David Slan took three years of piano lessons when he was growing up before switching to guitar. He was heavily influenced by rock and roll and played in bands throughout high school and c...

Jim Widner was given a very special opportunity to join his grade school’s orchestra, which provided him an instrument to play. His love of music was fostered years later when he became a...

Mike Meyer manages one of the three stores in the Meyer Music chain, which his parents first established in the mid-1960s. At the core of the store is the passion for music making which s...

Jimmy Gravity was setting up a newly made electric guitar as he talked with several of his customers gathered around his work bench.  Holding court comes easy to Jimmy because he views hi...

Mike Newman adds a special approach to repair and guitar set-ups at Jimmy Gravity Guitars in St. Louis, Missouri.  Having been a professional musician since he was a teenager and member o...

Don Koller cut his teeth in the print music business at Wingert-Jones working for Frank Fendorf. While there, Don oversaw and controlled the inventory, picked the material for many of the...

Mike Fazio opened a small retail shop in St. Louis called Fazio's Frets & Friends.  The year was 1978.  Within a few months it was clear that he found his niche and before long the st...

Jim Hearn brings a great deal of experience to his position as Vice President at Piano Craft in Springfield, Missouri. Jim owned and operated his own music store in a local mall for over ...

Donovan Bankhead has a true passion for the music! His early memories regarding musical instruments involved seeing his older sister’s guitar and flute and taking notice of them before he...

Ed Seelig opened a small guitar shop when he was a teenager, having already made connections within the concert circuit selling used gear to traveling musicians.  The store, Silver String...

Greg Murdaugh is the president of Piano Craft in Springfield, Missouri. The store, which is co-owned by his wife Shelley, opened in 1999.  Greg grew up in the business, as his father owne...

Tom Wittrock remembers the very moment he decided to dedicate his career to the guitar: when he purchased his first Les Paul sunburst in the mid-1970s.  Many of his friends thought he was...

Jeff Mozingo cannot recall a time when he did not have music in his life!  His father was a band director who opened Mozingo Music in the St. Louis area.  Growing up, Jeff's love and sinc...

Don Mozingo was a teacher in a small schoolhouse for over 20 years and among the topics he taught was music.  His love and passion for music can be traced to his parents and, as a child, ...

John McMurray's father opened a music store in the years following World War II in St. Louis. John joined his father in business after attending college and working for a few other music ...

Joyce Pinnell-Martin served as president of the famed print dealer Wingert-Jones Music in Kansas City. The store opened in 1960 and just two years later Joyce was hired as the book keeper...

Ed Blasco was one of the best known organ salesmen in Kansas City during the 1970s. He worked for Sherman Clay, Jenkins Music and even ran his own store, Ed Blasco’s Conn Organ Center in ...

JW Jenkins was president of the large music store chain in and around Kansas City that his great grand father first opened in 1878. His father, Paul W. Jenkins, kept the company running d...

Hal Cowan studied business administration while playing music all through school. He loved playing organ and found himself in the company of fellow organ buffs as well as employees of org...

Wes Faulconer is the founder of Explorers Percussion in Kansas City, Missouri.  He formed the store in 1984 with the goal of bringing quality drumming products to students and educators w...

Ted Meyer teamed with his wife, Betty, to open a music store in the mid 1960s. It turned out to be a great idea! Their children were raised in the store and both Ted and Betty could serve...

Betty Meyer and her husband, Ted, decided that their teaching salaries were not enough to raise their family in the early 1960s so they decided to open a music store. It turned out to be ...

DeWitt Scott knew about as much as a person can know about steel guitars! As a retailer he sold them, as a performer he played them, as a composer and author he wrote about them and as a ...

Jim McDowell was one of the first presidents of NAYMM (the National Association of Young Music Merchants) and served on the NAMM Board of Directors just as his father, Robert McDowell, ha...

Linda McDowell proudly watched as her father was installed as president of the NAMM Board of Directors in 1970. It was a time of change and, under Robert McDowell’s leadership, programs w...

Rob Birenbaum has always had a love for percussion. As a drummer, he enjoyed playing the instrument and found equal satisfaction in selling percussion instruments and related accessories ...

Annette Luyben feels as her parents had, that their music store is an extension of their home and their customers are an extension of their family. The Luyben Music Company in Kansas Cit...

Norman Goldberg studied music from an early age and became a band director early in his life. Seeing the needs of music educators, Norman opened his own store called Baton Music in 1948, ...

Leonard Schmitt opened a small guitar shop to provide lessons in the St. Louis area back in 1932. At the time we wrote a method for teaching music called the Schmitt Music Training Approa...

Kay McDowell now (and may always) holds the record for the most NAMM shows attended --83 in a row! As a very young girl, she accompanied her father, the owner of Ludwig Aeolian of St. Lou...