Music Lesson Programs
Deena Bird began teaching piano while she was still a teenager. She later established her own music school, which for a while was located in the Steinway Gallery of her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. One day while walking in the hall she met Lyle Bird, the father of the store’s owner. Well, the...
Sandy DeVito began teaching himself guitar when he was 11 years old. He developed and learned how to play by gigging in the New Jersey and New York metropolitan area. Sandy performed and recorded with individuals such as Tony Martin, Les Paul, Ray Charles, Vickie Carr, and Charlie Byrd, to name a...
Orrin Foslien grew up around music. He started out playing the ukulele, then moved to the banjo and guitar. In high school he began singing in the choir and playing the trombone. Around 1962, he traveled to San Francisco hoping to play music, but ultimately ended up working in manufacturing. After...
Alan Merriam grew up in a home filled with music. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a fan of the big bands. Alan took piano lessons and studied music in college before becoming a professional musician. Although he loved music, as a child he did not feel his lessons were very...
Jerry Portman learned so much from his father and his grandfather about how to treat customers. Those lessons became key as Jerry set out to not only take over the family’s music store, but to expand it over the years. The small shop, which his father, Ben Portman, began in 1936, became the...
Muriel Long began teaching piano in 1959 and since that time two things have been very clear to those who know her, she is a passionate music maker and a heck of a salesperson! She grew up playing the Hammond and found that even as a teenager, she loved teaching music! While giving lessons at a...
Takeshi Inomata is the noted jazz drummer who, among other things, helped design the first percussive instruments for Yamaha. His work with Yamaha took place during the early 1960s when the company began providing drum and percussive instruments and accessories. It was a contribution Takeshi was...
Hiro Miyaji is the president of Miyaji Music, which opened in 1917 in Japan. He later expanded the wholesale business his grandfather started to include retailing. The company began providing wood instrument accessories such as violin bows. Miyaji Music had been distributing their products all...
Tadahiro Sato loved music and baseball! In fact after playing baseball for many years in his youth, he joined the music industry while playing baseball all along. His sister's husband established Star Music in Japan in 1950, where Tadahiro began working four years later. He and his brother-in-...
Kev Rones received his first instrument experience when a musician on his block recognized Kev’s passion and allowed him to use the Fender in his garage. That early influence really directed him towards music, which has been his life’s passion ever since. In fact, Kev is the Pied Piper of...