Ted Good left lasting musical legacy

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This article was published 02/01/2024 (825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

William (Ted) Good left a lasting legacy in Brandon when he passed away at the age of 99 last week.

He was a gifted musician and conductor, learning to play a cornet when he was a child, taught by the late Walter Dinsdale in the Salvation Army Church. Near the end of the Second World War, he was sent to Halifax, where he trained and played in the Canadian Navy band. Good’s daughter, Bonnie Owens, said her dad didn’t get to participate in the war, and instead came back to Brandon to enjoy a busy and fantastic musical career.

“He was quite the character, really,” Owens said. “He really made trails. Made trails for music in Westman. He had a band in Carberry, a band in Virden, a band in Hamiota and then he taught lessons in Shoal Lake, St. Clair, Wellwood, Brookdale, Neepawa. He also taught music lessons in Brandon.”

Good and his wife Pam married and built their house on 24th Street in Brandon themselves, literally. Owens said her parents dug the basement with pickaxes. Her dad was a dedicated music teacher, and that basement would later see many, many music students go through learning all kinds of instruments.

“When Dad was giving music in the basement, I can remember going to bed with these guys playing trombone in the basement. Oh, and they had such bad notes,” Owens laughed, remembering it was hard to sleep through some of the lessons.

The Goods had three children — Bonnie, Bill and Judith. Good taught all three how to play an instrument, and it seems everyone else how to play an instrument.

“He was so busy. But when he was at home, he was great. You know, he was good. I’ll never forget it one day. Oh, it was a Sunday. I think we were going to sit down for a Sunday meal. And he said, ‘You know, is it too much for me to ask that you guys could kind of dress up a little for Sunday supper?’” Owens laughed. “Yeah, he was a great dad.”

Owens said while he was teaching, he realized his students needed supplies. She was a teenager then, and ended up selling guitar strings and clarinet reeds out of a small space in the Brandon Hobby Craft, which was the first version of Ted Good Music. It was around then, too, that Good purchased his grandmother’s house and converted it into teaching spaces. When Good realized his students needed instruments as well as supplies, he built the storefront onto his grandmother’s house and opened Ted Good Music in August 1966.

Local musicians and friends who remember Good — who they describe as strict, but fun loving — credit him with starting the band programs in the towns surrounding Brandon in the 1960s.

Kent McConnell was a budding trumpet player at age 13 — already in a band with his brother and booking gigs — when he met Good. Good, a trumpet player himself, started refining McConnell’s skills with lessons in 1966. A little while later, he was grown up and joined Good’s travelling music teaching staff, and they went all over western Manitoba teaching kids trumpet, clarinet, flute and more.

McConnell said the group, which consisted of himself, Good and three other music instructors, never missed an appointment with a student. Good loaded everyone up in a big station wagon and drove them all over Westman.

“It was very seldom we had to miss a lesson. We went rain or shine. For the most part, we were lucky we didn’t have any car troubles or bad roads — that didn’t hold us back! Some days were stormy, for sure. But nothing that kept us from going,” McConnell remembers.

Bill Robinson, also a trumpet player, met Good when Good was recruiting students for the Brandon High School Band, when Robinson was just 13 years old. When Robinson was older, he played with him in the Brandon Sea Cadet Band. Then when Good opened Ted Good Music, Robinson ended up managing the store for him.

“He needed somebody to look after the store while he was away. And I ended up doing that. I, you know, recognized him as being a top-notch musician in town playing in dance bands and stuff like that. So, I kind of admired him for that,” Robinson said.

Good was a regular conductor and player at Brandon’s Palladium – a dance hall owned by Albert Johnson. Robinson said Good played there three nights a week – pop night, country night and big band night.

“He was quite a character. I remember his doctor said, ‘You’re 50 years old. You know, you have got to watch your diet’ and all that kind of stuff. I remember one time, he said, ‘I haven’t had butter in 10 years,’” Robinson chuckled. “He was a very likable person, very jovial, quite a jokester, but at the same time very serious about his job and everything. But he was a very likable, fun-loving guy.”

Good’s music teaching business and playing in many bands and conducting other bands kept him quite busy and away from his store. He decided to sell it to Robinson in 1973.

“Well, he was more interested in teaching then. His teaching helped the store — all his students needed instruments. But he wasn’t all that interested in the store. He wanted to get out and be a band master and teach. So, the store was more or less occupying time that he didn’t want it to.”

Robinson, however, kept the name.

“The store had a good reputation. His name was well known. And I didn’t want to change anything. So, people thought of it as a good store. Why change it?” Robinson said.

Robinson owned Ted Good Music for 35 years, before selling it to his son Ian Robinson. Ian owned Ted Good Music until Chris Nylen, who is the owner of Faders Music, purchased the store.

Bill Robinson said he had kept the store pretty much the same as it was when Good owned it, but in the 1990s he bought Good’s parents’ house, which was right beside Good’s grandmother’s house, and doubled the retail space of the store. The store is still in its original space and is operating today on 10th Street in Brandon.

Good kept teaching music after he retired from the retail business and then when band programs were established in Westman schools and music teachers started getting teaching degrees, he retired for good. The Goods enjoyed many winters in the U.S.

Owens said Good and her mother Pam loved to be grandparents. They shared six grandchildren. Pam passed on before her husband at the age of 88. When Good passed away last week, he had eight great-grandchildren.

A service for Good will be held in the spring. Those wishing to send condolences to the Good family can do so through Memories Chapel.

» khenderson@brandonsun.com