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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, OCTOBER, 1U1
Greater Tuner
Unity Needed
So says Arthur Berson, Chairman of Membership
Committee of National Association of Piano Tuners
At the recent convention of the Na-
tional Association of Piano Tuners, Arthur
Berson made an appeal for greater tuner
unity when he said: "Never before, in our
country/ has there been such a wide-
spread interest and activity in the various
fields of music as there is today. It is
known to all of us that schools and col-
leges have extended their musical cur-
ricula, innumerable amateur and profes-
sional musical ensembles have sprung
up everywhere and are still rapidly grow-
ing in number, countless musical clubs
and groups conduct courses in music ap-
preciation and history, while thousands
of beginners, child and adult, register
daily to begin the study of some musical
instrument or other.
"The old phonograph, regarded by
many as dead and gone, has experienced
a resurrection and come forth anew,
flanked on one side by various kinds of
home-recording devices and on the other
by electrical amplification and tone-con-
trol. Today, many American families are
no longer confined to regaling their
musical guests with choice arias or sym-
phonies recorded by artists or great
musical organizations, but can subject
them to a home-recorded fortissimo dis-
play of the limited or unrestrained instru-
mental or vocal talents of Johnnie or
Mary, solo or with orchestral or piano
accompaniment.
"Parallel with, and as part of these
developments has come a marked in-
crease in the manufacture and sale of
musical instruments of all kinds—particu-
larly the piano which, because of its uni-
versal role, stands out as the most im-
portant of all musical instruments.
PUBLIC BETTER ADVISED
"The second important fact is that
piano-owners and piano-students of 1941
understand more of piano construction
and piano quality than ever before, and
that it is an increasingly-occurring exper-
ience for tuners to have customers give
an intelligent description of what they
want to have done on their pianos—
whether it has to do with voicing, tuning,
pitch, or touch-regulation. This important
and encouraging fact is due in large
measure to the excellent piano teaching
to be found in many parts of the country,
where teachers understand how much
good playing depends on the proper
mechanical functioning of the piano. It is
also attributable in part to the nature of
reading material found in current com-
petitive piano advertising issued by the
more enterprising piano manufacturers. In
no small measure is it to be explained
also by the patient and painstaking edu-
cational efforts of our own individual
NAPT members.
"The third important fact—and the one
which will require the greatest amount of
attention on our part is that, with the
situation as favorable as it has been out-
lined thus far, we are now faced with a
general sky-rocketing of prices and a
possible curtailment of all kinds of ser-
vices. This economic tendency with all
its possible unfavorable effects may ex-
tend over a long period, and it will need
all the ingenuity and united effort that
tuners can muster for us to keep ourselves
on an even keel and continue functioning.
"The three facts I have enumerated
present us with separate problems and
obligations which must be understood
separately; yet they call for action which
must be carried on around them simul-
taneously.
products or services, our association has
taken the positive and dynamic stand
that we cannot afford to wait for things
to come our way, but must go out into
the competitive market and struggle for
our share of the nation's business.
"We must be on our guard against the
dangerous idea that in times of low pur-
chasing-power music becomes a luxury
and must go by the board to make way
for more essential things. Many of us are
prone to allow our competitors to sell us
this dangerous idea with the inevitable
result that we begin to regard ourselves
as non-essential, lose our sense of pro-
portion, our morale, and finally our in-
comes. Our problem and our obligation
as piano-tuners in this connection is to
begin an aggressive move forward under
the leadership of NAPT and all other mus-
ical agencies to give life and meaning to
the slogan of the trade, that in our coun-
try and especially at this time, "Music Is
Essential".
RAISE PIANO SERVICE STANDARDS
"Regarding the growing intelligence of
piano-owners and students on the matter
of what constitutes good piano service:
MORE ACTIVITY NEEDED
Here our problem and our obligation is
"As regards the first fact—the ever- at once obvious. It is that of raising our
increasing interest in music and its bene- piano-service standards to an even-higher
ficial effect on the use of pianos; our level. A more appreciative piano-owning
problem and our obligation here is to public, seeing the need of having more
see that the tempo of this increasing in- done on their pianos will be more ready
terest is maintained and accelerated, des- to pay for the needed work, provided they
pite the negative influence of the chang- have the fullest confidence in the men
ing economic situation. Our National they engage. If we wish to build and cul-
Association of Piano Tuners has time and tivate a larger market for ourselves, we
time again expressed its progressive must be prepared to answer all the de-
stand on this matter in a number of ways. mands of this market, and to serve it with
the highest degree of technical skill
"For example, it recently joined the possible. We dare not rest content with
National Music Council, a broad organ- what we have learned thus far, but must
ization composed of all the important continually improve ourselves and keep
agencies and enterprises connected with abreast of new developments through the
the advancement of music. Again at one fraternal exchange of our knowledge,
of its recent conventions, NAPT resolved
experience, and ideas. Here, too, NAPT
to urge tuners, for their own good and
for that of the industry and music-public, plays an indispensable role. It is the
to recommend the junking of pianos medium for bringing together the best
beyond repair and the purchase of new and most progressive-minded piano ser-
pianos. Thirdly, individual members of vice men of the country, with the result
NAPT are engaged throughout the coun- that the very name, "National Association
try in musical activities of various kinds of Piano Tuners" is, in the minds of grow-
as apart from piano servicing. And finally, ing numbers of people, synonymous with
on the question of competition between 'best in piano-service.'
musical products or services and other
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