Music Trade Review

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not as apt will go on plunking away
. . . both situations please us and will
please you.
The rise in popularity in school
bands and orchestras is not only due
to the fact that methods have been de-
veloped to enable pupils to learn an
instrument but because of the fun that
is to be had in working together. The
desire to excell or even to be closely
associated with people of their own
age is a part of childhood and is pres-
ent in almost the same degree in adults.
No wonder that we have made a field
day for the cartoonists with our meth-
ods of teaching boys, for instance, to
play the piano. You have all seen the
cartoon which pictures a small boy at
a piano while outside the window his
friends are begging him to come on
out and play ball. Imagine what would
happen if all those boys could be
brought into your studio, each one giv-
en a keyboard and dared to learn to
play a piece on the piano! Boys and
girls will take a dare and that is just
what I'd like to see you do for the
children in your community . . . dare
them to learn to play a dozen pieces
on the piano.
Does Not Disturb Private Classes
.
Your private classes will not be dis-
turbed by Class Instruction. I'd almost
wager that some of your present pupils
would make twice as much progress if
you could put them in a class with
another pupil of equal standing. The
natural tendency would be for greater
concentration on the part of both pu-
pils to make sure that mistakes dropped
to an absolute zero.
Many teachers say "But I don't have
any time now". May I suggest some-
thing. What happens to your private
pupils in the summer? Most of them
stop their lessons and go off for vaca-
tions. \^ hy not scout around your town
a bit and get twenty children to gether
who have never had a piano lesson.
You might work it out in connection
with a local church as a summer time
activity. Divide the children into
groups, use a method you like and
understand and prove to yourself this
Summer that you can do it. Think of
the wonderful experience you will have
brought to these children . . . and think
of the knowledge you will have gained
for yourself in the psychology of class
teaching. No doubt the owner of your
local music store would be delighted to
cooperate with you to provide space,
pianos or advertising. When the fall
comes, you will know how to re-arrange
your teaching schedule to include twice
as many students as you have ever
taught before.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL. 1953
Why not take one or two of your
most advanced students, pupils who
will be going to advanced schools after
another year with you and teach them
to be class instructors. You can super-
vise and at the same time give them
invaluable experience, experience that
will make their own study of the pi-
ano twice as important to them . . .
we all learn by doing.
The Adult Desire to Play
Adults come into piano stores every
day of the week and say that if they
could just play the piano they would
be happy and would want to buy a
piano. That is business for the music
dealer. It is business for you, however,
to develop and perfect methods that
will make this wish come true for the
people in your community.
I believe that every teacher here
could expand her position in her own
town. Organize a class piano group in
your woman's club or in the YMCA or
YWCA. Maybe your church would
spoonsor your efforts in organizing a
weekly class for adults, using the
church pianos for your teaching.
Adults learn quickly in class and it's
an additional source of income that
not many teachers make use of. You'd
be amazed at the number of men in
service during the last war who spent
every spare moment at the piano in
the Recreation Hall on their base. They
wanted to learn to play—just as your
home town adults want to learn. Prove
to your home town folks that you've
never been the sort of teacher who
hit little girls over the knuckles with a
ruler when they didn't keep their hand
position.
You have heard able demonstrations
today of methods and procedures in
class piano. My plea is that you make
a personal application of them to the
end that you give the children and
adults of your community an oppor-
tunity which they are begging for and
an opportunity only you can give them
. . . give them the chance to be plain
and simple piano players!
Amateur Photographer Takes
Pictures of Steinway Artists
Adrian Siegel, cellist with the Phila-
delphia Symphony Orchestra, gives a
first hand account of how he turned
a hobby of taking pictures of musi-
cians into a profession in a special ar-
ticle in the Spring number of "Leica
Photography."
Purely a hobbyist who found his
regular work gave him an unusual op-
portunity for taking pictures of famous
musicians, Mr. Siegel developed such
interesting photographs that they have
been published in leading magazines
both in the United States and abroad.
Such was his success that he was
commissioned to do an entire series
on pianists for Steinway & Sons, a
series which is reproduced in the gra-
vure section of "Leica Photography" as
a companion to Mr. Siegel's article.
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