Written by Michelle Makool
Playing the piano is an art that has been mastered by many, but being able to identify a musical tone without using any other device is a gift received by few.
Lisabeth Jones, instructor of music, began playing the piano at age 4. She said she remembers hearing her grandmother, Daisy Worsham, and mother, Jennille Chalenburg, play but it was when her brother, Mike Chalenburg, began to play that she became jealous and insisted on being taught.
“My grandma began teaching me to play when I was 4, and when I was old enough to start school I began taking lessons from Mrs. Astrid Forde,” Jones said. “She charged $1 a lesson but went up to $1.50 by the time I was a senior.”
The first signs of Jones’ gift were in kindergarten when her teacher would play a note and Jones immediately knew which note it was. It was not until second grade that she realized not everyone had this ability.
In junior high and high school Jones played the piano for the choir and the flute in the band. She graduated from Starbuck High School and, following in her brother’s footsteps, attended Harding University.
At Harding Jones played for the jazz band, marching band, and sang in the Chorale directed by Dr. Cliff Ganus, professor of music.
“She [Jones] has the gift of perfect pitch, which was helpful because she gave us the pitch for the Chorale,” Ganus said.
Jones traveled with the Chorale to Europe, which led to her moving to Scotland in 1982, a year after she graduated from Harding. Because she did not have a personal piano in Scotland, she went into stores that had pianos to play her music.
In October 1988, Jones, five months pregnant, and her family moved back to Searcy where Dr. Bill Holloway, former chairman of the music department, informed her of a part-time piano instructor position available at Harding.
“It [perfect pitch] helps a lot with classes just because I know what I am hearing, but sometimes I forget that the students don’t know,” Jones said.
She taught for three years, but in 1992 took a “seven-year maternity leave” to take care of her family. Jones has three daughters, Libby, Bethany and Brittany Jones — all who share her love for piano.
Brittany Jones is the only daughter who received her mother’s gift of perfect pitch. Lisabeth Jones taught her daughters a little about the piano but allowed their elementary teacher to give them lessons. Lisabeth Jones said that playing the piano is an art, and pianists are some times too critical of one another.
“The idea is to teach them to love music, not to hate their mother,” Lisabeth Jones said.
Lisabeth Jones’s previous part-time position became available again in 1999, but it was not until 2005 that she became a full-time faculty member. She has been the coordinator of the Searcy Community School of Music since it was established in 2004.
“Mrs. Jones gave me my first real piano teaching job,” Elizabeth Brewster, a 2008 alumna said, “The reason they started it [Searcy Community School of Music] was because so many people from the community were asking music faculty members to give their kids music lessons. They had the idea to let students do it instead. It provides the kids with lessons, and the Harding students with some much needed experience.”
Jones plans to continue teaching piano until she retires.
“I plan to keep doing this because I love it,” Jones said. “I love working with students and having new people to love each year when the freshmen class comes in.”
