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* * * * *
_How My Wife Learned to Play the Piano in 90 Days_
A husband’s story of the fulfillment of a life-long wish—by a new, easy,
spare-time method which has brought the joy of music into thousands of
silent homes.
[Illustration]
From boyhood, I vowed that if ever I had a home of my own there would
be music in it. No wife for me unless she could play some instrument,
and play it well. My new home must have no dull, bored evenings, no
monotonous Sunday afternoons. I wanted the gaiety, the mental and
physical stimulus, the whole-hearted, genuine joy of music. No girl could
capture me without the lure of musical skill.
But one day Beth came along knowing not one note from another, yet with a
merry, humming tune forever on her lips, and a song in her heart for me.
And Beth is Mrs. Taylor today. A piano graced our new home, but somehow
the old vow was forgotten, and stayed forgotten until Jimmy Jr., and Beth
No. 2 were quite some youngsters.
Then along about the time the novelty of parenthood began to wear off a
bit, the old vow came back. And one evening I spoke out with a suddenness
that surprised me, “Beth, I’d give a hundred dollars if you could play
something—a piano, violin, banjo, ukulele—something, _anything_.” Beth
looked so hurt I was immediately ashamed of myself, so I said no more,
and the matter dropped, as I thought regretfully, forever.
About three months later I got home early one night, and I heard the
old dead piano come to life—sounded good, too, first a little jazzy
piece, then a sweet plantation melody. “Company to supper; I wonder
who?” I thought; and I crept to the parlor door to see. There at the
piano was _Beth_ playing, and the two kiddies beating time. She saw me,
and stopped, “Oh,” she cried, “I’m so sorry!” “Believe me, I’m not,” I
shouted, and I grabbed the whole family up in my arms.
“But, Jim, I wanted to wait and surprise you when I could really play.
I’m learning fast, but it’s only three months since I found out”—“Found
out what?” I said. Beth began to cry. “I know!” Jimmy, Jr., piped up,
“Mother found out the way to learn music just like I am learning to read
in school—only lots easier.”
Well, that little musical party lasted all the evening. It was a howling
success. When the kiddies had gone singing to bed, my wife showed me the
marvelous new method by which she had learned to play in three months’
spare time.
Jimmy Jr. had told the truth; the method was so simple and easy that any
one at all from 8 years up could learn by it. By this method the U. S.
School of Music, the largest in the world, has already trained over three
hundred thousand people, teaching the playing of any musical instrument
almost in the same way a school-child learns to read. But very much
faster because older children and grown people have better trained minds,
and know how to study and think.
When first learning to read you look at every letter separately and spell
out every word, c-a-t, m-a-n. Later you do not see the letters; you see
the words as units, “cat,” “man.” By and by longer words become units
to you, and you find that whole _expressions_, like “up the steps,”
“on the train,” no longer are seen as separate words, but immediately,
at one instant, without spelling, without thinking words, you see each
expression in the unit form.
This skill in seeing in units develops until you see and know as units
hundreds of long familiar phrases; and it is even entirely possible,
if you wish, to easily increase your reading speed four or five times
the average, grasping paragraph thoughts complete, sensing a whole page
instantly, recognizing every part, registering and remembering all, with
your pleasure exactly the same as the slower reader.
The same easy understanding and complete enjoyment is similarly a part of
the new way. The alphabet of music follows the alphabet of language. Each
note is a letter, and playing is practically spelling the notes together
correctly. The first note on the staff above is F. Whether you sing or
play, it is always F. The four notes shown above are F-A-C-E, easy to
remember because they spell “face.” Certain strings on mandolin, certain
keys on piano, certain parts of all instruments, are these same notes.
Once you learn them, playing melodies is a matter of _acting_ what you
_see_.
And here is where “familiar phrases” come in—the “big secret.” It is so
simple you probably have already guessed it. The “familiar phrases” of
music are its harmonies. Just as you instantly recognize the countless
phrases of speech, so the relatively few of music are quickly a habit
with you. You play almost before you realize it—and every step is real
fun, fascinating, simple, interesting, almost too good to be true.
Remember, neither my wife nor most of the 300,000 other musicians trained
by this method knew anything about music. Beth mastered the piano; she
could just as easily have mastered anything else. Jimmy, Jr., is now
taking up violin, and my daughter is learning singing. Right at home,
no costly teacher, no classes at inconvenient hours, no useless study
and practice. No numbers, no tricks, no makeshifts. But instead a sound
musical education learning by notes. The intricacies of music reduced to
a most amazing simplicity able to develop the inborn talent, which is a
part of every person on this earth.
When I told Beth I was writing this out to put in a magazine she told
me to be sure and say that the school will gladly send a free book
explaining everything, called “Music Lessons in Your Own Home,” and that
right now there is a special short time Reduced Price Offer being made to
music lovers. The book is free; asking for it obligates you not at all,
but you should send for it right away before all copies may be gone.