THE NEW Y0J1K
PUBLIC LIBRARY
MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1927
$2 The Year
PRACTICAL WAYS TO PROMOTE PIANO SALES
Activities of Trade Associations, Music Houses and Individuals Conducive to
Immediate or Future Business in Pianos Are Briefly Recorded
NEW YORK MERCHANTS ACTIVE.
At a meeting of the National Republican Club, New
York, June 20, plans to utilize a scheme of group
piano instruction were completed by the Melody
Way Committee of the New York Piano Merchants'
Association. The first lesson will appear in the New
York Evening World on Saturday, July 9, and will
be followed on each successive Saturday until the
entire series of twelve lessons are published, each
being given a full page of space. A radio tie-up with
the printed lessons is also provided for. The com-
mittee has mailed the full prospectus of the plan to
400 piano dealers in all parts of the city, inviting
their co-operation with the proposition.
GOOD FOR THE SOUL.
In addition to the wonderful achievements of the
piano playing tournament in Chicago in stimulating
piano playing among the boys and girls of the city,
members of the committee, at a special dinner in honor
of Chas. E. Byrne as the originator of the tournament
idea, testified to the benefits of the contest in promot-
ing a spirit of co-operation among the members of
the local trade in working together to promote music.
A SAN FRANCISCO EFFORT.
A Starr grand piano is the first prize in contest
within the Co-operative Musical Education Club
formed by the Chimes Music Store, 1180 Market
street, San Francisco. The club is an idea of George
Braun, manager of the store, who says it will prove
an effective means of keeping piano pupils interested
during the distractions of the summer vacation period.
The details of the club plan are available to those
who make application either in person or in writing,
and some splendid prospects have come into the piano
department since the contest was launched.
MAKES IT PERMANENT.
The Greater Chicago Children's Piano Playing
Tournament, which was such a stirring closing event
of the recent convention of the music trade at the
Stevens Hotel, Chicago, is to be made an annual
event. That important decision was made at a meet-
ing of the promoters and sponsors last week.
A PROVIDENCE, R. I., CONTEST.
The Outlet Co., Providence, R. I., has promoted a
contest for piano students, the first prize in which is
a Chickering grand piano. The purpose of the con-
test, according to C. Walker Fraleigh, manager of
the piano salon of the company, is to advance the
cause of piano music not only in Rhode Island, but
in border towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
All the teachers of the state and many outside of
it already have expressed the keenest interest in the
contest, in which the judges will be Maurice Dumes-
nil, international French pianist; Hans Barth, noted
composer; Mrs. Caesar Misch, Rhode Island presi-
dent of the State Federation of Music Clubs; Marion
C. Weir, music critic; William H. Butterfield, director
of music in the Providence schools, and Mrs. Rosalba
De Anchoriz, prominent musical patron of Provi-
dence.
MUSIC DIRECTOR'S BELIEF.
In an address at a luncheon of the New York
Rotary Club last week, Dr. George H. Gartlan,
director of music in the New York public schools,
said the motive behind such training in the schools
was not to teach children to become expert musicians,
but to prepare them for an appreciation of music not
only while they are children, but after they leave
school and in later life.
PROVIDES OBJECT LESSON.
The Michigan Music Merchants' Association ex-
tends a most cordial invitation, not only to Michigan
piano merchants, but to those of the whole nation to
come and witness the Greater Detroit Piano Tourna-
ment finals during the convention in Detroit, August
IS to 18. It will be the climax of a publicity cam-
The earnestness of the progressive piano
merchants everywhere is an assurance that
, the trade has azuakcned to the necessity of
practical methods for revitalizing the piano
business. In many places piano playing con-
tests directly interest the school children and
their parents, and further help to extend the
favor for piano instruction among the girls
and boys.
paign to popularize and promote the
upon the activity of a piano playing
ducted in the complete school systems
city of the nation and sponsored by the
paper.
piano, based
contest con-
of the fourth
leading news-
GOOD WORK IN BUFFALO.
Co-operating with the Buffalo Evening News, the
music merchants of Buffalo devote their efforts to
the formation of piano classes during the holidays.
The movement, well begun during the closing school
weeks, is now getting the desirable stimulation. The
merchants are making special preparations for the
Melody Way classes in a tw r elve-week course to be
concluded with a final contest.
The Buffalo Evening News began its editorial ma-
terial on the Miessner Melody Way plan in its issue
of Monday, June 27, and the first lesson will be pub-
lished today (Saturday, July 2).
A PACKARD PROPOSITION.
The Packard Music House, Ft. Wayne, Ind., last
week made a special announcement that it had made
arrangements with the music teachers of Ft. Wayne
by which, for a definite period, private music lessons
would be given to all purchasers of a Packard or a
Bond piano, or any new or used piano in stock.
"These lessons may be arranged for with any
teacher and the Packard Music House will pay for
them as a special contribution to the development of
music in our community. You select the teacher and
we pay for the lessons," was the definite proposition.
KANSAS CITY IN LINE.
Miss Mabelle Glen, director of music in the public
schools of Kansas City, gives her hearty approval of
a scheme to encourage piano lessons during the vaca-
tion period. With the beginning of the holidays, the
Kansas City Star, in co-operation with the local piano
merchants, has begun its Melody Way campaign.
The campaign will be conducted under the title of
the Star's Melody Way Club, the paper publishing a
music lesson on its music page each Sunday for
twelve weeks, linked up with a broadcast radio ex-
planation of the lesson. Local music dealers are
providing classrooms for weekly free lessons to those
enrolled.
INTERESTS ADULTS
The Melody V/ay, free course of music teaching,
conducted by the Milwaukee Journal and participated
in by co-operating music merchants of that city is
producing splendid results, according to Lillian Leub-
tow, an enthusiastic supporter of the movement who,
in telling the fact in a letter to the Schumann Piano
Co., Rockford, 111., says:
"Am very pleased at the interest among both chil-
dren and parents. Surprised to see that the enroll-
ment comprises about fifty per cent adults, many of
them being fine piano prospects. Have several classes
going, teaching one myself and keeping two other
teachers busy."
UNIVERSITY IS PRACTICAL.
The Wisconsin LIniversity School of Music at
Madison, Wis., is offering to Madison children free
music courses in daily classes during the summer
session, from June 25 to August 5. The university
is instituting a demonstration school to be conducted
in conjunction with courses in public school methods
which will permit a selected group of boys and girls
from the fifth and sixth grades daily training in
piano under Professor Leland A. Coon, piano in-
structor.
WAY DOWN IN GEORGIA.
Five prominent music houses of Atlanta, Ga., are
back of a scheme of the Atlanta Journal to increase
interest in piano instruction, and the plans announced
a few weeks ago are now being worked out in a most
enthusiastic manner. In furtherance of the plans of
the Atlanta Melody Way Club, each of the five music
houses has engaged a teacher to instruct its alloted
groups of piano pupils. A prize fund of $1,000 has
been subscribed.
A SIGNIFICANT ACTION.
A special committee on piano study had been au-
thorized by the Music Supervisors' National Confer-
ence. The special committee on the piano will consist
of three persons, and their assignment will be to
study the question of the piano as a part of school
music training and to promote piano classes in the
schools of the country. It marks the formal recogni-
tion of piano study as a legitimate school subject, in
itself a long step forward.
INTERESTS THE YOUNG FOLKS.
In the third annual Fitzgerald Piano Trophy Con-
test held recently by the Fitzgerald Music Company
of Los Angeles, a $1,800 Knabe grand piano was the
first prize. The Fitzgerald Piano Contest, which will
be an annual event until 1935, is another constructive
means of the progressive Fitzgerald Music Company
to stimulate a greater interest in the piano and to
cultivate the study of piano music among the younger
generation.
CHEERING FOR TEACHERS.
A new solution to the vocational problem of aspir-
ing pianists is presented by the remarkable growth
of group piano classes in the public schools. It is
estimated that several hundred cities are now offer-
ing such piano teaching in their schools. Definite
figures are being obtained in the course of an investi-
gation by the National Bureau for the Advancement
of Music, as a follow-up of its pamphlet, "Piano
Classes in the Schools." Copies of that pamphlet are
obtainable without charge from the office of the
bureau, 45 West 45th street, New York City.
In pointing out the new opportunity for pianists,
the advocates of this plan call attention to the fact
that in the past the profession of the pianist has been
an overcrowded one. There has not been enough de-
mand for solo pianists and enough private pupils to
keep all the teachers busy. It is pointed out that the
school piano classes not only give employment to
more teachers, but provide new raw material for ad-
vanced work with the private teachers. One city,
Fayetteville, Ark., reports that 75 per cent of the
children in the group piano classes have gone on to
private study after two terms of class work.
PUPILS ENCOURAGED.
Presentation of gold, silver and bronze medals to
1,300 young musicians in the interborough contest
that was in progress for weeks under the auspices of
the New York Music Week Association took place
last week in Carnegie Hall, New York City. The
big auditorium was nearly filled with relatives and
friends of the contestants. C. Stanley Mitchell,
president of the Central Mercantile Bank of New
York, made the presentations, assisted by Joseph P.
Donnelly and Miss Isabel Lowden, director of the
association.
Before the presentations there was a musical pro-
gram by the massed chorus of the choral contestants,
who sang Gaines's "Salutation," Rasbach's "Trees"
and Beethoven's "The Heavens Are Declaring."
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