Music Trade Review

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10
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
OuTTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE.
THE CHICAGO^LAYER SCHOOL.
On Monday of the week current there will be
opened in Chicago, under the auspices of the Board
of Education of that city, a free course of ten
weeks' instruction in the principles, construction
and repair of "pneumatic piano player mechanisms.
The course is being undertaken as part of the
board's regular free evening trade schools. Along-
side of it will be going on classes in machine shop
practice, foundry work, woodworking and other
mechanical trades. The object of all this, of course,
is to afford to young men who are working at
trades the opportunity to learn the theory thereof
and so to perfect their knowledge as to fit them-
selves for higher positions in their chosen work.
The .Board of Education makes an effort to supply
trade instruction, in co-operation with the employ-
ers of any trade, whenever such instruction is re-
quested by responsible employers in sufficient num-
ber to make it apparent that a real need exists.
Nobody who knows anything of the actual condi-
tions now existing in the player trade will be in-
clined, I think, to deny the need for instruction,
whether by public or by private authority.
It happens that the Board of Education and the
manufacturers concerned have asked me to conduct
these classes. I propose, therefore, to state briefly
what I believe they ought to accomplish and how
I believe they ought to be conducted. By so doing
I shall have the opportunity of clearing the ground
of my own conception and shall also be in the
position of stating definitely for the benefit of all
my readers just how I propose to set about this
work. This may have a useful result in perhaps
focusing the thought of others onto this impor-
tant question. Somewhere and somehow, prefer-
ably in such a city as Chicago, the trade in com-
mon must erect an institution for giving player in-
struction. When the public authority has demon-
strated that it can be done and should be done, the
trade will doubtless see the wisdom of making the
thing permanent.
I say this without the slightest wish to belittle
the splendid work being done in New York by the
Danquard Player Action School, nor to wrest any
credit from my friend George 'Martin, who is the
able instructor thereof. I simply point out that in
this great country there is a need for two institu-
tions, although it may be quite some time before
such a state of affairs is brought about. The Chi-
cago experiment is, of course, confined at present
to residents of the city, although, where there is
room, others may be accommodated on certain con-
ditions. (Any readers who are thinking of any-
thing like this ought to address W. M. Roberts,
District Superintendent of Schools, 830 Tribune
building, Chicago, at once.)
Well, anyway, the thing starts next week for a
period of ten weeks. On Monday, the 4th, at 7
p. m., we begin to work out our task; a task which
I, for one, approach with an open mind and with
the expectation of deriving therefrom considerable
innocent amusement, not to mention learning a
good deal and, perchance, imparting some wise
counsel and good practical instruction to those who
will work alongside of me.
And here, in fact, we have by chance hit on the
crux of the whole matter. For unless I am very
much mistaken as to the meaning and value of this
thing it will be rather a matter of us all learning
together than of what is ordinarily understood by
the word "teaching." When the ordinary person
thinks of teaching he instinctively thinks of those
school days which he remembers usually to have
been extremely unfruitful of result in proportion
to the time and labor expended. But those of us
who have thought more deeply on this subject have
learned—as indeed school authorities are every-
where learning now—that the best teaching is that
which encourages the spirit of free inquiry and
assists to bring out the creative powers inherent in
every individual. Education, as Huxley so often
pointed out, is a process of drawing out—the Latin
e, out of, and duco, draw, being its derivatives.
Now obviously one cannot draw out the latent
powers a man possesses by any process of pushing
a lot of information into him. Education is not a
method of stuffing a man with a. lot of rules and
short cuts; it is a method of making him think
things out for himself, by giving him first the
knowledge that he can do such a thing, and then
by making perfectly clear to him what is the
simple basis of all that he has to think out.
Such a process, of course, is as much a benefit
to the teacher as to the student. Indeed, both are
students; though one, perhaps, is a monitor.
Now everybody will admit at once the theoretical
excellence of a method such as this, but some may
be inclined to doubt whether it will be practicable
in the present case. But it is as well to remember
that a penitentiary is an institution or place where
you will find none but innocent men unjustly con-
victed, while also one's own trade is always just a
little different from any other and just a little
harder to teach. I have had considerable discus-
sion with various persons since I undertook to
direct the classes in player construction, and the
burden of everybody's thought has been: "This
man, I fear, will be too theoretical; not practical
enough."
It is a curious fact that the practical man is al-
ways the man who most hopelessly befogs himself
when he has to think anything out. Just as the
common-sense philosopher "refuted" Berkeley by
stamping on the ground to prove the existence of
matter, so also the "practical" man always wants
to deal with effects, without the bother of dealing
first with causes. Now it is plain that if we study
only effects we shall have to take each separate
effect by itself and separately work out the man-
ner of treating it. In course of time we shall, per-
haps, discover among the various effects relations
sufficiently definite to enable us, in course of future
time, to announce certain definite laws in regard to
them. But if we had known the laws in the first
place we should never have needed to search each
separate effect, for at once we should have known
how to apply the rule we had learned in any num-
ber of possible effects. In the business of studying
player mechanism it is possible to be very theo-
retical; to be too much so, in fact; but it is equally
possible, and far more likely, that we should be
too practical. We may, in short, in our ecstacy
of admiration for the practical side of the player,
become so very practical that we are afraid to tell
anything about the physical laws on which the
machine rests. In such a case we have the inter-
esting but somewhat appalling task of giving min-
ute directions for the separate adjustment of every
possible trouble that can occur in every possible
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
Polk's Piano Trade School
Piano, Player-Piano, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning and Re-
pairing, alio Regulating, Voicing, Varnishing and Polishing
Piano,
This formerly was the tuning department of the New Eng-
land Conservatory of Music, and Oliver C. Faust was head
of that department for 20 years previous to its discontinu-
ance.
Courses in mathematical piano scale construction and
drafting of same have been added.
Pupil* hare daily practise in Checkering & Sons' factory.
Year Book sent free upon request
27-29 GAINSBOROUGH ST., BOSTON, MASS.
14th YEAR
Player-Piano and Organ Tuning,
Repairing and Regulating.
Most thoroughly equipped Piano Trade School in
U. S. Private instruction; Factory experience if de-
sired- Students assisted. Diplomas awarded. School
entire year. Endorsed by leading piano manufacturers
and dealers. Free catalogue.
C. C. POLK
Box 293, Valparaiso, Ind.
kind of player mechanism. And when we have
done all this—though how much or little of it we
should do in ten short weeks I do not care to esti-
mate—we shall simply have left ourselves in the
state of those who use an engineer's book of tables
without knowing mathematics; in a constant state
of mystification, able to do outside of the class-
room only what can be remembered, and quite
helpless—or nearly so—whenever an entirely new
problem presents itself. That is the apotheosis of
practicality; and I, for one, do not intend to make
it my idol.
On the contrary, I propose to begin, and shall
begin, by stating simply and clearly the simple and
clear facts about the physical laws on which pneu-
matic player mechanisms rest. And I shall not go
on to anything else until we all understand enough
of this to be able to criticise intelligently each
practical embodiment of those laws that we have
to discuss. We shall then study separately the dif-
ferent types of mechanism before us, critically
testing our knowledge of principles as we go along.
Finally, we shall devote ourselves to practical
work on repairs, adjustments and matters of- that
sort, taking care to use in all cases actual speci-
mens of player-pianos presented under such condi-
tions as may be expected to obtain in the home,
where such remedies as we shall study and apply
are usually to be applied.
The lecture system pure and simple does not and
cannot work in a case such as we are discussing;
but neither, for that matter, does the walk-around-
a-workshop-and-mess-with-things method work any
better. Neither method works when applied alone.
It is absolutely essential that there be a judicious
mixture of the two.
The Chicago player trade has, I am glad to say,
taken a pleasure in supplying to the classroom an
ample quantity of material. Old player-pianos in
want of tearing down and building up again, new
player-pianos showing the latest developments in
the art, working models of actions, and charts, dia-
grams and drawings will all be on hand. It will be
our aim to learn the facts common to all player
mechanisms, and to learn them so thoroughly that
we can all, for instance, draw from memory
sketches accurate enough to be intelligible, showing
I'he principle arid method of ipneumatic player
mechanism. We shall also learn the leading facts
about player practice as exemplified in the most
modern developments; *.nd lastly, we shall learn
as much as we can of the mysteries and secrets of
player adjustment and repair.
All these things we shall try to do, and for the
success of our efforts I bespeak the best wishes of
all my readers.
1915.
For the eleventh consecutive time I have pleasure
in wishing all my readers a Happy New Year.
Communications for this department should be
addressed to the Editor, Technical Department,
The Music Trade Review.
"The Piano of the
Presidents," occupy-
ing the White House
for forty years.
SCHOMACKER PIANO CO.
1020 South 21st St.
PHILADELPHIA
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