Presto

October 4, 1924.
PRESTO
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch
Tells"
BIG CHANCE FOR
MUTUAL HELPING
But Need of Co-operation Between People
Who Sell Music and Those Who Give In-
struction on the Instruments Too
Often Not Recognized.
MORE PUPILS MORE SALES
That Teachers' Recital and Dealers' Store Demon-
stration Have Similar Ends Is Plain to
Thoughtful People.
The
CHRISTMAN
Reproducing Grand
has attained to a place preeminent be-
cause of its absolute dependability,
precise reproduction of the playing of
the world's artists and beauty of con-
struction.
PIANO
DEALERS
who are posted in their business know that
The Famous
Studio Grand
(only 5 ft. long)
has won its fame by its unique chal-
lenge of all larger Grands in tone vol-
ume, richness of quality and beauty
of case outline.
If you have sold these instruments
you prefer to sell them to all others.
And you know, too, that no ambitious
Piano Merchant can be sure that he
has the best, most profitable and sat-
isfactory Line until he has examined
the Christman and compared it with
whatever competitor may be winning
local trade.
"The First Touch
Tells"
Reg. U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
There is not sufficient co-operation between the
music dealer and the music teachers and the situa-
tion shows a strange neglect of opportunities. Plainly
the purpose of the music merchant is to sell goods
and it is his duty to avail himself of every means to
that end. And it may be agreed on. that the more
musical instruments existing in a community, the
more music there will be and the greater the interest
in the instruction the music teacher has to offer.
Now take for instance a city of ten thousand in-
habitants, or even smaller; the so-called "farmers'
towns" that depend on the surrounding farmer popula-
tion. Such towns get to be a certain size and then the
population remains at a steady figure from year to
year. Their prosperity increases with the good for-
tunes of the farmers. In such a place there is the
necessity for continuous stimulation of trade in the
limited population. Now it is clearly the task of the
music dealer to cultivate the desires for music in
his public and this he can be aided in doing by the
help of the music teacher, piano, violin, and other
stringed instruments; by the baud leader and by the
vocal instructor.
Lesson in Other Trades.
In observing things in other trades in the big and
little places one is particularly struck with the ener-
getic methods of the sporting goods dealers. They
identify themselves with every movement of a sport-
ing nature and they encourage every event in which
sporting goods are employed. In fact the stores
of the men handling sporting goods are usually the
meeting place of the people who indulge in the vari-
ous sports. The sporting goods dealers are promi-
nent in organizing athletic field days, golf tourna-
ments, shooting matches, and competitive tests in
games of all kinds. The places are the headquarters
for the semi-pro and "bush" baseball clubs and allur-
ing places for the baseball fans. It will be noticed,
too, that the young men and young women as well,
employed in the sales departments, are adepts at the
sports for which they sell the equipments. That lat-
ter fact is a suggestion for the music dealer who
strives for music goods sales with musicless salesmen
and saleswomen.
Should Be "Mixer."
The music dealer is not enough of a mixer in music
affairs or with musical people. The music teacher is
blind to the fact that every musical instrument sold
by the dealer means a job for the music teacher.
Some dealers do not see any-possibilities for piano
sales in the piano pupils; some music teachers fail to
realize that their fortunes are improved by the in-
crease in the number of pianos sold by the dealer.
Dealers and teachers of the kind are blind to the
advantages of co-operation.
The Teacher's End.
Besides teaching pupils the piano or other instru-
ments, the teacher has a second mission to fulfill
and that is to help educate the general public in an
appreciation of music and its relation to life. And
on the activity of his mission depends the number
of music goods sales achieved by the music dealers.
So it is plainly necessitous that the music dealer and
music teacher should co-operate in making the pub-
lic want better music and more music and the instru-
ments with which to make it. The teachers' work is
creating a love of music and developing natural taste;
the dealer's opportunity is to further the ends of
the teacher thereby helping himself. The teacher's
recital and the dealer's store demonstration have simi-
lar ends.
In contrast to the dealers who don't realize on
their opportunities or even recognize them are the
ones who are active in everything that assures sales.
The problem of the choice of music teachers for the
talented young people of the town is one for the
music dealer among others. Every community in
America has its musical tragedies, gifted young peo-
ple who have wasted money on the wrong instruc-
tion. The dealer is serving his own best interests
when he makes sure that the teachers he may be
called upon to recommend have the ability to give
value for the money charged for lessons.
Pupils Prospective Buyers.
In these days of keen competition of the piano, the
music dealer should overlook no aids to the making
of prospective piano buyers. It is incomprehensible
the amount of money that is wasted in the musical
education of talented young people and wasted be-
cause the parents or guardians do not know the
value of what they are buying. There is a common
idea that if the teacher is a foreigner he must be
worth more than an American. Or if an American
the desirable one is he who charges an exorbitant
sum for lessons. It is reasoned that the man who
charges so much must be worth it.
Advertising the teacher with ability by the effective
recommendation to customers, piano buyers and pro-
spective piano buyers, is also advertising for the piano
dealer himself. It should be part of the tacit or
clearly understood scheme of mutual helpfulness.
Apart from the possibilities of commissions, the
clever music teacher is sensibly aware of the ability
of the piano dealer to say the decisive word that
means a new pupil.
PIANO CLUB OF CHICAGO
HEARS SALESMANSHIP TALK
George Edwin Robinson, Vocational Counselor, Tells
About the Psychological Moment.
The Piano Club of Chicago at the weekly lunch-
eon this week heard George Edwin Robinson, sales-
manship expert, vocational counselor and author of
college text books, with twenty-seven years' prac-
tical selling experience and specialized study in Amer-
ica and Europe. His subject was "The Psycholog-
ical Moment."
Mr. Robinson is head of Salesmanship Research
and the Bureau of Vocational Guidance of the
American College of Scientific Salesmanship, Chi-
cago, where he daily solves difficult sales and
advertising problems in selling service. One of the
firms whose sales policy he directs, sells more than
one million dollars worth of specialty merchandising
yearly.
The members were again reminded by John Mc-
Kenna, president, of the dinner, vaudeville stars,
music, entertainment and joy generally of the annual
meeting and election of officers October 8, at the
Edgewater Beach Hotel. "Reservation blanks will
be mailed you in a few days. Bring as many guests
as you want to," advised Mr. McKenna.
STORY & CLARK LEADERS
IN ATTRACTIVE WINDOW
Repro-Phraso Instrument and Mechanism and Italian
Art Model Grand Are Prominently Featured.
A unique display featuring two leaders in the line
of the Story & Clark Piano Co., Chicago, is the out-
standing attraction along Chicago's Piano Row this
week. The popular Repro-Phraso occupies one of
the large show windows of the Story & Clark Co.'s
store, 315-317 South Wabash avenue, and provides
a very interesting and instructive showing in which
the mechanism and fundamental parts are made plain
to the onlookers.
The Repro-Phraso is characterized as a three-way
player, reflecting the mood of the player of the
moment, and requiring no special roll. Standing close
by the instrument is a devise showing the pressure
required in playing the Repro-Phraso while the in-
strument itself is in operation. The pressure as reg-
istered is very low and without much variation, which
is proof of the responsiveness of the instrument.
The other Story & Clark product featured this
week is a period design grand piano in the seven-
teenth century Italian art model which is described
on an engraved card as follows: "To those of you
with a faultless taste in home furnishings, this in-
strument of unquestionable superiority fills perfectly
the chosen corner of the living or music room."
GULBRANSEN VISITORS.
E. A. Kieselhorst, president of the Kieselhorst
Piano Co., St. Louis, was a visitor to the factory of
the Gulbransen Co., Chicago, last week. Mr. Kiesel-
horst, who has been traveling in Europe for the past
two months, was on his way to the Missouri city. Lee
S. Roberts of the Q R S Music Co., New York City,
also called at the big Chicago industry last week.
BUYS REPAIR SHOP.
C. L. Montgomery, Rockwood, Term., has bought
out the repair shop of Walter Lyon, and has installed
a full line of equipment and repair parts for all kinds
of phonographs and talking machines.
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