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The Music Trade Review
There are occasions when groups of women
call and endeavor to choose records. What
suits one will annoy another, and they eunei
end it all by taking their departure without
making a purchase or take records with the
understanding that they wish to return them
should they find that the other members of
tne family do not care for them.
•
Family Group
: Family groups are extremely difficult to sell.
The younger generation demands the dance
numbers and their elders will have none of
them. It is often wise to separate them, and
in that way the several records can be pur-
chased without the usual arguments.
Mothers of small babies and children are
sometimes forced to shop with their infants,
but any saleswoman who has gone through a
trying half hour or more with small children
running all over the place and tiny babies cry-
ing will wonder how the mother can expect
to get enough enjoyment out of music to make
such an afternoon worth while.
A certain amount of character reading and
the power of quick analysis is a ready help to
the saleswoman who must seek deeper than the
surface in pleasing a customer. Under the
spell of the many different classics or popular
compositions, customers often make a confidante
of the saleswoman. She will hear of the time
when the children first studied and their ulti-
mate gains in a career of music. The old-time
selections will turn minds back to a first dance
and a courtship. It is well to recall bits of
past conversation, for most folks like to be
remembered, and not only called by name but
to think that you have their personal interest
at heart. I do not claim much better memory
than the average person in business, but I sel-
dom forget a customer, and sometimes the topic
of our last conversation will come back to me
with the sight of a face, and I can call their
children, place of residence, or subject of chief
interest without the least hesitation.
An Example
I have in mind one particular lady to whom
I sold records about twice a year. She had a
son seventeen and a small daughter of three.
She had a sister who was private secretary to
the manager of a large firm of exporters and
importers in Shanghai, China. While I did not
learn my customer's name for many months I
never forgot the names of her children, nor
the fact that her sister was in the Orient.
With a decided "English" accent to her speech
I later learned that she was not from England,
as I had supposed, but from Australia. Each
customer coming to me means more than a
possible record purchase, and though 1 serve
one or a hundred I immediately attach other
things of importance to their presence in the
store than salesmanship. It is not out of the
ordinary for me to remember from one time
to another, and sometimes many months apart,
what certain people's taste in music is and
what records I played for them when last they
dropped in. Many of my customers marvel at
this and often speak of my splendid memory.
It is not that my memory is better than other
folks have, but I make it serve me and serve
me well.
Study of Periods
One phase of phonograph merchandising
that should be looked upon as being necessary
is the study of cabinet and furniture making,
different woods and their finishes and the many
periods, with their unique and thoroughly
typical designs. One should know at a glance
AUGUST 27, 1927
Starr Go. Brings Out
New Glissando Keyboard
Gives Pianist Greater Ease in Performing
Ascending or Descending Chromatic GUs-
sandos
CHICAGO, I I I . , August 22.—Although it has not
yet put it on the market nor introduced it to
the trade, the Starr Piano Co. has created a
sensation among the members of the trade and
musicians who have seen the new Starr
Chromatic Glissando keyboard. This was de>
signed and built in the Starr plant at Richmond,
Ind., and one of the Starr grands fitted with
it is being exhibited to visitors by Manager
Hunt of the Chicago wholesale quarters.
The new keyboard will be welcomed alike
by the amateur and professional pianist, be-
cause it gives him opportunity for performing
either ascending or descending chromatic
The New Starr Piano Co. Glissando Keyboard
the Chippendale, Gothic, Italian, early English
under many different classifications, whether
or not a cabinet is William and Mary, Eliza-
bethan, Adam, Sheraton or Queen Anne, and
a few items of interest concerning each cabinet
and what influenced the periods of workman-
ship. The reign in France of the two King
Louis was typified by entirely different forms
of cabinet works, furniture building and dress.
A bit of reading on the subject will soon set
the uninformed right and they may tell at a
glance to which period certain styles belong.
Scheidlmyer's Store Moves
Scheidlmyer's Music Store has moved into
new quarters on the third floor of the Real
Estate Board Building, Pittsburgh, Pa., occupy-
ing larger quarters.
Holland—Easy to Sell!
Our dealers know it is be-
cause they are getting
business with it. We want
others to know it so that
they will become Holland
dealers.
There is quality in every
one of the 48 inches of
this little upright. There
is tone to delight the mu-
sician and design to please
the decorator.
It is easily sold and the
owner is always happy
l
with his purchase.
The Holland Style Two—48 Inches High
HOLLAND PIANO MANUFACTURING CO.
Factory, Menomonie, Wis.
Executive and Sales Headquarters
Metropolitan Bank Building
-
-
Minneapolis, Minn.
^lissandos throughout the entire keyboard with
;i perfection of rhythm and evenness of touch
unobtainable on flat keys.
This invention introduces a roller key, col-
ored either black or white, for each note, and
a new guide strip or fingerboard is set into the
fallboard so as to obviate any marring or
scratching of the finish, inevitable with the
conventional form of keyboard.
No change is necessary in fingering or in
technic and no mechanical knowledge necessary
to be acquired for the difficult but much-sought
art of playing glissandos with this new Starr
keyboard, as it permits most brilliant bravura
passages with perfect rhythm, less effort and
much greater musical perfection.
This new Starr Glissando keyboard is
patented and owned by the Starr Piano Co.
and will be furnished only in Starr grands and
Starr uprights.
Chicago Piano Club Increases
Music Promotion Campaign
Interest on Funds to Be Used Directly for
Encouragement of Music in Chicago Terri-
tory
The promotion of music program that the
Piano Club of Chicago has adopted and effec-
tively carried out will be continued on an
increasing scale, it was stated by President
Gordon Laughead to-day at the weekly meet-
ing, in giving a report of the financial plan to
carry out this promotional work.
"The Chicago Piano Club now has $4,000 in
bonds in the bank," he said, "and it is the
present plan of the organization to retain this
fund and add to it from year to year, using
the interest only from this amount for promo-
tional work. In this way we will have a per-
manent fund from which to draw every year
without taxing the members, and at the same
time we will continually carry out the purpose
of this organization—the promotion of music.
"Among the many organizations that the
club has aided in carrying out this promotional
work is the Chicago Civic Opera Company,
to which we have given over $5,000. During
the past year we have also donated $1,000 to
the Greater Chicago Piano-Playing Tournament,
spending $10,000 in five years for music."