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12
(Salesmanship)
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JANUARY 12,
1918
A Convincing Selling Talk to a Player Prospect
The Following Article, By A. W. Musser, of Pittsburgh, Pa., Won a Prize in the
Recent Salesmanship Contest Conducted by the Standard Pneumatic Action Co.
T
HE following- canvass by Mr. Jones, as the player-piano sales-
man, tried out on Mr. Smith, who is ready to buy anything
but a player-piano, will be helpful, I hope, in packing some sales-
man's purse with additional coin of the realm.
Jones: Mr. Smith, my name is Jones; I called to have a talk
with you about something which we all love, namely, music.
However, many people do not stop to realize or comprehend its
influences for good sufficiently to make an effort to have it in
the home. Or, it may be that we shrink from investing the price
of the piano, because it takes years of patient and tedious prac-
tice for a member of the family to become a pianist or musician.
Smith: No one in the family cares for music. I do not think
either my son or the daughter would take an interest in the*piano.
Jones: We are all musical, some more, some less, than others.
If a child were not started to school, it would not care for an
education. If you did not read to the child, it might never care
for literature. We are born with latent powers and the idea is
to cultivate them. They are not always noticeable. John Mc-
Cormack, the lyric Irish tenor, passed through college before it
was discovered that he had a voice of unusual merit; Fritz Kreis-
ler, the world's greatest violinist, wanted to be a train conductor;
Caruso worked as a machinist when a young man, totally
ignorant of his great future. Aristotle, one of the world's great-
est philosophers, said: "Since music has so much to do with
moulding character, it is necessary that we teach music to our
children." Nothing affords so much mental discipline, culture
and refinement as a musical training even though the individual
never becomes a professional pianist. The value of the magic
power of music over the soul of man cannot be estimated in
dollars and cents. The fact that many are not musical enough
to undertake the years of study to acquire finger dexterity or
technique points to the reason for the invention of the player-
piano, which stands unparalleled in making more homes musical
and in making every one in the home a musician.
Smith: Well, I think any kind of piano is a luxury and we
can easily get along without it.
Jones : We can get along without the piano; in fact, we could
get along without quite a few things we have in our homes which
were considered luxuries fifty years ago. We can get along
without an education, but it is unhandy. The piano is today a
real necessity, just as much as the paint on the floor or the paper
on the wall of our homes. Nothing makes the home more attrac-
tive and inviting and I believe in making home the best place on
earth to be. That is where we spend most of our time, where we
entertain our friends, where we want to see our children and their
friends entertained to the best advantage, and the player-piano
is the agency that will bring about these conditions better than
anything else you can buy.
vSmith: I think if I bought a piano at all, I would buy a piano
to play by hand.
Jones: The player-piano affords you the same opportunity
for hand playing as the straight piano. It does not debar any
member of the family from acquiring a musical training through
manual playing. There are two methods of acquiring a musical
education through the player-piano: one is by manual or key-
board playing, and the other is by pedal and perforated music roll
playing. The straight piano is a selfish piano—"It is Mary's
piano." The player-piano is everybody's piano and by far the
most profitable investment. In buying a straight piano it will
be about two years before any one will be able to entertain you
with music, and even then you will have music only if the one
who has learned to play is in the house or feels like playing.
Hearing another play perfectly is enjoyable, but it is not to be
compared with the pleasure of playing yourself. The pleasure of
personally producing music cannot be described ; it must be ex-
perienced. People do not buy straight pianos any more; about
seven out of every ten sales are player sales now.
Smith: I think the player-piano is too mechanical.
Jones: The player-piano is mechanical, but it is only too
mechanical when it is played that way. All music is mechanical
aside from the human voice. The player-piano in itself is no
more mechanical being played by the pedals than it is being
played by the keyboard. It may be played as nearly human one
way as the other or as mechanical one way as the other. The
fact that you may have heard a neighbor race through a com-
position without any pause, any modulation or expression, docs
not condemn the player-piano. 1 have heard some play by hand
in such an exact, measured off. humdrum style that it was just
as mechanical as the player mechanism left to itself would play
it, only not so perfect. There is one satisfaction: if the player-
piano does afford the tendency to play music without expres-
sion, it will at least play it perfectly. No doubt six out of every
ten of your neighbors who play by hand do not play a single
piece perfectly. In fact, what I often hear is absolute butchery
of music, and after you get a player-piano and study music your-
self you will realize this as you never did before. If any one
reads a poem in a sing-song manner, neither the poem nor the
author would be to blame. Music, just like literature, has its
pauses, inflections, modulation, etc. The operator has the same
advantage of punctuation, modulation, gradual increase or de-
crease of volume, a sudden crescendo and artistic expression in
playing by the pedals as if he played by the keyboard. I had a
man come to me recently to buy a player from me, because he
had heard his neighbor, to whom I sold, play his player for a
year and never tired hearing it, and he wanted that kind of player.
I informed him that the player he heard was the Standard pneu-
matic mechanism and that he could learn to play it with the same
expression as his neighbor. Another of my customers was re-
cently complimented by his neighbor's wife through his wife for
being an accomplished pianist, not knowing that the composi-
tion they heard was being played by the pedals on a piano with
the Standard pneumatic action.
Smith: I think I should rather have a talking machine than
a player.
Jones: The talking machine fills an important place as a
source of amusement in the home. But it never was meant, nor
can it take the place of the player-piano. Its purpose and influ-
ences are altogether different. The player-piano affords you end-
less possibilities for personal effort; the talking machine none.
Fts utility diminishes as the novelty wears off unless you keep
up the interest by buying expensive records continuously. You
want something to do, and the player-piano fills the bill. You
study dynamics, the amount of force needed to prolong certain
tones or produce others with a soft staccato or a sudden crash ;
you cultivate the ability to produce soft, mellow, singing tones
and read the perforations and expression marks of the music roll
just as a pianist interprets the notes and other signs of the sheet
music. In a very short time you are able to tell by the perfora-
tions what kind of notes will be played ; whether they will be
high or low, short or long, runs or trills, etc. You do not dismiss
your ideals and tread a player as you would a bicycle; you study
the composition, become familiar with its history, its meaning,
its interpretation just as you would with the language of a coun-
try. It is a never-ending, most interesting and pleasing study.
That is why the old compositions of the player roll are ever new.
There is no novelty to wear out like that of the talking machine
record. Player rolls are also very cheap. You can buy a hand
played composition, reproduced from the playing of the artist
just as talking machine records are produced, as low as 25 cents.
When you have learned to understand your player and realize
that you can produce good music perfectly and artistically in-
stead of crippling it as is done mostly by hand playing, there is
a thrill of satisfaction which makes you one of the most enthusi-
astic musicians in your community. At evening you forget all
of the day's trials by sitting down to the player and playing those
old-time songs, ballads and classics which take you back in
memory to the happy days of your childhood.
Smith: I presume the player-piano is all right and I may get
one after I get the automobile.
Jones: The automobile has its advantages and disadvantages