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THE
REVIEW
fflJJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXXX11I. No. 18
Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Are., New York, N. Y., Oct. 30, 1926
Single Copies 10 Cwmtm
$2.00 Per Yew
Reproducing Pianos and the National
Promotion Piano Campaign
What Is the Position of the Reproducing Piano, Compared With the Straight Piano in Any Plan for the
Promotion of Piano Sales—Reproducing Piano Is First and Foremost a Piano—The Reproducing
Piano as a Factor in Encouraging Manual Playing of the Keyboard Instrument
D
EALERS are being urged from all quar-
ters to take an interest in the piano-
promotion plans now being formulated
by a committee of eminent manufacturers. As
was pointed out some time ago in this paper,
a majority of this committee consists of men
who are more or less, mostly more, interested
in the player-piano or reproducing piano. No
matter what these gentlemen may decide to do,
then, it will be impossible for them to leave
out of the account the interests of the repro-
ducing piano. This instrument will insist upon
getting into whatever is done in the way of
piano promotion, whether it be through playing
contests, music memory contests in the schools,
or what not. For the reproducing piano is the
piano plus any required number of first-class
musicians to play it, always on hand when
required. Consequently, the reproducing piano
is bound up, inside and out, with any scheme
for reviving interest in the beauties of the
piano, musically and aesthetically considered.
To keep the reproducing piano out of the ac-
count would be impossible, even if this were
desired, which or course it is not.
Where Does It Come In?
Where, then, does the reproducing piano
come in, as compared with the straight piano,
in any plan for general promotion of piano
sales?
The answer seems to be plain. The repro-
. ducing piano is pre-eminently a musical enter-
tainer. To promote the sale of it, it is evident
that interest in music must exist. In fact, the
existence of such interest is a natural pre-
supposition. Whatever, then, may be done in
the way of general musical education must
benefit the reproducing piano. So much is evi-
dent from the start.
But will the emphasis now being placed upon
piano-playing contests have any effect upon
the sale of the reproducing piano? There are
two sides to this question, both of which need
examination.
In the first place, the piano-playing contest
will bring out a great deal of latent talent,
will encourage thousands to pursue their
musical studies and will encourage equal num-
bers of fathers and mothers to consider seri-
ously the purchase of a piano. To that extent,
then, the effect of the piano-playing contests
will be to promote the sale of straight pianos.
But this is not all the truth, though it is true.
For the reproducing piano is first and fore-
most a piano. One of the points often forgotten
OME discussion has arisen in the trade
regarding the position of the reproduc-
ing piano in any national promotional cam-
paign designed to develop a wider interest
in the piano. The discussion is mostly based
on illusionary competitive factors which in
no case are likely to arise, but which if they
should be brought up can easily be disposed
of by the dealer, as is shown in the article
on this page. A realization of the true posi-
tion of the reproducing piano should be a
part of the equipment of every retail piano
merchant and salesman—EDITOR.
by those who talk about the matter is that
the reproducing piano is a manual piano first,
a manual piano to which has been afterwards
added a reproducing action. Even those in-
struments, like the Duo-Art, which have the
reproducing action partly housed above the
keybed, are nevertheless just as agreeable to
p'ay upon as other straight grand pianos. The
writer has a large player grand with motor
and spool box above the keybed, so that the
keys are slightly lengthened out. Yet the touch
is precisely the same as it would be on the
same piano made up without a player action.
The length of key on the Steinway Duo-Art
style A grand is exactly the length of the key
of the Steinway straight grand style D. The
reproducing piano, then, is primarily a piano,
and should be thought of as that. It is a
straight piano when played by hand on the
keyboard and a reproducing piano when played
by music roll and pneumatic action.
Now, if dealers will only keep this in mind
they will never allow the slightest question to
arise as to the effect of piano-playing contests
or similar promotional activities upon the sale
of the reproducing piano. The wise dealer
will at once see that the playing contest idea
simply gives him a new opportunity to point
out the beauties of piano playing by hand on
the keyboard, without in the least cutting out
one single opportunity to demonstrate, at the
same time and with the same instrument, the
beauties of listening to the best pianists playing
the best music.
What He Should Say
If, then, in a community which has been
awakened on the subject of piano playing, by
a contest or in some other way, a parent talks
of a reproducing piano, but at the same time
thinks that perhaps the little girl or boy at
home ought to take music lessons, the dealer
will know what to say. He will say that every
child ought to take music lessons, every child
ought to know how to play a tune on the
keyboard. He will say that home is a much
pleasanter place to children who can play a
tune on the keyboard. He will point out that
even a slight knowledge of music constitutes
an accomplishment which in after life is almost
priceless. He will emphasize the fact that
almost every normal child is musically inclined
to some extent and that modern methods of
teaching eliminate a vast amount of the
drudgery which used to frighten children away.
And he will thoroughly agree that the child
ought to have a keyboard instrument and to
learn to play upon it.
And Then
But he will also say that the reproducing
piano is precisely this kind of a piano, that it
is a piano first and foremost, a piano in no
wise different from any other piano. If he
is pushed he will even have the player action
taken away to demonstrate the truth of what
he says. He will demonstrate, in fact, that
the little boy or girl at home may learn to
play upon the keyboard of a reproducing piano
just as well as not. He will then proceed to "
show that the reproducing piano has, on the
other hand, a very great and wonderful ad-
vantage over any other piano. He will show
that the reproducing piano is the greatest of
musical educators, that it is the greatest single
inspiration to music study which ever was con-
ceived. He will not hesitate to point out that
one of the worst obstacles to steady music
study on the part of young people is the feel-
ing of aloneness, the absence of a musical at-
(Continued on page 15)