Tuning the Hammered Dulcimer The hammered dulcimer can play
diatonic scales (a diatonic scale uses only the eight notes of
the major or minor scale) in several keys. The major scale would
be played by starting on the right side of the bridge with a
tonic note, or "do," and continuing up the scale going in fifths
back and forth across the bridge. Virginia's Appalachian Music
and Literature in AppLit