Up In Your Business is a Radio Show by FlagandBanner.com
TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE 191
[00:00:08] GM: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling and conversational interviews, this weekly radio show and podcast offers listeners and insider's view into the commonalities of successful people and the ups and downs of risk-taking. Connect with Kerry through her candid, funny, informative, and always-encouraging weekly blog. And now it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[00:00:33] KM: Thank you, son, Gray. After four decades of running a small business called Arkansas Flag and Banner, now simply flagandbanner.com, my team and I decided to create a platform for not just me, but other business owners and successful people to pay forward our experiential knowledge in a conversational way.
Originally, we thought we'd be teaching others. But it didn't take long before we realized that we were the persons learning. Listening to our guests has been both educational and inspiring. To quote the Dalai Lama, "When you talk, you're only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new." The act of listening is learning. As Greek philosopher Diogenes wrote, "We have two ears and one tongue, so that we may listen more." Did you hear that, Gray? Listen to your mother.
After listening to over 150 successful people, I've learned that many of my guests believe in a higher power, have the heart of a teacher, and are creative at building their lives and careers. And, boy, our guests today are definitely that before. I introduce them, I want to let you know, if you miss any part of today's show, want to hear it again or share it, there is a way. And son Gray will tell you how.
[00:01:47] GM: All UIYB past and present interviews are available at Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy's YouTube channel, Facebook page, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette's digital version, flagandbanner.com's website, or wherever you get your podcasts. And by subscribing to our YouTube channel or joining flagandbanner.com email list, you will receive prior notification of that day's guest. Back to you, Kerry.
[00:02:11] KM: Thank you. My guest today is Mr. Stephen Wirges, owner and operator of Steinway and Son Piano Gallery in Mayflower, Arkansas. And he brought a guest, Eric Chesher, from Infrared Studio Productions, who is also connected to your gallery.
[00:02:30] SW: Yes. He's the store manager there.
[00:02:32] KM: All right. Stephen is more than just a piano tuner. Besides being the only certified Steinway piano dealer in the state, he is one of only 60 Steinway dealers in the world. Two decades ago, Stephen met and began working alongside a man that would change the trajectory of his life. The man was the well-respected and knowledgeable, Mr. Jim McGee, owner of Piano Craft in Little Rock Arkansas.
Mr. McGee was a Scandinavian immigrant and a piano expert. As a teacher, he trained at the Steinway Park Royal London Workshop. His skills were such that he taught at the European Piano Technician Guild National Convention and was the tuner technician for the Royal Danish Orchestra and Music Conservatory before moving to Arkansas.
As an apprentice to Jim, Stephen learned how to regulate, rebuild, and the art of moving and tuning pianos from one of the best. In 2010, Stephen became co-owner in Piano Craft. And today is sole proprietor of his own business, Stephens Piano Shop. And in 2019, opened the only Steinway and Sons Piano Gallery in Arkansas. It is with great pleasure I welcome to the table the well-trained, exclusive Steinway piano dealer, tuner, craftsman, and artisan, Mr. Stephen Wirges and his co-partner, partner in crime, Eric Chesher, Infrared Studios Production business associate. Let's call you that.
[00:04:10] SW: Perfect.
[00:04:11] KM: Welcome, guys.
[00:04:12] EC: Thank you for having us.
[00:04:13] SW: Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
[00:04:15] KM: So, online, Stephen, you don't talk much about your piano playing. You talk mostly about your craftsmanship.
[00:04:23] SW: Well, my piano playing skills are – I get to hear some of the best. I don't think I'm very good. Not worth talking about, really. But I do enjoy playing the piano. And I started playing piano before I started working on them. Started playing piano when I was about 15.
[00:04:40] KM: Yeah, I was going to say, which came first?
[00:04:43] SW: I started playing when I was about 15 years old. And started learning by ear.
[00:04:47] KM: Your parents play piano?
[00:04:49] SW: Yeah. My mom does.
[00:04:49] KM: How did you come to work at Piano Craft? Was it just happenstance? Or did you want to learn about the mechanism of the piano?
[00:04:57] SW: I was a mechanic. I was working on cars and rebuilding motors. And that's what my dad did. And he was a mechanic, and an engineer, and a machinist. Really, what interested me is all the moving parts in a piano. There's like 10,000 moving parts in a grand piano. I was very interested in how the mechanisms worked. And I wanted to learn how to put pianos together and rebuild them. And that was really my main interest. I came into it wanting to rebuild pianos. I didn't have any interest in tuning pianos. But Jim McGee, when I was hired there, told me I'd have to do both of them. That you can't do one or the other.
[00:05:35] KM: You have a good ear?
[00:05:36] SW: I have a decent ear. I have a trained good ear.
[00:05:39] KM: Your friend, Eric, is nodding.
[00:05:41] SW: Yeah.
[00:05:41] EC: He has a very good ear.
[00:05:44] KM: You came to work there thinking you were going to learn the mechanics of the piano. You'd been playing as a musician in your home for fun.
[00:05:53] SW: Yeah. About three years. Yeah.
[00:05:55] KM: If you started when you were 15, you must have been about 18 when you went to work there.
[00:05:58] SW: Yeah, I was 17, 17.5 when I started working for Jim as an apprentice. I actually had to work for him for free first couple of weeks to get him to even hire me.
[00:06:08] KM: People don't understand that.
[00:06:11] EC: That's a lost, lost art today. The apprenticeship. Yes.
[00:06:13] KM: They don't understand that.
[00:06:15] EC: And the drive to be willing to do that. It's amazing.
[00:06:18] KM: There's so many people that I mentor that say, "Well, I'm not going to take that job because of some ego." And you're like that's an opportunity you're going to miss to learn something, or to prove yourself, or to move up. Warren Buffett said when he was talking to a bunch of MBA students at Harvard, and they said, "How do you get a job when you graduate from where you want to – at a place you want to work?" And he said, "Pick out a company," which is what you've done, what you did, Steve, "pick out a company you want to work at and then get a job that fits with your lifestyle and the way you think about things that aligns with your values. And then get a job there even if you're the janitor. Get your foot in the door and then work your way up and prove yourself."
[00:07:04] SW: Find a mentor.
[00:07:05] KM: And in your case, find a mentor. And that's what you did. I hope if any young people listening that they're thinking just find a place you like, get in there and prove yourself. Let's talk about Jim McGee, your mentor. He worked for 20 successful years in Scandinavia?
[00:07:21] SW: Yeah.
[00:07:21] KM: In the business of pianos. And so, I assume he's an immigrant to America?
[00:07:25] SW: No. Actually, he was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. And he went to school in Texas under – I'm trying to remember the name of the school where he learned how to tune pianos and start working on them. And then he moved over to London and trained with Steinway there and then moved over to Denmark, Copenhagen and took care of the Royal Danish Conservatory there. And had a rebuilding shop where he rebuilt Steinways there also for 20 years. Then he came back here to the states. And around '99, '98, around that year, he came back to Little Rock and started Piano Craft.
[00:08:05] KM: Wow. That's a big life.
[00:08:08] SW: Yeah. And now he's actually helping me a little bit here.
[00:08:10] KM: Oh, is he still alive?
[00:08:11] SW: Yes. Yes. He became a Steinway dealer up in Kentucky.
[00:08:17] KM: Oh, he moved again.
[00:08:18] SW: Yeah, he moved again. And now he just moved back about a year ago. And he is helping me.
[00:08:24] KM: And he sold you Piano Craft, I guess, in 2010?
[00:08:27] SW: Yeah. It's actually kind of a long story. But he brought a business partner in probably six or seven years after I'd already been there. Maybe 10. I can't remember. But he brought a business partner in. And then he actually sold his business to his business partner. And then his business partner offered me half of the business. And I bought it. And then we split the business. And I started Stephens Piano Shop.
[00:08:51] KM: Eric, when he went to work for free for this guy, he had no idea it was going to end up owning the shop within 10 years. That's a great story. As an apprentice, you learn tuning.
[00:08:59] SW: Yes.
[00:09:00] KM: Which you weren't really interested in. But he said you had to learn it.
[00:09:02] SW: Yeah. I couldn't have done any of this without tuning.
[00:09:05] KM: What does it say when you say on your website voice?
[00:09:08] SW: Tuning corrects the pitch of a piano. It just makes a piano sound in tune, I guess. I mean, no better way of putting it without getting too technical. But voicing is the actual voice of the piano. Whether it's warm. Whether it's bright, dark, round, sharp. All the different colors that you hear in the piano. How to release the colors in a piano and get more overtones and get the hammers to fit the strings and hit them all just right at the same time.
[00:09:38] KM: That's why you hear some pianos and they sound pretty to you. And you hear other pianos and they hit just great on your middle nerve.
[00:09:44] SW: Yeah. And they might be in perfect tune. Both of them could be in perfect tune. But then some of them just sound –
[00:09:49] KM: It's the voice.
[00:09:49] SW: Yeah. It's the voice of the piano.
[00:09:50] EC: There's a real artistry to that. One of the highest paid trained person in a piano shop in a place that builds pianos is the person that they entrust to give the voice to that piano.
[00:10:01] KM: Can any piano have any voice? Or is it just an upright sounds one way? A grand sounds another? A spinet sounds one way?
[00:10:08] EC: A lot depends on the piano. With a piano like a Steinway, the opportunities are endless. You can literally tailor that piano to what you want. With some other pianos, even though they're very good pianos, you could be limited. It depends on how they make the hammers and the chemicals that might be used in the felts. You might be limited there. We might be able to make it a little brighter or a little darker sounding. But with a Steinway, we can sit down and lay the color palette out and say, "What do you want?"
[00:10:40] SW: Yeah.
[00:10:40] KM: In the movie the Green Book where the guy said, "I'll only play on a Steinway piano, he could go anywhere to play on a Steinway and it doesn't mean that it's going to have the same voice though.
[00:10:49] SW: Exactly.
[00:10:49] KM: When people say to me about Dreamland Ballroom, "You need to get a piano up here," I'm always like, "Well, how do I know what kind of piano the artist is going to want?" That seems like a risky thing to do.
[00:10:59] EC: Here's a simple fact that I tell everybody that comes to the gallery. Approximately, 98% of the world's artists that play piano for living play Steinway pianos. And Steinway's never paid a single one of them to do it. You have comfort as an artist that even though this Steinway might be different than this other Steinway, the touch, the basics that make Steinway Steinway are going to be there. Yes. And depending then on how you play it, it's going to give you back what you want. And no other piano on the planet can do that.
[00:11:36] KM: I guess the keys always feel the same on a Steinway.
[00:11:39] EC: Within reason.
[00:11:39] SW: Yeah.
[00:11:40] KM: Which would make it to me like every time you go to a new piano, you're like, "Oh, the keys have got more – or stiffer or not."
[00:11:48] SW: It kind of depends on also who's been taking care of the piano, you know?
[00:11:52] KM: You tune them. We've learned about voice. What's regulate mean?
[00:11:56] SW: All right. Regulation is what the whole reason I really got into pianos was learning the mechanics and how to adjust them and make them feel the certain way that they do. And there's about – like I said, there's 10,000 moving parts in a piano.
[00:12:10] KM: I read where Steinway had 21,000.
[00:12:13] SW: There might be 21,000 parts. But there's 10,000 moving parts.
[00:12:17] KM: Oh, okay.
[00:12:20] SW: In the moving parts, there's about between 20, maybe 22 different adjustments on each individual. 88 notes. And the adjustments have to work together with the rest of the 88 notes a lot of times. That is regulating is adjusting all of those different adjustments on each individual note and as a whole sometimes.
[00:12:40] KM: Then rebuilding would be what?
[00:12:42] SW: Rebuilding would be taking the piano down to just the bare wood back to just a soundboard or just the frame, the outside of the piano, the frame, the case. And then putting all new material in it. Like a new soundboard, a new bridge, and new action parts. Which regulating comes later in the rebuilding process. Once you have everything put in there, now you've got to make it all work. You've got to make it all work together. That's the real challenge in rebuilding. We can always put everything in there and measure it and just get it just right. But then we've got to make it sound good and make it work right.
[00:13:20] KM: And on your website, you call the art of moving pianos. Why do you call it the art?
[00:13:28] SW: It is an art.
[00:13:28] EC: It is.
[00:13:30] KM: It just seems like you need to be strong to make and have a good dolly.
[00:13:34] SW: Yeah. You do need to be strong and a good dolly. And you really got to be careful with it though. Actually, moving – when Jim hired me, I couldn't really do much. I couldn't really regulate, or voice, or make him any money.
[00:13:45] KM: But you're a 17-year-old strong back.
[00:13:47] SW: Yeah. Basically, he would get crates of pianos in. And he taught me how to uncrate them and set them up. A grand piano comes in on its side and fits through – it could fit through a two-foot door. Then you have to take everything out of the box and put the legs on it and then set it up and put the pedal lyre on it. Yeah. And that's part of moving. That's setting them up. And then, also, he would have me move pianos that he sold to people.
[00:14:15] KM: Tuning pianos seems like a mysterious business to me, like subjective, based on your ear.
[00:14:23] SW: Well, tuning, there's a universal pitch that every instrument is tuned to. When you listen to the radio, everything is at A440. And that means that the A4 on the octave scale is beating 440 times per second. And that's what makes an A4. Everything is tuned off of that A for it to sound good with other instruments. You do have something you have to start with. And then with pianos, you do have different temperaments and stuff that you can get into. And it can get really technical and confusing. And I might confuse myself talking about it. But –
[00:15:01] KM: You're looking like, "I'm going to confuse this girl speaking about me." You're kind of like, "Don't tell her too much. She's going to glaze over."
[00:15:09] EC: Can I explain it?
[00:15:09] KM: Yes.
[00:15:10] EC: It would be as if everyone in the world who speaks a different language, English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, they were all forced to stand in a choir without learning anybody else's language and everybody sing the same song at the same time. It would sound ridiculous. Right? But if everybody learned Japanese or if everybody in the choir knows English, and now they say sing the song, everybody is speaking the same language. And that's what A440 is. It's that universal note that all instruments are tuned to. So no matter if you're playing the piano with a cello or the piano – or I record a piano piece in Little Rock and I send it to Nashville, when they sit down and they tune their instruments and they play along to my piano part, it's in tune. Does that make sense?
[00:16:02] KM: It does.
[00:16:04] SW: Have you ever been to the symphony? When they have a concerto, an artist coming and playing the piano for concerto, he'll play A4. He'll go up there and play one note. And then the rest of the symphony tunes all their instruments to that one note. And that's what they usually go up there –
[00:16:23] KM: But they don't call that note an A4. Or they do?
[00:16:26] SW: They don't say anything. They just walk up there and play it. That's the one note –
[00:16:29] KM: I thought it was always a C.
[00:16:31] EC: It's an A.
[00:16:32] SW: It's an A. It's an A4. Actually, that's the one note I'm always concerned about when I'm tuning for the symphony, because I know that that note will be singled out for everybody to hear. And there's three strings that make that note up and they all have to be tuned perfectly together.
[00:16:49] KM: If they're not, they're going to go, "That's Stephen."
[00:16:50] SW: Yeah, "That Stephen guy tuned that piano."
[00:16:52] KM: Did that Stephen guy do that? All right. This is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with the well-trained, exclusive Steinway piano dealer, tuner, craftsman, and artisan, Mr. Steve Wirges and his business partner, Eric Cheser, Infrared Studio Productions. We'll be back after the break.
[BREAK]
[00:17:14] GM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Over 40 years ago with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. During the last four decades, the business has grown and changed along with Kerry's experience and leadership knowledge.
In 1995, she launched the business website flagandbanner.com. Became an early blogger in 2004. Founded the nonprofit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom in 2009. Began distributing a biannual publication called Brave Magazine in 2014. And today, she's branched out into this very radio show, YouTube channel, and podcast. Where each week, you'll hear her engage in candid conversations with engaging persons.
Stay informed about upcoming guests by subscribing to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy's YouTube channel. For updates of happenings on the busy flagandbanner.com campus, I.E. Dreamland Ballroom events, current Up in Your Business guests, sales at flagandbanner.com, relevant Brave Magazine articles, and Kerry's weekly blog post, join our email list at flagandbanner.com and receive our Thursday, very popular, all-inclusive, water cooler weekly update. Telling American-made stories, selling American-made flags, the flagandbanner.com. Back to you, Kerry.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[00:18:35] KM: Thanks, Gray. You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. And I'm speaking today with piano experts. Mr. Steve Wirges, founder of Stephens Piano Shop. Is that still around?
[00:18:45] SW: Yes.
[00:18:45] KM: Piano Shop. And Steinway and Sons Piano Gallery in Mayflower, Arkansas. And Eric Chesher. It's not really your business partner. What would you call yourself?
[00:18:58] EC: I guess I'm the store manager.
[00:19:00] KM: Oh, I asked you that already. Didn't I? Kind of.
[00:19:01] EC: I guess. And I'm the producer at the studio.
[00:19:03] KM: But you're also the Infrared Studio Productions, which is yours. Right?
[00:19:07] EC: Yes. Rex Bell owns the studio. And I'm the producer there.
[00:19:13] KM: Okay. For Infrared Studio Production.
[00:19:14] EC: Yes.
[00:19:15] KM: All right. Before the break, we talked about you going to work at Piano Craft as an apprentice. And within 10 years, you were co-owner of it. And about all the different ways you tune and voice. And what was the other word?
[00:19:33] SW: Regulate.
[00:19:33] KM: Regulate pianos. We all learned something. But in 2010, like we said, you became the co-owner of Piano Craft and head technician. But when I was researching all this, there's another company online who claims to be formerly Piano Craft. And they say they were founded in 2003.
[00:19:52] SW: Oh, Piano Tuning and –
[00:19:54] KM: Piano Tuning and Moving in Little Rock. Yes.
[00:19:57] SW: Yeah. That is my old business partner. After we –
[00:20:02] KM: Three businesses have springboarded from Piano Craft.
[00:20:06] SW: Yes.
[00:20:06] KM: I gotcha. How did you end up leaving Piano Craft if you and your business partner were together?
[00:20:11] SW: Yeah. I was running all the service in Piano Craft and he was doing all the sales. I didn't really have any interest in retail. I just was a technician. I love tuning. Love rebuilding. Wanted nothing to do with selling pianos. I enjoyed just working on them. We just came to the conclusion that it would be best if I had my own service department, my own service company. And he carried on with Piano Craft and kept doing the sales.
[00:20:42] KM: Well, he changed the name.
[00:20:43] SW: Yeah. That's after Piano Craft went out of business. That was back in 2011, 2012 when I left Piano Craft. And then he continued on with Piano Craft for four or five years. And then Piano Craft went out of business. And then he started another company.
[00:21:01] KM: Well, you got out just in the nick of time, it sounds.
[00:21:03] SW: Yes.
[00:21:04] KM: So you're not selling pianos now?
[00:21:06] SW: Oh, I am. I am. I mean, life changes. I told him when I left Piano Craft that I will never sell pianos. That's just not in the parts. Yeah.
[00:21:15] KM: Never say never. Right?
[00:21:17] SW: Yeah. And that's what he said to me when I called and told him that I was going to work with Steinway. He said, "So, I thought you weren't ever going to sell pianos?"
[00:21:24] KM: People change.
[00:21:25] SW: Yeah. That's what I told him.
[00:21:28] KM: In 2012, you began your own business adventure called Stephens Piano Shop that we were just talking about. And you just explained how that leap came between you and your business partner. And you have some very exclusive clients. You have Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Central Arkansas. And you got all of those before 2016. And in 2016, you decided you wanted more training. And this time with Steinway. What prompted the need to get more learning?
[00:21:58] SW: Well, at the time, I had just started working with UCA. And UCA is in a – they are becoming an all Steinway school, which means that they're going to have all Steinways. And they need them kept up by Steinway technician. Someone who's trained by Steinway. I saw that coming. I saw that they would have all Steinways in a few years. And I saw the opportunity as their technician to get my foot in the door and be able to go to New York and do training. Otherwise, if you're a technician, you can't just call Steinway up and say, "Hey, I want to want to come do some training up there in New York under your head techs." You have to be suggested.
[00:22:37] KM: Recommended.
[00:22:37] SW: Yeah, recommended by another Steinway dealer. And at the time, I was working with a Steinway dealer out of Memphis who was working with UCA. And they knew I was going to be the technician for UCA. And so, they're able to secure me a spot in a training program up in New York.
[00:22:55] KM: Now, I guess you're not working with Memphis anymore.
[00:22:58] SW: No. No, I'm not. I trained in New York with their head tech there, Kent Webb. And the training was actually – it was really fun actually. I loved it. And, actually, since Jim taught me everything that he had learned from Steinway in London, it was almost like I was just doing a repeat of my apprenticeship. They were teaching me the exact same stuff.
[00:23:22] KM: Refresher course.
[00:23:22] SW: Yeah. I was ahead of the game when I came in there.
[00:23:24] KM: Oh, it's nice to be the top student. Isn't it?
[00:23:28] SW: Teacher's pet.
[00:23:29] KM: Teacher's pet. So then you come back. And I guess because of that training –
[00:23:34] SW: That was part of it. Yeah.
[00:23:35] KM: I guess because of that, in 2017, Steinway asked you if you wanted to be an exclusive dealer.
[00:23:41] SW: Yes. Yes.
[00:23:41] KM: Do you think it's because of that training?
[00:23:43] SW: It was partly because of that. Yes. Yeah. I was able to meet quite a few people up there in the offices at Steinway when I was there.
[00:23:51] KM: Can anybody sell a Steinway but only some people are specified? Or do you have to be the only dealer that can sell a Steinway?
[00:24:00] EC: The better question is anyone can sell a piano if you're a decent salesperson. But to sell a Steinway is an exclusive years of knowledge-based thing. Because you're asking – let's say, it's parents of a young child. You're asking them to take a big financial leap uh and have a lot of faith that this is something that'll be a part of their family forever. A Steinway is rarely an instrument that someone dips their toe in. They might have a child who's taking piano lessons for a year. Steinway is a big financial purchase for most families.
[00:24:42] KM: So don't buy it for your kid if he's just starting out.
[00:24:45] EC: Well, no. But you need to talk to someone –
[00:24:47] SW: No. Definitely, buy it for your kid.
[00:24:49] EC: Definitely, buy it for your kid. Yeah. What I'm saying is when you – it's kind of the difference between selling a Lamborghini or maybe selling a Honda. You know? A basic good salesperson can sell a Honda. But when someone's shopping for a Lamborghini, the person standing in front of them better have the experience and the knowledge to handle that.
[00:25:09] KM: So when it says I'm an exclusive Steinway dealer, it doesn't mean there's not somebody else in the state selling a Steinway.
[00:25:15] SW: Well, no. Actually, yeah, to that question –
[00:25:16] EC: Yes, it does.
[00:25:17] KM: It does.
[00:25:18] SW: Yes. Yes. Yeah. You can't call up Steinway and order pianos and sell them.
[00:25:22] KM: And nobody else is allowed to sell a new Steinway out of their showroom but you.
[00:25:28] SW: That's right.
[00:25:29] KM: You started a – or you opened a 6,000-foot shop. Is that your Stephens Piano Studio?
[00:25:35] SW: That was Stephens Piano Shop. Yeah. Where we were rebuilding pianos. And I was selling used rebuilt Steinways, and rebuilt Baldwins, and rebuilt Mason & Hamlins. All the other good brands that we were rebuilding there. And we still do rebuild pianos there. We still do a lot of work on pianos there.
[00:25:49] KM: Is that where the gallery is? You call it the Steinway Piano Gallery in Little Rock.
[00:25:54] SW: That's a different location now.
[00:25:56] KM: I was going to say, how can you be in Mayflower and have a gallery called Steinway Piano Gallery Little Rock? I busted him out. Didn't I?
[00:26:06] SW: Yeah, about that.
[00:26:07] KM: About that.
[00:26:08] EC: I'm leaving you alone on that one, Mr. Steve.
[00:26:09] KM: This is a good story, I think.
[00:26:12] SW: When I talked to Steinway about becoming a Steinway piano gallery, which there's only 60 Steinway piano galleries in the world, there are 60-plus Steinway dealers in the United States. But they're not all Steinway piano galleries. There's a difference in the two.
[00:26:30] KM: Say that again one more time.
[00:26:32] SW: All right. There's 60 Steinway piano galleries in the world.
[00:26:36] KM: Okay.
[00:26:36] SW: All right. But there are a lot more than 60 Steinway dealers in the world. I could be Stephens Piano Shop and an exclusive Steinway dealer. Does that make sense? To be able to have the Steinway name and call the business Steinway piano.
[00:26:51] KM: In your name makes you special.
[00:26:53] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:26:54] SW: Yes. To be able to actually have their name as the company name is –
[00:26:59] KM: I thought you said nobody else could sell Steinways in Arkansas but him.
[00:27:04] EC: New Steinways.
[00:27:05] KM: Oh, I get you.
[00:27:06] EC: Yes.
[00:27:06] SW: Yeah. I mean, I could have – when we were working it out and I was becoming a Steinway dealer, I could have left it a Stephens Piano Shop or something like that.
[00:27:16] KM: But then you'd miss that name.
[00:27:17] SW: Yeah, I'd miss that name. And I didn't really know it was a big a deal as it was to actually – yeah, a big honor and just a blessing to be able to call my company Steinway Piano Gallery. I didn't know that they didn't freely give that away. They don't. I asked if I could have that name and they only give it to someone who they're going to trust to represent their name, represent their name as their store. That store has Steinway's name on it.
[00:27:45] KM: Only 60 people get that name.
[00:27:47] SW: Yeah.
[00:27:47] KM: That's a big deal. How did it end up with Little Rock in the name and you're in Mayflower?
[00:27:53] SW: Yeah. To have the Steinway name, we really needed to have it with – it's usually like Steinway Piano Gallery Nashville or Steinway Piano Gallery New York.
[00:28:02] KM: So it shows the geography of where it is.
[00:28:04] SW: Yeah. And it needed to be in the – had to have, I guess, the largest metropolitan area close to it in the name. I couldn't just call it Steinway Piano Gallery. It had to have a large city with it.
[00:28:16] KM: I figured that was what it was. Because if you just said Mayflower, everybody's been like what are you talking about?
[00:28:21] SW: Yeah. And they don't really know where Mayflower is up in New York.
[00:28:23] KM: It's a ship from the 1600s.
[00:28:25] SW: Yeah. And Steinway Piano Gallery LR. I mean –
[00:28:28] KM: Nobody known that either.
[00:28:30] SW: Yeah. Steinway Piano Gallery in Mayflower.
[00:28:32] KM: You boast on your website your gallery is acoustically designed for chamber music and recitals.
[00:28:40] SW: Yes.
[00:28:40] KM: What does that mean?
[00:28:41] SW: All right. When I was designing the gallery and building it, I talked with Jim McGee again. And he, as always, loved chamber music. And he's really got me into loving chamber music and just the acoustics of the room for chamber music and how just the sound of chamber music rooms. And I brought him in when I was building the building and just ask him to help me make this a little recital hall. I thought it would be a pretty – I just thought it'd be awesome to be able to have a showroom in a recital hall and have it for two purposes. To show pianos and showcase Steinway in a beautiful recital hall. And, also, to be able to have chamber music in the hall.
[00:29:27] KM: Son Gray loves chamber music. He has loved chamber music since he was 15. We would get up in the mornings and there would be – what was that kind of – a monk chant? Some kind of monky –
[00:29:42] GM: I don't know if you call that chamber music.
[00:29:43] KM: What do you call that?
[00:29:44] GM: It's like sacred music. but I do like chamber music a lot.
[00:29:47] KM: It's like Tibetan Monks chanting at the end of the hall.
[00:29:50] GM: Not quite the same.
[00:29:52] KM: We were like, "Okay, most kids have rock music playing at the end of the hall." Gray's down there –
[00:29:57] EC: Listening to the Ravel String Quartet. Yeah. Yeah. You know? But anyway.
[00:30:02] EC: Steve is also humble. I have to add this in. One of the other reasons that we made it a chamber music hall, acoustically perfect, was because we wanted the local teachers to also have a place where they could bring their students and have recital on the world's best piano in a hall that sounded perfect. And it's free.
[00:30:24] KM: Oh, it's free.
[00:30:25] EC: It's absolutely free to every teacher. All they have to do is call us.
[00:30:28] KM: Do they utilize it?
[00:30:29] EC: Yes.
[00:30:30] SW: We had a few. Yeah.
[00:30:30] EC: Yes.
[00:30:31] KM: A few?
[00:30:32] EC: Before the virus –
[00:30:34] KM: How long has it been open?
[00:30:36] SW: Just a little over a year.
[00:30:37] KM: Oh. So you were just now getting ready for a lot of recitals this spring.
[00:30:41] SW: Yeah. We had quite a few scheduled. I had to cancel.
[00:30:44] KM: Yeah. Performing is such an important part of learning music is also learning to perform. It's a big deal. All right. This is a great place to take our second break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with the well-trained, exclusive Steinway piano dealer, tuner, craftsman, and artisan Mr. Stephen Wirges with his business partner, Eric Chesher, from Infrared Studio Productions. We'll be back after the break.
[BREAK]
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[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[00:31:49] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. And I'm speaking today with piano expert, Mr. Stephen Wirges, founder of Stephens Piano Shop and exclusive Steinway and Sons Piano Gallery in Mayflower, Arkansas. And we're here with his business partner, Eric Chesher, Infrared Studio Productions.
Before the break, we were talking about how Stephen came to be a Steinway dealer. It's really interesting. If you didn't hear at the beginning of the show, you should go and listen to it. Now we're going to talk more about what you and Eric do together. But before we do, do you sell very many player pianos?
[00:32:30] SW: We do.
[00:32:30] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:32:32] KM: I love player pianos.
[00:32:34] EC: We do, too. Yeah.
[00:32:34] SW: I could sell you one.
[00:32:36] KM: Do very many people use player pianos?
[00:32:39] SW: They do. What Steinway has done is they've come out with the Steinway Spirio. And that is the finest player piano in the world because it's on the finest piano in the world. But not only that, it's just the engineering behind the player system that they have put on these Steinways. It's unreal. Literally, 50% of the production at Steinway in New York is Spirio pianos, which is their player piano.
[00:33:06] KM: They sell that many player pianos.
[00:33:07] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:33:09] KM: If you go to a hotel, they've got one in the lobby. And it's just over there playing away with nobody.
[00:33:14] SW: And the difference. I mean, the difference in the Spirio – go ahead.
[00:33:16] EC: The biggest difference is if you can remember the old-time player pianos with the roll that used to go around it, they played every note. It was a suction system. Kind of air would suck the keys down to make the hammers hit the strings. Right? As those holes were crossing over on that roll, it would trigger the suction inside the piano to suck certain keys down. And that was very cool. Very high-tech for that time frame. But the problem was, even though you heard the song, it was usually all one level of volume. There was no expression in it. Today, Steinway is able to capture the world's greatest pianist and it faithfully reproduces every single keystroke that they played. How they played it? How hard they played it? How long the note was held? Was the pedal all the way down or only half? I mean, it's amazing. When you hear a great artist that they've recorded in your living room, it is that artist playing that piano. It's that good.
[00:34:16] KM: Is it digital? Are they using any computer-generated –
[00:34:21] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:34:21] KM: Yeah. But it's actually the piano playing it.
[00:34:24] SW: It's the piano playing it. You sit there on your iPad and you go through the Spirio app and you pick out a Steinway artist. Every single recording is by a Steinway artist. You have the finest pianist playing on the finest piano in the world on this amazing Spirio system that captures every single nuance of every –
[00:34:42] KM: How much does one of those pianos cost?
[00:34:43] SW: Well, the Spirio only adds about 20 grand to the piano.
[00:34:47] KM: How much does the piano cost? Depends on which one?
[00:34:50] SW: Yeah, depends on the model.
[00:34:52] EC: Depends on the size.
[00:34:52] KM: What's the average?
[00:34:55] SW: 60,000.
[00:34:56] KM: $80,000.
[00:34:58] EC: Yeah.
[00:35:00] KM: Do they really hold their value?
[00:35:01] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:35:02] KM: I read somewhere that when you buy one, you can sell it immediately for 75% of what you bought it for. But if you held it 10 years – what are you going to say? Go ahead.
[00:35:14] EC: I sold my first piano when I was 12-years-old. I have literally traveled around the world and helped people, train people how to sell pianos. And I heard a lot of myths. And one of the myths that some unscrupulous people will throw out to people is you should invest in this piano because it's going to go up in value. You can't lose. Well, there's a reality to that. There's a market reality.
If you purchase a Steinway today – well, here's a great example. We sold a 1922 Steinway that was probably purchased for around $3,000 in 1922.
[00:35:49] SW: They're about 1,800.
[00:35:50] EC: 1,800 maybe.
[00:35:51] KM: What was 1,800?
[00:35:54] SW: They cost about $1,800.
[00:35:53] EC: The piano, when it was originally purchased. And we sold it today, a 1922 Steinway, for about $23,000.
[00:36:03] KM: I think if you'd put in the stock market, you'd have made more money.
[00:36:05] EC: Maybe.
[00:36:07] SW: Possibly.
[00:36:07] KM: But you wouldn't have enjoyed it.
[00:36:08] SW: You wouldn't have enjoyed it. Yeah.
[00:36:10] EC: Steinways, they do appreciate. But just like with any other product, you have to own it for a while. If you immediately buy one today, unless you got some crazy deal and turn around tomorrow and try and sell it, the problem is there's new ones that are the same price.
[00:36:24] KM: Do you all know about that Steinway that was on the stage at Central High School?
[00:36:30] SW: Yeah. I know a little bit of about it.
[00:36:31] KM: Did y'all refurbish that?
[00:36:32] SW: We did not.
[00:36:33] KM: Oh, I bet that breaks your heart.
[00:36:34] SW: It kind of does. Yeah. That's a sore subject.
[00:36:39] KM: Yeah. That wasn't done very many years ago.
[00:36:41] SW: Yeah. And I haven't even inspected it or looked at it. I'm really not even sure –
[00:36:47] KM: How good a job they did?
[00:36:48] SW: Yeah. I couldn't tell you.
[00:36:51] KM: Well, I was hoping you would say yes, you did that. Mr. Steinway, he invented the first Steinway in his kitchen in the 18 –
[00:37:03] SW: An upright.
[00:37:04] KM: An upright in his kitchen. And I read where, over 10 years, he only made 460 of them or something.
[00:37:14] EC: Sounds about right actually. Yes.
[00:37:16] KM: Before he moved to New York and started Steinway and Sons.
[00:37:19] SW: Yeah.
[00:37:20] KM: Son Gray, you had a Yamaha. What do y'all think about those?
[00:37:26] EC: I will make this statement live on the air.
[00:37:27] KM: Okay.
[00:37:27] EC: I believe that everybody today makes a good piano. And I've said that my whole life. Yamaha, Kawai, Baldwin, which used to be built here, they all made good pianos. But there's a difference in a good piano and a great piano. And a Steinway is a great piano. Yeah.
[00:37:50] SW: Yeah. I agree with that.
[00:37:52] EC: The biggest difference is in the –
[00:37:52] KM: What makes it so good?
[00:37:55] SW: The design. And the handcrafted – and crafting of it.
[00:38:01] EC: They do things that no one else does or cares to do. Steinway's motto is actually to build the best piano regardless of price. And most company mottos would be build as many pianos as we can that most people can afford.
[00:38:15] KM: That's right. The model T.
[00:38:17] EC: Yeah. It's different for every artist. If you ask five different Steinway artists what is it about Steinway that you love, you would have five different answers. It's a very personal, visceral connection that people have with a Steinway Piano. Vladimir Horowitz was the greatest piano player that ever lived. And he would – this is back when they had prop planes. But he would only tour with his Steinway. Not just any Steinway. His Steinway. And every time you watch the old film clips of him, every time he would walk out on stage before he played, he would walk down the piano and he would just reach out, and pat it, and touch it like it was a long-lost friend. Because it was. It was part of him.
[00:38:57] KM: How could he do that? They are 20 tons of strings.
[00:39:00] EC: Yes. But the piano doesn't weigh 20 tons.
[00:39:02] KM: Oh. It's 20 tons of string tension.
[00:39:06] EC: Tension. Yes, ma'am.
[00:39:07] KM: How much does a piano weigh? They're very heavy. How do you get a prop plane off the ground with a piano?
[00:39:11] EC: 1,500 pounds, give or take, a Concert Grand.
[00:39:13] SW: Yeah, a Concert Grand, 1,300.
[00:39:16] KM: How was he getting these prop planes off the ground? He had planes come and bring sections of it and they put it together at the place?
[00:39:21] EC: Long runways is all I can tell you.
[00:39:27] KM: And lightweight pilots.
[00:39:29] EC: Yes.
[00:39:29] KM: It's like two people get to be in the plane. It's all we get to have.
[00:39:32] EC: You will sit on this side of the plane.
[00:39:34] KM: Yeah. I read where the pianos are so heavy, they have to have a backbone for this strength of the 20 tons of string tension.
[00:39:42] SW: I guess the backbone – what would that really be called?
[00:39:44] EC: The back posts in the frame.
[00:39:48] KM: The cast iron plate is often called the backbone.
[00:39:50] SW: Yeah. The cast iron plate. Yeah. The cast iron plate does hold all of that tension along with the cast iron being bolted down to hard rock maple, which is what Steinway does with their hand-crafted pianos. They have a hard rock maple rim. And then they bolt the cast iron down to that hard rock maple rim. That's what holds the tension. 20 tons of tension. And that's a lot of tension.
[00:40:11] KM: That is. I think I have that in my neck though sometimes. All right. Last break we're going to take. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with Mr. Stephen Wirges, Steinway piano dealer. And his friend, Eric Chesher, from the Infrared Studio Productions. We'll be right back. Short break.
[BREAK]
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[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[00:41:15] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. And I'm speaking today with piano expert, Mr. Steve Wirges. Founder of Stephens Piano Shop and Steinway and Sons Piano Gallery in Mayflower, Arkansas. With his business partner, Eric Chesher, Infrared Studio Productions. We've been talking about Steinways. We've been talking about careers. My favorite part probably of the whole interview was how Stephen started as a free apprentice at Piano Craft. And then within 10 years, became the owner of the place. And then a few years later, started out on his own. And then continued his education until he became a Steinway dealer that led somewhere that he could never have dreamed. Talk about going where life leads you and taking opportunities. This is exactly what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about. Today at your businesses, you work with Eric Chesher here at the Infrared Studios. What do you all do together?
[00:42:09] EC: That's a long story. We met Steve in our original studio, which was down here. Very close to where we are now. It is very important in our full recording studio we have a very large piano. And it needs to be in perfect tune for every single session we have. There can be no mistakes.
[00:42:28] KM: What kind of music do you record?
[00:42:29] EC: We've recorded everything. From country, to rock and roll, to jazz. It's a huge, huge part of our recording. Rex Bell, the owner of the studio, is one of the singular best piano players I've ever met in my life and is an extraordinary jazz pianist. And our house band are all very accomplished jazz players. Jazz players have this unique ability to play anything put in front of them. I am very fortunate to have simply the best house band in the world sitting in my studio.
[00:42:59] KM: I haven't even heard of this.
[00:43:01] EC: Yes.
[00:43:01] KM: I live right here and I didn't even know about Infrared Studio Productions.
[00:43:05] EC: We had gone through several tuners that just couldn't get it done. Their ear wasn't good enough. Whatever. They just weren't good enough. And, finally, we got recommended Steve. And I have to admit, the first day he came in, here's this young kid. This is like 12 years ago now. Here's a young kid. And I'm like, "Who is this kid? There's no way he has enough experience to do this. We've been through all the old guys that have all the experience." And, man, he sat down and started tuning. And I've been in the piano business my whole life. And I knew immediately when he started tuning what we had.
[00:43:37] KM: Are you a piano player too?
[00:43:37] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:43:38] SW: Very good piano player.
[00:43:39] EC: Yeah. I have a piano degree and also a vocal degree. Yeah.
[00:43:42] KM: Whoa. Do you make a living playing the piano or at your studio?
[00:43:46] EC: Well, I make a living at the studio. Yeah. Which means I'm playing all day every day, which is fantastic. Yeah.
[00:43:52] SW: He writes music. I mean, does it all.
[00:43:53] EC: We open the studio to be a safe place. I lived in Nashville for many, many, many years. And when I moved here, the goal was to have a studio here that was a safe place.
[00:44:06] KM: What do you mean by safe place?
[00:44:08] EC: Usually, if you live in Little Rock, for instance, or you live in – who knows? A small town somewhere in the middle of the USA, if you want to have some type of career in the music business, you have to eventually leave right and go to New York or LA, Chicago maybe. We wanted to have a studio that offered everything that those places would offer and more and be right here where you can stay with the people that know you and actually care about you. And, yet, we can also develop you and get you ready.
[00:44:38] KM: Stay with your tribe.
[00:44:39] EC: Yes. That was our goal.
[00:44:41] KM: And so, you moved out to Mayflower from downtown Little Rock. What do your clients think about that?
[00:44:47] EC: They love it.
[00:44:48] SW: I asked Eric when I started Steinway Piano Gallery, I said, "You have to do this with me. You are like the piano guru. And you have sold pianos and been all over the world selling pianos for 30-something years."
[00:45:01] EC: I'm old.
[00:45:02] KM: You don't look it. He's hot, people.
[00:45:05] EC: No. No.
[00:45:06] KM: Go ahead.
[00:45:06] SW: I mean, I just really, really wanted his help and needed his help. And he said he would help me with it. He talked to Rex about a schedule and being able to come out to – we had a warehouse at the time out by Mayflower for appointments only. I could get Eric to meet the customers there to talk to him about pianos and work with them. And we got the gallery opened a year ago. Is it a year ago?
[00:45:32] EC: A little over a year. Yeah.
[00:45:33] SW: Yes. A little over a year ago. And he's in and out of the gallery running from Mayflower to North Little Rock, Mayflower to North Little Rock.
[00:45:39] KM: I thought you said it was in Little Rock. What's in North Little Rock?
[00:45:41] EC: That's where our studio was.
[00:45:42] KM: Oh, I thought you said Little Rock.
[00:45:41] SW: Yes. Right across the river. Right across the river in Downtown North Little Rock. And he was running back and forth. And Rex, the owner of Infrared Studio, decided that he was going to change his location of his studio. He was going to look out in West Little Rock or look out in Maumelle. I started talking to Eric about it. I was like, "Why don't I just build a studio on the back of the gallery? We just finished building the gallery. We could go right back into construction mode and build a studio and talk –"
[00:46:08] KM: Synergy.
[00:46:08] EC: It is.
[00:46:09] SW: – talk to talk to Rex about it. And he said, "All right. When do you start? It took us about eight months to build the studio. And we built the studio out and moved it in in March. Or February/March. And then –
[00:46:24] KM: Do you teach out there also?
[00:46:26] SW: We don't. We don't teach. But we do know a lot of teachers.
[00:46:28] KM: Do you train out? Do you have any apprentices that you're training that are going to grow up and be your competitor?
[00:46:34] EC: Possibly. We've had that discussion many times.
[00:46:36] SW: Yeah, we have.
[00:46:37] KM: That's okay. That's what entrepreneurs do. They pay forward their knowledge. That's okay.
[00:46:42] SW: Well, I mean, my goal with people that I've trained is for them to work with me and for me to make it worth their while. And so, I have three people that I've helped trained one of them. And I've completely trained two of them.
[00:46:55] KM: Well, on your Facebook page it says that you were the best boss ever.
[00:46:59] SW: Does it say that?
[00:46:59] KM: Aha. You haven't been to your Facebook page? But one of your employees said Steve is the best boss ever.
[00:47:05] EC: I paid him.
[00:47:07] SW: You paid him?
[00:47:07] KM: It's you. You put that on there yourself. Didn't you? That says a lot. Small businesses need to be great bosses and mentors to other people.
[00:47:17] SW: Well, I love all the guys that work with me. I mean, they're awesome people. And, I mean, they would be the people that I would hang out with after work. I mean, they're just awesome. I've been blessed. I mean, God has truly blessed my business big time.
[00:47:30] KM: Do pianos wear out? Grow old?
[00:47:32] EC: Yes, ma'am.
[00:47:34] KM: What do you do when a Steinway is 100 years old?
[00:47:36] EC: You rebuild it.
[00:47:38] KM: Do you have to take everything out and start over and then it's not a Steinway?
[00:47:41] SW: The best way to do it – I mean, you can't really get a Steinway – the soul of the piano is a Steinway soundboard. And you can take the shell of a Steinway and put just any old board in it and it does not sound anything like a Steinway. You literally have to go back to the factory in New York to get that correct wood to go back in it.
The best way to rebuild a Steinway is actually to send the case back to New York. Let them do what we call the belly work, which is putting the soundboard in it. Putting a new bridge in it and stuff like that. And then bring it back and put the action and stuff like that in it.
[00:48:19] KM: Oh, well.
[00:48:21] SW: Yeah. I heard the music.
[00:48:22] KM: Yeah. Yeah. We're at the end of the show. I want to thank you so much for coming on. And how do people learn more about your business and get in touch with y'all?
[00:48:31] SW: All right. Our website is super easy. It's steinwaylr.com. Steinwaylr.com.
[00:48:36] KM: Oh, you got the LR. Steinwayl.com. Thank y'all so much for being with us today. In closing, to our listeners, thank you for spending time with us. We hope you've heard or learned something that's been inspiring or enlightening. And that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence, your life. I'm Kerry McCoy and I'll see you next time on Up in Your Business. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
[00:48:57] GM: You've been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. For links to resources you heard discussed on today's show, go to flagandbanner.com, select radio and choose today's guest. If you'd like to sponsor this show, contact me, gray@flagandbanner.com. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Stay informed of exciting upcoming guests by subscribing to our YouTube channel or podcasts wherever you like to listen. Kerry's goal is simple, to help you live the American dream.
[END]
