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The History of Grace Note Wind ChimesIn 1982 musician Jeff Kile was living in a rural Louisiana tree house and playing music on the street for spare change. Jeff's love for music combined with his natural surroundings sparked an idea for creating the ultimate wind chime. Harmonically tuned aluminum wind chimes were already being marketed, but Jeff envisioned a wind chime with a unique suspension design. All of the wind chimes on the market used a similar suspension that utilized string through holes in the top of the tubes. This suspension technique reduced the resonance of the chimes. By placing pins inside the tubes at the resonant node (the spot on a vibrating tube that doesn't vibrate), Jeff eliminated the interference of the string against the tubes. This innovative design resulted in longer and clearer resonance. The original Grace Note Windchimes were tuned by ear to notes that Jeff played on his guitar. Encouraged by the sound quality of his wind chimes, Jeff returned to his home state of California and turned to his brother, Mark, for support. With Mark's $300.00 tax return check as a business start up, the partnership was born. They named the company Grace Note Chimes. In music, the term "grace note" refers to an unwritten musical note that falls between two existing notes, as in a bent note. Grace Note Chimes are musical adornments. It seemed a fitting name for such harmonic wind chimes. During lean early years they assembled wind chimes in their parents' barn and spent most of the time on the road, selling Grace Note Chimes at craft shows around the country. It wasn't long, however, before the amazing sound quality of Grace Note Chimes earned them a loyal following. Grace Note has continued to prosper through the years. It quickly outgrew the barn as a production site, and moved into a spacious well equipped factory. Many new members have been added to a growing extended family. The amazing growth and success of Grace Note hasn't come at the cost of the friendly spirit and attention to detail inherent in a small family business. Grace Note is still a small company with big ideals. As they celebrate over twenty years of hard earned luck, Jeff and Mark are ever mindful that the success of Grace Note Chimes is due to your support. Their dedication to bringing you the most finely crafted and best sounding wind chimes is unwavering. Musicalwindchimes.com is proud of our relationship with Grace Note Chimes and their desire to help populate the world with wind chimes. Let the good chimes toll! The History of Woodstock Wind ChimesWoodstock Percussion, Inc., the maker of Woodstock Chimes®, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Founded in 1979 by Garry and Diane Kvistad, the company is one of the premier manufacturers of tuned wind chimes. As a professional musician and instrument designer, Garry’s goal was to create a better-sounding wind chime with each tube tuned precisely to the pitch he wanted the listener to hear. Due to his fascination with ancient musical cultures, he tuned his first chime to an ancient Greek pentatonic scale. An interview on National Public Radio in 1980 and an appearance on the Today show the following year gave Kvistad and his wind chimes national exposure, and Woodstock Percussion quickly outgrew the Kvistads’ kitchen. Since then, the company has grown in size, distribution and product offerings. Today, Woodstock sells over 100 different products in its Signature Collection of musical gifts for the home and garden, including bells, gongs and musical fountains. According to Kvistad, a lot has changed in 25 years, but the key to his company’s success has remained the same – a combination of innovative, high-quality product offerings and outstanding customer service. “When you have a winning formula,” he said, “you stick with it.” |
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