Music Trade Review

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The
REVIEW
Established 1879
CARLETON CHACE, Editor
Alex H. Kolbe, Publisher
A. C. Osborne
Alexander Hart
Associate Editor
Technical Editor
keep the factories going. In so doing, they have been
lowering the high ethics of salesmanship." We cer-
tainly don't know who they are referring to in that
paragraph because we do not know of very much
lomering of the standard of trying to make piano
sales. In fact, there has been rather an upswing for
many years in rebuilding the dignity of an industry
which was at one time sorely damaged by certificates,
guessing contests and other idiotic means of attract-
ing people to a dealer's store. The Editorial in this
publication goes on to say, "We read an article in
one of the piano magazines during the dealers to pro-
mote sales by giving a course of free lessons to the
piano customer. This method of promotion is not
new to teachers of the fretted instruments, the only
difference being in their case the instrument was
given away and lessons charged for."
How the Piano Industry is Helping
the Music Teacher
V. T. Costello
W
Terry Ruffolo
Production Manager
Circulation Manager
Published monthly at 510 Americas Building, Radio
City, 1270 Sixth Avenue. New York 20, N . Y.
Telephone: Circle 7-5842-5843-5844
Vol. 113
JULY, 1954
No. 7
Business-As We See It
W
E ran across an Editorial in a publication
called "Fretted Instrument News" which was
entitled—"Is the Licensing of Music Teachers
Desirable?" The essence of the Editorial is that un-
less music teachers are licensed, then the act of giving
free lessons in order to make a
sale may become a racket, and in
view of this they state in their
last paragraph—"We hope to see
every state pass a law demanding
an adequate examination be
passed before one is allowed to
practice the profession of music
teaching and teachers organized
so as to be able to demand a fair
price for their services." In the
first paragraph a statement is
CARLETON CHACE
made, "The piano is undoubtedly
the best-known and most useful musical instrument.
It is acknowledged to be the cornerstone of music
education. Those engaged in its manufacture and
sale have established and have been practicing a high
standard of ethics in its merchandising. But with the
advent of records, radio and television, the sale of
pianos has diminished and the industry has had to
resort to all kinds of sales promotions in order to
E believe that the "Fretted Instrument News"
does not realize what the piano industry has
been doing to help the individual music teach-
er. During the last six years, through the efforts of
the American Music Conference and the introduc-
tion of keyboard experience in public and parochial
schools, more children and more mothers have been
made piano-conscious than at any period in the his-
tory of the piano industry. Of course, we know that
at first the teachers pooh-poohed at the idea and
felt that the movement was going to be detrimental
to them. Today, however, it is different. Even private
teahers have been contacting the American Music
Conference to find out how class piano lessons can
be conducted, and they realize now that a large per-
centage of the children who are learning to play the
piano in the schools are going to take private les-
sons at some time or other. In fact, we might point
out to the "Fretted Instrument News" that in one
instance alone 450 children were taught to play the
piano each year in the schools and after twenty
years of this educational effort a survey was made
and it was found that 85 % of those children who
had learned to play in the public schools had con-
tinued their lessons afterward with private teachers.
In our estimation, the salvation of the piano indus-
try lies in the fact that young children are now be-
ing taught to play the piano and are learning more
about it every day. The piano dealer might take a
leaf out of the book that has been promoting the
organ business in the last few years. There is hardly
an organ studio today that does not have someone
connected with it who teaches prospects how to play
the organ. Nothing has stimulated this business more
than that type of promotion. It's something worth
thiking about in respect to piano sales.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JULY, 1954