Music: By the Numbers

“Now you too can play the guitar. Just turn the dial and strum. No fingering necessary . . . You can go on TV with your own guitar and your own entertainment.” This invitation to the arts is part of an advertisement for the Dial-A-Chord, a $12 gadget that enables a fledgling guitarist to change chords at the flick of a plastic wheel and presumably to toss off a habanera at first strumming. Music merchants on their way home last week from their annual convention in Chicago went armed with dozens of such labor-saving and interest-killing devices designed to hook some of the passive listeners from the record market. Among them:

¶ A modern version of the old player piano that permits the pianist to play it straight or pop a player roll in it and, by merely pumping the pedals, grind out Liberace’s version of Prisoner of Love. “The best way to play,” says a company official, “is with your bare feet.” Price: $1,395.

¶ A “chord” piano whose keys are numbered (for the melody) as well as aligned with lights above the keyboard (for the chords). Special scores, without musical notation, consist merely of numbers and colored dots; the player presses the keys in accordance with the dots and numbers, and the result is music, at least theoretically. Anybody, the company claims, can play at once after a single reading of the instruction book. Price: $595 to $1,145.

¶A small organ with numbered keys that correspond to a numbered score so the player does not have to read notes (“Anyone can play it in 90 seconds”). Price: $129.95.

¶ An electric violin that enables the player with a puny tone to boost it merely by twisting a couple of knobs on the belly. Says a salesman: “It might lay an egg; then again, it might be the hottest thing in the country.” Price: about $200.

¶A “Music Tutor,” mostly for classroom use. The viewer looks at the square face of the device on which are the two musical staffs and the bass and the treble clefs. As the teacher presses a button, a musical note flashes on to identify. Price: $37.50.

The instrument makers even have a plaything for the new stereo bugs: an accordion that can be plugged in so that the treble channels through one speaker while the bass thunders through another.