Folkcraft Player - Cindy Moriarity

The first time I ever saw a mountain dulcimer was in 2010, when a local dulcimer group presented a thoroughly charming program at the library where I worked. Those beautiful, exotic instruments got my attention immediately, and that evening I called my brother and told him all about it.

It turned out his wife had a dulcimer hanging on the wall that nobody ever played, so I asked to borrow it. I had played piano and percussion in my student days, and I knew how to read music.

I did notice that there were some notes missing from the fretboard, but I enjoyed fooling around with it and eventually decided to buy a dulcimer of my own.

So I took a day trip to a music shop in the next state. It was the closest place I could find that had a nice variety of mountain dulcimers to choose from, and I tried playing them all. All except for a beautiful black walnut dulcimer that remained hanging on the wall, and when I asked about that one I was told, "Oh, you don't want that, it's a chromatic."

Wait, what? They come in chromatic? And not only that, but it looked and sounded better than any of the other instruments I played that day. The decision was easy, and I came home with my Folkcraft chromatic, along with a couple of instruction books that were written for diatonic players. I spent the next several years figuring out where the notes and the chords were, taking classes occasionally, and attending our local annual dulcimer festival every summer.

I've picked up 3 other dulcimers since then, another chromatic (strung 4 equidistant) and 2 lovely diatonics, but my Folkcraft is still the one I love the best. I can play anything I want on it! I especially like flat-picking fiddle tunes, but traditional dulcimer music, arrangements of classical pieces, and even a little jazz all sound good. I'm not interested in performance but I do enjoy playing with a mixed group of instruments, and it's perfect for that.

So thank you, Richard and your family at Folkcraft, for this beautiful dulcimer and all the years of fun I've had with it, and will continue to have, for many years to come.