PRESTO
PIANO LESSONS
IN THE SCHOOLS
W. Otto Miessner in Advocating a Piano-
Music-in-the-Schools Movement Discloses
Alarming Facts and Cites Means to
Minimize Their Influences.
HIS FEASIBLE PLAN
Eagerness with Which Ten Thousand Children
Applied for Piano Instruction in One City
Called Enlightening Fact.
A dependable way to get pianos into the homes is
to inculcate the taste for piano playing in the grow-
ing children now in the schools. The extent of the
necessity and the importance of the opportunity sug-
W. OTTO MIESSNER.
gested are points disclosed by W. Otto Miessner,
president of the Miessner Piano Co., Milwaukee, who
is specially interested in musical education.
The gravity of the situation in American homes
was learned by Mr. Miessner in the answers to ques-
tionnaires sent out during 1924. The information ac-
quired disclosed the fact that at least ten million
American homes are still without pianos and that
out of twenty-five million children of school age
more than fifteen million receive no musical educa-
tion at all.
The Story of Census.
Mr. Miessner points to U. S. census statistics to
prove a regrettable decline in piano and player pro-
duction between 1911 and 1921 in the face of a
growth in population. During the same time, he
says, the sale of phonographs increased enormously
and within the past two years the radio has been
supplanting the phonograph. "In other words we
have become a nation of passive listeners instead of
active participants in the enjoyment of music/' said
Mr. Miessner this week. Continuing a subject on
which he is always enthusiastic, he said:
Mr. Miessner's Plea.
"While exposure to music through listening is the
first step in music appreciation, there is always some
danger that the novelty will fade. You will find that
the interest in any subject increases with active par-
ticipation in it. In music this principle applies to in-
dividual performance on a musical instrument. It is
a demonstration of the psychological premise that
every human being is seeking means and medio of
self-expression. The phonograph and the piano-
player are not heard as frequently as they were five
years ago, and in many families of my acquaintance
the interest in the radio is not so strong as it was a
year ago. 1925 radio purchasers may be in this class
a year or two hence. This is sure to be the case un-
less better programs are broadcasted than are preva-
lent today.
"Some ten years ago the public schools began to
organize high school and grammar school orchestras.
At the same time some of the more enterprising
public school music supervisors formed violin classes.
They also taught some of the other orchestral instru-
ments to* small groups. Largely as a result of this
educational work the sale of small instruments has
more than doubled during this same decade during
which the sale of pianos decreased nearly 40 per
cent.
"The real music enthusiast is the one who starts
to play some kind of an instrument. In most cases
the real key to the sale of a piano in a home is the
child who has reached the age of six to nine years
when learning to play is easiest for him. Therefore,
I am particularly interested in simplyfying the proc-
esses of learning to play the piano, both from the
standpoint of the child's interest in music and the in-
roads upon the family purse.
Getting Child's Interest.
"By using appealing melodies as a foundation of
the child's early piano instruction we are sure to gain
his interest. By teaching twenty children at once
we bring the cost of piano instruction to fifteen or
twenty cents per lesson as compared with two or
three dollars per lesson. The children learn faster
and more thoroughly during the first year when
taught in groups of twenty than they do when taught
singly. Proof of this statement is borne out by the
experience of nearly one hundred teachers who are
now teaching the Melody Way and who have taught
over ten thousand children during the past six
months.
/
His Ernest Desire,
;
"It is my ambition to have piano playing taught in
every public school in this country just as every
other art, science and skill is taught today in classes.
It is safe to predict that at least five million children
would take up the study of the piano within the next
year if the public schools would offer the opportunity.
At least 40 per cent of these, or two million, would
come from homes where there are no pianos today.
In Kansas City, Missouri, ten thousand children ap-
plied for piano instruction last September. Four
thousand of these children are getting lessons today
at a cost of ten cents per lesson and they are taught
in classes of twenty. The other six thousand have
not had a chance to start because the schools have
neither the trained teachers nor sufficient equipment
required to conduct piano classes.
"This problem is big enough to win the support of
the entire industry, which is now benefiting and will
continue to benefit by the effort we are making and
will benefit in increasing proportion as the entire in-
dustry gets behind the movement for the teaching of
piano in the schools."
ANNUAL CONVENTION
OF STRAUBE SALESMEN
Enthusiastic Gathering of Road Forces of
Straube Piano Co. Held January 5 to 7 at
Home Offices in Hammond, Ind.
The annual sales convention of the Straube Piano
Company, of Hammond, Indiana, was held January
S, 6 and 7, and resulted in more enthusiasm than has
ever before been manifested on such occasions. The
various sessions were attended by the executive group
of the Straube Company, the wholesale representa-
tives, and the company's advertising counselors.
During the session a large wall map of the United
States was unveiled showing the distribution of
Straube products in the United States. As shown
on the map the company has representation in all sec-
tions of the country, with new location tacks being
added to the map all the while. This year's distribu-
tion map is a remarkable improvement over that of
1923, thus proving that the Straube Company has
gone ahead during a year which is generally con-
ceded not having been up to par.
Plans for merchandising and advertising in 1925
were discussed and again revealed that the institution
is progressive in every sense of the term. While
definite information as to the advertising appropria-
tion for 1925 has not been made, it has been an-
nounced that the national advertising will consist of
whole pages of publicity in what is considered to be
the foremost advertising publication of the country.
Supplementing this national advertising will be news-
papers and direct mail work of the highest class, thus
assuring Straube dealers the utmost merchandising
assistance.
1.
HIDDEN NAME PUZZLE.
(See Page 50.)
You eat it in the morning,
With eggs and coffee hot;
And now, with this clear warning,
You've guessed it, have you not?
January 10, 1925.
KNABE AMPICO IS
SOLD FOR $50,000
Unique Benefit Concert at Which Pianos Da
the Largest Share in Providing for
New York's Needy and
Unfortunate.
STEINWAYS GIVE $5,000
Rare Display of Eighteen Grand Pianos on Stage at
Once, All Played by Artists of More than
Local Distinction.
A unique event in New York's musical life took
place last week. It was an extraordinary benefit
concert, at the Metropolitan Opera House, and sev-
eral prominent piano industries were the chief con-
tributors. The concert was given for the needy in
New York, with a special share devoted to Moritz
Moszkowski, a colleague of musicians taking part.
The receipts reached the sum of $50,000.
The Golden Horseshoe was filled at $10 a chair,
or about $25,000 for tickets alone, but more especially
a musical instrument of the "reproducing" type was
auctioned by Joseph P. Day to the highest bidder
with equally remarkable results.
Bankers vs. Doctors.
A group of bankers present to bid against a group
of physicians, Dr. J. S. Wheelwright, Dr. Lee and
others had put the bid up to $20,000, with the result
that the price of the piano jumped rapidly until it
was knocked down for $22,000 to Thomas Cochran
of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., who won from
William C. Potter of the Guaranty Trust and Charles
E. Mitchell of-the National City Bank, for their bids
of $20,500 and $21,500 respectively.
Gave Back Piano.
Mr. Cochran not only paid top price, but added
the piano, a Knabe Ampico, as a gift for the work
of the A. I. C. P. The firm of Steinway & Sons,
since there could be no more auctions, made a gift
of $5,000 cash to the Association.
Dwight W. Morrow, who presided, spoke extem-
poraneously and briefly on behalf of the New York
Association for Improving the Condition of the
Poor. The "piano festival" committee was headed
by Mrs. Courtlandt D. Barnes, as chairman, and Mrs.
E. Roland Harriman, treasurer.
Eighteen Performers.
On the rise of the curtain on the "piano festival,"
a rapidly filling house turned to applaud a stage on
which the eye had to search keenly to discover
famous artists seated at four solid phalanxes of in-
struments.
One pianist announced was missing, nor did there
appear to be room for another, where eighteen irregu-
larly shaped grand pianos were jammed close by
margins of inches.
It was such a "piano display" as the world of
music had never seen before on a public stage.
E. Q. MAHONEY TRAVELS FOR
JACOB DOLL & SONS, LTD.
Popular Roadman with Hosts of Friends to Take Up
New Duties This Week.
Edward F. Mahoney, the new man on the road
staff of Jacob Doll & Sons, Inc., New York, will
need no formal introduction to the dealer when he
makes his calls. Few travelers are as well known as
Mr. Mahoney, who resigned January 1 from Kranich
& Bach, New York, to become general traveler for
Jacob Doll & Sons.
Mr. Mahoney might be described as a "practical
traveler" in that he could take a hand at the making
of the pianos he sells. His knowledge of the
mechanical processes of piano construction are well
known to the dealers and the fact is one of his
psychological helps to sales. His say-so is a clincher
when the points of a piano are being discussed.
But the selling end of the business has always at-
tracted him. It has been a job that proves his
geniality an asset. He has the facility of making
friends and keeping them. According to Otto Doll,
president of Jacob Doll & Sons, Mr. Mahoney will
set out on his first trip for the house this week.
NEW ADVERTISING MANAGER.
Albert Chamberlain is the new advertising man-
ager of the Kisselman-O'Driscoll Co., Milwaukee,
to succeed R. J. Gierach, who recently resigned. Mr.
Chamberlain has been connected with advertising
work for a number of years in both Milwaukee and
Chicago.
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