In recognition of St David’s day 2007, I had a go at recording a Welsh hymn tune on the dulcimer.

I learned a couple of things from doing this - namely that even really thick double-glazing is no defence against boy-racers with noisy exhausts (clearly audible about two minutes in!) and also that when close-miking an instrument as quiet as the dulcimer, the hum of my 8-track’s disc drive is also clearly audible…

Still, it’s a lovely tune. Cerys Matthews recorded it particularly well on her Cockahoop LP a few years ago.

Download “Arglwydd Dyma Fi” (3.5 MB approx)

In response to a request from Steven of Mixed Up Strings I’ve also produced notation and dulcimer tab of my arrangement, downloadable as a graphics file. I’d be really grateful for any feedback as I’m completely unused to tablature, and this is the first time I’ve braved the tab editor in my notation program. If you just want to have a look at it, clicking on the thumbnail of it on the left will expand it. To download it, right-click here and choose “Save As”. In the recording I played the tune with the dulcimer tuned Db-Ab-Db and with a capo on the third fret.