ETUDE
April 1941
volume LIX
number 4
page 279, 283

Teacher or Salesman?

By George C. Krick

THE UNPRECEDENTED POPULARITY of the fretted instruments is responsible for developments in methods of teaching that are anything but legitimate and which raise many questions in the minds of competent and conscientious teachers. We know that in bringing up this issue we will step on someone’s toes, perhaps many toes, but we consider it our duty to expose some of these systems inaugurated mainly to sell mediocre instruments at exorbitant prices to an unsuspecting public, in the guise of a “free instrument with a course of instruction,” which latter is often in the hands of people who are hired not so much because they are experts in teaching but because they are good salesmen.

Prospective pupils are assured that, on the signing of a sixty-week contract which calls for a weekly payment of one dollar, they will receive a high grade instrument and a private lesson weekly during this stipulated term. They fail to realize that the instrument is the cheapest thing possible and the instruction they will receive is barely equivalent to two or three months’ tuition from a competent teacher. In other words, one pays sixty dollars for instrument and lessons worth about twenty-five dollars or less. We have met pupils who had “studied” under this plan, who could play about a dozen easy tunes in a haphazard manner, but whose knowledge of musical notation was nil.

In most cases pressure is brought upon the pupil, a few months after enrollment, to persuade him to buy a high priced instrument, which of course entails an increase in the weekly payments and is the main object of the plan, while the instruction is of secondary consideration. If the pupil is a child, the parents are told that he has outstanding talent and all that is required for him to become a Kreisler or a Segovia is a two-hundred dollar instrument. Needless to say, in many instances this hypnotic sales talk proves quite successful from the seller’s point of view.

Another Variation

Another system carried on by a number of chain music schools is to have a crew of solicitors descend upon certain localities in large cities, and especially in small towns and rural communities, in order to enroll the young people in classes to learn to play Hawaiian guitar. This instrument is preferred by these schools because its cost is small when turned out in large quantities and the public knows very little about its intrinsic value and much less about the requirements of a teacher. The enrollment term also consists of sixty weeks, with a weekly payment of one dollar, and pupils are gathered in classes of ten for a one hour weekly lesson. Assuming that this kind of a lesson is worth about twenty-five or thirty-five cents per pupil, and allowing six dollars for the cost of the guitar, one should have no difficulty in figuring out the profit made by these schools, which are now scattered throughout every state of the union.

Of course, the public must share a part of the responsibility for permitting itself to be fooled by figuring that it is wonderful to get something for nothing. Human nature has changed very little since the time of Barnum of circus fame. It sounds so simple and easy to pay a dollar a week for lessons and to get an instrument free; not many stop to consider the total cost and compare with it value received in instrument and instruction combined. One of the worst features of these systems is the fact that they undermine the cause of the fretted instruments in the minds of the musical public; as it is reasoned, anything that is free cannot be worth much. Hundreds of conscientious teachers and players, members of the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists and Guitarists, have done their utmost for many years to raise the standard of the fretted instruments, their music, teaching methods and concert performances, and have succeeded immeasurably.

These new schemes, which might well be called rackets, provide unfair competition to the capable teacher, who has labored for years to equip himself thoroughly in order to give his pupils the benefit of his expert knowledge and who, therefore, is entitled to compensation commensurate with his ability and experience.

The Teacher Should Cooperate

It is not our purpose to criticize music stores that have established Instruction Departments headed by competent teachers, whereby one may purchase an instrument on the budget plan and receive proper tuition, but a pupil has a right to know the exact cost of his instrument and to be sure that he is getting one hundred cents in value for every dollar paid for lessons. The same rules should apply to teachers who are compelled by various conditions to carry a stock of instruments for the convenience of their pupils.

Our main contention is that teachers should never lose sight of the fact that the teaching of any instrument is a responsible profession, for which they should have natural ability and many years of intensive training; and the selection or selling of instruments should be considered only as additional service to their patrons.

Parents of children for whom the purchase of an instrument is intended should by all means first consult a reliable teacher, who is in a position to give his advice in the selection of the proper instrument and one of the right size. Just as a half or three quarter sized violin is selected as the proper one for a child six to ten years old, so should a guitar of similar size be selected for children of these ages.

As a successful teacher is best known by the pupils who have received instruction from him, a prospective applicant for lessons would do well to meet some of them and hear them play. We sincerely hope that the time will come when all the states in the union will pass laws to compel licensing of all music teachers, requiring them to pass rigid examination as to their fitness to teach, thereby protecting the public against unscrupulous charlatans. In the meantime it behooves all conscientious men and women engaged in the teaching of fretted instruments to bring these matters to the attention of the people in their respective localities; and in this campaign the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists and Guitarists may well take a leading part.