Sam Harris wrote:

> Let me illustrate what I'm talking about.  If I have never seen a dish-
> washer I'll never see the need, or have a desire to own a dishwasher.

Exactly.  You don't know what you're missing until you see someone else
with one.

> I'm afraid the general public, for the most part, may not have an
> interest in mechanical music instruments because they know very little,
> if anything, about them.  Even if they do know about them or see them
> in an amusement park or museum just figure they could never afford
> anything like that!

I was certainly aware that player pianos existed, but without having a
"good experience" with one, it didn't spark any active interest.  Last
summer, my wife & I went to a bed & breakfast in the Adirondack Mts. of
NY.  They had a player piano there.

While I was looking at the interesting mechanism (front was off so you
could see the insides), the owner asked if I'd like to play it.  I did,
my wife liked it very much; that's what got us hooked.  I saw that a
completely non-musical person could create beautiful *live* music with
ease on a real instrument.  A couple months later, we were at the state
fair, and they had one there that the public was invited to pump.  My
kids did, and now the whole family was interested.  I found the MMD, and
asked around about values, and found that for a few hundred I too could
own a (broken) player that with some work would live again.

Prior to my asking the MMD folks, I imagined/guessed a used player would
be thousands of dollars.  Through the help of the MMD I was guided to buy
a common action player and avoid the odd ball or problematic ones.  I even
got help identifying the actions in the players I was looking at (thanks,
Bob C!); this was an incredible benefit -- to get a player with a well-
documented, easy to fix Standard mechanism.

> How do we educate?

I feel that nothing beats a personal, public demonstration.  Let the
public see it and try it.  This is what the NYS Fair has done -- the
player there is part of a permanent antique music exhibit, and the room
is manned during the entire fair so guest people (walk ins) can play the
piano.

I wish more people in the area would bring out their band organs and
calliopes for more events.  I'm certain there's a bunch in the area,
probably more than happy to do this, but they're never seen.  Part of the
solution would be to make the event organizers aware that this stuff is
available (this is Sam's dishwasher analogy above).  I'm sure the heads
of the tons of town festivals around here would LOVE to have such music
there, but aren't aware it even exists.

Ed Gloeggler writes:

> As a group, we should all consider this marketing an obligation...

That's why whenever I pump my player in the summer, I make sure the front
door is open, and I play really, really loud!   :-)  :-)  :-o

Rick Inzero