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MUSIC TI^DE
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 22, 1919
The Increasing Demand for Small Upright Pianos Will Eventually Result in a
Similar Call for Player-Pianos of Comparatively Small Dimensions, and Some
Thoughts on the Manufacture and Retailing of the Same Are Given Herewith
; The scouts or reporters or whatsoever one
wishes to call the gentlemen whose business it
is to find out what is going on in the piano
industry and relate the same for the benefit of
the readers of The Review are telling us that
a> sudden demand for small upright pianos is
being noticed "everywhere." If we except cer-
tain rural districts, indeed, some of which ap-
pear to be situated within the New England
region, this term "everywhere" appears to apply
very accurately. One cannot but be pleased at
the condition of public taste thus realized. One
cannot but feel that the time has long been ripe
for the production of a smaller standard type of
piano, and of player-piano, too. The produc-
tion of such a type has, of course, waited upon
the development of a public demand.
Now
that such a taste has begun to develop it is to
be hoped that we shall see a healthy expansion
of it.
;.
What About the Player-Piano?
How should the growing public taste for
smaller sizes in upright pianos affect the player-
piano? So far as one can see, the latter instru-
ment may easily develop in a parallel direction
There are many advantages to be found in the
development of a small player-piano. Some of
tfiese must be considered from a technical point
o!f view; other are commercial mainly. Let us
consider a few of the latter.
(*
The Big Upright
We all know, of course, that one of the rea-
sons for the development of the huge upright,
which is not yet entirely extinct, was the once
universal conviction on the part of the agrarian
element in our population that the, value of a
piano depended on its size. There was a time,
in a word, when the American farmer and small
town dweller would not buy an upright smaller
than the instrument in his neighbor's home. In
those days, therefore, pianos were bought by the
pound. This prejudice in favor of bulk has, of
course, been perpetuated with the player-piano,
partly for the reason given above, but also by
the fact that early players were necessarily made
very bulky on account of the then state of the
pineumatic art.
• •..
•••'"
Arguments for the Small Player
*'Now the prejudice in favor of bulk is disap-
pearing of its own accord, and we are finding
that small pianos will sell on their merits. Will
stnall player-pianos sell on the same basis?
•It may, we think, be fairly argued that they
$111.
In the first place, the wise dealer will
s.Ce the advantage of having a line of instru-
ments which certainly look much more artistic
than the huge erections of yesterday. The small
player-piano looks better, when set in an apart-
ment it is more proportioned to the other fur-
niture in a room, it weighs less, is more easily
handled, and, altogether, has a much better ap-
pearance from a selling point of view. No dif-
ference need be made in the height of the in-
strument from standard upright models on ac-
count of the player action, nor need the changes
required extend any further than a very slight
increase in the depth from front to-back. The
mechanism need not be changed in the slightest
through any cutting down in the height and
width of the upright piano—that is, any cutting
down within reason. The kind of small upright
piano we are thinking of is from four feet one.
to four feet four inches in height, and within
these limits the above statements hold good.
The Question of Tone
Now, of course, the customer will consider the
question of tone, or at least will have some
ideas on the subject.
It is unfortunately true
that very few buyers of player-pianos care any-
thing at all for piano tone as such. Their aim
in life, musically speaking, seems to be accom-
plished when they can get a lot of noise out of
their player-piano.
Here they may be reas-
sured, for the dealer can quickly show by com-
parison with a larger instrument that tonally
there is nothing to choose between the two. Of
course, if you make an upright piano as high as
a small grand is long, with every inch occupied
in giving the largest possible sound board area
and the longest possible bass strings, you will
get more sound than you get from a small up-
right, but the truth is that no player action made
can evoke from the sound board and strings
of a very large piano all the tone volume which
can be drawn from it by a thoroughly expert
pianist. The small player-piano then will not
suffer on the score of tone.
The Importance of Quality
The dealer, however, should realize that while,
in pushing the small player-piano, he is pushing
an instrument much better looking and attrac-
tive, and therefore much more salable from that
point of view, he must also be prepared to show
how this small instrument is completely as well
or better made, and that it is worth as much
money as the other. This means that he must
confine his selling of small player-pianos to in-
struments of the best grades, and here he will
find himself in safe harbors. It is easy enough
to sell a small instrument at a fair price when
one compares it with bigger ones of lower grade.
The fact is, of course, that the tendency among
all makers of good pianos is to cut down the size
of the uprights all around and make their bigger
instruments as small grands. That is a logical
policy and one which is dictated by the logic of
the situation, for it is evidently not at all a wise
thing to make large uprights in competition with
the better, more musically satisfying and more
profitable small grand. Therefore, seeing how
the small grand is coming along it would be
absurd in the manufacturers and in the dealers,
too, not to get rid of the large upright and the
large player-piano as well.
From other points of view one sees that the
small player-piano should be pushed as much
as possible during the coming few years.
It
may be set down as an axiom in the first place
that the small player-piano can be just as sat-
isfactory as the larger one. It may be assumed
that on comparison with other styles the cus-
tomer will be convinced that there is nothing
to apologize for in the tone of the small player,
while in appearance it is ever so much better.
It becomes therefore a question of how far one
should attempt to educate one's public into over-
coming their prejudices in favor of the bulky
instruments.
Competition With the Grand
On the whole, one is inclined to say that, as
the small grand is the most profitable style of
straight piano to push just now, no upright
should be pushed which seems to compete with
the grand in size. By a parallel line of argu-
ment it would appear that the large player-
piano should also be relegated to the back-
ground, for the general public cannot be ex-
pected to distinguish between the two from a
technical standpoint, nor to realize that the
player-piano is a distinct genus.
So long as
the store is filled with large uprights, whether
they be player-pianos or not, the sale of small
grands is to that extent hindered. The small
grand likewise is being developed as a player*-
piano and in many ways the development is pro-
ceeding most satisfactorily.
Just as the large
upright should be superseded by the small grand
among the better makes, so also the player grand
should be brought in wherever the demand is
for a large player-piano.
There is just one more reason.
If we sell
small uprights and confine our selling of large
stuff as much as possible to grands, whether
straight or players, we shall at least be more
logical. We shall then, in a way, but in the
right way, be selling on a bulk basis and charg-
ing more for size, only in this case we shall
be acting logically.