Music Trade Review
Issue: 1954 Vol. 113 N. 5 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Established 1879
May, 1954
Vol. 113 -No. 5
2,890th Issue
REVIEW
75lh Year
THE
PIONEER
PUBLICATION
75th Year
O F T H E MUSIC
I N D U S T R Y
Expects to Teach a Million People to
Play Piano Through TV Telecourse
TEXAS las another claim to boast
' of—the world's biggest piano class.
Texans in the Houston area are taking
piano lessons en masse over television.
The new class piano telecourse is
part of the University of Houston's
program over the non-commercial edu-
cational station KUHT, Channel 8. Of
the eight courses offered by the univer-
sity, music is the favorite, and the TV
registrar says comments and inquiries
on the music course are coming in
three to one over any of the others.
The course is offered on either a
home study or a credit basis. Students
taking the piano lessons for college
credit are required to attend campus
sessions twice a month. The home study
course makes campus facilities avail-
able to students once a month so they
may have their progress evaluated.
Credit students pay $40 for the sem-
ester and "home study" students pay
$20.
The university estimates that
thousands of people are taking advan-
tage of the courses without the ma-
terial and evaluation supplied to pay-
ing students.
George C. Stout, professor of Music
Education at the university, and direc-
tor of the telecourse in piano, was sur-
prised to find at the end of the first
semester that "It is apparent that the
students taking the course by television
are making more progress than those
regularly enrolled for the same course
on the campus."
The telecourses were inaugurated in
Houston in September, 1953, and are
now going strong in their second sem-
ester. Enrolled in the piano course are
students of all ages.
One is an 85-year-old grandfather;
another is a teenager. One avid young
grade-school football fan was reported
by his parents to have given up his
favorite football telecast because it
conflicts with Prof. Stout's piano ses-
sion.
Just before Christmas, an elderly
lady wrote to the station for carol in-
struction, "So I can play the carols
at the church during the holidays." A
surgeon taking the course had a piano
put in his office so he can practice be-
tween patients. Several husbands and
wives, and one mother and daughter,
are sharing the family pianos to learn
techniques in this novel way.
Many of the students are teachers
who find the methods used in group
study valuable for them in teaching
music to their own classes.
Harold Frazier, Houston engineer,
wrote to Stout: "Your piano lessons
have done something in my family;
They have turned our main interest to
music-making." Frazier developed a
music staff with notes made of small
LEFT—A new device, invented by one of his television students, is George S. Stout's lighter keyboard and staff. The device (extreme
left) is illuminated note by note With small light bulbs as Stout gives instructions. Stout teaches piano on television to a large and en-
thusiastic "class" in Hcuston, Texas. R I G H T — K U H T — T V camera trains on Professor Stout, professor of music at University of Houston,
as he gives instructions to a student during a session of his new group piano telecourse.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MAY, 1954
Established 1879
May, 1954
Vol. 113 -No. 5
2,890th Issue
REVIEW
75lh Year
THE
PIONEER
PUBLICATION
75th Year
O F T H E MUSIC
I N D U S T R Y
Expects to Teach a Million People to
Play Piano Through TV Telecourse
TEXAS las another claim to boast
' of—the world's biggest piano class.
Texans in the Houston area are taking
piano lessons en masse over television.
The new class piano telecourse is
part of the University of Houston's
program over the non-commercial edu-
cational station KUHT, Channel 8. Of
the eight courses offered by the univer-
sity, music is the favorite, and the TV
registrar says comments and inquiries
on the music course are coming in
three to one over any of the others.
The course is offered on either a
home study or a credit basis. Students
taking the piano lessons for college
credit are required to attend campus
sessions twice a month. The home study
course makes campus facilities avail-
able to students once a month so they
may have their progress evaluated.
Credit students pay $40 for the sem-
ester and "home study" students pay
$20.
The university estimates that
thousands of people are taking advan-
tage of the courses without the ma-
terial and evaluation supplied to pay-
ing students.
George C. Stout, professor of Music
Education at the university, and direc-
tor of the telecourse in piano, was sur-
prised to find at the end of the first
semester that "It is apparent that the
students taking the course by television
are making more progress than those
regularly enrolled for the same course
on the campus."
The telecourses were inaugurated in
Houston in September, 1953, and are
now going strong in their second sem-
ester. Enrolled in the piano course are
students of all ages.
One is an 85-year-old grandfather;
another is a teenager. One avid young
grade-school football fan was reported
by his parents to have given up his
favorite football telecast because it
conflicts with Prof. Stout's piano ses-
sion.
Just before Christmas, an elderly
lady wrote to the station for carol in-
struction, "So I can play the carols
at the church during the holidays." A
surgeon taking the course had a piano
put in his office so he can practice be-
tween patients. Several husbands and
wives, and one mother and daughter,
are sharing the family pianos to learn
techniques in this novel way.
Many of the students are teachers
who find the methods used in group
study valuable for them in teaching
music to their own classes.
Harold Frazier, Houston engineer,
wrote to Stout: "Your piano lessons
have done something in my family;
They have turned our main interest to
music-making." Frazier developed a
music staff with notes made of small
LEFT—A new device, invented by one of his television students, is George S. Stout's lighter keyboard and staff. The device (extreme
left) is illuminated note by note With small light bulbs as Stout gives instructions. Stout teaches piano on television to a large and en-
thusiastic "class" in Hcuston, Texas. R I G H T — K U H T — T V camera trains on Professor Stout, professor of music at University of Houston,
as he gives instructions to a student during a session of his new group piano telecourse.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MAY, 1954
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