Centre Music House in Framingham has been composing new musicians for five decades

FRAMINGHAM — In 1970, Corbit Larson walked into Eli Rabkin's drum school at 18 Main St., just off Route 9. A Philadelphia native, Larson had moved to Framingham shortly after college and was working in the electronics industry, and wanted to take guitar lessons.

"I always loved playing guitar," Larson said. "The Beatles and the British Invasion got me jumping around. I had kind of been messing around on the guitar and decided I wanted to take some lessons to learn how to play better."

Ten years later, Larson would leave the electronics industry and purchase Rabkin's former drum school, now called Centre Music House.

He's been running it ever since.

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"I started working in 1971 as a part-time job, then ended up running it full time before buying it," Larson said in a recent interview. "The lessons really reignited my love of music, and I gave up a lucrative career in the electronics industry to do this.

"I went with my heart instead of my wallet."

Centre Music House adapts to shifts in the industry

Centre Music House is celebrating 50 years of operation under that name. It's been helping people of all ages gain a foothold in music, from offering lessons to youngsters just getting started to helping lifelong maestros get the right equipment. Through the years, the Larson family has seen the music retail industry evolve.

"When we first started, retail was a majority of our business and lessons were a secondary part of it," said Max Larson, Corbit's son. "In recent years, that has flipped. There is a lot more competition, so you have to find ways to be competitive. We've had to create more space for lessons and that has meant reducing some retail space."

Rabkin opened the business in the 1960s as a drum school and music shop. The business was sold to another family in 1973, who renamed the business Centre Music House, which uses the old-English spelling of "center" given its location in historic Framingham Centre. The building that houses the shop was built in the early 20th century.

"It's quite literally, a music house," Max Larson said.

Corbit Larson would buy the business in 1980, and has had to adapt to remain in business.

"When I first started, there were six other music shops in Framingham," he said. "We are the only one left. Over time, we've faced competition — Guitar Center and Mars Music came to town, and then you had eBay and Amazon."

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And while the business' emphasis has shifted from retail to services, "there is always still an interest in music," Corbit Larson said.

"We still have a lot of youngsters that want to come in and learn how to play the guitar, how to play piano, the flute, and parents who take an interest but maybe don't know a lot about instruments," he said. "We're here to help."

A one-stop shop for all things music

As the retail side of the music business became more competitive, Centre Music House has leaned further into music education. It now employs 25 instructors who teach in private lesson rooms on the building's second floor.

"The piano is still our most popular instrument for people to learn," Max Larson said. "The reason, I think, is that mechanically, to play piano, you are just pressing down keys with your fingers. To play guitar you have to have fine motor skills to push a particular string down with one hand and then pluck that string with another hand."

In addition to traditional piano, string and brass instruments, the school offers lessons in drums, guitar and even how to use advanced computer programming to create electronic music and hip-hop beats, which are popular with kids today.

"We have a couple of teachers who have studied music production and are really familiar with using software, and we have some students who take music production class and they make beats," Max Larson said. "It's not all rock and classical — we have kids and adults who come in and want to learn electronic music. You've got to continue to adapt and keep looking at the next thing."

The charm for Corbit Larson is his ability to serve customers with the same enthusiasm he had in 1970, and seeing them flourish in music and even perform live.

"We do an open mic night on a monthly basis at the atac in downtown Framingham," he said. "It's open for the general public, and seeing the performers do their thing and enjoy it, it really warms the heart. We see everyone, from piano players to bands to little children playing ukulele — to see those people making music and (it's great) knowing that you had a part in helping get them into music."

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Corbit Larson said if he had stayed in the electronics business, he probably would have made a lot more money and retired 20 years ago. But he said being able to share music with the community has been worthwhile.

"I've hung in there because I'm stubborn and I refuse to give up," he said. "I'd tell people who wanted to follow their passion that they should follow their heart, but don't expect to get rich. It's all a labor of love, I'm not doing this because I want a beach house down the Cape or a lake house in Maine. I do it because I love what I'm doing and seeing the effect it has on people."

Generations of customers

Being in business for 50 years means longtime customers keep coming back. Take Davida Dinerman, who first started taking piano lessons at age 11 in 1975. After taking them for several years, she began pursuing other interests. But when her own children grew up, Dinerman decided to take up piano again.

"There was no doubt where I was going to take my lessons — I was going to Centre Music House," she said. "I'm learning in a very different way than I was when I was a kid, but I have a great teacher and I'm so excited to keep playing again. I regret having stopped playing earlier."

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Peter Robinson took trombone lessons for years at Centre Music House, getting his first trombone from Corbit Larson and regularly stopping by to get more materials. Now a student at UMass Lowell, Robinson became interested in piano, so he began taking lessons at Centre Music House.

"I had such good memories of learning how to play trombone, I knew it would be the right place to learn the piano," Robinson said. "When I signed up for those lessons, I noticed they also offered lessons on music composition and arrangement, so I've been taking those as well."

Robinson has written pieces that have been performed by UMass Lowell's school orchestra, and he credits the lessons he learned at Centre Music House for that achievement.

Dinerman said her advice to those starting out is to stick with learning an instrument.

"I tell everyone to stick with it, you will get old one day and be able to appreciate these skills that you have developed," she said.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Centre Music House in Framingham celebrates 50 years in business