A dolceola is a musical instrument that looks like a small piano but is actually a different kind of zither with a keyboard. It produces a unique, sweet sound similar to a music box. The Toledo Symphony Company made dolceolas between 1903 and 1907.

Performers

Paul Mason Howard played the dolceola with Lead Belly on some of his 1944 Capitol Records recordings. These recordings, collected in the album Grasshoppers In My Pillow, show the sound of the dolceola’s keyboard with three levels.

Some people say Washington Phillips, a gospel and gospel blues musician who lived from 1880 to 1954, played a dolceola on his recordings. However, his instrument was actually called a "dulceola," and it was a homemade zither without frets that he played with his fingers.

Alex Turner, a member of the English band Arctic Monkeys, plays the dolceola on the band’s 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Jim Dickinson plays the dolceola in Ry Cooder’s Crossroads.