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PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 25, 1922
The National Player Week Campaign
The Proposed Plan to Feature Player-Pianos Aggressively During an Entire Week in April Is a Move in the Right Direction
and Should Be Backed Up With Co-operative Effort on the Part of Every Salesman and Dealer
in the Trade—How the Player Should Be Presented to the Prospect
It is proposed to hold a National Player-piano
Week, in the course of which the promoters of
the enterprise expect to open up a large and
hitherto untouched quantity of interest in the
player-piano and of desire for its possession.
The idea is highly admirable and The Music
Trade Review hereby pledges its hearty support
to the principle involved.
How to work out that principle in practical
form is not, however, the easiest of problems,
and what we shall here say may be regarded as
tentative and as designed rather to clear the
ground than to lay down any fixed rules.
We have in these columns consistently argued,
during the storm and stress of the last few
years, that the foot-expression player-piano, as
we find it so aptly named in the M. Schulz Co.'s
advertisement in the present issue of The Re-
view, is the backbone of the player business.
We have always maintained, because we have
never seen any good evidence in contradiction,
that the way to make the player-piano popular
is to make it appeal primarily to the intelligent
effort of the prospective purchaser. We have
pointed out always that the automobile owes
the larger part of its enormous popularity to the
personal power it gives; to the sense of per-
sonal control over a great and powerful mechan-
ism; to the stimulus which arises from the knowl-
edge that a touch of the lever releases all the
chained forces of a splendid and ingenious piece
of engineering. If a professional driver were
always needed, if the ajnateur driver could not.
for any reason, control and drive his own auto-
mobile, then, entirely apart from any question
ot expense, the automobile would be much less
popular than it is.
The Sense of Pleasure and Power
The sense of pleasure and of power which is
imparted by an ability—no matter how modest—
to play acceptably the player-piano, furnishes to
the intelligent salesman a weapon which is un-
excelled for effectiveness. The selling problem
presented to ~the salesman is simply the problem
of bringing together in the consciousness of the
prospect the understanding that the player-piano
is a desirable possession, with the confidence
that the charm of personally producing music
by its use can be enjoyed by any normal person
without tiresome effort. The problem of the
salesman is the problem of intelligent demonstra-
tion.
That, of course, is only another way of saying
that the sale of a player-piano is made when the
prospect can see as clearly as the salesman him-
self that music is a joy to be immediately
possessed and of which the possession will never
disappoint, never pall, never become stale. Con-
sequently, since it is music that the salesman is
selling it follows that every type of player-piano
may be included within the terms of this argu-
ment. It is as much a matter of demonstration
with the reproducing piano as with the automatic
expression piano, as much with the latter as with
the foot-expression player-piano.
Intelligent
salesmanship—that is to say, intelligent demon-
stration—is quite as much a necessity in the one
case as in the other, simply because in each and
every case the need is to acquaint the prospect
with the joys of music. When once this has been
done the prospect is sold and it matters nothing,
from the abstract point of view, whether the sale
is of an instrument to be personally controlled
or of one which works as soon as the electric
current has been turned on.
Player-piano Demonstration Week, then, should
be a week devoted to the exhibition of the most
intelligent salesmanship, which means the most
intelligent demonstration. Let us look at some
practical aspects of the case.
Good and Bad Demonstration
It still remains true that the foot-expression
player-piano is the popular instrument in its field.
The problem of selling it is a problem of demon-
stration and of nothing else. The object of the
salesman in demonstrating is twofold. He must
show that the instrument is capable of produc-
ing good music, and he must show that it can
be played acceptably by one who has had no
special training and no special background save
a liking for music. If he demonstrates so as to
give the notion to the prospect that the foot-
work, for instance, involves much effort, he will
frighten away women and children. If he places
undue emphasis upon the manipulation of levers
and buttons he frightens away not only women
and children, but men, too. He must, therefore,
proceed carefully. If he is wise he will perceive
that the crux of the matter is to be found in the
manipulation of the treadles. If he will study
his instrument he will soon find that by taking
long, slow, easy strokes he can produce ample
power for all ordinary playing, while a sharp,
short, easy, effortless stroke will produce all ac-
cents needed for acceptable playing.
He will, in short, regard the foot-treadles as
his main resource in playing and will treat the
finger-levers or buttons on his left hand as sim-
ply what, in fact, they are, namely, the player-
piano's substitutes for the right and left-hand
pedals of the manually played piano.
The manipulation of the tempo-lever is another
matter for which he must look out. If he yields
to his own sense of skill and phrases too finely
the consequent movements of the tempo-lever
will be regarded by the untutored customer with
a dismay which no amount of subsequent explana-
tion is likely to assuage. It is far better, there-
fore, to use for demonstration music which is
hand-played, but not complex in rhythm. For
instance, unless a prospect obviously demands it,
there is more of loss than of gain of sales power
in beginning the demonstration with a lot of
noisy dance music. A simple, familiar air that
will sound as if the piano were being "played by
hand" is the best sort of music for demonstrat-
ing to the average prospect.
But at the first possible moment the prospect
should be got on to the bench with his or her
feet on the pedals. There with a few simple in-
structions and a few rolls of music the intelli-
gent salesman will leave his prospect. The
player-piano will do the rest. If it is not good
enough to do its own selling, then it is not a very
good player-piano.
The Case of the Reproducer
With the reproducing piano or the automatic
expression piano the case is somewhat different,
but not different in principle, only in detail. Here
the object is to make the prospect see that the
reproduction or the rendition is really artistic.
It is silly to waste time in talking about the
artist's personality, for very few are interested
in that, nor is there much use in trying to get
up enthusiasm about the reproduction of certain
mannerisms of an artist. Few, if any, care about
that. What they care about is either the general
high-classness of the instrument or the novelty
and beauty of the musical result. Sometimes it is
both in one. But the job of demonstrating is the
job of concentrating attention upon the results
obtained. If these results appeal as represent-
ing fairly an artistic manipulation of the piano
then the prospect may safely be left to play
with the instrument until he or she is ready to
say, "How much?"
These thoughts, suggested by the admirable
idea of a National Player Demonstration Week,
as announced by the Standard Pneumatic Action
Co., are respectfully submitted in the hope that
they may be useful in preparing the thoughts
of salesmen for the week of April 15.
PHOTO PLAYER CO. MEETING
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., February 18.—At the an-
nual meeting of the stockholders of the Ameri-
can Photo Player Co., held at the executive of-
fices, the officers of the previous year were re-
elected and the usual 7 per cent preferred quar-
terly dividend was declared for 1922.
The president, H. J. Werner, in a general re-
view of the organ situation, predicted that 1922
should be a prosperous year for the company,
as evidenced by the repeat orders received.
Boosters for home industry products will wel-
come the fact that the Fotoplayer and the Robert-
Morton pipe organ, manufactured by the Ameri-
can Photo Player Co., are receiving unusual
recognition throughout the world.
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