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What Are the Requirements of the
Perfect Player-Piano?
As the Central Principle of the Player-Piano Is Expressiveness, Sensitiveness in Pedal Response Is Among
the Leading Requirements for Such an Instrument—The Controversy Over Buttons Versus
Levers, and the Way in Which the Former Have Won the Dispute
T
H E absolutely perfect mechanism does
not exist, and it would be too much, there-
fore, to expect that any player action
known to the world should be without fault of
any kind. On the other hand, the effort towards
mechanical and commercial perfection is con-
stantly being exerted, and already there are on
the market player actions which come within
hailing distance of that total and complete
perfection which is perhaps out of reach.
If one had merely to set down his ideas as
to what constitutes sales perfection in a player-
piano, however, the task would not be very diffi-
cult. Amid all the talk about what is called "bring-
ing back" the player-piano, the question of teach-
ing the public to play is constantly coming
up, and for that reason an inquiry into the
mechanical features and points which together
constitute the ideal playing mechanism is quite
in order. One of these days we shall have all
the good selling points worked out and all the
bad ones rejected, so that every attempt which
may be made to distinguish the one from the
other is so much work being done towards that
desirable end.
The Central Principle
The first cabinet piano players were designed
upon the expressive principle. When it was
discovered, probably by chance, that variations
in the pressure upon the bellows 'pedals cor-
responded to variations in the dynamics of the
playing, the expressive principle became at
once the center of the merchandising value of
the new invention. And the first advertising,
the very first, was built around thi'S one prin-
ciple, of what came to be called the personal
production of music by means of the Pianola,
the Angelus and the Apollo or the Simplex.
These first instruments were crude, relative-
ly, to those which followed them, for the whole
idea was experimental and every item in its
construction represented a completely novel
set of conditions. Never before in a bellows-
operated musical instrument had the principle
of variation of foot pressure become central,
although the "expression" stop on the French
harmonium was a forerunner. It was this
central principle which always dominated the
design and construction of the piano player,
but, on the other hand, during the first days,
the result of attempting to carry it out was
to make the foot work very hard and tiring.
This was because all the moving parts were
relatively heavy and clumsy, being still too
much tied to the traditional methods of reed-
organ building. To play an early type of piano
player or player-piano was not an easy task
for a man and was almost impossible for a
woman.
As time went on and improvements were
steadily made, player actions gradually came
to be grouped in one of two classes. In the
one the old type of heavy, slow-moving
mechanism was retained, on the strange ground
that the public did not know how to use the
pedals properly. The other, fortunately, was
faced in the opposite direction and gradually
after much difficulty and struggle came to
dominate. To-day every player factory tries
to build for light, responsive pumping, and
no one imagines that it is good merchandising
to claim for a player action that it pumps like
a tread-mill.
Nevertheless, the notion that a player can
be too sensitive to the foot still survives. It
is really amazing how many merchants there
are who insist upon believing that every man
and woman who might possibly be a prospect
for a player-piano is not only grossly ignorant
of music, but in fact has no desire to acquire
better knowledge and will resent any attempt
to give them a mechanism on which expressive
playing can be done. Of course, it all simply
means that the man who talks that way is
reflecting his own ideas and working them off
as the ideas of his customers. Which, by the
way, gives some indication of the level of the
selling intelligence which has been prevalent
in the retail player-piano trade.
Ease of Playing Essential
Now, in the sales-perfect player-piano the
first thing to be considered) is this point of
sensitiveness. If the American people are ever
going to take up the player-piano as a uni-
versal musical instrument, we must give them,
as a first requisite, ease of playing. The physical
effort of operating the pedals must be reduced
to the very minimum. And there is another
side to that, also, because physical ease means
mental ease and consequently greater ability
to produce expressive playing. The perfect
player-piano is the player-piano which shall be
as responsive to the foot as the keyboard is
to the finger.
It is easy to see that any sales revival must
come through a campaign of education in the
delights of playing, and naturally that involves
easy pumping as a first requisite. Given that,
almost everything else is comparatively simple.
We need not discuss in an article like this
the technical points involved. What we are
here thinking about is the perfect player-piano
considered from the sales standpoint. So con-
sidered we see that the first principle to be
recognized and followed in its design must be
the principle of expressiveness. The pumping
must be light, easy and extremely responsive.
This involves going back to the principle
11
which first animated the men of genius, who
put on the market and found a place for the
original cabinet player; but, of course, it also
means following their principles as they were
never able to. We can make to-day what
they only dreamed of making; and it is a
marvelous thing that this simple fact is not
everywhere recognized and made use of.
Next to easy pumping comes simplicity of
the lever layout. For some years there has
been a belief that the buying public does not
like to handle finger levers, but prefers to have
buttons to press. As a matter of fact, this
belief is entirely a product of the retail sales
mind. When competition among various makes,
and the constructional ideas embodied in them,
was very strong, salesmen talked all kinds of
nonsense in an effort to "put over" the instru-
ments each had to sell. Some ingenious sales-
man began to boost for buttons on the
expression board, because he said they were
"easier" to handle. Others took up the cry,
parrot-like, and in a short time had persuaded
themselves that their innocent and ignorant
customers had demanded this. Really, of course,
the button is actually harder to operate. It
demands pneumatic power, which has to be
supplied by the bellows. This means harder
pumping, more physical effort. The lightest
pumping action known to the present writer,
considering the work it has to do, is found in
a certain player grand. If that instrument
were fitted with pneumatic buttons for raising
the hammers and for working the dampers, it
would be at least half again as hard to pump,
simply because the pneumatics required for the
purpose demand enough power and are used
often enough to call for an almost constant
additional drag on the footwork. When the
automatic damper-pedal is on, in this instru-
ment, a difference can be felt in the pumping.
While as to the physical effort required to
work levers on loud and soft pedals, the
answer is that so long as the factory men
design their levers mechanically right, there
cannot be a single bit of truth in the talk about
excessive physical effort. The perfect player-
piano, then, will have levers and not buttons.
One could talk about the eternal matter of
price without ever coming to a universally
satisfactory conclusion. But this much stands
out in any possible discussion: the matter of
price is a matter of output. Output is a matter
of demand. Demand is a matter of popularity.
Popularity, in the present case, is a matter
only of familiarity. Therefore, teach the peo-
ple to play (after learning how to do it your-
self) and then the high-grade player-piano will
sell as easily as the high-grade grand piano.