noter-style playing
One of the things that first
attracted me to the dulcimer in the late sixties was noter-style
playing. At that time, George Harrison of the Beatles was opening
up the pop music world to the delicate drones and exotic textures of
the Indian sitar. I was, and still am, a Beatles fan, so when a
friend introduced me to the mountain dulcimer, I fell in love with
it. It wasn’t a sitar, but it was close enough for me! I
was a drummer, with no prior experience with melodic instruments, and
the simplicity of making up a melody on a couple of closely spaced
strings and having “instant” musical accompaniment in the form of a
droning partial chord appealed to me. Once I had my own dulcimer,
I bought the only book I could find on the instrument, a book by Jean
Ritchie, and set about trying all the different tunings she wrote
about. And I started writing my own tunes.
If I remember correctly, Jean Ritchie didn’t even mention chord playing
in her book. The
book was all about playing with a noter or a finger on the melody
string(s) and
letting the middle and drone string hum along. I was taken with
the sound produced by the noter - the ability to slide and trill from
note to note made my fledgling melodies much more expressive-sounding
than if I had played them without such embellishments.
my first noter
My first noter was a small wooden dowel, the kind that
comes with many dulcimers. I wasn’t comfortable with it, because
of the way it “rolled” on the strings. In search of the perfect
noter, I began trying everything else I could get my hands on – tongue
depressors, chunks of bamboo, wooden clothespins, metal rods – you name
it. I finally settled on the perfect solution, one that I use to
this day: a popsicle stick. No particular flavor of popsicle
works best – it’s a matter of personal taste (heh, heh).
 Seriously,
the broad side of a popsicle stick is a nice, flat surface
that you can press into a fingerboard, just to the left of whatever
fret you’re noting, for a clean, sustaining tone. The best sound is
achieved with any noter when you place it just to the left of a fret,
and hold both melody strings down evenly.
Popsicle sticks do wear out - they'll eventually get string grooves in
them, and stop sliding so smoothly. Turn 'em around and use the
other side. Or treat yourself to another popsicle. Or, if
popsicles aren't on your diet, most craft stores do sell packets of
what they call "craft sticks". Those are pretty much the same
thing.
try this
Use a noter and play a note on the melody strings in the
middle of the space between two frets. Now, play the same note,
to the far left of the space between the frets, almost to the fret on
the left. Hear a
difference? I’d imagine that the second time around you got a
"messier" sound, maybe with a little buzz in there. Use your
noter in the middle of the space between frets, or closer to the
fret on the right hand side, for the cleanest sound.
I’ve seen a lot of noter players hold the noter down with their index
finger, which is a natural thing to do – playing that way is kind of
like pointing with your finger at the note you want to play.
However, when I do that, I have trouble playing some notes up high on
the
fretboard. If my fingers curl beneath the noter, it seems I'm
holding the "non-business" end of the noter up above the level of the
fret board,
angling down towards the strings a bit.
Having my noter angled down onto the melody strings means I'm less
likely to have good, solid
contact with them, and one of them might be
unintentionally muffled or muted. If I play up high on the
fretboard, I'll start hitting my notes at an angle, because
of the way my arm is crossing in front of my body. Also (and
this is probably the most important point for my style of playing), if
I'm holding my noter "overhand" and I want to play some chords in
between my noter licks, it's much more complicated to "palm" the noter,
and get it out of the way of my chording fingers. (More on this
in Part 2.)
It should be duly "noted" (ha!) that the
overhand, finger-pointing method works for many people. Bottom
line: you'll have to experiment and see what method works
best for you.
here's what I do
I rest the backs of my
left fingers
on the dulcimer
soundboard, keeping my hand relaxed. With my fingers pointing
towards the high end of the fretboard, I lay
my trusty popsicle stick noter across them, perpendicular to the
fretboard, with the tip protruding over the melody strings, and I use
my
thumb to press the tip down on the strings (see illustration
above). When I move up and
down the fretboard to play a noter line, I’m sliding the backs of my
fingers along the top of the dulcimer, so my hand is supported.
It’s a comfortable hand position for me; it gives me leverage on the
strings, which allows me to make all my
notes, from the top
to the bottom of the fretboard, sing out the way I want them to.
(Next time:
Part 2 – Enhancing your music with a noter, and "palming" the noter)
website by dasha
© 2005
brontosaurus music
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