Forum Activity for @alex-lubet

Thanks, all.  Online information tends to be confusing about the order of the tuning of the strings, but I suspected they were in "guitar order" and you folk confirmed that.  Maybe I'm being silly, but that disappoints me, as I bought my first dulcimer, new and online, for $20, in large part because I wanted to learn the tuning.  I thought it might help my mental acuity as I aged, one of the reasons for one of my other passions, word puzzles.   At the time, I never thought I'd perform on it or compose for it.  

Since then, I've learned to love it and it's become my main instrument.  And I have a couple of McSpaddens that I love.

Thanks again,

Hi All, 

Here's a new video from Amy Grant on which she plays strumstick, which, as you all know, is a child or grandchild of the mountain dulcimer:

I think it's pretty nice.  I don't follow her, so I had no idea she's switched from CCM to pop years ago (or that she married Vince Gill).

I couldn't figure out whether strumsticks are tuned the same as mountain dulcimers (or transposed G-D-G) or in reverse.  I'm just curious, but would appreciate knowing if any one can tell me.

Have a great weekend,

I may also be mistaken.  Among the few players I'm aware of are some outstanding ones, Karen Mueller and Grant Olson, neither of whom I know personally.  There are doubtless others of whom I'm unaware.  The Twin Cities are a haven for guitars and folk music, the latter as per the long gone Prairie Home Companion.  I doubt many people outside St, Paul, where I live, know that it's a major center of Irish culture.  Minneapolis was the center of Scandinavian culture in the metro area.  Both cities are now very diverse, so different from when I moced here in 1979.

Ken, if you ever come back, I'll treat you to the best the Cities can offer.

Thanks so much, Ken.  I learned a lot from this experience.  It's wonderful to have my old friend back and healthy.

I own two McSpaddens, same model.  I bought the second one while the first was getting a major repair.  I had a concert coming up before the repair could be completed.  I keep one with three strings and one with four equidistant strings.  

If you live in the Twin Cities, Hoffman Guitars is a great place for guitar and ukulele repairs, although I don't think they have a lot of experience with dulcimers (but enough to install my tuner).  I don't know of many other dulcimer players here, but several have purchased instruments because of their contact with me (mostly my students).  It's probably just too cold here.

Hi All,

First, thanks to everyone for their sage counsel and support.

I emailed the Dulcimer Shoppe, who mailed me a replacement tuner at no charge except postage.  They thought I could do the repair myself and that would be a lot cheaper than sending my McSpadden to Arkansas (and back).

The tuner arrived today.  I'm pretty sure I could have replaced it myself had I had a small enough wrench.  Before purchasing a new wrench, I called the folks who work on my guitar and ukuleles to see if they could let me use one of theirs.  They insisted on doing the repair themselves (in no more than two minutes) and would not let me pay them.  My only regret was that they took my dulcimer into their workshop and I wasn't able to watch, although it's apparently so rare that a tuner goes bad, I'm unlikely to have to replace one again.  I played a bit and everything seems to be fine.

It's so great to reacquaint myself with such good people (at Hoffman Guitars in Minneapolis).  Business is apparently good, so I was pleased to be reassured that some people still like to play real instruments.  They also have free penny candy for customers and a big beautiful dog and a jar of treats so customers can have the pleasure of feeding him.  It almost made me wish I had an instrument in need of a more serious repair (as I have in the past).

Have a great week.

They told me I would need a screwdriver and a small wrench.  Not sure why I'd need the latter.  Thoughts?

Thanks!

Hi All,

I hope you're doing well.

I have an update and a question regarding my issue with a tuner for my high string on my McSpadden, which cannot hold a tune.  This began after I changed strings.  I replaced the high string three times and tightened the tuner to no avail.

I emailed the Dulimer Shoppe, who got right back to me.  After several emails and efforts, they decided I needed to replace the tuner.  Rather than sending my dulcimer to Arkansas, they told me they would send the new tuner to me, because the cost of mailing my instrument is not included in the warantee.  (I've done this before and sending a dulcimer from MN to AR is expensive.)

The folks at the Dulcimer Shoppe told me that, after I assured them that I'm not particularly adept at this kind of thing, it's not difficult.  I'm willing to give it a try, but I'm wondering if any of you who are, like me, not builders/repair people have done this and how difficult is it?  If I'm unable, I intend to use the luthier who's worked on my guitar and ukulele.

Your sage counself would be most appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance,

Thanks.  I do suspect that I'll need a new tuning mechanism.  It's not something I can do myself and my understanding is that McSpadden expects owners to use them for repairs.

Has anyone ever visited McSpadden in Arkansas?  I'm retiring next week and it's on my bucket list.

First, a gentle correction.  Amy Levy is the poet whose texts I used for my songs.  I'm Alex Lubet, composer and dulcimer player.

I agree with you, Strumella.  And of course I'll be getting in touch with McSpadden.  My experience with their service has always been excellent.

You all may find it interesting that I have two McSpadden 4FHWRs.  I needed to buy a second because my first was being repaired and I had a concert.  But now I have them with three and four equidistant strings (or did until I had to put a fourth string on the one I used for the concert).  I was really surprised at how different two dulcimers of the same model felt.  They sounded different, too, but I attribute that to the age of the strings and the pickup vs. contact mic. 

I really wish I could ever play without amplification.  When I played mostly guitar, I could occasionally play in a space where I didn't need to amplify.  Has anyone ever performed somewhere where they didn't need to amplify?

It seems that there's an issue with the dulcimer and not the string.  I changed strings three times and continued to have the same problem.  It was quite inconvenient as I had a concert Tuesday night.  I have another identical McSpadden (although with a contact mic, not a pickup).  I had it strung with only three strings, but added a fourth for the concert.  I was afraid to put on a whole new set so soon before a performance, especially since the problem I am having only occurred after a string change. 

Between the age of the strings and getting used to the contact mic, the sound wasn't quite as bright and I had to make some changes in the music.  A pickup only amplifies the strings, but a contact mic amplifies everything.  I normally do some "tapping" like guitarists do, but with a contact mic, all one can hear is the tapping and not the pitch, at least when playing harmonics.

I was pretty nervous owing to the last minute changes, but the concert was, I'm pleased to say, a success.  The program consisted of my own songs, set to the poetry of Amy Levy (from my album that streams in all the familiar sources) and an encore of Simple Gifts.  The vocal was by Victoria Vargas, I'm not a singer.

I'm also not a builder and will need to have my instrument evaluated and, I hope, repaired.  I love it dearly and would hate to have to replace it.

Thanks for reading and have wonderful lives.

Hi All,

I hope you're doing well.  Greetings from Minnesota.

Is there such a thing as a bad string?  I put on a new set last Saturday and my first string keeps going out of tune, something that never happened before, even with strings that had been on for a long time.  (I always change them before a performance, such as I have next Tuesday, but it's been a while.)

I tightened the tuner (and then loosened it, for comparison), so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

I'm playing on four equidistant strings, with the first string tuned to A.  It's a McSpadden 4FHWR, which I love.  I do a lot of string bending, which, of course, can pull strings out of tune, but it's quite limited on the other strings and extreme on the first string.  I retune between songs, but this happens on the last song.

Any sage counsel would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Hi All,

I hope you're doing well.

I've asked this before and not gotten a response, so please reply.

Are there any other Minnesotans in this group?  Would love to know, especially now.

Your newsletter is fabulous.  I encourage everyone to check it out.

https://www.dulcimer.org.uk/about-us/club-news/

In answer to your question, in our home we celebrate Hanukah and New Year's.  For Hanukah, we light our menorah and make potato pancakes.  Our kids are adults so we no longer give gifts.  It's very Jewish to get Chinese food for Christmas, so we did.  We also called my wife's family (in Hawaii, where she's from) who do celebrate the holiday.

Because my wife is Japanese-American, New Year's is a big deal.  New Year's Eve, we make Japanese food.  This year, it was sushi and yakisoba, fried noodles.  It was a somewhat simpler spread than in years past, but we're not as young as we used to be.

I may have mentioned this before, but I started playing dulcimer (after decades of guitar, bass, and ukulele) when my wife composed a piece for her Japanese fusion ensemble (of which I was a member) and dulcimer was the closest thing we had to a particular Japanese instrument.  I've given concerts in China (even on tv) and South Korea and audiences (and composers) love it.

I have some health issues and I got to meet with a dietician yesterday, who was very positive about how careful I've been, especially in preventing diabetes.  Per her recommendation, my New Year's resolution is to drink 64 ounces of water a day.  I also plan to compose some songs on poetry of Emma Lazarus, who's best known for the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.  That seems timely.

Happy New Year to this wonderful community.

A piece from my new album with vocalist Victoria Vargas.  Amy Levy Songs of Love and Loss:

Hi All,

I hope everyone is enjoying their respective holidays.

I was fortunate to receive the gift of two new reviews of my latest album, with vocalist Victoria Vargas,  Amy Levy:  Songs of Love and Loss :

https://www.jwvibe.com/single-post/alex-lubet-featuring-victoria-vargas-amy-levy-songs-of-love-and-loss

https://wruv.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/alex-lubet-amy-levy-songs-of-love-and-loss/

Please consider checking them out, along with the album.  Much of my music (much of it for duclimer) streams on all the usual sources:  YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

She picks up her dulcimer at 1:19:00

Apologies if this is old news to all of you, new to me and very cool:

Hi All,

I hope you're doing well in all ways.

Here's the latest review of my new album:

https://www.ragtalent.com/post/alex-lubet-release-a-record-with-victoria-vargas-from-written-works-by-amy-levy

If you'd like to hear it, it streams in all the usual places, including Spotify and YouTube.

Have a great rest of the week.

Hi All,

I hope you're having a great week.  Here's "At a Dinner Party," a track from my new album, Amy Levy:  Songs of Love and Loss .  Victoria Vargas is the vocalist.  The poem is (of course) by Amy Levy.  Yours truly is the composer and mountain dulcimerist (if there's such a word).  The whole album streams on YouTube and many other platforms.  Please give it a listen.

Jean Ritchie's version, with an unusual, non-dulcimer accompaniment.

Hi All,

I hope you're all having a great day and looking forward to a great weekend.

As of today, my new album,  Amy Levy:  Songs of Love and Loss

https://neumarecords.org/home/ols/products/alex-lubet-amy-levy---songs-of-love-and-loss

Is streaming on all the usual sites, including Pandora, Spotify, and Apple Music.  It's on YouTube, too, but currently hard to find and, as always, in individual selections.  Please give it a listen if you're interested.

Best,

Hi All,

I hope you're doing well.

Here's a review of my new album, Amy Levy:  Songs of Love and Loss.  It will stream starting this Friday on nearly all the familiar sources.

Have a great day!

Alex Lubet sets Amy Levy to music – Dulcimer meets Neo-Classical – AM_plified • The magazine for powerful music.pdf - 1.6MB

You might also find  Gates of Song  useful.  

https://www.transcontinentalmusic.com/PDS-Gates-of-Song-(Congregational-Edition)-75907

It is published by Transcontinental Music, a major published of Jewish music of many kinds.

Hi,

Thanks for your email.

As far as I know, there's no collection of Jewish music for dulcimer, but I'd love to see one.  I know Jessica Comeau is among players who has at least one Jewish song in her repertoire.  My setting of Hinei Ma Tov is my album Three Strings and the Truth:  New Music for Mountain Dulcimer.  It's out of print (the label folded), but it streams on many sources.  I've performed other Jewish songs as well.

I'm a composer (and Jewish) and have composed and performed a great deal of Jewish music.  Thanks for asking about this.  I hope someone rises to meet the challenge.

Best,

Thanks so much, Robin, again!  

At the risk of hubris, there's not a whole lot in the classical world that's written for mountain dulcimer, beyond what I've written and pieces written for me.  I'm pretty sure composers avoid what they think are limitations, especially the traditional non-chromatic fretboard and three-string configuration.  But these are things I love.  I've never considered getting a chromatic dulcimer (not that I have anything against it), probably in large part because I've played guitar for decades.

It's perfectly possible to play chromatic music on a dulcimer with a traditional fingerboard, if you're interested, and it rmakes you find interesting combinations.  Three basic ways of playing chromatically:

1) non-standard tunings

2) bending notes

3) harmonics

I hope some of you will listen to the album when it starts streaming soon.  My earlier albums are easy to find online on many streaming services.

Have a wonderful week!

Thanks again, Robin.  You're very kind.  I hope I'm making a contribution to the dulcimer world as well.  As you can probably tell, I make some different tone colors on the instrument and I'd love to have an opportunity to share them.  You can probably also tell that I use lots of different tunings and, on the album, four equidistant strings.  Four strings was a new thing for me (I have an album called Three Stings and the Truth), but I'm hooked, althougn there are virtues in three strings as well.

The album should be streaming in a few weeks.  I'll let you all know.

Thanks again and have a great weekend,

Hi,

I hope you're all doing well.

I haven't noticed anyone mentioning being from Minnesota (like me) and I'm wondering if anyone else is.  I know there are at least a few other dulcimer players, not sure whether they're in this group.  I live in St. Paul, so I'm especially interested in Twin Cities folk.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Thanks so very much!  You're the best, Robin.

I hope I'm humble enough to refrain from calling my work "groundbreaking," but I'm delighted that you did.  I would call it "different."  Possible reasons:

1) I'm a classically trained composer and have taught composition for almost 50 years.

2) I'm totally self-taught on dulcimer, which is now my main instrument.  I've been playing for about ten years, guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin before.

3) I'm seriously left-handed, but have always played all my instruments right-handed.

4) I have pretty eclectic tastes, that include all manner of American, world, and classical music.

Streaming soon!  I so appreciate you, Robin, and this wonderful community.

Streaming soon on all your favorite platforms:

https://jazzweekly.com/2025/08/stories-not-for-the-faint-of-heartalex-lubet-amy-levy-songs-of-love-and-loss-professor-girlfriend-my-mother-in-love-the-summer-sessions/

Thanks, John, very insightful.

I listened to her rendition of Barbry Allan this morning and was taken by her ending every verse on scale step 2.  I kept thinking that perhaps she might resolve it in the final verse, but she did not, which was perhaps fitting, given the lyrics.

Hi,

A good week to you all.

I've been doing a deep dive into Jean Ritchie lately, for the dulcimer of course, but also for the words of the ballads.  What has struck me is that so many of these songs were even centuries old and from distant lands.  You all know this, of course.  But I find it so interesting that Kentucky folk would preserve lyrics that were so far removed from their day to day life.  We're all glad they did, but one must also wonder why.  (Needless to say, new songs were being composed as well.)

Does anyone who knows more about this than me have any insights they'd like to share?  That would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance and have a great week.

Thanks!

Good to know, thanks so much.  I think much of what I do is grounded in being entirely self taught (on dulcimer), at some distance from the mainstream dulcimer community.  It's great to have so many really knowledgeable people like you from whom to learn.

When my vocalist friend Victoria and I were planning to do a set of songs together, I shared some Jean Ritchie recordings with her.  I've thought we might do some of her songs together.  Victoria has an operatic voice, but she's done musical theater, too, and she has great diction, expression, and rhythm.  Not all classical singers have her diction and rhythm.

I usually play with four equidistant strings these days and use many different tunings.  But I really enjoy tuning three or even all four strings to low D.  That's great for droning, obviously, but also great for bending, as the strings have different tensions.

I would say Jean Ritchie.  It's more obvious in other pieces.  

But I would say it's really the drone and not the noter that has been the influence, as I don't use a plectrum of any kind.  And, to be honest, I've been interested in drones forever.  My parents were progressives and brought me to see Ravi Shankar when I was quite young.  They (and my older brother) were folkies, so I'm pretty sure I heard Jean Ritchie even before I started guitar, about 1966.

I was also a fan of the one-chord jams that 60's rockers like Cream, the Dead, and Santana played, and still love the modal jazz of John Coltrane and others.  And I love medieval music, which only rarely has actual drones, but often has long held bass notes (which were called "tenor").

I'm a very left-handed lefty who plays right handed (was never given the opportunity to play left-handed, as I started on my brother's guitar), so no one should ever look at my right hand technique, especally young people.  I have a couple of noters, but I really struggled with them.

Thanks so much for asking.

Hi All,

A medieval instrument that looks a lot like a dulcimer but serves a very different role as accompaniment only to melodic instruments, sort of like a drone without a noter.  I think you'll enjoy this.

Have a great weekend.

I enjoy your work, too.  I really appreciate the noter-drone style.  It's been an influence.

Best,

That's so kind of you to say.  I really appreciate it.  I also appreciate the great contributions you make to this community.  This is not just a great place for music but for kindness and sharing.

Have a great weekend, Robin and all.

Hi All,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying life.

This is,  A Farewell , a song I composed for my friend and colleague, mezzo soprano Victoria Vargas.  The poem is by Amy Levy, a Victoria era Anglo-Jewish writer, well known in her brief life (she died by suicide at 27) and admired by Oscar Wilde.

https://soundcloud.com/user-356765105/07-a-prayer-7

I'm on dulcimer, of course.  I'm unaware of any other dulcimer recordings or performances that feature an opera singer.  Please check it out if you have the time and inclination.

Have a great weekend and thanks.