Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
DECEMBER 10, 1927
about the introduction of piano study as a part
of the regular course in every school in the
country, and efforts are being made to have
the officials of other national organizations of
like caliber co-operate in the movement.
One of the objects of the Sales Promotion
Committee has been to stress the doctrine that
the playing of the piano sufficiently well to
provide real enjoyment for the individual may
be learned without any great difficulty. The
various group-instruction plans have proven
this fact in connection with child training and
the committee's aim has been to put over the
same idea with the adult. The latest develop-
ment in this connection has been the issuance
of "Everybody's Look-and-Play Piano Book,"
which illustrates and describes the various
series and chords that may be easily mastered
to provide satisfactory accompaniments to sing-
ing such songs as "Long, Long Ago," "Listen
to the Mocking Bird," "Auld Lang Syne,"
"Nearer, My God, to Thee,' "Old Folks at
Home" and a score or more of other numbers.
Arrangements have been made for the wide
distribution of this book through the medium
of music dealers at the phenomenal retail price
The Music Trade Review
of 50 cents. It is considered a highly impor-
tant step toward the elimination of the silent
piano and the more general spread of piano-
playing interest, and plans have already been
made for the issuance of other volumes along
similar lines to encourage the idea that playing
the piano for entertainment is not a matter of
arduous training.
For general distribution to the public
through music merchants, the committee has
prepared a number of attractive and effective
booklets. These include, for instance, "The
Piano: the Door to Higher Musical Joy," rep-
resenting the reprint of an article by James
Francis Cooke, editor of The Etude, and
much other similar material. There, has also
been issued for the information of dealers and
those backing the promotion work a consider-
able amount of publicity setting forth the
purposes of the campaign, what it is designed
to accomplish and the success that is attending
its efforts. Among the latest of these folders,
and a most important one, is that entitled "A
Glance at the Piano's Real Market," an
analytical and statistical folder which gives
much valuable information relative to the num-
ber of those who have incomes over and under
$5,000 annually, the number of people in the
country who own their homes, have automo-
biles, telephones, etc., those members of the
family who have to do with the final selection
of the instrument, and some not very flattering
charts relative to the national advertising of
the piano over a five-year period as compared
with the advertising of other products, including
phonographs and radio. One folder gives full
details of the sales-promotion plan, another lists
those piano manufacturers who arc co-operat-
ing in the financial support of the work and
others give the dealer information as to the
advertising campaign and the manner in which
they may profit by it most directly.
To enumerate all the activities of the Sales
Promotion Committee that have been carried
on successfully or are now under way, and
the results that have attended these efforts,
would require much more space than is at pics
ent available. One thing is certain, however,
the work for the re-establishment of the piano
in the home is a very real work and has ac-
complished a great deal more than many mem-
bers of the trade realize or fully appreciate.
Group Instruction
SpreadsThroughCountry
Thirty Prominent Newspapers in Leading Cities Have
Co-operated With Merchants in Publishing Melody Way
Lessons During Yea This Is But One Teaching System
W. Otto Miessner
N agency for piano promotion that has
won particular favor with a great many
members of the trade because of the
buyers and prospects that it secures directly
is that which has to do with group piano
instruction, and here again notable progress
has been registered during the past twelve
months. It is the opinion of many of those
interested in trade welfare that the piano mar-
ket of the future will depend primarily upon
the success met with in training the youth of
to-day in piano playing, for interest in the piano
is measured largely by the ability of the owner
or prospective owner to perform on the instru-
ment and to enjoy entertainment in the home
through that medium. This, briefly, is the
purpose of the group-instruction idea.
For many years the public has been led to
believe that to learn piano playing meant long,
arduous study and practice. In practically
every interview with a noted piano virtuoso
the point was stressed *hat to keep in fit con-
dition professionally the pianist was compelled
to practice many hours each day, and the lay-
man, with his living to make and only a com-
paratively few hours of leisure for rest and
recreation, naturally hesitated about committing
himself to any such program. The point that
was overlooked entirely was that to secure en-
joyment from the instrument it was not neces-
sarv to become a virtuoso, but that with a fair
A
degree of proficiency, mustered after a reason-
able number of lessons and a certain amount
of practice, it is possible to get real entertain-
ment satisfactory to the individual from the
instrument in the home.
There are several forms of group instruction,
although perhaps the best known is that de-
vised by W. Otto Miessner, of the Miessner
Institute of Music, which has been before the
trade for several years. In fact, Mr. Miessner
may be said to be the apostle of group instruc-
tion and put in a number of years of more
or less discouraging missionary work before he
convinced the trade generally of the merits of
his plan. Here, too, the desperate necessity of
discovering a new means for stimulating sales
forced a serious consideration of the group-
instruction plan, which has proven its value in
numerous instances and during the past year
it has been accepted enthusiastically throughout
the country. Not only have dealers found that
it provides an excellent medium for arousing
the interest of children and their parents in
the piano, and by giving the children the ability
:o play quickly, actually stimulates immediate
sales, but the newspapers and the operators of
radio stations have likewise appreciated the
appeal of the plan and have been quick to adopt
it as a builder of circulation. The group-in-
struction plan has numerous ramifications and
the limits of its possibilities have not yet been
reached. The ultimate purpose, of course, is
to have group instruction in piano playing
made a part of the regular curriculum of every
elementary and high school of the country, and
much has been accomplished along this
line already, with several cities having adopted
the plan officially. Here again, however, the
surface has only been scratched and it will
mean energetic work for years to come to in-
sure the reaching of the final goal.
papers, may be gained from the statement that
during the past year thirty prominent news-
papers in cities throughout the country have
co-operated through local dealers in publishing
Melody Way lessons, together with a tremen-
dous volume of publicity matter, much of it
illustrated, concerning group instruction and
its value. These newspapers include the Mil-
waukee Journal, New York Evening World,
Philadelphia Record, Buffalo News, Atlanta
Journal, Birmingham News, New Orleans
States, Omaha Bee News, Minneapolis Journal,
Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph, Lancaster In-
tclligcncer-News Journal, Denver Rocky Moun-
tain News, Harrisburg Patriot-News, Evansville
Courier Journal, Sioux City Journal, Kansas
City Star, Wichita Beacon, Indianapolis News,
Waterbury Telegraph, Wilkes-Barre Record,
Toledo Blade, St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette, Hous-
ton Chronicle, Vancouver Sun, Richmond (Va.)
News Leader, Winnipeg Tribune, San Diego
Union, Seattle Times, Ottawa Citizen and the
Dayton Herald. In addition to the papers that
have already featured the group-instruction
plan, some of them with such success that
they anticipate repeating the effort, a number
of other newspapers have already arranged to
carry on campaigns in their own cities in the
near future, among them being the Boise (Ida.)
Capital News, Columbus (O.) Citizen, Cincin-
nati Times Star, Tacoma Ledger, Reading
Times and Middletown (O.) News-Signal. Al-
though exact figures are not available, it is
estimated that, in connection with the group-
instruction courses alone, there has appeared
close to 700 newspaper pages, or over 5,000
newspaper columns, of reading matter concern
ing the piano and piano playing, an amount
of material that is distinctly impressive and
unquestionably has had, and will have, an im-
portant effect on the public mind.
Some idea of the publicity value of the Mel-
ody Way Plan, as recognized by the news-
A particularly valuable feature of the group-
(Contiuned on page 9)