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SongsLinstead Market
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2 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the tuning or capo brings some of them into reach.

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Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain.

3 strings · D3–D6 · No capo · D · Today’s standard — Mixolydian from the open string, and the tuning every modern tab is written for.

Tap a string, or drag down across them to strum. On a keyboard the letters on the strings are the ones to press — they follow the strings, melody first.

DulcimerFree · printable · plays in your browser

Linstead Market — Dulcimer Tab

Linstead Market, written out for the dulcimer as fret numbers for the melody string and set up above on the DAD. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the dulcimer waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes58, 7 pitches
  • RangeC♯4–B4
  • Key hereD major
  • Tempo190 bpm · about 30 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a dulcimer play Linstead Market?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • DAD✓ Plays as writtenIn D major, C♯4–B4 · loaded above
  • DAA✓ Plays as writtenIn D major, C♯4–B4 · load it

Linstead Market: dulcimer tab

The large line is the fret, on the melody string unless a string is named; the small line under it is the note. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Linstead Market — dulcimer tab (DAD) · tonalics.com

The 7 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 7 and you can play the whole tune.

  • A2C♯4×2
  • 0D4×6
  • 1E4×9
  • 2F♯4×15
  • 3G4×8
  • 4A4×14
  • 5B4×4

What to expect on a dulcimer

  • It runs from C♯4 to B4, a minor seventh, using 7 different notes. That leaves 11 semitones unused below and 15 above.
  • 88% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major third, D4 to F♯4, at note 29.
  • It uses 6 fret positions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
  • 2 notes fall on another string, so it cannot be played with a noter alone.

About the tune

A Jamaican folk song about a market woman who carries her ackee to Linstead on a Saturday night and sells none of it. The tab follows the earliest printed version, No. 121 in Walter Jekyll’s Jamaican Song and Story of 1907.

Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain. More about Linstead Market →

Linstead Market on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng or handpan, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the dulcimer

All 35 dulcimer songs · Christmas songs for dulcimer · The online dulcimer on its own

Playing it on a real dulcimer?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The dulcimer tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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