Music Trade Review

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teacher to recommend the sale of a thousand
dollar piano to someone whose income would
not permit more than a three or four hundred
dollar sale. However, if the teacher can boost
each sale from fifty to two hundred and fifty
dollars each I assure you that our net profit
at the end of the year will be much more
favorable and that we will be amply repaid by
any effort or financial remuneration that we
might have given the teaching profession.
"It is my feeling, gentlemen, that as we go
about our daily business if we would give a
little more thought to those allied with our
industry and to increasing the cultural and
educational facilities of the city, or community
in which we are doing business, that increased
piano sales would automatically take care of
themselves."
Second speaker of the afternoon session was
R. A. Huff, of the Huff Music Co., Bethlehem,
Pa., who talked on the subject of "Getting
Better Cooperation and Making Her a Better
Teacher." After stating that the attendance
of over 250 men manifested that we are enter-
ing a new era, he said:
"I think we are all very much pleased with
the progress we have made in the piano busi-
ness in the last couple of years. I know I
am, and I think the fact that there are 50
per cent more this year than there were at the
meeting last year is good reason for us to
believe that we are all very much interested
in the comeback of the piano.
"The thought has occurred to me that since
the piano is coming back, it might be a good
time for us to sort of clean house a little bit
and turn over a new leaf, probably eliminating
many evils, or as many as we can, that we
have had in the past.
"Touching on the subject now very lightly—
I do it with a bit of hesitation, but it is only
a viewpoint, and inasmuch as this is a forum,
you are all entitled to your opinion, as I feel
I a m —the first thought I have is on the evils
as we know them of the old piano men, the
evils that existed because of the commission
business with the teacher.
"Before I go any farther, I would like to
tell you my thoughts about that. I think that
any evils that did exist—and I think there
were plenty—were mostly of our own doing,
as dealers. I have met and known a lot of
teachers in my life and I think a great deal
of them, and I think, as a class, they are a
very fine, upright, honest group of artists, and
that is all. . . .
Regulation of Teacher's Commission
"In other words, if the commission business
was a racket, we are responsible for it. That
is the way I feel about it. I am just adding
a comment of my own, and it is meant only
as a comment as to how we should handle that
thing. I think we should eliminate commis-
sions to teachers, except where a teacher very
definitely has some part in the sale. I mean
if the teacher brings in a pupil, a parent or is
instrumental in helping in the sale of a piano,
he is performing the function of a salesman
and is very definitely entitled to some remu-
neration. I think none of us would object to
that. Just what the amount should be is, of
course, up to anybody's discretion.
"However, I do think that whatever he does
along those lines is worth something. But I
think we should discourage just the listing of
names or the giving of prospects with the
thought of getting something out of it. I think
as dealers we should not have anything to do
with that. . . .
"I think possibly the best way I could ex-
plain that would be that we make a friend of
the teacher, rather than a business accom-
plice.
"One way of cooperation is, if you have a
music department in your store, you naturally
are catering to the music teachers. I would
suggest that you take a personal interest in
that music department that hasn't been making
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, FEBRUARY, 19J>0
money for you, and probably never will make
a whole lot, but it is a very necessary part
of your business if you have it, and can be
made a great traffic builder and a great form
of service for teachers, especially.
"I would suggest that you have in a music
department everything that a teacher would
need.
Serve Teachers in Music Department
"Music publishers are, generally speaking,
following the Fair Trade Act and doing bus-
iness on a much higher plane than they used
to. However, we still have some competition
from publishers direct, and it is up to us as
dealers, if we have a music department, to
give these teachers service. If they use a
certain type of book we should handle it, keep
it in stock for them so they can pick it up im-
mediately. I think the music department is a
very important thing, as it affects the service
that a teacher can get from you.
"Now another thought I have is that we
should cooperate by selling tickets to any
musical affair or any function that goes on
in the town or city in which we are located.
I think we should look into that, and if we
are not already doing it, we should make efforts
to make our services available for that thing.
Sell tickets, put cards in the windows, sup-
port everything that comes along in an ar-
tistic manner in your city, and every time
you do that, you make a friend. After all, that
is what you want.
List All Teachers in City
"I think another very important thing we
could do would be to make a list v and keep
it of all teachers in your city; that is, all the
good ones. I don't confine that only to piano.
I would suggest voice and all the instruments.
Very often you have sold a piano and had a
customer ask you, "Whom would you recom-
mend as a teacher?" Just how you handle
that, of course, is another thing that you should
do with gloves on, and speaking of this co-
operation which we are stressing, no doubt you
would cooperate with the teacher who coop-
erated with you. It is only natural that we
should lean towards our friends.
"But I would suggest that we keep a list
of teachers and be helpful.
"I think we can follow that a little farther
—call up the teacher and make an appoint-
ment for tht prospective pupil. After all, we
are only selling the piano. The teacher is
the one that has to make it live and speak in
the home. I think we have all had experience
of pianos that have been sold to customers
who found out several months or a year after-
wards that the money they spent for lessons
was not justified, and maybe that is the fault
of the teacher.
"Another thought I have, and I think this
is important, all teachers nowadays are strug-
gling along, barely making a living, and they
like to present their pupils in concert. Uus-
ally it is in the spring of the year. I think
that is an opportunity for us to really make
a friend of a teacher. They need a piano.
Very often these affairs are held in halls, small
auditoriums or homes even, where good in-
struments are not available, and in order to
present their pupils at their best they want
a good instrument, and that is where we come
in. They come to us for them. I think we
ought to do that gratis. It is a good bit of
experience and probably costs us a little money,
but if you want to make a friend of a teacher,
loan him a good piano and he will certainly
feel grateful. Or if we have to make a charge,
let's make it as nominal as possible.
"Now I have another thought, that we could
use our store for practice. This happened to
us because people have come to us and asked
for it, and we were very glad to do it. If
you want to get cooperation from a friend,
you prove yourself to be a friend to him!
Encourage Teachers' Organization
"Another thought I think would be helpful
is this: If your teachers, your professional
music teachers, do not have an organization, I
think you ought to encourage them to organize
one. We have such an organization in Bethle-
hem. We had nothing to do with it there.
They meet each Tuesday at luncheon, and this
group have grown to know each other and
have eliminated a lot of the petty jealousy
among each other.
"Now, along that line, I would like to give
you a thought I have had about this group of
music teachers and how they could help them-
selves, and, incidentally, help us a great deal.
I am frank to say I have tried to promote
this wth our local organization without any
success. I still think the idea is good, and I
am going to tell you fellows about it, and
maybe you will be able to use it. During the
summer months when all the professional music
teachers, or rather, the children, are home and
free, hold a sort of a music clinic. Advertise
through the papers, if necessary. The dealers
ought to help subsidize the cost of that. Ad-
ertise that they will listen to prospective pupils,
children whose parents are so minded to have
them learn a piano or some other instrument
or start singing lessons, but who are hesitat-
ing because of the cost of it. How many
times have you fellows talked to prospects in
your store who have said, "Well, I would like
to buy that piano and I would gladly if I was
sure Mary or John would take to it." I have
heard that so many times; in fact, that is
where I got the idea
"I thought if I could get this local group
of teachers to run a series of auditions, offer
their services gratis, take each child and give
him three or four hearings to see whether
he has any musical ability, whether he has
got a sense of rhythm, whether he has an in-
terest in music, they could make a report to
the parent and say, "Mary looks to me as
though she would make a good pianist or a
good violinist or a good wind instrument play-
er," or "Little Mary looks like a musical moron,
Mrs. Smith, and I think you would save money
by not giving her any lessons."
"I think if some such form as that could be
followed, it would certainly bring a lot of
pupils to the teachers and would certainly sell
a lot of pianos for us. As I say, that is only
an idea. It may not be new, I don't know,
but I have thought about it for some time,
and haven't been able to do a thing about it,
although I intend to keep on trying.
"Let's be.a friend to the teacher and not
a briber. I think, taking them as a class,
being artistic people, they will respond much
more quickly and be more loyal, better friends
and greater help to us, if we prove our friend-
ship to them by helping them wherever we
can. Heaven knows, they need it, and so do
we!"
Mr. McClanahan then introduced Ray Er-
landsen, General Manager of the retail stores
of Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, who spoke on
advantages and disadvantages of teaching mu-
sic in our schools, an address which was
printed in the November issue of THE MUSIC
TRADE REVIEW.
Mr. McClanahan then called on Ed-
win G. Weeks of Weeks & Dickinson,
who illustrated the value of instruction
on musical instruments in the following
manner:
Weeks Endorses Music School
"I can do little more than add my word of
approval to this last topic, "The School in
the Music Store." We have all been confronted
by the mother or father who said, "My boy,
Johnny, is crazy to have a saxophone. I find
that a saxophone costs $150. Will it not be a
risk for me to buy that instrument, with no