diatonic-scale

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The Diatonic Scale

Most stringed instruments such as banjos, guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles have fret patterns that are based on the chromatic scale. There is a fret every half step throughout the fretboard covering every note:

A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G#

The Dulcijo, however, makes use of the diatonic scale, so the notes that are not ordinarily needed are left out, making it much easier to play in the key for which it was designed, which is the key of D.

What is the diatonic scale?
Diatonic is the name given to music which is confined to notes proper to the signature of the key in which they occur -- such as the white notes only on a piano keyboard in the key of C. So for our purposes, the diatonic scale as it applies to the Dulcijo is the seven notes of the D major scale:

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#

Here is the layout of the notes on the Dulcijo. Only the 1st and 2nd strings are included since the short string on top is used as a drone and is not fretted. It is always an A note.

The numbers below the frets represent the fret numbers as found in the Dulcijo tablature. These numbers are the same as those in most modern dulcimer tablatures. You will notice that the 6th fret is actually divided into two parts called 6 and 6+. This extra fret allows us to have the C# note at fret 6+ as well as the G note at fret 6. It also adds two notes outside the diatonic scale (C and G#) but having these two extra notes is a plus because if a song requires notes other than those of the D major scale, very often it will be one of these notes. There is also a C note at fret 13 of the 1st string, so in all there are three notes outside the diatonic scale, and each of those is highlighted in yellow in the neck diagram above.

Here are the notes of the 1st string of the dulcimer in tablature and standard notation. Notice that from fret 0 (open) to fret 7 is a complete octave, and from fret 7 to fret 14 is a complete octave, so the range of the 1st string is two octaves.

Below are the notes on the 2nd string of the Dulcijo. Notice that beginning at the 3rd fret the notes are the same as on the 1st string (other than the difference at fret 6 and 6+) so you can easily play the melody on the 2nd string by moving it up a few frets.

Using the first three frets of the 2nd string for melody notes increases the total range of the Dulcijo to about 2-1/2 octaves.

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