Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1912 Vol. 54 N. 8

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE SALESMAN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PLAYER.
Conditions in Various Parts of the Country Indicate That the Attitude of Many Salesmen Is
Not Helpful—Lack of Faith in the Instrument Comes from Lack of Knowledge of Its Con-
struction and Possibilities—A Remedy Must Soon Be Considered—Dealers Will, in Self-de-
fense, Be Compelled to Insist on Salesmen Acquiring Practical Knowledge of the Player.
player proposition if he is to be valuable to his
Through a combination of somewhat unusual cir-
employer or to himself. Every intelligent dealer to-
cumstances the editor of the Player Section has
day knows that the piano trade has not been creat-
been enabled during the past year to study at first
ing the demand for player-pianos, even so far as
hand the conduct of retail piano and player selling
such a demand may be said to exist. The public
as practised in the Eastern, Middle and Middle
itself has created about all the demand there is at
Western States. The survey has been protracted,
the present time. And it has created that demand
the observations numerous and carefully made. As
a result much information of a most illuminating actually against the indifference, the cynicism, the
carelessness and the ignorance of the salesmen.
nature has been gained, some of which forms the
basis of the present remarks. Neither hearsay nor
Go into any average piano store and talk player-
.'guesswork is at the bottom of what follows. Ac-
piano to the salesman who waits on you. What
tual conversations with actual salesmen, the freest
do you find? He will tell you that such and such a
^interchange of views, and an absolutely unbiased
player is carried by them, that it is the best, and
personal investigation are responsible for the so on. Then he will proceed to demonstrate its
thoughts here set down. And if here or there they
musical capacity. And seven times in ten he will
seem to be too violent, too partisan, too condemna-
butcher whatever music he attempts to play for
tory, the answer can only be made that to the very
you. Almost as often you will find that his reper-
best of the writer's knowledge the facts justify the tory consists of the "William Tell Overture," the
opinions expressed.
"Poet and Peasant Overture," the "Second Hun-
garian Rhapsody" and "Old Black Joe with Varia-
If one were asked to describe in a word the
prevalent attitude of many of the retail salesmen tions." Not one of the pieces here named is really
throughout this country toward the player-piano, suitable for piano playing; not one of them can
one could do this no better than by saying that it possibly sound other than machine-like when played
is one of disrespect. There is a lack of sympathy, by an unskilled person on the player-piano. And
a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of deep-seated convic- yet we find that salesmen deliberately confess to
their customers that they are not good "operators"
t : on. Salesmen do not instinctively think of the
of the player-piano, thus at once admitting their
player-piano with respect. They take toward it an
own utter inefficiency in the duty they have taken
attitude of cynicism that is most harmful in its
on themselves.
direct effects upon them and equally so in its re-
active influence upon their customers.
Now it is not to be supposed that the piano
This is count number one in the indictment. trade is going to stand this kind of thing forever.
Surely, if only as a matter of self-preservation,
What is the reason for the existence of such a
there must come a reform. And if the salesmen
state of affairs? The most obvious answer is that
lack of respect comes from lack of real sincere themselves do not show the desire for reform, then
they must be taken in hand and changed around
belief, and that this lack of belief comes from lack
forcibly. This much at least may be taken for
of knowledge.
If you do not understand a new thing, the truth: that the player trade will amount to noth-
ing, relatively speaking, so long as the salesman
chances are that you will not even like it; that you
has neither respect for, nor knowledge of. the ob-
will not be enthusiastic about it is absolutely cer-
ject which he is proposing to sell.
tain. And here we lay our finger on the most
serious, as it is the most important, of the mat-
What has been said here about ignorance of the
ters which must form the basis of the present
musical side of the player-piano is equally applic-
article. Lack of understanding, superficiality, igno-
able to its mechanical side. Suppose the case of a
rance—these are the real evils.
salesman on the road, who finds a prospect for a
Now, the player-piano does not present a simple player sale somewhere far away from his home
office. The instrument is shipped to him, he puts it
but a very complex problem. It has to be consid-
ered from numerous viewpoints. There are a in the prospect's house, and then discovers that he
does not even know how to set about getting the
dozen d'fferent ways of looking at it. Plainly, if
thing ready for pneumatic playing! Just such a
it is to be sold successfully to a public which knows
little or nothing of its possibilities, the men who case as this came under the writer's notice only a
week or so ago. That player-piano remained un-
do the selling must be men who are enthusiastic
touched in the prospect's home for two days, while
and deeply convinced of the inherent merits it pos-
a salesman with some expert knowledge was sent
sesses. If they are not so, then they cannot be
down to the assistance of the road man to show
expected to make an indifferent public any more
excited than they are themselves.
And, as we remarked above, the only possible
recipe for making enthusiasm is to be found in
knowledge. Salesmen do not respect the player-
piano, simply because most of them know nothing
about it. They do not understand its mechanical
make-up, they do not know anything about its
To-day is moving day for this trade
musical possibilities. How, then, can they expect
to instill a desire for its possession in the minds
newspaper institution, and next Mon-
of the public, when that public knows even less
day we will open in our new quarters
than they do themselves?
at
2)72) Fourth avenue.
Silk purses arc not made out of sows' ears. You
Our
new location possesses many
cannot make men enthusiastic by telling them they
must be so. You cannot make men well informed
advantages over the present, and we
by commanding them to become so. More is needed
have
two or three times the amount of
than this. The impulse must come from within.
space
which we have occupied at No.
We must have a new spirit among our salesmen, a
new vision as to the influence which the player-
i Madison avenue.
piano will have upon future piano trade. We
It is on the surface and suhway
must have all this before the attitude now adopted
lines,
and the building, which is built
by them, and so much to be deplored, can be abol-
ished.
of concrete and steel, is equipped with
Let us face the facts squarely. No intelligent
all modern appliances.
piano dealer pretends that the trade at large is
making such an excellent example of itself in its
OUR NEW ADDRESS
relations with the player question as to be beyond
criticism. No intelligent dealer has failed to see
that the salesman must become a master of the
Notice of Removal
373 Fourth Avenue
the latter and the prospect how to insert a roll,
how to use the controlling device, and so on! Is
that not a lovely state of affairs?
Player-piano maintenance forms a troublesomelj
large item in the profit and loss account of any
house that does an extended retail business. A
goodly proportion of the complaints that arise from
those who have bought player-pianos would never
be heard of if the salesman had known enough to
give adequate instructions to his customer in the
first instance. It is no joke to be compelled to
send a high-priced expert a hundred miles into the
backwoods to attend to some silly little matter
which the customer does not understand and is
afraid to investigate. That sort of business costs
money and adds appreciably to the total on the
loss side of the ledger.
The remedy would seem obvious. Nothing
would appear to be simpler than that the dealer
should insist upon all his salesmen acquiring defi-
nite practical knowledge of the player on its musi-
cal and mechanical sides. With ^uch knowledge
will come a growing respect, with respect enthusi-
asm, and with enthusiasm success. So far, so good.
But there is something else to be said.
It is easy to tell salesmen that they must become
player experts. And it is true that there is a certain
amount of information to be picked up by personal
determination to get at the bottom of things. The
man who will persuade the local expect to tell him
all about the mechanism, who will practise the use
of control devices, who will do his best to acquire
a repertoire of well-understood and well-played
pieces may accomplish much. But in the end all
that sort of thing is absolutely unsystematic. More
than this is needed.
System is the keynote of success in everything.
If we are to change the attitude of salesmen to-
ward the player-piano we cannot expect to do this
either by denouncing these erring brethren or by
telling them that, if they really want to, they can
acquire player knowledge. That is all very well
to talk about, but it does not work out in practice.
Very few of us are persons of great persistence
or firm of purpose to the extent of beginning to
struggle with an entirely new, complex and per-
haps not agreeable proposition, after we have
reached years of discretion, unless the job is made
more or less easy for us. And this is just what
may be done. Whether the suggestion that follows
be considered practical or not, nothing is more
sure than that something of the sort will soon have
to be done generally.
It is suggested, then, that the dealers should
agree with the manufacturers of player mechanisms
upon a system of traveling experts, who, in har-
mony with the piano makers who supply the pianos
into which the actions are put, should visit every
store where those player actions are sold, at regular
intervals.; in the case of large dealers as often as
three or four times a year. It should be their
business to see that every salesman connected with
that store, as well as every tuner and repairman,
be given an opportunity to acquire a first-hand
knowledge of these things: (1) The mechanical
principles and details of the player action; (2)
the methods of regulation and repair, and (3) the
technic of playing.
This might be done through a system of in-
formal lectures, which everybody should be com-
pelled to attend. The writer has had recent oppor-
tunity to test out in a practical manner the possi-
bility of doing effective work in this way and can
say sincerely that, given the right sort of expert,
the system of bringing the facts about player
mechanism, demonstration, and so on, directly to
the men in the retail trade is the best possible
system for accomplishing the end sought for.
In the end we must have a better diffusion of
knowledge. Just compare the piano trade with any
other of a technical nature. Does anyone suppose
that automobile salesmen are not technically
equipped?
Does anyone suppose that automobiles could
be sold at all if the salesmen could not teach
the purchasers how to run and how to look after
their machines? Of course, no one supposes any-
thing of the sort. And what is true of the one
case is equally true of the other.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE
mm
REVIEW
sense and good business, too, to undertake a na- duct connecting the spaces upon the two sides of
tional publicity service on behalf of the player-
the diaphragm. This duct is generally very small
piano. The fundamental principles which lie at in diameter and is termed a "bleed-hole." Should
the bottom of the appeal which the player-piano this small duct become obstructed by dust from
makes to the public are the same in the case of
the air, by lint or fibers of paper scraped from the
one make as in that of another. The difficulty is music roll as it passes over the tracker board and
that there is no settled method of informing the carried down with the air sucked through the
public what the player-piano is and what is its tracker duct, or through any other cause, the ac-
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
value as an article of possession. It may seem
tion of the valves becomes sluggish and the music
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and
fantastic to argue that there could ever be any sort
improperly reproduced and presently, if the bleed-
Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada, $3.50; all other coun-
tries, $4.00.
of agreement between manufacturers as to the hole is not cleaned, the valves operating in con-
handling of their advertising appropriations, and
junction with it may cease to operate.
Telephones—Numbers 4677 and 467S Gramercy
that
in the case of dealers even less chance exists
Connecting all Departments
of obtaining common effort along these lines. The
TO BRING INDUSTRIAL PEACE.
answer to the objections is that the manufactur-
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 24, 1912
ers are the persons who should supervise the ad- Committee Formed to Back Taft's Idea of a
Federal Commission.
vertising of their product and who should, in fact,
There is hardly a more important aspect of the
do all the advertising of it, just as do the makers
Announcement was made Monday of the or-
player trade than that which is presented in con-
of automobiles, confining the dealer's publicity to ganization of a national committee to secure the
sidering the attitude of the retail dealer and sales-
the smallest of local advertisements. And, further,
appointment of a federal commission on industrial
man. So long as pianos and player-pianos are
it may be urged that the manufacturers might
relations which shall give publicity to American
sold to the public entirely through the agency
justly refuse to sell dealers who were unwilling
industry and in general carry out the ideas of
system the retailer will be the direct point of con-
to submit to such supervision, while also it is President Taft embodied in his recent message to
tact between manufacturer and public. And so
plausible to remark that the interests of manufac-
Congress urging the creation of such a commis-
long as this is so the attitude this retailer adopts
turers in pushing the player are very largely com-
sion. The commission is directly in line with the
toward the player-piano will be of the utmost
mon interests, so that community of action on
Anthracite Coal Commission, appointed by Presi-
importance. In an article in the present issue
broad lines is neither absurd nor unpractical.
dent Roosevelt in 1905.
attention is drawn to certain aspects of the retail
The chairman of the new committee is Edward
situation caused by the maintenance of a wrong
For the big and ugly fact remains, behind all T. Devine, editor of the Survey; the vice-chairman,
attitude by salesman and dealer. The reader is
forms of discussion, that a natural, healthy de- Adolph Lewisohn, and the secretary, Lillian D.
earnestly urged to study this article carefully, for
Wald, head worker in the nurses' settlement on
it contains much food for thought and presents mand for the player has not been created. And
the East Side. Among the members are many
in the clearest way a problem which mostpress- it does not need a person of immense mental power
ingly needs some sort of solution. The player- to see that the sort of advertising which is going economists and sociologists in and out of colleges
piano, be it observed, is still a fad and little else. on at present among dealers is not exactly calcu- and universities, such men and women as Louis
Nor is there the slightest chance that a healthy, lated to assist in such creation. In fact, it is D. Brandeis, of Boston; Jane Addams, of Hull
natural, country-wide demand can be created for it pretty plain that there is no advertising worthy of
House, Chicago; J. W. Jenks, of Cornell Univer-
the name at present being done, with the possible sity, who is a member of the federal immigration
until something like sanity characterizes the retail
selling, a condition of affairs which by no means exception of the announcements periodically made committee; Florence Kelly, secretary of the Na-
by the one largest of player houses, which is both
can be said as yet generally to exist.
tional Consumers' League; George Foster Pea-
manufacturer and retailer, and whose advertising body, ex-treasurer of the Democratic National
policy is governed by some sort of consistency.
Along similar lines is the article on the ''Dead
Committee; James B. Reynolds, who investigated
Player-Piano," which also appears in the present The problem is far too big to be ignored or to be the stock yards for President Roosevelt, and Ly-
number. It is already a matter of open confes- handled through the puny and often self-contra-
man Abbott, editor of the Outlook. Also Prof.
sion that the bigger difficulty in the player busi- dictory efforts of rival retailers. The thing that
T. N. Carver, of Harvard; Prof. Irving Fisher,
ness is not selling the player-piano but keeping has to be done is to create a demand for a product
of Yale; Prof. Ernst Freund, of the University of
it sold. Partly the trouble arising in doing this of human ingenuity into which enter a thousand
Chicago; Profs. Franklin H. Giddings and Edwin
may be charged against difficulties in maintenance, and one complex parts, which represents the in- E. R. A. Seligman, of Columbia, and Edward A.
vestment of considerable money, the benefit de-
but much is to be accounted for by the fact that
Ross, of the University of Wisconsin. Rabbi
rived from which is entirely aesthetic, and the Stephen S. Wise, of the Free Synagogue; Dr. J.
the interest of purchasers dies out too quickly.
superiority of appeal whereof over an ordinary
The article to which we here draw attention
H. Holmes, of the Church of the Messiah, and
analyzes carefully the reasons for this loss in in- piano is entirely a matter of inculcating a desire
Dr. Washington Gladden, of Columbus, O., are
for the actual personal reproduction of music in the members of the committee. Other members are
terest and shows that these are to be sought for
as much in the manner of presenting the player- m'nds of a non-piano-playing public. And it does representatives of the various charitable organi-
piano to the imagination of the customer, at the not seem so very absurd to assert that the trade at
zations in the city. Two of these are Prof. Henry
time of the sale, as to anything else. Again, in large would be a great deal better oft for some R. Seager, of Columbia, president of the National
sensible common effort along such lines of har- Association for Labor Legislation, and William J.
fact, it is shown that the retailer has the real
monious publicity as would tend to put public
responsibility of bringing about better conditions in
Schieffelin, president of the Citizens' Union.
the player trade, so far as concerns the public, demand, public understanding and public respect
The committee contends, so Mr. Devine said
for
the
player-piano
upon
a
considerably
higher
and that the influence exerted by those who sell
yesterday,
that the problem of industrial relations
directly to the people is an influence which ex- plane than they at present have reached.
should be attempted by the general public because
tends to every corner of the whole business.
that public is definitely affected by the strife be-
A letter is published on another page of this
tween capital and labor.
Any man of analytical tendencies, considering Player Section from a New York player-pianist
and observing the player trade as it appears to- which is respectfully committed to the considera-
PATENTS NEW JHJMPING DEVICE.
day, might well be struck with the absence of any tion of the music roll makers. What the writer
Thomas Danquard Assigns Rights to New In-
special knowledge anywhere concerning the atti- has to say about the arrangement of music rolls,
vention to Auto Pneumatic Action Co.—
tude which the public in general may be said to especially of those which deal with light music,
Some of the Claims Made.
have toward the player-piano. At the present time has been said in these columns more than once.
a great many of these instruments are being made He clearly squelches the theory that the public
(Special to The Review.)
Washington, D. C, Feb. 19, 1912.
and inventors are continually busying themselves re-ally wants a music roll to be so arranged as
A patent on a pumping device (No. 1,017,084)
with new devices intended to improve the expres- to strike just as many notes simultaneously as can
was granted this week to Thomas Danquard, New
sive capacity or the convenience of playing. But be crowded in.
York, assignor to the Auto Pneumatic Action Co.,
it is notable that there has as yet been no attempt
of New York.
to gather statistics for the purpose of discovering
PLAVER=PIANO IMPROVEMENT.
just exactly how the player is being handled in the
This invention relates to a bellows and fold-
( Special to The Review.)
home, how it wears, what parts get out of order
ing pedal construction for a musical instrument.
most quickly, and what the maintenance is, on the
Washington, D. C, Feb. 19, 1912.
The principal objects of the invention are to pro-
average, costing. And it is equally notable that
Einar Leschbrandt, Philadelphia, Pa., is the vide a simple and effective construction by which
some such information ought to be available, if
owner of patent No. 1,017,158 on a player-piano the bellows can be operated from a pedal located
only for the purpose of providing a basis whereon
This invention relates to improvements in air- at the side thereof in such a way as to get a
may be built some sort of reasonably intelligent actuated instruments, player-pianos, organs, etc.,
perfectly even strain on the bellows, thus doing
general campaign of exploitation and sales. Under in which the music is reproduced by pneumatically
away with the loss of power produced by the usual
the heading, "A National Player Inspection Serv- operated mechanism. In such apparatus there is side connections and reducing the strain on the
ice" this important topic is treated seriously and
parts.
employed a system of valves, which in conjunction
at length in the present issue. We believe the with an operating bellows or "striker," actuate the
Another object of the invention is to provide
suggestions put forth in that article to be worthy keys of the instrument. This operation is usually means for accomplishing the' above named results
the careful attention of the trade.
dependent upon the varying air pressure or ten- which can be connected with a folding pedal, par-
sion upon either side of a soft diaphragm, and in ticularly that type of folding pedal shown and de-
And this leads naturally to another and correla- order that this may respond promptly to the ten- scribed in previous patent No. 884,043, granted
tive topic, It seems to us that it would be good sion or pressure, it is necessary that there be a April 14, 1908 on a folding pedal,

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