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THE
8
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
OCTOBER 28,
1922
Keeping Interest in the Player Alive
What the Salesman and the Tuner Can Do to Solve the Problem of the "Silent Player" by Instructing the Owner in
the Proper Uses of the Instrument and Its Various Control Devices—Maintaining the
Owner's Interest an Important Part of the Selling Problem
If a man or woman buys an automobile the
salesman, or someone designated by him, sees
to it that the purchaser is fully instructed in
the operation of the car, because such knowl-
edge is obligatory under the law before the
owner can drive the vehicle in the public streets;
if a vacuum cleaner is bought someone is on
hand at the customer's home to explain in
detail the proper manner of operating it; if a
piece of factory machinery is bought the manu-
facturer sends an expert to explain the proper
method of using it, and yet the player-piano,
as a general rule, is delivered at the home and
no further effort is made to see that the pur-
chaser has any instruction at all in the method
of operating it to procure the best results.
It is assumed by the average piano salesman
that the player-piano is so simple to operate
that a course of instruction is not necessary
and yet the fact that such instruction is not
given in every case is largely responsible for
the fact that owners grow tired of their players
and are not inclined to recommend that friends
purchase similar instruments.
So far as the pumping goes, the operation of
the player is simple. The purchaser inserts the
roll, a very simple procedure, moves the lever
shifting the gears to playing position and then,
by pressing the feet on the pedals, gets some
sort of music. But there is much to the opera-
tion of the player beyond the simple process
of making the roll move over the tracker. The
proper observance of the expression marks on
the rolls, the correct use of the various control
levers and buttons, regulating the tempo and
dynamics, and the means for controlling the
expression in some measure by the pressure
on the pedals, should all be explained in detail
to the new player owner in order that he may
be able to get the greatest musical benefit from
his instrument.
It is all well enough to declare that the
music rolls of to-day are so cut that one simply
needs to set the tempo at the proper mark and
operate the levers, or buttons, controlling the
hammer rail in accordance with the roll mark-
ings to get perfect results. It is because of
this belief that the neighbors of many player-
MUSICALLY SPEAKING
(Continued from page 7)
of piano playing can be marvelously promoted
by judicious use of the player-piano, both in
the teacher's studio and at the child's home.
Pianist vs. Musician
Still, as we said before, piano playing, con-
sidered as a matter of keyboard technique, is
not the end and aim of music study. For one
who will ever become a decent pianist there are
ten who might become first-rate player-pianists,
true musicians of the pneumatic and the pedals.
Any first-rate player-pianist is more likely to
be a well-informed musical connoisseur, in re-
spect of familiarity with musical literature and
ability to form judgments as to the value of any
work presented for consideration, than the ordi-
nary pianist or violinist, mentally desiccated by
a long course in finger gymnastics.
The field for the player-piano in musical edu-
cation has only been lightly cultivated, but the
field is already white to the harvest. May the
laborers in it some day be many. Meanwhile,
let us be glad that a pioneer has already entered
at one end of it, with scythe and sickle ready
for the threshing.
owners have reached a point where they con-
template anything ranging from felonious as-
sault to murder on the offending musician and
have been so annoyed by the sameness of the
music produced that they have been killed as
player prospects for years, if not forever.
From both a business and artistic standpoint,
it is little short of criminal to sell a new player-
piano without giving the purchaser minute in-
structions as to how to get the most out of it.
Perhaps he is a jazz fiend and is perfectly satis-
fied to grind out jazz rolls as is, and without
expression, but, at least, he should be given
the opportunity of doing better things with the
instrument. By far the greater number of pur-
chasers will appreciate the instruction service
and profit thereby to their own advantage, as
well as to the advantage of the house selling
the instrument.
How the Salesman Can Benefit
The average salesman does not appear to be
inclined to spend a few hours at the home of
his customer after the sale, demonstrating the
instrument and explaining its operation, for
when the contract is signed he feels that the
deal is closed and he is through. Yet more
than one successful salesman has won success
through doing that very thing. When the
player-piano is new the owner is naturally proud
of it and for the first few weeks at least there
is rarely an evening when some friends are not
invited in to hear it play. If the salesman is on
the job two or three evenings he comes in con-
tact with these friends, is able to demonstrate
for them when they are not on their guard
against the salesman, and has a strong booster
in the new owner. As a producer of prospects
there is no system that works better.
Where the Tuner Can Help
That the piano tuner can be a decided factor
in keeping the player owner satisfied and in
arousing a fresh interest in the instrument on
the part of those who have gotten tired of it
was made evident by a number of tuners in
articles submitted in a recent contest. The
tuner goes into the home some months at least
after the instrument has been installed and fre-
quently finds a disgusted owner. If hg is not
simply satisfied to put the player in good shape,
but takes sufficient interest to acquaint the
customer with its workings and explain the
value of being able to get the most real music
out of the better class of rolls in his library,
then the trade as a whole is benefited.
It is all well enough to suggest that the cus-
tomer purchase a fair proportion of better-class
rolls with the idea of weaning him away from
tiresome jazz, or that a number of good rolls
be included in the original assortment. That
method will accomplish no results unless the
buyer is given instructions in the operation of
the instrument to get the proper results with
the good rolls.
There have been suggestions made at various
times that schools be established to teach the
proper operation of the player, and, in fact, at
least one bold spirit tried to put the plan into
execution. The fact remains, however, that in
buying a player-piano the purchaser is making
an investment sufficiently large to entitle him
to free instruction regarding the operation of
the player, if only for the purpose of keeping
him satisfied and turning him into a booster,
instead of a knocker, for the instrument.
The Wisdom of Instruction Obvious
Even in cases where the cheaper players are
sold the wisdom and necessity of seeing that
the purchasers are properly instructed in their
use cannot be overlooked, for the owners of
the cheaper grades of players can be turned
into boosters or knockers for the instrument
according to their understanding of its opera-
tion and their ability to get proper results from
it. The point is not to be lost sight of that
the proportion of lower-priced players in use
is greater than that of costlier instruments and,
therefore, their misuse through ignorance is
calculated to have a bad effect not only upon
instruments of the same grade, but upon pos-
sible sales of more expensive instruments to
neighbors who are better off financially.
The advent and success of the reproducing
piano has had a tendency in some quarters to
turn attention away from the ordinary type of
player-piano, the salesmen devoting much of
their energies to pushing the reproducing in-
strument because of the larger amounts involved
and therefore the larger commissions. The ordi-
nary player-piano, however, the foot-power in-
strument, is still a big factor in the trade and
will undoubtedly remain so until the repro-
ducing pianos make very substantial gains.
The Salesmen Should Know Their Product
At the recent school for piano salesmen in
New York it was found that some of the sales-
men themselves were wofully ignorant regard-
ing the structural details and the proper opera-
tion of player-pianos. It might be well, there-
fore, to see that salesmen are qualified to
operate and demonstrate player-pianos properly
in order that they may be in a position to pass
oh correct information to their customers.
To be popular, any article, whether it is a
player-piano, an automobile, a piece of music,
or a book, must be understood and the popu-
larity is most likely to increase in direct ratio
with the increase in understanding. The solu-
tion of the problem of keeping player owners
interested and arousing fresh interest in those
who have tired of their instruments lies quite
as much in a campaign of education to teach
them how to produce really worth-while musical
effects with the equipment at hand as it docs
in the producing of music rolls so cut as to
make their reproduction a purely automatic
proposition.
This work of instruction is distinctly up to
the salesman who closes the contract, whether
he spends his own time in teaching the player
owner how to operate his instrument, or
whether arrangements have been made to
have some one else provide the necessary train-
ing. The cost of such instruction, either in
money or time, is certain to be more than re-
paid in the results accomplished.
AMPICO BEFOREJM*OMINENT ACTORS
Appears in Concert With Daisy Jean, 'Cellist,
at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, New York
A distinguished group of stage folk heard
Daisy Jean, Belgian 'cellist and soprano, and
the Ampico in concert at the Hotel Waldorf-
Astoria, New York, on the afternoon of October
13. Among those in the audience were Zelda
Sears, Ruth Chatterton, Dorothy Francis, Henry
Savage, James Forbes and Harold Levy, the
composer. The Ampico not only accompanied
Miss Jean, but likewise had a group to itself,
re-enacting Mischa Levitzki's playing of the
Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody.
P I A >4 O S
AND
P LA.V E R S