Jackson Free Press

Multi-talented musician-businessman Richard Kubow, is the owner of Richard's Music, a man who can play any instrument and sing any note. In 2003 a blaze set fire to his studio, which had been open since 1981, but Kubow got back on track. He and his staff teach many different music lessons to the public everyday in theMaywood Mart complex.

Passion for God and helping others led Kubow to Mississippi in 1978. The Eastern Illinois graduate moved to California from Illinois to attend a seminary school. While at the seminary, Kubow picked up the book "Let Justice Roll Down" (1976, Regal Books) by Mississippi-native John M. Perkins.

"Every time I picked up the book, I would start crying," he remembers. "That never happened to me with any other book."

After a group of white oppressors murdered his brother, Perkins moved to California vowing never to return. In 1972, though, he and his wife started the Voice of Calvary Ministries in Jackson. To this day, he is Kubow's hero.

Inspired by Perkins, Kubow moved to Mississippi and worked with Perkins and the Voice of Calvary Ministries. He worked on a construction crew and helped kids after school with math and reading.

"I began taking writings that were for overeducated people and turned them into songs for the kids," Kubow explains. These songs cover American History and all of the world's past and present catastrophes. He also taught songs about remaining sexually abstinent until marriage.

He says, "I was like a father to all of these kids because a lot of them were fatherless."

After the children went astray, he felt heartbroken. To fill the void, he put an ad in the paper selling piano lessons. He began teaching adults music, and 65 percent were black. His students wanted to learn to play Gospel by ear. "I had to develop the world's first method of playing piano by ear," Kubow explains. "I came up with methods on how to play white and black gospel music by ear."

After experimenting with 2,200 people through a course of 11 years, Kubow finally got it. Even if a person has never touched a piano, Kubow can teach him or her to play by ear. Like Edison and the light bulb, Kubow never gave up. His method is the only one like it in the world.

Previous Comments

ID

82395

Comment

I attended Richard's Music back in 2002. I really enjoyed the lessons, and everyone there was so friendly. We even had a "jam session" of sorts where all the students had to play "Wild Thing" together. I was on keyboard, and later they let me try the bass guitar. It was so much fun! I'm rusty now since I don't have a keyboard to practice on, but I still have the handbooks Richard wrote, and I know I could pick it back up at any time because the books and tapes are so easy to follow.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-06-17T20:37:18-06:00