East Anglian dulcimer tuning system and information
On this page you will find the history of the East Anglian tuning, together with a link to tuning charts and information about spare parts and restoration.
Tuning system
The East Anglian tuning system relies on individual “chessmen” bridges, of which there are two rows. The left-hand (treble) row gives two sets of notes – one either side of the bridge, a fifth apart, whilst the right-hand (bass) row gives just one lower note per bridge, using the long strings to the left of that bridge.
Generally the 5th and 6th, and usually the 9th and 10th treble bridges are off-set by a fraction: this is intentional! People buying old instruments often think this is a mistake and try to move them back into a straight line.
Having surveyed about 30 historic instruments with individual bridges, tuned in the East Anglian Style (with offset bridges in the treble row), the vast majority seem to have been tuned with G as the home key. Previously the received wisdom was that the larger ones (with 4 sound holes) were tuned in D, but now that does not seem to be the case necessarily, although the very largest instrument (made by John Harwood of Yarmouth, with 24 courses of strings) was probably in D.
Of the many instruments we have seen, where we have been able to identify a tuning system, they display a very consistent pattern in the lower half of the instrument, with a few fairly standard variations when you look at the higher notes.
This might well stem from the influence of Woods’ music shop in Norwich, which was renowned over the eastern counties for supplying dulcimers and their parts, and had a tuning chart kept behind the counter, drawn up by the founder of the shop, Alexander Rackham Woods between 1883 and 1916. There are more details about this on the Woods’ music shop page.
Although the original of this diagram is long since lost, researcher and dulcimer player Russell Wortley saw it in 1962, not long before the shop closed down, and made notes from it. He found that both Billy Cooper and Billy Bennington tuned their dulcimers almost identically. Reg Reader, from Suffolk, played his dulcimer as tuned by his grandfather (and great grandfather), but in C. There are 1962 recordings of Reg’s grandfather playing the instrument, which, together with the memories of Jeannie Harris, who helped Reg to retune it in the 1970s, suggest that it was previously tuned in C, but in “old pitch” (today’s “concert pitch” was standardised in 1939).
Dulcimer researcher and player David Kettlewell compared the tuning system with the earliest documentation he could find, consisting of a number of late 19th century and early 20th century woodworking magazines and tutor books, and in his 1976 thesis (‘The Dulcimer’) remarked:
“In the years 1876-79 the magazine ‘Design and Work, A Home and Shop Companion’ published some three dozen readers’ items, queries and their answers, about all aspects of making and tuning dulcimers. Particularly interesting is the tuning given in 1877, for it features a minor sixth between the two parts of the strings divided by treble bridges 5 and 6; such an interval was used on baroque instruments with divided long bridges, but nowadays is characteristic only of East Anglia.”
‘The tuning used by Billy Cooper and Billy Bennington is shown, in their two slightly different variants [ … ] As mentioned above, it corresponds to that given in Design and Work (1883) Hasluck (1908), Mason (1908) and Pulver (1923).’
In the paragraph about Billy Cooper and Billy Bennington, above, Kettlewell presumably meant either the article by Charles Gray, published in Amateur Work Illustrated in 1883, or an article seen by Kettlewell in an 1877 edition of the magazine Design & Work. In neither case did Kettlewell give the full reference unfortunately. I haven’t been able to access the earliest of these (Design & Work magazine, 1877), but I have been able to source the others, either from Kettlewell’s website / thesis, or personal copies.
We are now in the lucky position to be able to survey many more East Anglian dulcimers than were available to David Kettlewell nearly 50 years ago.
The earliest instruments for which we have definite knowledge of dates and (current) tuning systems
| Player | Maker | Date of instrument | Sound holes | Bridges | Strings | Key | Tuning |
| 1. Henry Edwards 2. Frank Read | Mark Widdows (Norfolk) | 1840-1889 | 4 | 22 | 6 | G | EA |
| Anon | William Chilvers (Suffolk) | 1842 -1878 | 4 | 20 | 5 | G | EA |
| John Boulton Knights | John Boulton Knights (Suffolk) | 1856-1861 | 2 | 20 | 5 | G | EA |
Also, at this stage, I have seen half-a-dozen built by Mark Widdows in Norwich, who left the struggling weaving trade and became variously a musician, musical instrument maker, pub landlord, cabinet maker and boat-fitter, working between 1840 and 1889. I have seen two different models, one with 4 sound holes and 6 strings per course over 22 bridges, and the other with 2 sound holes and 5 strings per course over 20 bridges, all tuned in G. Both these models have the same baseline measurement of 33 inches / 84 cm.
It does seem to be the case that what we now refer to as “East Anglian” tuning was based on something once more widespread, probably dating from when the first dulcimers with individual bridges were designed and built. At present, our best guess for this would be around the first half of the eighteenth century.
The system, although initially appearing to be diatonic, can actually give many chromatic runs and possibilities, whilst providing straightforward patterns for working in the keys of G / D / C and related keys.
Of course, we think the East Anglian system is superior!
Spare parts and advice
For further information on strings and wires, spare parts and other aspects of restoring old dulcimers, visit the Parts and Restoration page.
Tuning charts
On the Tuning charts page are diagrams for tuning in G, C and D, plus some comparative and historical charts. Please feel free to print them off (PDF files are provided for the purpose).
Further reading
You can read the Russell Wortley’s article ‘Chromatic tuning for dulcimer’ (originally published in English Dance & Song, Vol. XXXIX, No.2, 1977) here: Chromatic tuning for Dulcimer transcription
You can read more about Woods’ music shop in Norwich (1883-c.1962) in relation to dulcimers.
On the archive of David Kettlewell’s website “The Dulcimer” there is information from some late 19th century / early 20th century tutor books with tuning systems – see the Tuning Charts page for links.
One of the articles Kettlewell referred to was written by Charles Gray in 1883 in a periodical called “Amateur Work Illustrated”. This may now be seen online (courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute) amongst a fascinating array of articles advising how to build your own reflecting telescope or circular saw! This link Amateur Work Illustrated goes to the entire volume – just use the page slider to go to pp 121-124.
This section is almost all new to this 2025 revision of the website, and I am grateful to two experts in this field – Richard Blake and George Monger, for their support. Opinions – and any mistakes! – are mine (Katie Howson).
All material on this website is copyright. Anyone wishing to quote or use this original research should credit it to Katie Howson and cite this website as the source. Please see our Terms and Conditions page for more information, and do contact me if you wish to use any of the contents in any way. Thank you.