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Autoharp vs Dulcimer - What's the difference?

autoharp | dulcimer |

As nouns the difference between dulcimer and autoharp

is that dulcimer is a stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal. It's played on the lap or horizontally on a table. Some have their own legs. These musical instruments are played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers) while autoharp is a string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers which mute all the strings other than those that form the desired chord.

autoharp

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers which mute all the strings other than those that form the desired chord
  • * {{quote-news, year=2007, date=March 9, author=Jon Pareles, title=Three Bands on Trips That Lead to the ’60s, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=Mr. Droste is usually the more ethereal, with the sweeter voice and the gentler melodies; he was the one strumming an autoharp for “Lullabye,” while Mr. Bear tapped a glockenspiel, and Christopher Taylor played a flute. }}

    Related terms

    * harp

    See also

    * (wikipedia "autoharp") * zither

    dulcimer

    English

    (wikipedia dulcimer)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (musical instruments) A stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal. It's played on the lap or horizontally on a table. Some have their own legs. These musical instruments are played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).
    • The two classes of dulcimer are the "Mountain" or "Appalachian" dulcimer (plucked and played with a quill, usually a goose quill) and the hammer dulcimer (played by tapping on the strings with small "hammers"). See also: zither
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1797 , year_published=1992 , publisher=Courier Dover Publications , author=(Samuel Taylor Coleridge) , title=The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems , chapter=(Kubla Khan) citation , isbn=9780486272665 , page=59 , passage=A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid / And on her ' dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=1946 , author= , coauthors= , title=Album Reviews: The Seven Joys of Mary—John: Jacob Niles (Disc 732) , date=January 25, 1947 , volume=59 , issue=4 , page=32 , magazine=The Billboard , publisher=Nielsen Business Media , issn=0006-2510 citation , passage=Accompanying himself with his dulcimer , a plectrum instrument of his own handicraft, Niles harks back to the balladeers of old. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2004 , year_published= , publisher=Mel Bay Publications , author=Madeline MacNeil , title=You Can Teach Yourself Dulcimer , section=Introduction citation , isbn=9780786639717 , page=4 , passage=Played traditionally, the dulcimer sounds delightful with drones acenting the melody you are playing.}}

    Derived terms

    * dulcimerist