Keyboards & More's History

Keyboards & More first opened its doors in April 1978 in a rented house on 1st Street East under the name of Kenney Music Center. It was a piano and organ store which was started by Bob Kenney and financed by Bill Amidon, Bob’s Father-in-law. Sharon Schultz was added in September as a Saleswoman and Teacher.

In 1979, we added a second store in Gulf Gate Mall, Sarasota, and in 1980 we added a kiosk in Cortez Plaza Shopping Center in Bradenton. When Bill Amidon sold part of his ownership to Sharon Schultz in 1980, the company became incorporated.

In 1981 Bill sold the rest of his shares to Sharon and later that year Bob became Pastor of the Church of the Cross in Bradenton., and sold his part of the business to Sharon. Tom Stimus, the owner of the Car Dealership next door to the rented house, bought the land which the house was located on, so a major change in the store’s location was needed. Sharon closed both the store in Sarasota and the kiosk in Cortez Plaza and rented a store in Cortez Plaza. She also expanded the inventory to include printed music, accessories, and gift items. Three teachers and studios were added to expand the educational vision.

By the Fall of 1982 Gulbransen Organ Company and Aeolian Piano Company had discontinued selling products and Kenney Music Center, Inc. was faced with a major dilemma... to close the business or take a drastic change of direction. After much prayer, Sharon & her husband Carl decided to expand their line of sales to include band and orchestra instruments to sell or rent. With this decision other changes seemed inevitable... adding accessories, teachers and repair personnel familiar with these instruments.

In 1984 the corporation was changed to a DBA known as Keyboards & More. Also that year, Sharon’s son Ron graduated from High School and went off to ITT Technical Institute to become a repairman of electronic equipment including organs and sound systems. This allowed Keyboards & More to form their own repair department rather than relying on outside help. They added another location in Beachway Shopping Center for a few months, but didn’t like being divided into two different locations.

In 1989 the store was relocated to another section of Cortez Plaza Shopping Center to allow more room for teaching studios & have less showroom. They also expanded their lines of product to include Conn & King Brass instruments and Artley & Armstrong Woodwinds, Gemeinhardt & Emerson Flutes & Piccolos.

In August of 1989 they felt a need to offer group music lessons to children who were being Home-Schooled, so the Home School Orchestra was conceived. Small group lessons were offered in brass, woodwinds, & orchestral strings. Once a month the small groups would combine to form a full orchestra. They began visiting Nursing Homes and Mobile Home Parks to present Christmas and Spring concerts in the community. Over the years voice, piano, guitar, drama, traditional ballet, music history & appreciation, and music theory were added. In time the name was changed to the Home School Fine Arts Academy. The main purpose is to provide Home-Schooled children proper music instruction, by skilled, trained teachers, with an emphasis on raising up Christian worship leaders.

By the mid-90’s Keyboards & More took a more active role in the development of the relationship between the local music store and Manatee County’s public & private Middle & High Schools. Sharon would visit a different school three or four mornings every week, before the store opened. She offered delivery service for supplies, offered to transport and repair broken instruments, and to lend a listening ear to the Directors who were frustrated with School Board policies or student attitudes, and just needed to “vent” to someone who could relate. As the relationships between Sharon and the Band and Orchestra Directors grew, so did the business. By the end of the 90’s the store had totally outgrown its showroom. Teachers were sharing studios and even teaching lessons in the storage room and bathroom!! The repair shop had moved into the office and had overflowed into all the teaching studios!! Shelving was installed in every room from the floor to the ceiling, and stocked with instruments for rentals, sales and repairs!! It was quite evident to even the first-time customer that they had totally out-grown their environment!!

In April 1998, Keyboards & More celebrated their 20th Anniversary by throwing a big party for everyone who had ever been a part of the staff- teachers, piano or organ movers, bookkeepers, repairmen, etc. The internet helped find several former workers who had moved to various places in the States. During the party they viewed TV commercials which aired in the late 70’s and videos sent from those out-of-towners who couldn't attend. The months of April and May were devoted to thanking the people of Manatee County for the success of the store.

During the summer of 1999 they began seriously searching for a solution for their over-crowding. They investigated moving the repair shop to its own warehouse, buying a motel with plenty of rooms for teaching studios, and just duplicating itself in a second location. But being such a close-knit “family” they just couldn’t separate themselves. So the search for a new location that would house a larger showroom, many more studios, a huge workshop, and room for group lessons began.

Weekends were spent driving up & down main streets, looking at vacant lots “out East”, searching out old tall buildings “Downtown”, and checking out every Shopping Center within a five mile radius. They met with Financial Advisors, Realtors, Shopping Center owners, other long-term music store owners who had experience in store-growth, prayed with Elders & Pastors, trying to get a direction for their particular problem.

After many long months, a particular store in DeSoto Junction became the main focus of their attention. After NINETEEN floor plans, and so many negotiations that both sides couldn’t remember who was doing what, the lease was signed, the construction began, and a dream was fulfilled!! They moved from a 1500 sq ft store to a 5000 sq ft one!!

On July 24, 2000 Keyboards & More opened its doors in DeSoto Junction Shopping Center in Bradenton. On August 13, over 200 people visited for Open House. On August 19th, the Dedication Service was held where local churches and worship teams joined together with the staff to dedicate this business (facility & staff) to the Glory of God.

In 2001, Yamaha approached them to become their authorized dealer of band instruments for both Manatee and Sarasota counties. They encouraged them to begin visiting the middle and high schools of Sarasota and expand their school visits there.

June 2002, Ron Schultz branched out to form his own business of repair and electronic equipment installation at local schools, churches, retirement and community centers.  This was the beginning of a giant step from family-run to adding professionals in the office and workshop.  Their school repair business increased tremendously over the next few years as Bob Bolt was hired to manage the repair department.  He is a member of the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Techs.  Thousands of dollars were spent to upgrade the workshop and add many more tools and equipment.

Another bookkeeper was needed to handle just the school accounts as more and more schools began to buy from them. It was time to expand their computer software and amount of computers in the store, since the rental database was getting too large for a typical program.  With the conversion to AIMsi, the business was able to connect the registers out front, to the repair shop and the rental accounts and track each and every account and instrument by serial number.  Suddenly they were in the “big time”!

As Sharon’s “school runs” grew, business from the schools increased, and more bookkeepers were needed, but another position became inevitable. Someone was needed to manage the showroom, make the schedules for the teenagers who worked after school and Saturdays, order supplies for the showroom, and take messages for the increasing number of students and private teachers using our studios.  So the first Showroom Director was hired.

Another area was also expanding: the amount of private teachers who applied to teach in the studios.  Band directors and professional teachers in the area wanted to be associated with teaching at Keyboards & More, so the studios became full of lessons for almost every instrument from voice and piano to guitar, brass, woodwind and orchestral strings.  It was a joy to some and a headache to others to walk down the halls of the store and hear music coming from every studio at the same time.

Everything was expanding: the amount of computers, phone lines, personnel, customers, schools, income and especially expenses. In 2003, their 25th Anniversary was celebrated with a dinner for the employees and their spouses and Bob Kenney came back from Orlando to speak to the new crew, to reminisce about their early beginnings and give the audience a new motivation for growth.

The next addition to the building was a conversion of a bathroom and closet to a room to house the equipment to flush and clean brass instruments. Two big tubs were needed to hold enough biodegradable chemicals to clean out the inside of trumpets, trombones, tubas, and other brass instruments, and then rinse them in another tub before using an air hose to quickly dry them.  This is a procedure desperately needed for school instruments which are shared by several students during the school year band program. When local school band directors heard about the new flush, clean and grease procedure, they quickly reserved time during the summer to get their school instruments cleaned. The slow summer months suddenly became the busiest time of the workshop. Once again more people were needed to flush and rinse so Bob and his assistants could take the instruments apart and reassemble them again after being cleaned, rinsed, dried and greased.

In 2008, Yamaha authorized Keyboards & More to carry digital pianos and guitars, expanding their ability to supply the local schools with quality instruments.

By this time Sharon thought she would be putting in less time at the store and enjoying more time at home relaxing or traveling. But she found herself visiting schools four days a week and working in her office until late in the evening.  So Carl volunteered to visit some of the schools to free her up.  So on Carl’s day off from his “real job” (Winn Dixie) he would form his own school route and visit the band and orchestra directors of several schools.  Within two years two more men were hired to visit the schools that Carl and Sharon couldn’t fit into their schedules.

How far have they come…..from keeping their sales and rental information on 3”x5” cards, to getting their first computer, to having a presence on the world wide web.  www.Keyboardsandmore.com  has received “hits” from across America and the world. They sell accessories and rent instruments for beginner band and orchestra students. Their “MySpace” site is allowing students, teachers and performers to connect with each other.  Videos are seen on UTube instructing players how to care for their instruments properly. They have truly expanded to the “uttermost parts of the earth”.

Updated 6/20/08