Yes, a disturbance at one end of an air-filled tube will
indeed propagate to the other end of the tube at the speed of sound.
The model of the tube filled with marbles is a very good analogy,
and is also the model I use to describe the flow of electric current,
except that in the electrical case a disturbance travels down a wire
at some large fraction of the speed of light.

To take things a step further, we might consider how fast a push
travels along a solid wooden rod.  About the time that mechanical
music was at the height of its popularity, one Dr. Einstein and his
colleagues proposed that a push propagates along a solid rod at
precisely the speed of light.  So there is even a delay along the
piano sticker rod...!

Mark Kinsler
Lancaster, Ohio, USA
http://www.mkinsler.com/