Sounds — Hammer Dulcimer mp3s, youtube, videos, and some dots.

Here’s a two handed version of the lovely tune, Southwind.  I’ve just played it one time through, all in two octaves, so that it can be played on a small 12/11 dulcimer.  

Southwind (2 hands) – some dots!

The entire Trail Band catalogue is on youtube.  The dozen plus albums feature a lot of stuff I’ve played HD on (as well as bass and every so often, guitar.)  You can, of course, download entire albums and/or individual songs from the Tralband.com website.

As an example of the versatility of the dulcimer, here’s an MP3 sample of a recording I made of the traditional Mexican melody “La Llorona”:

This version of “La Llorona” is inspired by the playing of Pedro Ruiz, a great salterio player who made a record in the 1970’s called “The Mexican Psaltery”. Salterio is the Mexican version of the hammer dulcimer, although in fact it is often plucked with finger-picks. I recorded this at home on dulcimer, guitar and string bass.

Pete Ballersted maintains the HD Rendezvous Facebook page, and has put up some fun videos from late night jam sessions.

I often use the HD in my work creating music, sound effects and character voices with Oregon Shadow Theatre. Here’s a clip from my friend Warner Blake’s documentary film, “Puppet Festival” where in our shadow play “Thumbelina” the HD serves as the main sound for the nature scenes!