If you're visiting this site to learn about David Schnaufer or the dulcimer for the first time, then I hope this and the two previous posts (first and second) entitled "The Dulcimer Evolves" will help you appreciate both their journeys and why the new approach that the Dulcimer Boomers brought to the table was such a Great Leap musically speaking.
I conclude this demonstration of early and later dulcimer playing for now with two videos that also hint at the range of the dulcimer. Listen to Nettie Presnell play "Wildwood Flower" in the first clip for an example of how dulcimers were played in Appalachia before the Dulcimer Boom. Don't you love that drone? (By the way, her husband, luthier Ed Presnell, makes a brief appearance in Pluck.)
Then, watch David Schnaufer and the Cactus Brothers play one of David's biggest hits, "Fisher's Hornpipe." The range of the dulcimer is astonishing, isn't it? And by the way, that's Tramp on the fiddle; you'll read about him in Pluck, and learn more about him in future blog posts.
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