When purchasing new rolls from a music dealer, I know the *style* of
music I'm looking for, and try to divine whether the arrangement will
live up to my expectations based on the titles and short descriptions
that you find in the publisher's catalogs. Sometimes I make bad purchases
based on the catalog's description, then are stuck with a few $14.00 roll
I have no interest in.  Does this happen to anyone else? In a music
store, you can sometimes listen to a segment of a CD before buying it.
No such luck with piano rolls unless you're lucky enough to live near
a stocking dealer. I've mentioned to someone before that a neat idea
would be to have a website available that contains short downloadable
sound segments of  piano rolls actually being played.  These might be
short (10-15 seconds or so) as to not violate any copyright/publishing
royalty agreements. Perhaps you can't always tell from the first
10 seconds of a roll if it's an arrangement you would like to add to
your collection, but it's better than nothing and can save you $$.

 [ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ I've been talking to a guy who is negotiating a contract with
 [ one of the major record companies to do this on the Web
 [ with that company's library.  Of course the idea is that
 [ you immediately add anything you like to your "shopping cart"
 [ and buy it from the same Web site.  I'm hoping to hear soon
 [ how all the copyright and royalty issues are worked out.  Perhaps
 [ something can be learned from his research.  I think he'll
 [ share his research with me.
 [
 [ Jody

I've found that when I try to group music that I enjoy, I can identify
a few distinct roll attributes. One of them is who's playing it - some
piano players/arrangers can just make something simple come alive! I
enjoy most if not all music played by Lawrence Cook, Pauline Alpert,
and Adam Carroll, to name a few, and I usually detest anything played
by Max Kortlander even if I thought well of the piece.  The brand of
the roll seems to consistently made a difference too. Atlas and Pianostyle
rolls seem to have the snappy and tastefully orchestrated pieces, while
Supertone (a.k.a. Sears) and US rolls can really mince a tune or be a
bore. Ampico and DeLuxe rolls are always tasteful/expensive, and I've
found their fox trots to be really fun music. I also watch titles. Those
that have the word "Marimba" or "Hawaiian" or "Dreamy" usually are
marimba orchestrated. Understanding musical terms such as "Largo",
"Etude", "Rag" and "Stomp" are obvious indicator of style. The phrase
"Dinner Music" sez it all .. sounds best when you have a gin martini
in one hand ("Oh Heaves .. where's my cocktail?!"). These are but a few
attribute of rolls I look for.

I'd like to hear from others about what they feel makes a piano roll
enjoyable to play, musically speaking, and how they go about insuring
that style of music being sold is what they're looking for before it's
purchase.  I'd even like to hear what roll-titles you own that you feel
are outstanding in certain areas, so others can be on the lookout for
those titles. I've been pleasantly surprised when I buy whole-case lots
of old rolls and listen to each of them, regardless of whether I think
I'd like the piece or not.

By the way, on a tip from the other MMDers I ordered and received my QRS
roll of "The Trackerbar Stomp" by George Bogatko. This tune lived up to
the reviews - a hot piece! In fact, I haven't been disappointed with any
of George's rolls ever.

- Karl Ellison
  Ashland, Massachusetts