Presto

April. 1930
PRESTO-TIMES
concave, spoon-shaped shells of hard wood or ivory.
It was named for the chestnut by the Spaniards,
whose word for chestnut is castana.
Gave Away a $200 'Cello.
The Educational Music Bureau. 434 South Wabash
avenue, Chicago, gave away a $200 'cello on March 27
at the show to the winner in a contest. It went to
R. L. Marique, band teacher at the Eastern High
School, Grand Rapids. Mich.
Grigsby-Grimow at the Show.
The Colotura Dynamic Speaker and other Majestic
lines of radio were on exhibit at the conference show
rooms. One of these is the Radio-Phonograph Com-
bination, an English design with beautifully matched
butt walnut center and side panels. Top rail and
overlays on corner posts are of Australian lacewood.
Escutcheon plate is old bronze finish and control
knobs are walnut with bronze inserts.
Miessner's Melody Way.
The Miessner Institute of Music, 1219 Kimball
Building, Chicago, occupied a room and here it held
demonstrations of its methods. This method is used
throughout the United States and to some extent
also in Japan, China, Hawaii, Korea, Egypt and New
Zealand.
Summer Classes in New York.
Among the schools represented at the convention
was Addye Veargain Hall Institute of Piano Class
Instruction, 65 West 56th street, New York. Psychol-
ogy of group instruction was one of the branches
announced.
Student Band Led by Sousa.
The combined high school bands of Senn, Ham-
mond and Gary, composed of 314 boys and one girl,
were on the stage at the Auditorium, Chicago, on the
first night of the convention, directed by Lt. Com-
mander John Philip Sousa. This was one of the
most stirring events in connection with the meetings.
How Music Helps Children.
John Philip Sousa at the conference disallowed
some of the claims of musical enthusiasts by giving
it as his opinion that it was a mistake to claim that
music had any particular effect on character or morals.
It had rather a certain socializing influence. Rehears-
als kept children out of mischief and gave them some-
thing to think about.
Piano and Other Instruments.
Ginn & Co. had a descriptive catalog on music
appreciation records. In the list were pieces for violin
with piano, trumpet with piano, flute with piano,
clarinet and oboe with piano, viola with piano, wood-
wind with piano, etc., showing how necessary the
piano becomes as the basic musical instrument.
Among Several Exhibitors.
Among others who exhibited were the Raymond A.
Hoffman Co., 509 South Wabash avenue, Chicago,
who announced Stuber's Melody Method, pointing
the way to better orchestras and bands; a history of
public school music in the United States by Prof.
Edward Bailey Birge of Indiana University; the
National Music League, with its programs of concerts
in schools in 1929-1930. The League, with headquar-
ters at 113 West 57th street, New York, claims to be
a non-profit-making association for the promotion of
music.
The Starr Practice Keyboard.
The Starr Silent Portable Practice Keyboard was
shown in the room occupied by the Starr Piano Co.
of Richmond, Ind., along with their display of several
models of pianos. The keyboard has regular piano
touch and enables the beginner to practice piano
technique and to learn the fundamentals of piano
playing without a piano, lt enables classes of from
ten to twenty to be taught at the same time, thereby
lowering the cost per lesson. By its use many pupils
may now learn music who have been restricted on
account of the expense.
The Starr keyboard has four octaves of life-size
piano keys which are of regular piano ivorine, made
exactly by the same piano manufacturing process of
mounting, finishing, etc. Piano action springs give
to each key a pianistic touch. This is a feature of
utmost importance, as in running over the keyboard
the fingers encounter the same feel of keys and touch
as on a regular piano.
R. C. Ball, advertising manager of the Starr Piano
Co., was found at the hotel in charge of the exhibit.
In addition to the keyboard described, the company
had in the room a small grand and two uprights.
This room was a mecca for the best musicians. At
the first call of Presto-Times representative an ac-
complished young lady violinist was playing a classic
while another lady, an artist at the piano, was making
one of the uprights speak forth in volumes of musical
beauty.
Conn Instruments Demonstrated.
Orchestral instruments were demonstrated in a
special room on one of the upper floors of the hotel
under the direction of James F. Boyer, whose display
of instruments from the factory of C. G. Conn, Inc.,
of Elkhart, Ind., was complete and interesting. The
Leedy Mfg. Co.'s instruments were on demonstration
in the same room. Mr. Boyer is an enthusiastic
booster for bands and orchestras, and he is up to the
neck in business just now as the season for outdoor
performances of bands is opening.
German Music Pedagogics.
Information was dispensed at the convention of an
informative course in music pedagogics for foreigners
at Berlin, Germany, June 23 to July 6, 1930. A
pamphlet was circulated in the audiences containing
an article by Prof. Georg Schunemann, director of the
State Academy of Music, Berlin, in which he advo-
cated "replacing passivity by an active participation
in music, educating to individual singing and playing.
In school music we find here the road that must lead
to comprehensive musical education, and in teaching
instrumental playing and in private and professional
occupation in music the foundations of our education
lie in musical activities and in living and finding one's
way to the inmost essence of music. The listener,
who can otherwise find no road leading to music, is
to be again converted into a man or woman in whose
life music is a constant factor."
Radio in the Classroom.
The Atwater Kent Mfg. Co.'s educational depart-
ment, 4700 Wissahickon avenue, Philadelphia, had an
exhibit at the hotel. In a large pamphlet which they
circulated the company pointed out "the advantages
to teachers, both urban and rural, to show how they
could be supplied with a variety of new thoughts and
methods and inspirations. The advantages of supple-
mentary radio instruction to pupils are almost uni-
versally conceded.
"And as to the better appreciation by both school
board and community of the educational methods
being used with the local children, surely nothing
can vitalize this so quickly and so adequately as actual
radio broadcasting of classroom material. Therefore,
our message continues to be an assertation that radio
in the classroom will definitely promote the modern
3 C's of education, namely—character, culture and
citizenship!"
Rare Old Violin Show.
An exhibit of many famous and rare old violins
took place at the Hotel Stevens during the Music
Supervisors' Conference. Herman Walecki of Lyon
& Healy, Chicago, was in charge of the many fine
specimens which included the King Henry Amati,
made in 1595 and considered the most historic violin
in the world. Other valuable and interesting instru-
ments made this display a showplace for musicians.
Lyon & Healy's Activities.
A beautiful Washburn piano was donated by Lyon
& Healy, Chicago, for use by the Music Supervisors'
Conference.
In the great gathering of promising musicians who
played in the Auditorium Theater, March 26, there
were eight harpists, all of whom played the Lyon &
Healy harp.
At the hotel, Lyon & Healy had exhibits of their
sheet music, including cantatas, choruses, operettas,
orchestrations, band arrangements, miniature scores
and new teaching methods. In another room they
showed a complete display of band and orchestra
instruments of the leading manufacturers, including
woodwinds, brasses, strings, reeds and the new kinter
symphony or rhythm band instruments that are more
popular than ever in the musical education of school
children.
Class Piano Recitals.
The principal one of the class piano recitals in con-
nection with the convention was that of the chil-
dren from the Chicago public schools at the Eighth
Street Theater on March 25. The pianos furnished
for this occasion were free of charge and from
Ampico Hall, Baldwin Piano Co., Cable Piano Co.,
Kimball Co., Kranich & Bach, Lyon & Healy, Gul-
bransen Co., Meyer & Weber, M. Schulz Co. and
Starck Piano Co. Demonstrations of the several
methods or systems took place daily in the Eighth
Street Theater—the Curtis, the Miessner and the
Oxford being the principal systems used. Pupils were
brought from the various schools for this purpose.
Programs in technique and interpretation were very
interesting.
Each class day there were talks by some prominent
musician and one day the celebrated Rudolf Ganz
addressed the pupils and audience. He said that no
musical instrument alone could equal the orchestra,
which in the ensemble he regarded as the prime
medium of musical expression. Yet he considered the
piano as next to the orchestra—even more expressive
than the great organ. He believed that America was
making such rapid progress in music that by 1933
we would be able to turn the tables on Europe and
show them instead of being shown by them. Great
progress had been made in the last twenty years, until
now, in the Chicago schools alone, thousands of pupils
were studying music.
Band Instrument Folks.
Among those met at the convention by a Presto-
Times representative were E. L. Best, sales manager
of the Buescher Band Instrument Co., Elkhart, Ind.,
and E. L. Sorsen, sales manager of the Elkhart Band
Instrument Co. At the Martin Band Instrument Co.'s
room were met L. B. Dolan, who had charge; F. A.
Holtz. J. O. Thompson, Jr., and H. W. Pedler,
Jr. Here were shown a new model cornet, new model
trumpet and trombone. Also a fluegel horn and a
new model saxophone.
At the Holton band instrument room were met
H. J. Charlton, manager of the factory at Elkhorn,
Wis.; W. V. Arnold, who was in charge all the week:
R. H. Leissman, in charge of the school work, and
James E. Miller, demonstrator. The new line manu-
factured by Holton and gotten out at the first of
January was exhibited.
Fine Singing of Omaha People.
Minerva Hall, director of music at Long Beach,
Calif., presided at the afternoon meeting on the last
day of the convention, and she presented a great
treat in the songs of the Senior Glee Clubs of Central
High School, Omaha, Neb., Carol Marhoff Pitts,
director.
Dr. E. J. Stringham, of the Columbia University
teachers' college. New York, who followed the sing-
ing with an address, complimented these talented
young folks by declaring that many times had he paid
out high prices for seats to musical entertainments,
widely heralded, and heard nothing half so good. He
said the time was when music was looked upon as a
fancy but was not considered on a par with physics,
philosophy or mathematics.
However, that notion
had changed now and the whole country was getting
interested in music's importance. Some thirty to
thirty-five thousand public schools in the country
were teaching music.
AN AMAZING NEW
PIANO CLASS INSTRUMENT
The Wessell, Nickel & Gross School-Class Piano
Exhibited at Chicago Convention.
Wessell, Nickel & Gross, piano action manufac-
turers, 45th street and Tenth avenue, New York,
seem to have solved the problem of making piano
class instruction in schools more interesting to the
student and more effective in results.
Class piano instruction is now established as part
of the school curriculum in a good many cities and
TH10 W1CSSKLL, NICKEL & CROSS SCHOOL CLASS
riAxo.
towns throughout the country. But the effectiveness
of this method of group instruction has been seriously
lessened because the ear and hands cannot be properly
trained except by actual use of an instrument capable
of providing both touch and tone. Such an instru-
ment has now been created in the Wessell, Nickel &
Gross school class piano.
This amazing new instrument provides every stu-
dent of a class in piano instruction every advantage
that he would have could he receive his instruction
on a full-sized piano.
The Wessell, Nickel & Gross school class piano
is a small instrument that can be placed on each
individual desk in the class room. It provides the
same accuracy and delicacy of touch as does the
piano itself. It produces actual tone in true tone
pitch in 4 full octaves. (Also made in 3 full octaves.)
it is equivalent from every standpoint to the indi-
vidual student actually playing on a piano.
The tone is produced accurately yet so softly that
no one student practicing in a class disturbs any other
student. It is portable, which means that any num-
ber of school class pianos may be set in position on
desks quickly and as quickly removed. It is inexpen-
sive. An entire school class of piano students can be
provided with these instruments for little more than
the cost of a single piano.
With this new invention, piano class instruction
becomes 100 per cent more interesting to the students.
Pianists and students find it ideal as a practice piano.
Pianists use the Wessell, Nickel & Gross School
Class Piano for practice in hotels, while traveling
and at all times when a piano is not available or
accessible. Students use it at home without disturbing
other members of the family. Music teachers find
that it increases their income by enabling them to
give "group" instruction successfully.
Music teachers who find their list of pupils dis-
couragingly small can almost immediately enlarge
their clientele because this instrument enables them
to give "group" instruction at lower rates.
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