Chords for 1 of 2 - True Diatonic Mountain Dulcimer in DAA by Stephen Seifert

I want to show you a neat dulcimer.
_ This was built in 1999 by Jerry Rockwell of
Guysville, Ohio. _ _
There is no six and a half fret here.
So you've got open one
two three four five six seven.
_ Now I know a lot of people string up their dulcimer
so they can go from DAA to DAD and most of the time nowadays we're in DAD but
when you tune that melody string down from a D down to an A for DAA that's a
floppy string.
It's wimpy to me.
It's easy to fret too hard and knock it out of
tune.
I strung this dulcimer up for DAA and I discovered a lot of neat things.
So
on my bass I have [D] a 26.
It's a little heavier than what some people use and
then I have 16s on the other on the middle and the melody _ and that's _ a
melody string.
I can't even tune the melody up to a D so I cannot put this
dulcimer in DAD.
The melody string will break but the payoff is the DAA sounds
cool, beautiful, powerful in tune and sometimes I think DAA gets a bad rap
just because people are playing in DAA with a wimpy melody string.
You put _ a
good one on there and it's a whole other world.
_ So let me finger pick for you a little bit. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[A] _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ [D] _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ I also like using a pick.
Jerry Rockwell showed me this.
He'll take a triangle pick and cut it in
thirds or halves. _
It gives you a very light sound. _ _ _ _
_ This is an arrangement I
first got off of Larkin O'Brien. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ I [A] think it sounds rich to have the right gauge on there and I've been playing in
DAA a lot.
I also discovered some other things that are pretty cool.
There's
dropping the melody string down to a G.
_ _ [D] _ _
I'm _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] going to take [A] that melody back up. _ _
_ _ _ _ Jerry suggested I try this.
I'm going to
take the bass down to an A.
It works especially well because I'm [G#m] using
[A] slightly higher gauges. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Now _ _ _ _ we're in AAA. _
I like to use harp scales a lot.
Instead of playing all the notes on one string, _ [D] _ [Am] _ _ [F#] I can [G] bounce back and forth
between the middle and the melody.
They're both A's open.
[D] So instead of _
_ [E] going 1, 2, 3, 4 [A] on the melody, I'll do on the melody, 1 on the [B] middle, [C#] 2 on the melody, 3 [D] on the middle, [G] 4 on the melody. [A] _ It gives this kind of blurry impressionistic quality. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
[D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
The pick, it sounds [A#] pretty cool with the [A] pick. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _