YES! I seriously *heart* my lap dulcimer, even if the nickel tuning keys are already showing more wear than i'd like (as in, the thing starts to look cheap when it wears out like that--maybe i should've just gone with a mail-order kit instead of buying one, but it's all walnut and i really love the smell). As a guitarist, i love the distinctive droning sound of its strum.

The Appalachian dulcimer (or lap dulcimer, since it's usually played on one's lap) isn't technically a dulcimer, much as the English horn, with its double reed mouthpiece, is not a horn. The lap dulcimer is the ONLY droning instrument in American music, and arguably the ONLY acoustic instrument originating in the U.S--the banjo's from Africa, hammered dulcimer is from--well, nobody can quite sort that out, but it's definitely Eastern hemisphere.

The (hammered) dulcimer, despite dubious claims by many of its adherants (who, often, place too much credence in the 1611 Authorized translation of the Bible, and not enough credence in actual historical record) of ancient existence, is at least 400-500 years old. It's a zither, though zithers are plucked more often than hammered in the cultures that claim it as their own (people groups throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia claim zithers as native to their own people).

Ah, i LOVE this stuff!

Mi *what can i say? i'm an ethnomusicology nerd, with a gradually growing collection of American folk artists' recordings* ke