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PUBLIC LIBRARY
358834A
ASTOR, LENOX AND
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1828
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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXV. No. 1
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Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y., July 2,1927
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Group Instruction
Group Instruction Class of
Haymond Piano Co.
For Dealers in Small Towns
Haymond Piano Co., of Grafton, W. Va., a Town of 10,000 Population, En-
rolls 300* Children in Piano Instruction Classes, a Striking Refutation to
Those Who Claim This Form of Piano Exploitation Beyond Small Dealer's Means
INCE the interest of the piano industry
has centered upon the promotion of a
more general interest in that instrument
through the medium of group instruction, car-
ried on by either the individual dealer or on a
city-wide basis through the co-operation of all
local dealers, it has been heard frequently that
promotion work of that character is all right
for the large dealer in the city, but that it is
not feasible for the piano retailer in the small
town, with a limited capital and limited field
in which to work.
Small town merchants—scores of them—have
evinced a genuine interest in this type of pro-
motional work, but all too many have listened
to the talk that they are laboring under a handi-
cap and have, therefore, confined their par-
ticipation to indirect rather than direct effort,
profiting to a certain extent, of course, by the
tie-up but nevertheless losing much of the value
of the general movement.
As a matter of fact the small town dealer
can participate actively in group instruction
work if he goes about it in the right way, and
S
proof of this fact is found in the recent ex-
perience of the Haymond Piano Co., of Grafton,
W. Va. Here is a piano company located in
a town whose population, according to the last
Federal census, was less than 10,000, and at
the present time probably cannot number 11,000.
Yet 300 children of the city, or 3 per cent of
the total population, responded to the Hay-
mond Co.'s offer of free piano instruction. Not
only have 300 children already been enrolled,
but the interest aroused by the campaign has
proven so strong that Guy D. Haymond, head
of the company, plans to continue the work at
an expense to reach close to 1,000 children in
Grafton and vicinity within the next two years.
At the present time ten classes are being
conducted with an enrollment of from twenty-
five to thirty children each. Three classes are
held on Tuesday and Wednesday and two
classes on Thursday and Friday. The Curtis
method is used and the instructors are Miss
Anna Tucker, Mrs. Brooks Gall, Mrs. W. B.
Cruise and Miss Essie Gough. The company
emphasizes the fact that when there is music
in the home it is a better home, and Grafton's
citizens apparently arc fully in accord with this
thought.
Not only has the Haymond Co. achieved
marked success in connection with the classes
that are now being conducted, but it has
aroused (interest to such a point that already
a movement is on foot to have the local Board
of Education add classes in piano instruction
to the curriculum in both the grade and high
schools. The interesting suggestion is offered
that a thirty-minute period each week during
the school term be regularly set aside for group
piano instruction and that special Summer
classes be conducted during the school vacation
period for children beyond the second or third
elementary grade.
Those who still believe that the opportunities
offered the small town dealer for promoting
group piano instruction profitably under his
own auspices are limited may obtain a first-hand
lesson of the possibilities of such work through
a study of what the Haymond Music Co. has
(Continued on page 10)