“I always felt the world would be a better place if we all played music,” says Rick Vokt, a Manitou Springs resident who owns the Colorado Piano Warehouse in downtown Colorado Springs.
Despite growing up with a piano in the house since elementary school, Vokt didn’t enjoy playing piano until he left home for college.
“The piano never played right,” he recalled. “That’s the reason we never played it.”
The piano wasn’t properly regulated, the keys were not level and the tuning didn’t hold.
It’s a memory that remains with him today.
“That’s what my mission here is. … Even the most inexpensive piano is going to be regulated, keys leveled, dip set, let off, lost motion, the tuning is up to 440 and stabilized.”
According to Vokt, everything has to be working properly in a piano to truly enjoy it.
Don’t be afraid of it. – Rick Vokt
When he went to college, as a guitar-playing punk rock enthusiast, he studied economics but always took music and art classes along with his regular course work. On campus he found good, maintained pianos that awakened his love of playing.
In a ceramics class, he met his future wife — whose father worked at a Kawai Pianos factory in Los Angeles.
“I was working at Disneyland in the art department … and then on the weekends, he would be like, ‘Hey can you come over to the warehouse and help us buff out pianos?’”
There, Vokt learned how to clean pianos and fix broken keys, along with anything else that needed to be done in the busy factory.
Growing up, he used to work on cars. When it came to pianos, it was a natural transition.
“It’s a really refined, lovely form of mechanics and woodworking.”
After he graduated, he worked in the factory for another couple years before branching out and starting his own business. In 1995, facing a fiercely competitive market and ever-rising rents, he moved to Colorado, renting the Manitou home he eventually bought.
He set up shop in downtown Colorado Springs at Tejon and Boulder streets, next to the Yamaha and Steinway dealer. The store was called Pianos New and Used, but soon acquired another name from customers.
“At the other store all they sold were new pianos,” Vokt said, “and they’d say ‘Don’t you have any used?’ And they’d say ‘Nah, go down to Rick’s place. He’s got all sorts of used stuff.”
Customers would walk down the street, pop their head in and ask, “Is this Rick’s Place?”
Vokt remembers how overwhelming the piano seemed as a kid, how his aunt told his mom that maybe her kids weren’t smart enough to play. He attributes the intimidation to the expense of the instrument, its size and the complexity of classical music.
“I try to emphasize to people what an easy instrument it is and don’t be afraid of it,” Vokt says.
What worked the best for him was learning by ear, beginning with chords, and branching out from there. In his opinion, there are two types of people: those who read music and those who don’t.
“We both envy each other. I envy that someone can open a book and play Chopin or Rachmaninoff,” he said
Regardless, the most important thing to him is to play, which is why for Vokt, it’s not just about buying an expensive piece of furniture.
“My goal in this business is to get people playing.”
As he’s gotten older, Vokt’s perspective on playing music has also matured.
“I think the thing that’s helped me out the most in the last few years is that I listen more now rather than look and try to figure out where I am and what I’m doing … and that, I think, is very super-important in life.”
It’s about being more attuned to one’s environment, which is why he fell in love with living in Colorado.
“You’d probably pollute a little less if you listened to the birds,” he said.
IF YOU PLAY
Colorado Piano Warehouse, 218 W. Colorado Ave. (turn north off the Colorado Avenue Bridge), is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and noon-4 p.m. Saturdays. Information: 719-389-1430.