Music Trade Review

Issue: 1922 Vol. 74 N. 12

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
8
DEALERS ENTHUSE OVER PLAYER DEMONSTRATION WEEK
Nearly Three Thousand Dealers Already Supplied With Necessary Literature—Standard Pneumatic
Action Co. Issues Complete Prospectus Outlining Details of the Campaign
National Player-piano Demonstration Week, rence, advertising manager of the Standard
which will take place April 15-22, promises to be Pneumatic Action Co., New York, who has been
one of the most successful promotion campaigns actively engaged in promoting this campaign. A
YOU CAN NOW PLAY MUSIC
£ven though yo\ir fingers
have not been trained to
strike the notes from the
printed score
'
a .*
£^jl|Mi« w i 1 miiirr ™**
You Don't Need
Much Money to
A Miracle Has Been Accomplished!
The Eighth Wonder of the World!
A New Playerpiano! Is Here!
Own a Playerpiano
NOW
ders of the age It enables you to play music so
perfectly that a critic, blindfolded, would think a
skilled musician were playing
You Become an Accomplished Mu
ew Playerpiano. you bet
$484
The
Wonderful Ne -Pl.y crpi« no
Happinen n Mun j W . y*
Cre
.„.
1
VVnli it the tired busines s man mav
t 0«f
the bu sy uay H e
the cares «ryi *
may re-create hi s old. f vorite SOCES- -and
thes
and rests the wea ried mi d .
I
Music is the de Igllt Of child en's pa ties.
uth rn cts to c njoy
where carefree, h
all the mirth of i nnocent childh ood. Y sung
children can pla with e ase. a 1 the d
dance music, or he song s they love SO well
to sing
With the new P ayerp.a. o. one may ac o m -
The
pany at first sig
anged a will o folio* t h e
singer's inlcrpre ation.
X
* •
With it. anyone is able
ompany the
pbyins of a « cond in sir urn
tnems Popular " s o n i " "
as the nost
diftkull.opeiai.
mble
and with all the techniq, c ol h and pla
s. The Playerpiano aids the music •cache a n d
supplements his work by g ving a an
example, for the
ing of an accomplished pianist —mean vhile
Biding his entire
(o the pupil T h e
Playerpiano offe " ' l i m ' i i ess possibilili
all music teachin
Formerly $595
You Save $111
MARCH 25, 1922
to the present writing, 2,750 dealers have been
supplied with sales literature and the orders
which are to be filled will swell this number to
approximately 3,500 dealers. Of the total num-
ber of 1,000,000 mailing folders, 875,000 have al-
ready been distributed, as well as 25,000 window
streamers. Of the sixteen newspaper ads which are
in the prospectus of the campaign, 1,000 copies
have been distributed, and it is estimated that
2,500 dealers will use special Player-piano Dem-
onstration Week newspaper space. Some are
contemplating using full pages similar to the one
reproduced in the accompanying illustration. Al-
ready seventy-five of these have been furnished
to dealers.
Among some of lite well-known dealers who
are to take part in this campaign are: (irinncll
Bros., Detroit, and branch stores; J. I,. Hudson
Co., Detroit; I.yon & llealy, Chicago; I'hilip
Wcrlein, New Orleans; (iimbel Bros., Milwaukee;
Rudolph Wurlitzer, Chicago; McDowell & Casta-
tor, Ponca City, Okla.; Schroeder Piano Co., of
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pa.; Knight-Camp-
bell Co., Denver, Col.; John Church Co., Chi-
cago; Bush it Lane, Seattle; \V. l"\ Krcdcrick. of
Baltimore; Hamman-Levin, Baltimore; Kraus-
gill, of Louisville, Ky.; Thos. (ioggan & Bros.,
San Antonio, Tex.; (ioosman Piano Co., Toledo,
O.; Hopper-Kelly Co, Seattle, and others.
The prospectus sent to the dealers by the
Standard Pneumatic Action Co. is very complete
and includes not only a series of splendid news-
paper advertisements of various sizes in which
human interest copy and illustrations forcefully
advertise the player-piano, but also circular let-
ters which may be used by the dealer, attractive
window streamers, a newspaper story for use in
local dailies, handsome three-color folders for
distribution and a program for recitals, as well
as the offer of prizes for the best Player-piano
Demonstration Week window display. In all the
copy no mention is made of the Standard player
action, so that any of it may be used for any make
of player-piano.
Term* as Low as $1-Weekly
piano
What Muiic Meai
Think what a great deal of
gift will bring to your wile—and to your chil
No longer wilt you have to deprive your childi
weary day's work because you have not the refre:
M.il Tki, Coupon Tuday!
At least, -tome to our store for a demonstration. Your visit
will in no way place you under an obligation to buy
Special
Playerpiano Recital
Free to the Public
Every Afternoon
at 3 o'clock
DAMBOIS IN BENEFIT CONCERT
Will Present Elaborate Program With the Duo-
Art Piano at Aeolian Hall on April 8 for the
Benefit of Underprivileged Boys
ju lo attend a special
Playerpiano. A recital
Maurice Dambois, the noted 'cellist, pianist and
composer, will present an elaborate program in
connection with the Duo-Art piano at Aeolian
Hall on April 8 under the auspices of the Brook-
lyn Rotary Club and for the benefit of the Under-
Sample Advertisement for Use in Player Week Campaign

privileged Boys of Brooklyn. The program will
which has ever heen conducted in the interests of larger number of dealers than ever before have feature Mr. Dambois both as a pianist and 'cellist
musical instruments, according to H. E. Law- become actively interested in the project. Up and in several numbers he will play the piano or
'cello to the accompaniment of his own record-
can be used by any one who sells any kind of a ings as reproduced by the Duo-Art piano.
THE POINT OF VIEW
player-piano to the utmost advantage. And if
(Continued from page 7)
National Player-piano Demonstration Week has
Paul E. Burling, city sales manager of the BusJi
you have to do is to put in a roll and listen" the only one advantage it will surely have this one, it Gcrts Piano Co., of Dallas, Tex., has been
salesman has been guilty of destructive, not of namely, that it will once more bring back to our promoted to vice-president and general manager.
constructive, work. There is a player-piano type industry the great, the essential, the wholly vital
for every human need. How easy it should be to need for a revival of the art of demonstration.
use intelligent classifications of those needs in Reams have already been written on this sub-
going after and selling the various prospects ject, nor is it our intention to compose a fur-
whose names come to the sales manager's atten- ther treatise in this place. What we now say
is simply that the player business was founded
tion!
in demonstration, was built up in demonstration
and in demonstration came to prosperity. During
Player Demonstration Week
the last few years it has suffered a decline, an
These ideas naturally link themselves up with actual decline, not very marked, not very seri-
the idea of National Player-piano Demonstration ous, but a decline nevertheless. It is now hoped
Week, which the Standard Pneumatic Action Co. by many that the decline can be checked through
is promoting, and to which we hereby give our the mere substitution of a modified all-auto-
hearty support. Before the next issue of this matic type. This is not true. The new type
Player Section is off the press the event will have will need demonstration as much as the old did,
come and gone, and perhaps it will then be pos- demonstration just as powerful and intelligent,
sible to draw some moral from its success, what- differing in kind but not in degree. The neglect
ever measure of that commodity it attains to. Upon of intelligent demonstration is responsible for
examining the advertising copy which the Stand- any decline which the pedal-expression player-
San Francisco
New York
ard Pneumatic people have prepared and observ- piano may be suffering. The same error will have
the
same
effect
in
the
parallel
case.
Long
live
Chicago
ing the variety of the directions in which it works
one is impelled to the observation that this copy National Player-piano Demonstration Week!
DEALER'S NAME HERE
lock. Come to see and
FOTOPLAYER
for the finest
Motion Picture
Theatres
The AMERICAN PHOTO
PLAYER CO.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MARCH 25,
1922
9
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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The Measurement of Hammer-velocity Offers the Player Engineer a Wide
Field for Active Experimentation and the Resultant Discoveries Will Do
Much to Evolve Some New Principles of Pneumatic Construction and Design
Two fields for experimentation and research
lie before the pneumatic engineer, neither of
which has as yet been treated with merited re-
spect. It is not at all likely that the mechan-
isms for tone production in the piano will be
subjected to any special modification through
the interposition or influence of the pneumatic
player mechanism, and it is quite certain that
the especial mechanical advantage of that method
—the dynamic value of the variable hammer-
blow—will always be preserved. It therefore be-
comes at once obvious that the pneumatic mech-
anism ought to be developed with especial refer-
ence to this feature and with the purpose of tak-
ing the utmost advantage of its peculiarities.
Already much excellent work has been done
in respect of obtaining variations of air-pres-
sures in the pneumatics, whereby the velocity of
motion of the same in action may correspond-
ingly be varied, either at the will of the human
operator or by automatically controlled pressure-
regulating devices. But there are two incidental
fields which are not yet developed to any extent,
and which deserve a great deal of attention. One
of these relates to the weights to be moved dur-
ing the action of operating the hammers. The
other relates to measurement of hammer-velocity
and the determination of power consumption in
obtaining such velocities.
Measuring Velocities
Every engineer who has examined the piano
action can see at once that the strength of the
hammer-blow, which is variable in (theoretically)
an unlimited number of degrees, is a function of
the velocity of travel of the hammer between the
position of rest and the string. Nor is any argu-
ment needed to convince an engineer that the
only possible way of discovering how exactly to
command these velocities through appropriately
controlled pneumatic mechanisms is to begin by
measuring the velocities themselves. First we
must know what speeds produce certain results,
and then only can we determine the precise de-
sign of the mechanism to be employed in pro-
ducing them.
The player mechanism as now designed is, of
course, the product of empirical experiment. It
performs its functions very well, but it should
perform them even better. At present, when the
human performer is at the pedals, controlling the
air-pressure from moment to moment, according
to the musical needs of the composition he is
interpreting, no great exactness of design is im-
perative. The performer acts in one way upon
the piano and exerts a control quite as powerful
as that exercised more directly by the manual
pianist. But when we consider the automatic-
expression player mechanisms and observe how
necessary it is to eliminate all chance for error
and to take advantage of every mechanical or
physical fact that may assist in making the auto-
matic control more perfect we see how the be-
havior of the piano action under all conditions of
motion ought to form the subject of a special re-
search for the purposes and on the behalf of the
player mechanism.
The Two Principles
The problem involved in measuring the
velocity of a hammer's motion is not very diffi-
cult in principle. It may be considered in two
possible ways. On the one hand, the time inter-
val between the termination of the period of rest
and the contact with the string may be deter-
mined electrically, by means of the regular
chronoscopic system. On the other hand, advan-
tage may be taken of the rebound of the hammer
to test the velocity index by measuring the
amplitude of the rebound. It is obvious thai
much can be said for each of these principles.
The electric measuring system has the advan-
tage that it disturbs least of all the mechanism oi
touch and that therefore the pianist is less likely
to register erroneously or interpret imperfectly
through exposure to unaccustomed and defective
instrumental conditions. But it is a question
whether any form of measurement involving the
calculation of time intervals is as convenient as
one based upon mechanical motion. Of course,
if a series of time-interval registrations arc taken
during the performance of a piece of music the
resulting figures can be platted on a graph which
will show clearly the course of the interpretation
as concerns dynamics. In this way a valuable
check may be obtained upon the action of the ex-
pression mechanism of the player.
(Continued on page 10)
Simple, Accessible Design
Good Workmanship and Materials
Automatic centralizing and
tracking device
Double-acting motor
3-piece valve
Metal tubing, cloth covered
Hardwood construction
"Built to play"
SPECIFY "Pratt R e a d "
OVER 48,000 ALREADY IN USE
The Pratt Read Player Action Co.
Main Office and Factory, Deep River, Conn.
Foreign Office, 21, Mincing Lane, London.

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