this much fun?

Let's Get Started! Quick Technical notes.
I've included music for one of my favorite Armenian songs, "Daldala", which sounds fantastic on Hammered Dulcimer! This piece is an old fashioned line dance called a "Tamsara", and has a very distinct rhythm that should be strictly adhered to, but is quite simple and satisfying to play once you get the feel of it.

The placement of the notes makes "Daldala" easy to play on dulcimer, and the hammering patterns are clear and easy to memorize with this piece. We have an MP3 sample on our website that will be helpful to hear: www.SoKattywompus.com Because it has no quarter tones Daldala is ideal for the American Hammered Dulcimer, and you won't need to retune any strings.

I should note here, however, that I commonly keep my highest ‘C' tuned to D# as an aid in playing other international tunes, even though my dulcimer is fully chromatic. I do the same with the student dulcimers in our studio and find it very helpful. This D# is not needed for "Daldala".

Got questions? Please feel free to call or email me anytime!

Listen to Jennifer Ranger and Kattywompus String Band play "Daldala"