Mountain Dulcimer Lessons

Now we are going to get into a little music theory! Not real deep  -  only what you need to know for now! See you in Lesson # 5!!!

Minor chords are sometimes used to embellish a tune in a Major key.

What minor chord do you choose and why?

HINT: Every Major key has a relative minor key.    Every Major chord has a relative minor chord.

How do you know what "relative minor" chord to use? Each Major key has a specified number of sharps and flats and its relative minor has the same number of sharps and flats. As an example I will use the key of C. The key of C has no sharps or flats (In other words, it is all the white keys on the piano from C to C). The key of Am also has no sharps or flats. So therefore, Am is the relative minor of C.

But dulcimer players don't have to know all this!!!

All you have to know is that the relative minor of a Major chord (or key) is found two frets lower on the dulcimer fret board!!! Let me explain.....

Counting up from the open D string, you have these notes:

D, E, F#, G, A, B, C, C#, D, E, F#, etc.

If you are playing in the key of G and you want to find the relative minor of G, just go back TWO FRETS........to E!!!! The relative minor of G is Em!!!! Going back two frets from D (if you start at the 7th fret bass/treble string in Dad tuning....and don't count the 6+ fret......), you get to Bm! It works all the time, except there at that treasonous 6+ fret.......

If your tune has three measures of D, you can play one measure of D, one measure of Bm, and then go back to D in the third measure.

If you only have one measure of D, you can play one count of D, one count of Bm, and then go back to D for a count (or two).

It's not all that hard, is it? Now we are getting a little deeper into music theory. Are you ready? Let's go to lesson # 6!!!

HINT: In the DAd tuning, to move from a D chord to an A7 chord, just reverse the positions of your bass string (ring finger) and middle string (middle finger) frets. (Leave your index finger on the 4th fret.)

This almost always works in any "X" chord position. You don't have to memorize these charts!
Just find your "X" chord and reverse the bass and middle string fret numbers to get to the 7th chord, then reverse them again to get back to your original chord to resolve it!

HINT: 7th chords are sometimes used when you end a tune (This is just one example):

If you have three measures of D at the end of the tune, play D for one measure, A7 for one measure, and then D again for the final measure.

If you have two measures of D at the end of the tune, play D for half a measure, then A7 for half a measure, and then D for the final measure.

Even if you only have one measure of D at the end of the tune, you can play D for a count, A7 for a count and then back to D for the final count(s).

For an A chord, the 7th is G, and so on.

So, if you want to go from D to D7, you have to add a C to your D chord to make it a 7th.

HINT: IT IS FOUND ONE FRET LOWER.

(Since you only have three courses of strings to choose from, you have to "sacrifice" a note on another string. If you were playing with equidistant strings, you could play all four notes.)

Play D at 4, 5, 7 (a slant chord), then move to D7 at 4, 5, 6 (an "X" chord).

From there, you can just move everything up one fret to G at 5, 6, 7 (another "X" chord) to finish the progression. (That 'ol 6+ fret will get you every time, huh??!!!)

So let's do the A to A7 to D progression......

Play A at 1, 2, 4 (a slant chord), then move to A7 at 1, 2, 3 (an "X" chord).

From there, you can just move everything up one fret to D at 2, 3, 4 (another "X" chord) to finish the progression.

Okay now I will be naughty. See if you can find the rest of the chord progressions.......