Instruments
Dulcimer
The word "dulcimer" is used to describe two related but distinct instruments, known in the U.S. as the Appalachian or mountain dulcimer and the hammered dulcimer. In the rest of the world, the word usually indicates the second type, a large square, rectangular, or trapezoidal wooden sound box with numerous (often several dozen) strings that are struck with hammers or sometimes plucked. Similar instruments, for example the Hungarian cimbalom, abound under different names. The Appalachian dulcimer, despite its association in the popular mind with the folk culture of the eastern mountain areas of the U.S., was comparatively rare until folklorists and urban folk musicians undertook to promote it in the twentieth century. Part of its appeal derives from the fact that it seems to be an instrument unique to the U.S. The Appalachian dulcimer (or "Kentucky dulcimer") is shaped like a flattened bowling pin, tapering to a tip at the bottom. It usually has four strings, which run along a fretboard that extends the entire length of the instrument and are tuned with wooden pegs; the player generally plucks the strings with finger picks worn on the right hand.