Piano Tournament

In Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, New York, eight other U. S. cities last week, hundreds of children and younglings seated themselves at pianos, pounded for dear life. Some had memorized as many as 20 pieces. Ear-weary judges, sitting behind screens so as not to fuss the youngsters. heard everything from The Happy Farmer to full-length concertos. The National Guild of Piano Teachers had been holding such local "Auditions" since last April. By next week, 10,000 piano students in 92 cities will have tinkled their stuff. Almost all will get certificates, suitable for framing. on which various colored seals and stars indicate ratings from "commendable" to "superior." Best players get their names on district, State and national honor rolls. Mighty proud are their parents ; proud are their teachers.

The National Guild and its tournament were the bright ideas of a slow-spoken, quick-thinking Texas music teacher named Irl Allison, who started the whole thing on a shoestring in 1929. Touring the land to sign up piano teachers for the Guild, Mr. Allison was once down to his last 7-c-. Today 2,000 members pay $3-a-year dues to the Guild, and Mr. Allison is permanent president. Guild members get their names in an annual directory, their pupils in the Auditions, which this year brought in some $15,000 in entrance fees, cost $4,000 in judges' pay ($10 a day) and railroad fare.

U. S. piano teachers, soft-pedaled by Depression, are inching back toward their 1929 level, 1,500,000 pupils. Their ranks (an estimated 100,000) still include many a teacher of the sort that flourished a generation ago: dowdy females who had studied with a pupil of a pupil of Liszt, made their rounds with brief case under arm, eked out a living playing the organ in church. Women teachers still outnumber men, io-to-1, although men get thrice as many pupils. A good teacher today tends to be younger, better-trained than those of the previous generation. She gives about 20 lessons a week, makes about $40 from them, has not yet given up hope of a concert career.

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