December, 1930
think of the miners, the woodsmen, sawmill men, rail-
road men, glue men, wire-mill men, hardware shop
men, varnish mill hands, men transporting ivory in
the tropics, trucking men, office assistants and scores,
perhaps hundreds of others, that are all dependent
on the final action of the customer in deciding to buy
and putting down a payment. Show him that the
fifty dollars that he puts down for a first payment is
the equivalent of possibly more than five thousand
dollars given in charity, because that fifty dollars,
moving along the line, has in a short time paid over
ten thousand dollars worth of bills: yet the purchaser
is out only fifty dollars, and his family has the beau-
tiful musical instrument to use from the day of its
delivery in his home.
The argument that one bill paid is many bills paid,
Mr. Jones has found is a most convincing one; so it
is needless to say that the over-cautious customer was
won over.
Mr. Jones is practical in the sense of getting out
and over the marketing field. Perhaps he visits the
trade more often than any of the other piano manu-
facturers do.
Fineness and Modernity.
He believes that proper style, finish and appear-
ance of the piano are of the utmost importance in
making it marketable, for many a dealer has been un-
able to close with a customer because he did not have
desired charm in his piano. If he had judicial power
Mr. Jones would sentence a lot of junk pianos to
deep spots in the bottom of Lake Michigan or to the
bonfire pile for an election-night celebration. Many
of the second-hand instruments, he says, are not of
much use to the buyer.
Keeping Pianos Tuned.
And pianos, like horses and men, must be kept fit.
Mr. Jones referred to the wisdom in the slogan of the
National Piano Tuners' Association that a piano in
order to be able to do its full duty must be put in
such condition as to perform its functions.
The Most Modern Only.
A prominent Midwest dealer sent in an order for
a carload of Schillers last week, saying in his letter
that he wanted these instruments to satisfy the re-
quests of customers who wanted up-to-date finishes
—the most modern pianos obtainable, as he had dis-
posed of practically all of his former stock.
PROMOTING TRADE BY
LOCAL PUBLICITY
"Trade Pickups" Department in This Paper
Shows Many Unique and Original
Advertisements.
Not pictures of a bold conception so much as
original ideas presented in local language to attract
the attention of people very particular in their in-
quiries about musical instruments, have been chosen
to make up Presto-Times' department headed "Trade
Pickups." The headline may be tame, but the ex-
cerpts are not. On the contrary, many of them are
very striking and exceedingly to the purpose.
Whether it is true or not that all man's thoughts
and impulses come from the outside, it is evident
from many of these clippings that the writers of them
were never shaken on deliberate judgment by any
influences from without. They knew what t h e y
wanted to say about the pianos they were selling and
they said it in good American style. And these off-
hand advertisements are landing sales.
So this is our excuse for calling attention to the
activity of dealers in local advertising in their home
papers and other means of local publicity and adver-
tising.
Presto-Times receives constantly, thanks to the
senders, marked copies of papers, local programs,
and sundry publicity "stunts." Of some of the more
prominent houses which are bending great efforts to
sell goods and advertising in especially attractive
ways, the following concerns attract our attention:
Dwyer Piano Co., 131 Carondelet street, New Or-
leans; P. A. Starck Piano Co., 1018 Olive street, St.
Louis; Thearle Music Co., San Diego, Cal.; Knight-
Campbell, 1625 California street, Denver, Colo; Jen-
kins Music Co., 313 North Penn avenue, Indepen-
dence, Kan.; Fergusson Brothers, 325 South Grace
street, Richmond, Va.; Robelen Piano Co., 710 Market
street, Wilmington, Del.; Carter Piano Co., 27 Pryor
street, Atlanta, Ga.; The Corley Co., Richmond, Va.;
Thos. Goggan & Bros., Texas Stores; C. A. House
& Co., 1141 Market street, Wheeling, W. Va.
Among issues admitted for trading in the unlisted
section on the Mhineapolis-St. Paul Exchange last
month is the Automatic Musical Instrument Co , oper-
ators of automatic phonographs and player-pianos,
both "B" common and limited.
Musical instruments are being made by the pupils
in the high third and high fifth grades of the Bowie
elementary school at San Antonio, Tex.
5
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FINDLAY, OHIO
"PASSING FAD" IS BASELESS
CHARGE AGAINST PIANO CLASS
MOVEMENT, SAYS MISS MASON
Kentucky Music Teachers Association Hear Refuta-
tion of the Charge at Their Annual
Convention at Louisville.
"The piano class movement is a passing fad of
which I do not approve." With these words the
director of a southern college attacked group piano
instruction at the recent conference of the Kentucky
Music Teachers Association, held at the Hotel Brown,
Louisville, Ky., November 6, 7 and 8.
Fortunately, Miss Ella H. Mason, piano class spe-
cialist of the National Bureau for the Advancement
of Music, was on hand at the conference and im-
mediately following the spokesman of the derogatory
opinion, took the platform and launched into a ref-
utation of the charge that the piano class move-
ment is a "passing fad."
She explained that piano classes are not a new
thing; they were introduced into some public schools
more than tw r enty years ago. She cited figures show-
ing their steady growth and explained that the devel-
opment had been especially rapid in the past few
years, due to a particular concentration of public
attention upon it. The Bureau's statistics, she said,
showed an increase from May, 1929, to May, 1930,
of 1,121 persons reporting classes in operation. In
the same year the number of requests for piano class
information received by the Bureau had grown from
6,226 to 11,863, while the number of cities reporting
classes in operation had advanced from 489 to 873.
Advantages of Group Teaching.
She pointed out the greater advantages of group
teaching, namely, that it brings about a democracy in
piano education, since the fee is so nominal as to
bring it within the reach of every child. An outstand-
ing advantage is that children enjoy working together,
and the piano class attracts a larger number of pupils
than are likely to become interested in individual
lessons. Miss Mason said this is especially true of
boys' classes and gave incidents drawn from her nine
years of teaching in the public schools of Rochester,
N. Y.
Not only do more children study in classes, but the
progress is accelerated, due to the friendly rivalry
and competition which exists in a well-conducted
class. The constant opportunity to play before others
relieves the child of self-consciousness when asked to
play and enables him to study in a rational and enjoy-
able fashion.
Miss Mason showed what has been done in Cleve-
land, where five years ago piano classes were offered
in three of the city's schools with an entire enrollment
of forty pupils, whereas, through a steady growth the
figures now total 1,040 pupils, and the instruction is
given in all of the school buildings. She told the
audience that Chicago, last year, had 12,000 children
enrolled in the puplic school classes, and at the end
of the year 3,600 children left the school classes in
order to continue their instruction with private
teachers.
Miss Mason said: "It is especially fortunate that
the National Bureau was represented at the meeting,
as it would have been unwise to have the teachers
from all over Kentucky receive only a negative ap-
praisal of group instruction. The disparaging re-
marks about group instruction offered a challenge
and increased the general interest in the subject."
Observations on Tour of Inspection.
During her stay in Louisville Miss Helen Boswell,
director of public school music, took Miss Mason to
four schools where she saw work of different types.
"In one grade school," said Miss Mason, "I saw
little children, seven and eight years of age, playing
their pieces in duet form at the piano, and making
up their own little tunes for the words, 'Hear the Bell
Go Ding Dong, Ding Dong.'
"In a shabby basement room (apparently the only
available space in a girls' high school) was a most
serious group of six students playing chords with
arm weight, listening carefully for tone quality and
bringing out a lovely melody in a 'Romance' by
La Forge.
"One piano class was being held in a room which
had been vacated by sending the fourth grade into
the hall to conduct a reading lesson.
"In all of these schools I was delighted to find a
remarkable spirit of co-operation on the part of the
school principal and the grade teachers. Most of
these lessons are offered for a period of two years,
and are given free of charge by the music teachers
in the building. In those few cases where no music
teacher is in charge, a private teacher from outside
the school has been brought in, and the children pay
25 cents apiece for their lessons."
Sherman Kalkbrenner has been appointed manager
of the radio service department of the Hanson-Duluth
Co., Duiuth, Minn.
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