This classic collection provides fretted dulcimer players with an authentic Irish repertoire. The 31 selections include jigs, slides, hornpipes, polkas, reels, slow airs, harp tunes, and songs. Accompaniment chords and musical notation are provided for other instruments. The modal music of Ireland fits well to the modal techniques and nuances of the dulcimer. It can drone like the uillean pipes, be rhythmic as a bodhran, and melodic like a fiddle. Lois gives the dulcimer player an important introduction to the techniques of applying Irish music to the dulcimer. Consider this the beginning of a new approach to an old music, and a point of departure for your own interpretations of tunes you love

A collection of songs, jigs, hornpipes, airs, polkas, and marches from the Celtic lands of Scotland, Ireland, and England. the songs are arranged for mountain dulcimer primarily in 1-5-8 (Mixolydian) tuning, along with a few tunes in 1-5-5 (Ionian) tuning. the arrangements make use of the capo, as well as playing tunes in Em and Bm, and include a Part II for a suggested harmony on selected songs.. the book is accompanied by a CD recording of each tune. Song titles include: George Brabazon, Off She Goes, Irish Lamentation, Keel Row, Water Is Wide, Loch Lomond, Foggy Dew, and many more. Intermediate playing level suggested.

In folk tradition, stories of love lost, betrayal, jealousy, conflict, emigration, and the supernatural are often immortalized in songs of many traditions, demonstrating that singing has been a universal vehicle for the human condition. the criteria for this wonderful collection of prose and melodies is from Celtic traditions that have been with us for hundreds of years. These compositions have been arranged so that each will work both as an air and as a song. All of the selections in the book appear on the companion CD.

This collection of 35 Celtic tunes represents ten different performance styles from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. the majority of these pieces are dance tunes such as the jigs and reels popular at Irish sessions, the informal gatherings of musicians in pubs, community halls, and homes. Although relatively new to the session ensemble, the autoharp bears a distinct resemblance to the Irish folk harp. Fittingly, this collection includes harp tunes by famed Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan as well as other slow airs. All of the pieces in this book have been arranged to be played on any standard 15 or 21-bar chromatic autoharp in either melodic or rhythmic (backup) style. A melody line with suggested chord accompaniment is included so other instrumentalists can easily join in. the book's companion CD includes performances of all 35 selections, ably illustrating the rhythmic and stylistic nuances of this engaging music. In notation and tablature.

Of all the mountain dulcimer books published over the past 20 years, this book is the jam-session standard. Contains 40 favorite fiddle tunesthat can easily be played in the regular keys and upto speed. In notation and tablature. Level of difficulty - intermediate. (Arranged for the beginner to advanced player intraditional keys fo they can be played with other instruments. Accompaniment chords included.)**Note - only 25 songs of the 40 total from the book are on online audio

This book is to encourage dulcimer players at the intermediate-to-advanced level to play the “right” way. If you’re going to play a few Irish tunes, why not play them the way they were intended to be played? Then you can enjoy what other Irish musicians have enjoyed for hundreds of years. This book can teach you several basic, simple techniques that create the feel of traditional Irish music.

Perhaps no instrument better represents the music of Appalachia than the fretted dulcimer. The instrument was no longer confined to back porches and local music halls when Jean Ritchie so melodically thrust herself and her dulcimer into the national limelight during the folk revival of the 1950s. But where did the dulcimer, known to exist in no other folk culture in the world, come from? In The Story of the Dulcimer, Ralph Lee Smith traces the dulcimer's beginnings back to European immigration to America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania and Appalachia, they brought with them scheitholts, a type of northern European fretted zither. As German immigrants intermingled with English and Scotch-Irish immigrants, the scheitholt, which was customarily played to a slower tempo in German cultural music, began to be musically integrated into the faster tempos of English and Scotch-Irish ballads and folk songs. As Appalachia absorbed an increasing flow of English and Scotch-Irish immigrants and the musical traditions they brought with them, the scheitholt steadily evolved into an instrument that reflected this folk music amalgamation, and the modern dulcimer was born. In this second edition, Smith brings the dulcimer's history into the twenty-first century with a new preface and updates to the original edition. Copiously illustrated with images of both antique scheitholts and contemporary dulcimers, The Story of the Dulcimer is a testament to the enduring musical heritage of Appalachia and solves one of the region's musical mysteries.