DAD Chord Chart for Merlin, Grand Strumstick, & DAD Dulcimers

Here’s a chord chart for instruments that have three strings tuned D-A-D like the Seagull Merlin, Grand Strumstick, & DAD Dulcimers. Also known as key of D, or diatonic D.

I had a few goals when designing this:

  • Correct chord names
  • Include chords in the root position (root note as the lowest note) and inversions and indicate which are inversions
  • Follow the graphic convention of guitar chords, for those of us coming from the guitar
  • Indicate the chord positions, so if you’ve thinking, “I want to play a blues in I-IV-V” you can find the chords easily.

In case you’re new to tab/tabulature, this one is set up like guitar tab: the lowest string is on the left, the highest string is on the right, the dots indicate at which fret to put your fingers.