We enjoy hearing from DPN subscribers and carefully consider every suggestion. While we appreciate the overwhelming show of support from our readers, we also know that with your constructive critique we can make DPN an even better resource. If you'd like, you can send us a message right now by using the Readers Responses box in the right hand column of this page.
. . . and now, a word from our subscribers.
Though I’ve loved the hammered dulcimer for many years, I’m a very new, very basic beginning player. The CD with the magazine is worth (at least twice) the subscription price and I thank you so much for the regular inspiration. Keeps me practicing on those nights when I want to reduce the instrument to kindling and forget the whole thing! Thanks. - Nancy McNeill, AZ
Just renewed my subscription to DP News and wanted to say what a wonderful magazine it has become. I look forward to its arrival and have a hard time setting it down to do other things. The articles are great and it is such a handsome looking magazine. Love the CD that comes with it. Once you have been around dulcimer players you get addicted to their music and it is nice to have a magazine that addresses them. For the first time in my life I even look at all the ads, read them and enjoy them.
The cover with Bing Futch on it painted by Karen Cannon was a real work of art, I opened it and just couldn’t believe my eyes with the beauty of it. I still from time to time go to look at it. Guess it helped since we had just seen Bing Futch (newcomer to us) a couple of weeks before the magazine came in the mail. Bing is a very likable guy and great musician.
It’s hard to express how great the magazine is, just keep up the great work. - Janet McClure, OH
This is a great magazine! I was really excited about all the kids in it. I have two 13 yr. old twin students who have been playing hammered dulcimer for over two years. I can’t wait to show them the articles so they can see how many kids are playing. A few more pictures of the kids would have been good.
- Pennye Scheiber, MI
I am just listening to the CD that came with the Winter 09 magazine. The song selection is amazing. While I’ve enjoyed all the CDs to date, this one seems to have the most variety and many songs that are really different than the more standard offerings. For whatever reason, this group of songs really stirs the soul and has caught my ear to stop and listen more closely than usual. Thanks!!
- Tom Chmielinski, IL
I just love the magazine and especially the CD. Some of the best music on the planet. You’ll never hear this great stuff on any radio station. Keep up the good work! - David White, NY
I’ve been subscribing for 10 years and it just gets better! Keep up the great job - I look forward to every issue, especially the CD. Thanks! - Sherry Knight, LA
I really love the DPN. I just received the Winter issue this week and it is once again fabulous. Thanks for making it such a great resource for the dulcimer community. - Erin Rogers, KS
I really enjoyed the Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival last June. It was my first; I’ve only played for two years. I like Dulcimer Players News because it is colorful, professional, and fun to read. There’s always something of particular interest to me. I absolutely love the sampler CD! These are wonderful and make me dream of when I can play my hammered dulcimer that good. The only problem is that you raised the price of the magazine. It’s getting too expensive.
- Margaret T. Johnson, TN
I purchased a small beginner hammer dulcimer from a Pigeon Forge dulcimer shop in about 1994. I just let it sit around for a year or so not quite knowing what to do with it or how to try playing it. In 1996 I started taking lessons from Tina Bergman through The University of Akron Continuing Education program. She introduced me to your fine magazine at that time and I have been eagerly looking forward to it ever since. The introduction of color two years ago by you two fine folks and all the fantastic articles since then has really improved it tremendously. I have attended many of the workshops and festivals noted in the magazine and now I have found an interest in the Mountain Dulcimer as well.
I have one minor suggestion. Please resume the inclusion of a color CD cover on the internet to copy or add color to the CD cover in the magazine. This CD has introduced me to so many different types of music and artists available for both dulcimers.
Keep up the great work. It is well worth your efforts.
- Earl Pamfilie, OH
I want to thank you for publishing Butch Ross’ review of Danny’s Mountain Dulcimer for Children book, and the great job you did with our first ad in your publication. It is such an AWESOME magazine. I’m sure people eagerly await each issue. Butch’s review was excellent and so encouraging for Danny as a first time author. Shortly after the current issue arrived we began receiving telephone orders from people who don’t have computers or internet service.
- Dottie Shepherd, KY
Believe it or not, I have a copy of the “Dulcimer News” from 1975. Believe the price was 25 cents. It came with a dulcimer we ordered from a young couple who sold them at art and craft shows in southeast Michigan. Never did I think this would develop into the great publication you now promulgate.
- Ruth Purdo, FL
Congratulations on making a great magazine even better. The CDs are outstanding. This is a real bargain. Keep up the good work.
- Joe Sanguinette, MO
I have thoroughly enjoyed every issue of Dulcimer Players News for the last fourteen years, Maddie MacNeil and all the staff at DPN did a fabulous job all those years. Now, Dan and Angie Landrum and staff are continuing with a great job of their own, they seem to be finding their way in this endeavor and I look forward to more of their ideas for the magazine. I must admit that the new changes surprised me at first and I was not sure if I liked the modernization of “my” magazine. I am now convinced that they are not sacrificing the old and traditional for the sake of new and modern, after all, there is room for both in the dulcimer world.
The CD sampler was a brilliant idea and the Winter 2009 is the best yet! I have one suggestion: I would like to see a notice printed on the envelope warning the postal carrier, as my mail carrier always folds the larger mail around the regular envelopes before placing it in the box. I do not want to loose that CD to improper handling!
Keep up the good work DPN!
- Carol Welch, MO
Carol,
Thank you for the suggestion. We’re looking for a cost effective way to do this. -DPN
Greetings! I’ve been playing MD for a few years, and one of the folks in the Great Plains Dulcimer Alliance (Wichita, KS) loaned me a copy of your magazine while I was working in Wichita. I really enjoy the magazine, the CDs, and the joy in the writing. I’m even learning a bit about music theory as well. (Ah!)
Keep up the good work, you all are an inspiration to the rest of us. Peace.
- Matt Naas, CA
I really liked Dan’s “Editor’s Note” in the Winter 2009 edition of DPN. It was very well written and helped me recall some of my first hopes, wishes, and dreams as a young and just learning dulcimer player. Also, it doesn’t feel like 3 years since the DPN change. I wonder about the fresh approach each addition provides that gives the feeling of starting over. Thanks for all of your efforts and great results with DPN!
- David Holeton, TN
I’ve been borrowing my mother’s DPN to read cover to cover and decided it’s about time I get my own subscription. The Hot Licks article was particularly beneficial. I’ve been working on the little exercises and fell in love with Neal Hellman’s “riff,” as well as the song itself in his example. Thank you, Butch, for a very useful article. Can’t wait to get my first DPN!
- Ruth Hulthen, OH
I always enjoy the magazine, but the current issue has to be among the best. The finger placing tab is a page I will point out to our DAA novice members who may not be subscribers yet.
- Becky Shelton, TN
WOW! Just got my issue of DPN and was I ever pleasantly surprised. I had pulled out the last issues of DPN that I had which were 2002 and had been reading those waiting for my new subscription to arrive. So you can imagine my surprise at the new look. It’s so beautiful! And the paper is wonderful to the touch. And the CD–oh my gosh! That’s incredible. Needless to say I’m excited. I’ve already read it from cover to cover three times and I’m now starting on the fourth –just in case I missed anything.
- Mary Boardman, IA
What a lovely focus–youth and their dulcimers! Great cover! As my mother once said, “I really enjoy the music, and don’t want to insult you, but incase you didn’t know, the HD is not where it’s at!” The article was wonderful and I thought great to include their feelings about playing something that at first glance is not necessarily ‘way cool.’ Keep up the good work! - Carolyn Hudnall, WA