commonly from two to six for each course, are unfretted, but some are divided into two segments by a partitioning bridge. The player may hit the strings with hammers or pluck them with the fingers or a plectrum.

The instrument is sometimes called a psaltery when the plucking technique is used. The hammered dulcimer has been coined to avoid confusion with the mountain dulcimer, a distinct instrument with a relatively narrow body and fretted melody strings. The hammered dulcimer strings are hit with sticks that have small knobs at the ends. The tone is soft and sweet. Since there is no way of dampening the strings, the tones of the dulcimer ring on and blur together, making a pleasant jangling sound. By using hammers of different materials and by varying the amount of energy applied in playing the dulcimer, one is able to get a wide variety of tone colors and dynamics. Unlike the mountain dulcimer, many of the larger hammered dulcimers, depending on size must rest on a table or framework or sorts. The mountain dulcimer was small and compact enough where one could easily lay it on one's lap.

The harp is one of the most ancient stringed instruments. In Ireland and Wales, where the harp is traditionally the national instrument, it was given the honor of accompanying the songs of the revered bards. A well-tuned harp was one of the three necessities for a Welshman in his home (the others were a virtuous wife and a cushion for the best chair). The most primitive harp consisted mainly of several strings tied to a hunting bow. As the harp grew bigger, the strings were attached to two pieces of wood. The top piece, or neck, just holds the strings tightly; the bottom piece is larger and serves as a sounding board. A third part of the harp, called the pillar, connects the top and bottom pieces and, in a modern harp, serves as a pipe through which run the connections between the pedals and the mechanism that changes the length of the strings.

The zither is a stringed instument related to the guitar, dulcimer, medieval psaltery and Greek kithara. The zither consists of as many as forty-five strings stretched over a shallow wooden body. Five of these are melody strings that lie over a fingerboard equipped with frets to guide the fingers of the player. The other strings are open, each being tuned to a single tone. The player uses his left hand to stop the melody strings, which he plucks with a plectrum attached to his right thumb. With the other fingers of his right hand he plucks the open strings to make a harmonic accompaniment.

The mandolin is a stringed instrument that has survived the form of the Renaissance lute. Like the lute, it looks like half of a pear when seen from the side, but it has a deeper bowl than the lute, is smaller and has a thinner neck. Its four sets of double wire strings are tuned like the strings of a violin. Frets, like those of the banjo and guitar, guide the fingers of the player's left hand. The instrument is played by means of a tortoise-shell plectrum, or pick, held in the player's right hand. The tone is weak. Except for short staccato notes, the player strums back and forth over a pair of strings to give the effect of a long, held tone. This produces the mandolin's characteristic tinkling trill.

The cittern is a wire-strung plucked instrument that achieved great popularity but was generally considered of rather lower social status than the lute. Unlike the lute and most other Renaissance and early Baroque plucked instruments, the cittern was played with a plectrum. this may partly account for its popularity since one did not have to learn how to finger pick or pluck with the right hand. The sides of the cittern are shallow, and taper from the back of the neck to the lower part of the instrument. The back and front of the cittern, though basically flat, are often slightly convex; this occurs when the transverse bars inside the body are given a slightly outward curve to help counteract the downward pressure of the strings on the bridge and soundboard. The instrument's soundholes are carved with ornamental roses, often rather more Gothic in style than those of most lutes and usually made separately from hardwood, with parchment decoration. A characteristic of the cittern is its unusual neck, which is half cut away from behind the fingerboard on the bass side. The resulting overlap forms a channel along which the player's left thumb can slide, and this facilitates the very rapid shifts to and from high positions that are often required in the solo cittern repertory. The fingerboard projects over the soundboard, extending towards the rose, and is raised above it. The low frets and the hollowing of the fingerboard both aid good intonation, by preventing the thin wire strings from being stretched out of tune when stopped.

The lute is a long-necked stringed instrument played by plucking. The lute was the favorite instrument for use in homes, shoppes and taverns. Originally it had four strings, tuned a fourth apart. Later, each of the strings had been doubled. The two middle courses (as the doubled strings were called) were now tuned only a third apart; the other intervals remained fourths, and a single treble string had been added, tuned a fourth above the highest course. This is the classic Old Tunining of the lute, the form the instrument had in the Renaissance; no longer played with a plectrum but was plucked and strummed with the fingers of the right hand. Musicians were becoming interested in instruments that played many-voiced music, and the lute was taking part in ensemble or group music, accompanying singers and playing solos.

From the side, the lute looks like half of a pear. Its broad neck, which holds the fingerboard, ends in a pegbox (for tuning), which falls back at a sharp angle. The fingerboard is set with raised frets, as on a guitar; these mark out successive half tones for the player's fingers. Many beautiful compositions were written for the lute in the time of its greatest popularity. But as the harpsichord and the piano gained favor with musicians, the lute began to fade from the musical scene. Musicians of today have rediscovered the lute's delicate, muted beauty, and a few of them have revived it to accompany the songs of the English lutanists (lute players). It is played with recorders, reminding us that it was an instrument for the home--not for the large concert hall.