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NOVEMBER 26,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1921
Wherein the Editor of This Player Section Serves Up His Monthly Portion
of Wit and Wisdom,/Trusting That the Wittiness of His Wit and the Wiseness
of His Wisdom Will Merit the Approval and Win the Interest of the Reader
Neglected or Found Out?
We hear disquieting news. If some wise men
are to be believed the small grand piano is get-
ting ahead of the player. Now, we have not
the least intention of becoming excited over this
rumor, for even if it turns out to be true no one
will be hurt. But there is really something else
much more important behind the whole matter.
If it be really true, as some have said, that
the player-piano is not keeping up its stride
proportionately to the small grand, then one
or both of two possible alternatives are true.
Either, that is to say, the salesmanship of the
industry is being attracted by the small grand
as it is no longer being attracted by the player,
or else the player-piano is failing to hold the
public through some demerit of its own which
the public is now coming to understand. The
player, in a word, is either being neglected or
found out. Which is it? In either case we are
forced to do some rather violent thinking.
The writer of these paragraphs is not willing to
assume the office of Cassandra nor does he pro-
pose to cry "Wolf!" Criers of "Wolf!" com-
monly succeed in drawing upon themselves the
curses of those whom they began by deceiving
and ended by failing to warn. Cassandras never
come to a good end. The cheerful liar, who
smiles that all is for the best in the best of all
possible worlds, is always more welcome than
the gloomy, if more accurate, Jeremiah, who is
quite certain that all is for the worst in the
worst of all possible worlds. Both are wrong,
of course, but the first gets the applause of the
crowd. We, indeed, decline to be gloomy. But
we shall be given, as the French say, furiously
to think.
The Lovely Little Thing
We have the greatest admiration for the small
grand. It is a lovely little thing, the best exam-
ple of architectural and mechanical skill which
the music industries have known since the mar-
vclously beautiful grands, which succeeded the
harpsichords of the eighteenth century. The
massive engineering achievements which grace
our concert stages to-day are not a bit like the
graceful creations which Broadwood, Streicher
and Kirkman made a hundred years ago for
the beauty and the talent of the Regency. But
the little grand of to-day reproduces in a dif-
ferent genre those charming old instruments. It
is beautiful to look upon and beautiful to the ear
as well. It deserves all the praises which can
be lavished upon it. No wonder the salesmen
like it. They ought to like it, too. They ought
to sell it with enthusiasm and in numbers which
would keep every factory humming all the year
around. But, even so, why should there be any
decline in player-piano popularity, if, indeed, such
•a decline is manifesting itself? Offhand, we
should be inclined to doubt the manifestation.
But the statement has been made and apparently
is believed by a good many persons whose opin-
ions are worthy of consideration. For which
reason it is up to us to inquire why? The
player-piano ought to be a complement to and
associate of the small grand. The one ought not
to interfere with the other. There is not the
least reason why the one should be regarded
as a rival of the other, or why both should not
always be equally prosperous. When we hear
salesmen, and merchants, too, saying that the
player-piano is not maintaining its lead and that
the small grand or any other sort of piano is
surpassing it we know there is something wrong
somewhere. If it were a - case of the grand sur-
passing the upright in sales, or the small grand
surpassing the larger grand in popularity, or
something like that, the explanation would be
simple. But the player-piano ought no more
to depend upon, or have to do with, the success
or non-success of any other piano than chalk
ought to be affected by cheese.
The Merchants, Not the Makers
lf the foot-power player-pianos should e v e
lose their popularity and subside into oblivion
the fault would be with the merchants—with
the retail trade. It would not be with the manu-
facturers, save indirectly and to a very slight
extent. The manufacturers have done their best
to give the merchants the sort of player-piano
which the latter said they had to have. The
manufacturers have, indeed, often been unduly
anxious to please the retailers, and have done
things against their own technical judgment
rather than displease the merchant and perhaps
lose business. Yet in most cases it would have
been far better if the manufacturers had stood
firm and declined to be led by the whims or
notions of men less capable than themselves of
judging what would or would not be popular
iinally with the people. The merchants, there-
fore, have the whole case in their own hands.
If the player-piano should ever decline the
fault would be theirs. They have had their
own way with the player-piano, and if they can-
not make it go, as the saying is, they are to
blame. Now, if they, or any of them, cannot,
or ever have been unable, to make it go, the
fault is easily found. The vital point is demon-
stration. Good demonstration sells the player-
piano, which cannot be sold save by good dem-
onstration. Poor demonstration spoils the sales
of player-pianos and poor demonstration has
been the cause of any trouble the player-piano
has ever had in the way of popularity. If we
had had good demonstration consistently from
the first a good many of the expensive experi-
ments which have been made would never have
had to be made. The foot-power player-piano
is, and can easily always remain, the easiest
player-piano to sell and the most popular. Its
price is moderate, it is easy to understand, its
mechanism does not easily get out of order and
it is capable of extremely high degrees of ex-
pressiveness. But it must be rightly demon-
strated and the purchaser must be shown how
to work it intelligently. When merchants cease
advertising the silly and lazy lie that the player-
piano needs no intelligence there will be a great
revival. Demonstration is the key to all player-
piano selling.
The Wise "Reproducing" Men
This simple fact is thoroughly well under-
slood in the camps of those ingenious and thor-
ough salesmen who are so rapidly pushing the
reproducing piano to the front. Little as the
superficial thinker may imagine it to be neces-
sary, demonstration is the very foundation of
the successful sale of the reproducing piano.
What the reproducing piano does is so remark-
able, and the possibility of its actual achieve-
ments so little understood, that the ordinary
person can simply not believe the claims that
are made for it. He or she can scarcely even
believe when the demonstration is made, unless
the utmost care is taken to explain each step
and to show the hearer what is to be looked
for, what is being done and what can be done.
The salesmen who are to sell reproducing pianos
are trained to their job. They have every kind
of assistance. The manufacturers have organ-
ized this branch of their business most intelli-
{C on tinned on page 8)
l/oucantcjo wronq
with any Jeistsong"
> SNAPPY BIT OF SYNCOPATION
AS GOOD AS
HEAR IT
LEADING ~
ORCHESTRAS
EVERYWHERE
THE FAMOUS
*WANG WANG BLUES*