Music Trade Review

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THE
JULY 30, 1921
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Lay-out and Arrangement of the Various Expression Levers and Buttons
on the Player-piano of To-day Can Be Greatly Improved and Some Suggestions
Along This Line Are Given Herewith for the Consideration of Those Interested
as produced by the bellows. Whatever variants
may exist the above are the important and essen-
tial functions.
A Left-handed Job
Now, when we look at the lay-out of almost
any player-piano almost anywhere we find that
to the right hand is assigned one duty only,
namely, the duty of controlling the speed of the
motor through a finger-lever. To the left hand,
which in most persons is a much less efficient
organ, are assigned all the other functions, sus-
taining, accenting, diminishing. It is perfectly
true that as the motor control is usually worked
out the right hand has plenty to do in manipu-
lating the tempo-lever, but this condition of
affairs is the result solely of the carelessness of
the designers. There is no reason why the
A Polite Scolding
Now, the practical engineers to whom .this tempo-lever should not be combined with an-
page is addressed will have to submit themselves other function, as shall be noticed hereafter.
to a little polite "bawling out." For the fact
On the other hand, it is obvious at once that
is that there would be no cause to-day for any the left hand has far too much to do. The
complaint in the matters referred to if the pianist has a foot engaged in the one task of
mechanical men had consulted with musicians pedaling the damper-control. He has another
before they put their first machines on the mar- foot for the softening pedal. The player-pianist
ket. As it was, the mechanical men arranged the must control these contradictory or at least not
levers where they thought they would go in most correlative functions with one and the same hand,
handily and left the rest to chance. Which and often do two things simultaneously with
precisely is where the whole affair has remained separate fingers of that hand, which to do prop-
ever since.
erly would need the entire hand devoted to each
Let us look at this matter in a practical way. one by itself. The natural result is that not
The player-pianist has to do certain things, one person in twenty ever masters the use of
partly with his feet, partly with his hands. With the sustaining or the contrast devices, which in
the former he has to control the bellows through a majority of cases are either not used at all or
the treadles. Both feet are occupied fully in are used clumsily and wrongly.
this work. With his hands he has to control
Now, here are some suggestions which the
three separate sets of machinery. He has to mechanical gentlemen of the player business are
control the speed of the motor. He has also to invited to think over, to the end that they may
control the damper-lifting device. And, lastly, make up their minds about their practicability.
he has to control some sort of tone-diminishing One word of warning should first be given. It
apparatus, whether in the shape of a divided would be decidedly unfair to judge these sug-
hammer-rail lift, worked by levers or buttons, or gestions without trying them. As a matter of
in that of a control over the pneumatic pressure fact the writer has actually tried them in prac-
Last month in this department a few words
were said about the absurdities, mechanical and
musical, of the expression lay-out, meaning by
that term the set of buttons and levers which
are placed before the player-pianist to enable
him to control the various devices of his in-
strument. The subject is becoming continually
more important because for the first time in
years there is a general tendency towards mak-
ing the player-piano a real musical instrument
and towards teaching the people how to play it.
One is not prepared to predict how far this
process may continue, but one has hopes. Yet,
it is perfectly certain that some reforms must
first be accomplished and one of them is in this
very matter of lay-out.
Are You Overlooking the Local Composer?
Every town has its own successful com'
posers whose works are well known locally-
You can profitably make player rolls of
these numbers with a
tice and knows from experience that they work
wonderfully well.
In the first place it ought to be understood
from the very start that the true function of the
tempo-lever is to control phrasing rather than
mere speed. And the function of the damper-
control is to impart to the tones of the piano a
singing quality. This being the case the tempo-
lever must be arranged so that it can be moved
as rapidly as required without any sense of
effort. That is the first requirement.
The Damper-control
But the damper-control must be equally deli-
cate. In order to' attain to a genuine mastery
of the resources of the damper-control the
player-pianist must have from the start a com-
plete control over the apparatus. He cannot
work this control acceptably through a pneu-
matic. The direct feel of a mechanical lever
under his finger or hand can alone give him the
instantaneous and delicate hold on the dampers
which he needs. Let the mechanic understand
at the start of his consideration of this problem
that mastery of the dampers involves several
methods of lifting them from the strings and
letting them fall. I have set forth a wealth of
facts about this matter from the musician's point
of view in recent issues of The Review and shall
refer the mechanic to them for confirmation of
what I say here. You cannot have masterly
playing without direct mechanical control over
the damper, through a lever and not through a
(Continued on page 10)
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