Dallas was in the era of the player piano and Sunday afternoon concerts when Brook Mays Music Company first opened its doors for business in August of 1901. Ever since then, during more than 100 years of changing sounds from the patriotic fervor of George M. Cohan and John Philip Sousa, to Irving Berlin, flappers, and the Charleston, to the big bands of the Dorseys, Glenn Miller, and Harry James, and right on down to today's amplified guitars and digitized rock, Brook Mays has been helping to create beautiful music throughout The USA.

Brook Mays, the man who founded the company that bears his name and ran it for nearly 40 years, was a transplanted Tennessean. Mays was no musician himself, but as a shrewd businessman he saw a need for a first-class piano dealership in Dallas, and that was exactly what he established when he opened his original store in a building at Elm and Poydras.

Originally, the firm dealt exclusively in pianos and became the largest dealership of its kind in the entire region. It was the only major music company in the Southwest to survive the Great Depression of the 1930's.

In the forties, Brook Mays Music Company began to expand its merchandise lines to include organs, sheet music, and a band instrument division. Soon after World War II, the downtown store was extensively remodeled. This growth spurt which extended through the early fifties included the development of a band instrument division which was destined to become the largest supplier of band instruments to school groups in the Southwest. Much of that growth was attributable to the phenomenal expansion of the high school band and orchestra programs at that time. Brook Mays is proud to be an active partner in what has become the most impressive music education state in our nation.

The sixties, having seen the arrival of the Beatles and rock 'n' roll, brought about an entirely new demand for musical instruments. Electric guitars, amplifiers and drums were now included in Brook Mays' extensive inventory. The musical trends of the seventies and eighties introduced high-end electronic instruments including keyboards, synthesizers and drum machines. Today, Brook Mays Music provides the latest state-of-the-art musical electronics to students, performing professionals, and to the recording and broadcasting communities.

This last decade has seen an overall commitment to excellence and community service. Now with over fifty retail locations and our mail-order and e-commerce divisions that serve both national and international customers. The company offers a broad range of educational services (for both students and music educators), complete repair facilities, and the Southwest's largest instrument rental program.

In the past, the present, and for generations still to come, the sound of music throughout the USA is synonymous with Brook Mays Music.

"Brook Mays means music."