According to his grandsons, the elder E.E. Forbes used to say, "Musical instruments are made to be sold, not played."  Considering that Forbes himself never learned to play the pianos and organs that made E.E. Forbes and Sons Piano Company an institution in Birmingham, Alabama, his philosophy might have smacked of commercialism.  But Ernest Erastus Forbes never fit the image of a hardnosed entrepreneur, and he contributed far more to Alabama musicians than the instruments he sold.

E.E. Forbes played out his life without improvisation, faithfully following a score he believed God had written especially for him.  "Grandpoppa thought music was the salvation of mankind," grandson Nelson Forbes remembers.  "He was a deeply religious man, and he believed exposing young people to music brought intellectual and spiritual discipline to their lives-kept them off the street and out of trouble. As part of his witnessing work, he often visited prisons, and he noted that few prisoners could play a musical instrument."  From that observation, Forbes drew a correlation upon which he later based many of his newspaper ads - "Music prevents crime."