Missouri Classical Music News

Everything starts during WW II when Rhodes dissolves his pedagogic enterprise to join the Army Air Corps. By circumstance he finds himself between classifications, has nothing to do and is asked to provide therapy for wounded soldiers. Piano students lying in bed!?!? The obvious solution must be a bed piano (obvious to Harold, that is)!

Hydraulic aluminum pipes from the wings of the B-17 bombers seemed to have a good tone when cut to xylophone length. Picture yourself a toy piano, sized like a small suitcase, with 2.5 octaves of regular-size keys. It is a big success, and thousands are made. Rhodes is even awarded the Medal of Honor for his therapeutic achievements after the war, and in Air Corps Manual No. 29 in the army archives, you find the Rhodes Method described.