Music Trade Review
Issue: 1932 Vol. 91 N. 8 - Page 15
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PIANO FACTORY and
PIANO SERVICING
DR. W M . BRAID WHITE
Technical Editor
The Tuner's Position
Today and What
the Future Promises
DR. WM. BRAID WHITE
N these times of change and transition
everyone is trying to solve his own per-
sonal problem of adjustment. Everyone
is trying, that is to say, to find a way to fit
himself into new and radically altered situ-
ations. These have come about through the
fault of no particular individual, but they
exist nevertheless, and there is no sense in
attempting either to ignore them or to waste
one's time in vain regrets for a past that will
not return. What each of us now has to do
is to adapt his methods and his efforts to
the facts of today.
I am moved to this reflection by a letter
from my good friend L. M. Poarch of Indi-
anapolis, one of the best practitioners of the
tuner's art to be found in the middle west.
He has now found it necessary, after many
years, to strike out as an independent tuner.
He sends me some specimens, very well de-
signed and very well gotten up, of his new-
letterheads, his advertising matter, and so
on, asking my opinion on them. These move
me to certain observations on the situation
in which men of high skill and established
reputation, like him, are now finding them-
selves.
I am quite convinced that the independent
tuners have the future of the art, such as it
is, in their own hands. No one can tell what
the future of piano retailing may be, but it
I
The
^ ^
Piano-Moth-e X
Method
Quickly—Positively doubles tuners' incomes.
Dealers—Tuners, writs
THE SCHAI,li LABORATORIES
Madison Avenue
LaCrosse, Wis.
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
seems certain that the old exclusive piano
store will diminish in numbers and perhaps
in time disappear, leaving pianos to be sold
as only the principal among an array of
musical instruments, musical goods, and
perhaps other cultural articles. If anything
like this does come about, as seems not un-
likely, the position of the employed tuner
will certainly not be improved. I am con-
vinced that whatever the future may hold,
that future is in the hands of the independent
men.
Now, as to the prospects for these inde-
pendent men, it is possible, I think, to speak
with some assurance- The number of pianos
actually in use is probably no smaller than
it was twenty years ago, although the num-
ber now being bought to stand around as
pieces of furniture is very much smaller than
it was in those days. The fact is that not
even in the days to which we are inclined to
look back with fond regret was there usu-
ally enough tuning to keep a good man well
occupied and earning a good income, within
even a fair-sized community. A town of
ten thousand inhabitants could not, and did
not, alone furnish enough tunings to keep a
good independent man going. He always
had to travel all around in the outlying dis-
tricts. Even after the coming of the auto-
mobile, this scattered distribution of his
clients caused much waste of time, and di-
minished earnings. Moreover, the retail
stores, not unnaturally, wanted the tuning
business of their communities for themselves,
and treated it often as an accessory to piano
selling, giving all sorts of free services,
thereby not only cutting into the earnings of
the independent man, but educating the pub-
lic to believe that tuning was, on the one
hand, a matter not to be worried about very
often, and on the other hand, not to be
paid for if possible.
NOW ALL IS CHANGED
Now all that has changed. The position
now is that the retail stores are become less
formidable competitors to the independent
tuner, for obvious business reasons. The lat-
ter now has the opportunity to confine his
efforts to the minority of what I may call
"practical" piano owners, that is to say, those
owners of pianos who really use their instru-
REVIEW,
October,
1932
ments. These number at present perhaps one
in three of those who have pianos in their
homes; and it is among them that the inde-
pendent tuner must work if he is to main-
tain himself in business and to earn a satis-
factory income.
And the very first thing to remember in
the matter is that during the days of the
greatest output of commercial pianos tuning
as an occupation was no more remunerative,
generally speaking, than it is today. This
was because the piano-owning public bought
pianos mostly for their use as articles of
furniture, and in consequence did not pat-
ronize tuners save when serious mechanical
faults developed, or when the long-suffering
teacher of music to the growing daughter
insisted that the strings be pulled into some-
thing like harmonious cooperation with each
other. And this was not very often. During
the height of post-W T ar prosperity a survey
made by the Tuners Association led to the
conclusion that on an average pianos were
being tuned once in three years.
Now I say that the tuner is no worse off
in that respect today than he was twenty
years ago. What, however, he must now
realize is that henceforth he has to devote
himself to the service of the musicians, and
of those music-lovers who play the piano
(there are plenty of them). He must work
with and among these. He must devote all
{Please turn to page 16)
BADGER BRAND
PLATES
are far more
than
merely
good p l a t e s .
They are built
correctly of the
best material and finish and are spe-
cified by builders of quality pianos.
American Piano Plate Co.
Manufacturers BADGER BRAND Grand
and Upright Piano Plates
Racine, Wisconsin
15
PIANO FACTORY and
PIANO SERVICING
DR. W M . BRAID WHITE
Technical Editor
The Tuner's Position
Today and What
the Future Promises
DR. WM. BRAID WHITE
N these times of change and transition
everyone is trying to solve his own per-
sonal problem of adjustment. Everyone
is trying, that is to say, to find a way to fit
himself into new and radically altered situ-
ations. These have come about through the
fault of no particular individual, but they
exist nevertheless, and there is no sense in
attempting either to ignore them or to waste
one's time in vain regrets for a past that will
not return. What each of us now has to do
is to adapt his methods and his efforts to
the facts of today.
I am moved to this reflection by a letter
from my good friend L. M. Poarch of Indi-
anapolis, one of the best practitioners of the
tuner's art to be found in the middle west.
He has now found it necessary, after many
years, to strike out as an independent tuner.
He sends me some specimens, very well de-
signed and very well gotten up, of his new-
letterheads, his advertising matter, and so
on, asking my opinion on them. These move
me to certain observations on the situation
in which men of high skill and established
reputation, like him, are now finding them-
selves.
I am quite convinced that the independent
tuners have the future of the art, such as it
is, in their own hands. No one can tell what
the future of piano retailing may be, but it
I
The
^ ^
Piano-Moth-e X
Method
Quickly—Positively doubles tuners' incomes.
Dealers—Tuners, writs
THE SCHAI,li LABORATORIES
Madison Avenue
LaCrosse, Wis.
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
seems certain that the old exclusive piano
store will diminish in numbers and perhaps
in time disappear, leaving pianos to be sold
as only the principal among an array of
musical instruments, musical goods, and
perhaps other cultural articles. If anything
like this does come about, as seems not un-
likely, the position of the employed tuner
will certainly not be improved. I am con-
vinced that whatever the future may hold,
that future is in the hands of the independent
men.
Now, as to the prospects for these inde-
pendent men, it is possible, I think, to speak
with some assurance- The number of pianos
actually in use is probably no smaller than
it was twenty years ago, although the num-
ber now being bought to stand around as
pieces of furniture is very much smaller than
it was in those days. The fact is that not
even in the days to which we are inclined to
look back with fond regret was there usu-
ally enough tuning to keep a good man well
occupied and earning a good income, within
even a fair-sized community. A town of
ten thousand inhabitants could not, and did
not, alone furnish enough tunings to keep a
good independent man going. He always
had to travel all around in the outlying dis-
tricts. Even after the coming of the auto-
mobile, this scattered distribution of his
clients caused much waste of time, and di-
minished earnings. Moreover, the retail
stores, not unnaturally, wanted the tuning
business of their communities for themselves,
and treated it often as an accessory to piano
selling, giving all sorts of free services,
thereby not only cutting into the earnings of
the independent man, but educating the pub-
lic to believe that tuning was, on the one
hand, a matter not to be worried about very
often, and on the other hand, not to be
paid for if possible.
NOW ALL IS CHANGED
Now all that has changed. The position
now is that the retail stores are become less
formidable competitors to the independent
tuner, for obvious business reasons. The lat-
ter now has the opportunity to confine his
efforts to the minority of what I may call
"practical" piano owners, that is to say, those
owners of pianos who really use their instru-
REVIEW,
October,
1932
ments. These number at present perhaps one
in three of those who have pianos in their
homes; and it is among them that the inde-
pendent tuner must work if he is to main-
tain himself in business and to earn a satis-
factory income.
And the very first thing to remember in
the matter is that during the days of the
greatest output of commercial pianos tuning
as an occupation was no more remunerative,
generally speaking, than it is today. This
was because the piano-owning public bought
pianos mostly for their use as articles of
furniture, and in consequence did not pat-
ronize tuners save when serious mechanical
faults developed, or when the long-suffering
teacher of music to the growing daughter
insisted that the strings be pulled into some-
thing like harmonious cooperation with each
other. And this was not very often. During
the height of post-W T ar prosperity a survey
made by the Tuners Association led to the
conclusion that on an average pianos were
being tuned once in three years.
Now I say that the tuner is no worse off
in that respect today than he was twenty
years ago. What, however, he must now
realize is that henceforth he has to devote
himself to the service of the musicians, and
of those music-lovers who play the piano
(there are plenty of them). He must work
with and among these. He must devote all
{Please turn to page 16)
BADGER BRAND
PLATES
are far more
than
merely
good p l a t e s .
They are built
correctly of the
best material and finish and are spe-
cified by builders of quality pianos.
American Piano Plate Co.
Manufacturers BADGER BRAND Grand
and Upright Piano Plates
Racine, Wisconsin
15
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).