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12
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
MUSICALLY
(Continued
SPEAKING
from page 11)
mind, for that would be to encumber a simple
story.
It is enough to say that the Sousa
march set me off in the right direction. I can
now begin to think of my experiences as enter-
ing on the second phase, and can begin to show
how I was led along my musical pathway until
I could see in front of me the distant peaks of
high art and realize that the enchanted land of
Father Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Schu-
mann was no longer impenetrable, but must in
due time open up even to me. Of this I shall
speak in the next installment of these adven-
tures; but meanwhile I have something else to
say.
I have already indicated that my progress up
till now had entirely been of my mental and
physical labor. The way this story has been
told perhaps conveys the impression, too loose-
ly, that all this happened in about twenty-four
hours. It is true that within two or three nights
of my first attempts, I had a dawning con-
sciousness that there was an art of pedaling
and an art of the tempo lever; but this did not
blossom out into full flower immediately. There
were experiments to be made, things to be
tried over, ideas to be tested. Even so, it only
took a few days for me to see that I was on
the right path, and that every piece of music
might be studied and interpreted in the same
way as the simple march; by finding out its
melody and its rhythm and then bringing these
to the surface.
What I especially wish to say now, however,
is different. My whole career up to the pres-
ent had been of my own working out. No help
had been volunteered, much less given, by any-
body in the music store where I had bought
the instrument. No salesman or expert of any
kind had come out to see me. Nobody ap-
peared to think that what I might do with my
player-piano was of the slightest importance,
once my money had been paid down. Perhaps
if I had purchased on the time plan, as I un-
derstand most people do, the sellers would have
shown more interest in me. But, as it was, I
was left to my own devices, and if I had got
sick of the whole thing in a few weeks and
thereafter had cursed the player-piano as a me-
chanical monstrosity and general nuisance, no-
body at the music store would have been any
the wiser.
Now, it does seem to me, as one outside the
musical instrument business, that this is a
very poor policy. I have taken the trouble
to make some inquiries among other owners
of player-pianos, and I have yet to find one on
whom any system of what might be called in-
spection, following-up for complaints or in-
struction in playing, has even been methodically
employed.
I am quite sure that we could not
treat our own business so poorly or with so
little interest. I take it that intelligent sales-
promotion is the basis of all commercial suc-
cess; but how, in heaven's name, are you to get
that success if you entirely neglect the crea-
tion of a public sentiment favorable to your
cause? If you are a railway company and find
yourself at odds with your employes in a way that
may perhaps produce inconvenience to the pub-
lic, you take space in the newspapers to put
your side before the people and so create a sen-
timent favorable to you. Any and all public
service corporations to-day have to do this, if
they want to keep square with the people. In
the player-piano business, it seems to me that
every player-piano badly treated, badly played,
is a standing advertisement declaring to all in-
telligent men and women that player-pianos are
undesirable possessions. If that is true, then
is it not also true that the opposite condition,
where the general playing of player-pianos
would be intelligent and good, would have this
very desirable effect of creating a favorable pub-
lic opinion? I cannot see it any other way; and
I feel perfectly sure that a great many more
player-pianos would be sold, on their own very
great merits as musical instruments, if only
those merits were permitted to come to the
surface instead of being, as is usually the case,
hidden hopelessly under the cloud of ignorance
and stupidity generated by their purchasers. I
should like to see some of the trained intelli-
gences used in our business for sales promotion
applied to the musical business. What a big
thing it would be, instead of the relatively lit-
tle and piffling thing it is.
(To be continued)
J. P. FORD WINS STANDARD SLOGAN CONTEST
twenty-six submitted by the judges for final
consideration was sent in by a contestant whose
total number was one hundred.
Regarding the determination of the winner,
the Standard Player Monthly for September
states:
"By the process of elimination Mr. Hopkins
selected ten slogans for final consideration. He
marked these in the order of his preference.
Mr. Johns also selected ten in the same manner
and Mr. Waldo selected six. The first choice
of each judge was given a mark of ten, the
second choice nine, the third choice eight, etc.
It was tacitly understood that no slogan could
be declared the winning one except that it was
mentioned in the lists of at least two judges.
"By this process Mr. Ford's slogan, with
twenty points, being first choice of both Mr.
Johns and Mr. Waldo, was determined the win-
ner. Mr. Quone's slogan, 'Built Right, Stays
Right, Plays Right,' the second choice of Mr.
Johns, and the fifth choice of Mr. Waldo, was
credited with fifteen points, as was also Mr.
Phelan's slogan, 'The Standard—Made With
Care, Stands the Wear and Tear,' which was
the third choice of Mr. Johns, and the fourth
choice of Mr. Hopkins. 'Makes You a Master
of Music,' one of fourteen slogans entered by
E. H. Leitzbach, of Humboldt, Kan., was placed
in fourth position with fourteen points.
"Something of the difficulty of determining
the 'best' slogan from so many good ones may
be gathered from the fact that no slogan was
mentioned by all three judges in the final list
of twenty-six selected—ten each by Messrs.
Hopkins and Johns and six by Mr. Waldo.
"However, P. L. Eubank, of San Antonio,
Tex., and H. C. Mills, of Baltimore, are hon-
ored as the only contestants whose slogans
were mentioned by all three judges in the final
list. Three of Mr. Eubank's seventeen entries
were mentioned—one by each judge. Mr. Mills
entered twenty-two, and two were given a place
in the finals, one by Mr. Hopkins, and the
other by both Mr. Johns and Mr. Waldo.
"The twenty-three entries of H. W. Harbi-
son, who is with the Conroy Piano Co., of St.
Louis, were evidently much favored by the
judges for his number was mentioned five times
in the final list of twenty-six. Of the four
slogans, one was selected by two judges.
KRAKAUER DYNACHORD FOLDER
His One Entry—"Built Up to a Standard Not Down to a Price" Chosen as Best Out of 2,031
—Judges Had Interesting Experience in Naming Winner of $25 Prize
The prize of $25, which was offered by the is as follows: "Built Up to a Standard, Not
Standard Player Monthly for the best slogan Down to a Price."
to be applied to the Standard Player Action
The judges who awarded the prizes were:
which is manufactured by the Standard Pneu- Geo. W. Hopkins, advertising and sales man-
matic Action Co., was presented this week to ager, American Chicle Co., New York; Wm. H.
Johns, vice-president, Geo. Batten Co., advertis-
ing agents, New York; and Richard H. Waldo,
business manager, the New York Tribune, and
secretary of the Tribune association.
Another slogan which was sent in by M.
Quone, Thibodaux, La., tied for second place,
Krakaucr Bros., 136th street and Cypress ave-
nue, New York, are mailing to the trade an at-
tractive folder exploiting the Krakauer-Dyna-
chord. In the circular are portrayed illustra-
tions showing how the motor may be operated
by electricity, while the human touch may be
put into the music by the use of the expres-
sion levers, and also how it may be used by
pedaling with the expression personally con-
trolled through the degrees of pressure on the
pedals, and by pedaling personally interpreted
through the nuance and accent levers and other
J. P. Ford, CrcBtuu, la.—The Prize Winner
J. P. Ford, a piano tuner and repairer of Cres-
ton, la.
The contest was entered into with much en-
thusiasm, and the actual number of slogans re-
ceived was 2,031.
Some of the contestants
submitted but one, while others submitted up-
wards of one hundred. Incidentally, Mr. Ford
submitted but one slogan in a short letter, which
devices in
shows that
it may be
expression
Wm. H. Johns
Richard H. Waldo
with one of but two slogans submitted by
Stephen Phelan, of Chicago.
Another interesting fact regarding the con-
test was that one slogan mentioned among the
Geo. W. Hopkins
the key slip. Another illustration
it may be played by hand, and that
electrically operated with automatic
devices.