Sun interview shines on Kent McConnell

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/09/2016 (3473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This has been your life for 50 years! So was it just time to say “enough”?

Well, the calendar says it’s time.

Did you start out teaching at Good’s? Did you take lessons there?

I started originally in Hamiota taking lessons with Ted Good himself. And that would have been probably 1960. I was about 12 years old, roughly. And I took lessons with him until we finally moved to Brandon, with my parents, in 1965. And I was in Grade 12 at that point. And I continued lessons with Ted that year, and then the following year, started teaching part time while I was going to school still. So I started teaching part time in 1966, I guess.

And was it always brass for you? Trumpet?

Primarily. Brass and saxophone.

There are sort of two components to your career because you’ve played with a bunch of groups around town and have never not done that. Rhyme me off some of the bands you’ve played in.

Well originally, I was 12, in Hamiota, and we had a group there — we called ourselves the Red Peppers. Not to be confused with Red Hot Chili Peppers. So that lasted for about three years and part of that band combined with another crew out of Virden at that time, and formed a band called The Marksmen. And that went on from 1963 or 1964 — somewhere in there — up until I would say 1998 maybe. We had about a 34-year run.

That’s a fantastic thing! I mean, really!

Yes — with the same name. And we had the same members for more than 13 years — the same four guys.

That’s amazing. And I guess lots of us considered making our livings in music for long periods of time or had hoped to make it a career. Sadly, for the most part, it just doesn’t pay the bills by itself. Were you on the road a ton?

No — we never actually went on the road as such. But there was enough weekend work and local work that, between teaching and playing, I definitely made a fairly good living. And that went on for — well, I started teaching full time with Ted in 1967. And that was at the store and we were on the road teaching at that time, too. Ted used to travel around the countryside. So we were involved with that from then until 1973 when Bill Robinson took over Ted Good Music and I went to work for Bill full time in the store at that point.

I’d suggest it’s a rarity nowadays for people to stay, not in a profession, but in one specific job in one specific place for such a long time. So this is really an extraordinary thing. Did it ever become old or boring? Or did things like new equipment and other changes or advancements make it interesting all the time?

Well, what kept it fresh was just the music, I suppose. And the people that we worked with — from Ted, Bill, and now Bill’s son, Ian, the last eight years when he took over the business. And they’ve all been great people to work for and with. And the staff has always being good. You never get rich doing it, but we were treated fairly — we were paid well for what we did. And they just treated us well and it was a nice place to come and spend the day.

And it also enabled me to make a lot of contacts as far as playing. The playing part probably would still be my priority if I could do that. But being at the store just keeps you in touch with the musical community, really. And not just the musical community. But the music, it keeps you in touch. Pretty much everybody I know I’ve met through music one way or another.

You’re extremely versatile and can play just about anything, but do you have a particular favourite style?

Music-wise, no — not really. Probably I lean more toward the old swing style, dance-band style — that sort of thing.

That’s my kind of thing, too! Now it seemed to me that at the store, all the staffers were kind of jacks-of-all-trades. But you were the sheet music guy for the longest time.

That was kind of my job. When Bill took it over and I came on, it was kind of divided up. Bill was the boss and Stan Borowski at that time was the instrument man. Actually, Stan and I were both on the road with Ted. So we both left the road to come in and work for Bill.

In terms of sheet music, the Internet has probably impacted the business in a big way, right?

Yeah — I think it really has. Sheet music — we don’t even stock as much anymore. It’s more available online — you can just print off a copy of whatever you want. I think because of the Internet, printed music has really taken a hit.

Fortunately, I think there’s still a lot of interest in people taking piano lessons, for example, or music lessons in general. Because our book sales — in method books — has, in the last couple of years, probably gone up a bit. So the demand is still there in a different way.

As far as the musical instruments in the store, I’d presume most people would like to try before they buy. And Ted Good Music was just sort of the home that many musicians came to — that I came to, and I know there were thousands of others like me — when I needed anything in the musical vein. So again, I wanted to try before I bought, and I knew I could do that here.

Well, a lot of people do buy online — there’s no way around that. But we find a lot of them, too, they’ll buy online and they end up bringing it here to either get it set up properly or fixed if it’s not working. You take a chance buying online, I think, and particularly something musical because you want it to work.

Is there anything you don’t do here? I mean, you sell instruments, you sell all kinds of electronic equipment, you sell music, you fix stuff, you give lessons …

That’s the good part about working here. Everybody takes a hand in everything, right from mopping the floor to dealing with the people and playing music. So you never get bored. There’s always something to do.

I’ve talked about the longtime regulars, but there are probably new people coming in all the time, too. And while I’m not around that frequently anymore, the store always seemed to be Music Central in Brandon, and I think still is.

It’s kind of a phenomenal place in its own right, really. Because again, it boils down to the people who owned it and ran it and worked here. There has been a lot of changeover in staff, other than myself, but they’ve always been good people who get along with people. And it’s just become the place to be. We’ve been fortunate in being able to get the good lines of equipment that people want for the most part, particularly in guitars and amplifiers — that’s been the mainstay of the whole thing.

But coming in here, it’s almost like “Cheers” — it’s a place where everybody knows your name. And that’s never gone away in the nearly 50 years I’ve been associated with the place.

Yeah — I think it’s been a very friendly place. If people move away, and then come back through town, they’ll drop in just to say hi. And that’s really nice. And now we’re seeing second- and third-generation people coming through the door for lessons — or for whatever, really.

That’s cool! So you’ve essentially spent most of your life here. What are you going to do in retirement?

Hopefully, I’ll be able to take a few trips here and there — nowhere in particular. My wife would like to travel as much as we can. I’m looking forward to just being able to play more. I still enjoy the playing part and I’m still involved with a couple of groups — some theatre groups and stuff like that. So there’s enough to keep me out of the house, I think.

But when you’re used to coming to a place every day for the better part of 50 years, that’s going to be a major adjustment, I would think.

It probably will be. I’m a little apprehensive, because it’s nice to have some time off, but there’s always the going-back-to-work-eventually sort of thing. So it’s going to be different. But it’s time to make that move.

And things are changing. The music business is a younger person’s game, I think. The majority of our customers are probably on the younger side, compared to me (laughs). And that’s maybe another thing that’s kept this business going so long is that we had a good range of employees age-wise. So the young kids could come in and have someone that they could associate with and the older ones would still have someone they could relate to.

But more and more, I’m getting the feeling that the younger people would rather talk to the younger staff rather than some old guy that doesn’t know anything.

Yeah — the veteran who’s been through it all who “doesn’t know anything!” But truly, I can’t imagine coming in here and you not being here! I’m feeling a little verklempt, actually. I mean, you’ve being a fixture here — a mainstay.

Part of the furniture! But I understand — you get used to coming in to certain places and expect certain people to be there.

So you’re hoping to play more, vacation more, sleep in, maybe?

Maybe. I’m not a big sleeper-inner anymore. Maybe if I get playing more, I will be! I’d like to think I’ll be missed, but everybody is replaceable.

I think I know the answer, but what will you miss the most?

Just the people in general — especially the people I work with.