Hammer dulcimer; strings and shadows by dulciknit

Hammer dulcimer; strings and shadows

This was taken looking across my dulcimer. It's not the first time I've taken a picture of it, the previous one was on 13th February. I've been waiting to get this shadowy one for some time. Sometimes I get to play it with this amount of shadow on it - it's a bit of a nightmare trying to decide where to hit!
Thank you to Sally Kinsey (@musikinsey) for the inspiration for this shot.
Cool shot
April 12th, 2011  
very clever!
April 12th, 2011  
Beautiful shot! The black and white is a good choice. So thats where you get your user name?
April 12th, 2011  
Great composition,love the B&W!!
April 13th, 2011  
I can really see the confusion for playing it in the sun! What about a shot of the strings still vibrating?
April 13th, 2011  
Cool shot! What an interesting instrument. :)
April 13th, 2011  
Thank you, everyone.
@hamble It is indeed.
@bigsusan55 I get the same trouble in a lot of indoor session venues. Downlighting is hopeless. Finding the optimum situation for playing is not easy. It's why I hug that corner in the bar at the Red Lion so closely! :)
April 13th, 2011  
@bigsusan55 Dunno quite how to tackle a vibrating string shot. Will work on that one & see if I can come up with something.
April 13th, 2011  
Get someone else to hit it?
April 13th, 2011  
@bigsusan55 Had a go this afternoon. Not much luck. Lester tried plucking the string rather than hammering it. Results were unexciting.
April 13th, 2011  
Nat
What an unusual instrument. I’m fascinated by how the pairs of string alternate between going over the post then through the gap.
I see it has black and white bits at the top of the posts, does it work or is it played like a piano?

Oh, and a nicely composed shot :-)
April 13th, 2011  
@natsnell Thank you :-)
If you imagine what goes inside a piano when you press a key, playing the dulcimer is a simplified version of that. The different coloured bits on the bridges are guides. The white ones show the start, 4th note and final note in each music key in which you can play it. Wikipedia's got quite a good article about them if you fancy finding out more.
April 14th, 2011  
Lovely shot - and the B&W works well :o)
April 20th, 2011  
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