Music Trade Review
Issue: 1954 Vol. 113 N. 10 - Page 4
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Piano Manufacturers, Music Merchants
Join in Support of TV Piano Classes
Houston (Tex.) music stores
F IVE
and the National Piano Manufac-
turers Association have announced a
joint contribution of $3,000 to the Uni-
versity of Houston to further the devel-
opment of Piano teaching by television
under Prof. George C. Stout over the
Used as a Pilot Project
In making a grant of $2,000 to the
University, John E. Furlong, President
of NPMA, stated his association was
primarily interested in the Houston
classes as a pilot project. The future
potential on a national scale could be
Marceaux stated there are now about
a dozen educational TV stations on the
air, and the FCC has set aside 250 more
channels throughout the country for this
purpose. He also pointed out that the
number of commercial television sta-
tions is likely to increase from the pres-
ent 380 to one thousand or more, when
the FCC approves the coin box pay-as-
you-use method for station revenue.
Since competition brings advertising
rate decreases, the TV medium will
come within the pocketbook of many
more advertisers. Because of this tre-
mendous development and expansion
on the TV horizon, NAMM is watching
the market closely on behalf of its
membership.
Will Produce Descriptive Portfolio
PROF. GEORGE C. STOUT OF UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON IS SHOWN HERE
GIVING A PIANO LESSON BY TELEVISION
university's educational TV station.
KUHT-TV.
Brook Mays Piano Co., Thomas Gog-
gan & Bros., Leland Carter Co., H &
H Music Company, Inc., and Poole
Piano Company, are the five dealers,
who together will make up $1,000 of
the total. In addition, they are plan-
ning extensive advertising support for
the program and will feature store tie-
ins. Each store will have a studio set-up
with TV sets, where students may come
for lessons, if they do not have a piano
at home. Stores will also sell or rent
Frazier "Practi-Pianos"—movable key-
boards with sound, used extensively in
Prof. Stout's piano methods—and also
standard pianos.
KUHT-TV can be tuned in on anv
television set in the standard Channel
8 spot in the Houston area. This puts
the impact of these lessons in the living
room of anyone with a television set.
great. Sound films of Prof. Stout's TV
lessons are planned, and these may later
be used on educational TV stations in
other cities; or they may provide the
basis for building other local programs.
The tapes may also be adaptable for
industrial or school music programs,
it is believed.
The new store-manufacturer-univer-
sity liaison was brought about largely
through the efforts of the National As-
sociation of Music Merchants, whose
education division director. Verne R.
Marceaux, has been in close contact
with the Houston music professor since
the start of his unique TV teaching
experiment. NAMM brought Stout to
the Music Industry Trade Show and
Convention in Chicago this July, where
his demonstration on the Education
Division Session was one of the most
talked-about features of the four-day
session.
Marceaux also said the education
division is prepared to produce a com-
plete portfolio describing the Houston
pattern, which will be made available
to all NAMM members when the need
and membership interest is great
enough. Already, a number of letters
of inquiry have been received, express-
ing interest in commercial programs.
Stout's claim. "I can teach a million
people to play the piano by television,"
appears well-founded. His extension
course over the educational TV channel
last season attracted more enrollees than
any other extension course, proving far
more popular than art, literature, sci-
ences, economics or Spanish.
Music merchants and instrument man-
ufacturers at the Chicago convention
had no trouble picturing what could
happen to sales, if Stout's methods of
getting masses of people to plav could
be applied nation-wide. In April. Stout
went to Caracas, Venezuela, where he
set up a similar program under the
auspices of an NAMM member, C. A.
Musica & Arte. Although Stout's own
personality and drive have undoubtedly
speeded acceptance of learning by TV,
others can carry on effectively, using
similar methods.
Last semester's extension students
plunked down $7.50 to receive printed
materials that enabled them to follow
the lessons at home. Now, the Houston
Press has agreed to publish the lessons
as a regular feature in its editorial
columns, so that this year's pupils will
get their lessons for the price of their
(Turn to Page 21)
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, OCTOBER, 1954
Piano Manufacturers, Music Merchants
Join in Support of TV Piano Classes
Houston (Tex.) music stores
F IVE
and the National Piano Manufac-
turers Association have announced a
joint contribution of $3,000 to the Uni-
versity of Houston to further the devel-
opment of Piano teaching by television
under Prof. George C. Stout over the
Used as a Pilot Project
In making a grant of $2,000 to the
University, John E. Furlong, President
of NPMA, stated his association was
primarily interested in the Houston
classes as a pilot project. The future
potential on a national scale could be
Marceaux stated there are now about
a dozen educational TV stations on the
air, and the FCC has set aside 250 more
channels throughout the country for this
purpose. He also pointed out that the
number of commercial television sta-
tions is likely to increase from the pres-
ent 380 to one thousand or more, when
the FCC approves the coin box pay-as-
you-use method for station revenue.
Since competition brings advertising
rate decreases, the TV medium will
come within the pocketbook of many
more advertisers. Because of this tre-
mendous development and expansion
on the TV horizon, NAMM is watching
the market closely on behalf of its
membership.
Will Produce Descriptive Portfolio
PROF. GEORGE C. STOUT OF UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON IS SHOWN HERE
GIVING A PIANO LESSON BY TELEVISION
university's educational TV station.
KUHT-TV.
Brook Mays Piano Co., Thomas Gog-
gan & Bros., Leland Carter Co., H &
H Music Company, Inc., and Poole
Piano Company, are the five dealers,
who together will make up $1,000 of
the total. In addition, they are plan-
ning extensive advertising support for
the program and will feature store tie-
ins. Each store will have a studio set-up
with TV sets, where students may come
for lessons, if they do not have a piano
at home. Stores will also sell or rent
Frazier "Practi-Pianos"—movable key-
boards with sound, used extensively in
Prof. Stout's piano methods—and also
standard pianos.
KUHT-TV can be tuned in on anv
television set in the standard Channel
8 spot in the Houston area. This puts
the impact of these lessons in the living
room of anyone with a television set.
great. Sound films of Prof. Stout's TV
lessons are planned, and these may later
be used on educational TV stations in
other cities; or they may provide the
basis for building other local programs.
The tapes may also be adaptable for
industrial or school music programs,
it is believed.
The new store-manufacturer-univer-
sity liaison was brought about largely
through the efforts of the National As-
sociation of Music Merchants, whose
education division director. Verne R.
Marceaux, has been in close contact
with the Houston music professor since
the start of his unique TV teaching
experiment. NAMM brought Stout to
the Music Industry Trade Show and
Convention in Chicago this July, where
his demonstration on the Education
Division Session was one of the most
talked-about features of the four-day
session.
Marceaux also said the education
division is prepared to produce a com-
plete portfolio describing the Houston
pattern, which will be made available
to all NAMM members when the need
and membership interest is great
enough. Already, a number of letters
of inquiry have been received, express-
ing interest in commercial programs.
Stout's claim. "I can teach a million
people to play the piano by television,"
appears well-founded. His extension
course over the educational TV channel
last season attracted more enrollees than
any other extension course, proving far
more popular than art, literature, sci-
ences, economics or Spanish.
Music merchants and instrument man-
ufacturers at the Chicago convention
had no trouble picturing what could
happen to sales, if Stout's methods of
getting masses of people to plav could
be applied nation-wide. In April. Stout
went to Caracas, Venezuela, where he
set up a similar program under the
auspices of an NAMM member, C. A.
Musica & Arte. Although Stout's own
personality and drive have undoubtedly
speeded acceptance of learning by TV,
others can carry on effectively, using
similar methods.
Last semester's extension students
plunked down $7.50 to receive printed
materials that enabled them to follow
the lessons at home. Now, the Houston
Press has agreed to publish the lessons
as a regular feature in its editorial
columns, so that this year's pupils will
get their lessons for the price of their
(Turn to Page 21)
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, OCTOBER, 1954
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