*Update* I was able to engage with the admin office and my child was paired with a new instructor,…read moreit's only been a few lessons, but I do see a difference in his playing, most notably being challenged to play with both hands.

I'm not your typical dad of a typical guitar student as I am by profession a guitar player and…read moreinstructor with over 10,000 hours teaching experience with adults and kids of all ages. I thought I'd be a good instructor for my 9 year old son who has been holding a pick correctly since 18 months of age but let's just say . . . I was wrong. He doesn't listen to me, shocker, right? I ran into Trevor from Guitar Ninjas at a school event and after first disregarding the idea it dawned on me that perhaps all of our lives would be easier if I wasn't his primary instructor. Although my son has a very high degree of musical talent he also has a very low degree of work ethic. Over the years he has had lessons with a different place which is a great place with wonderful people but it alway felt like I was inconveniencing them by asking questions or trying to be involved. He didn't really learn much other than one chord over 4 months so I took him out of it. Granted, he was younger and that was 3 years ago and he didn't touch a guitar for those 3 years. He started showing interest again last year so I started teaching him some stuff but A) It's nearly impossible to teach your own kid and B) my frustrations with it were creating a bad vibe. I called Guitar Ninjas and spoke to Jason the owner for about 30 minutes. He was extremely open and flexible and said I could sit in the lesson if I wanted (I do not do that but the offer was nice). He sent me their syllabus and I was pretty impressed with the approach as it is geared towards kids. It is very structured with concrete milestones to "graduate" to different levels which are structured similar to karate belts which is great incentive for kids especially. Most instructors/schools are almost exclusively focused on the left hand with chord fingerings, etc. and they start with chords that are very difficult for beginners of any age to learn without either quitting, feeling hopeless or frustrated. The GN approach puts a particular emphasis on strumming and right hand techniques from the ground up using achievable chord voicings. They also have standard songs in each level with backing tracks in their online portal which can be adjusted for tempo. btw - they don't suggest kids "practice" but "play" guitar on a regular basis which is actually quite brilliant as "practice" sounds like a drag. Jason thought Lucas would be a good instructor so we set up a trial lesson. When I ran the idea by my son his reaction was "sure, I guess" so not overwhelming enthusiasm but that's my son but he was kind of interested in what level he would place in initially. I told him probably the bottom despite the fact that he was playing barre chords with maybe 30 hours total play time. We had the first lesson and I waited in the waiting area as I want my son to establish his own relationship with Lucas. The lesson went great and I could overhear most of it. They placed him as a green pick (4 levels up) to start which is high for his age but he was pretty stoked to hear that and he was pretty stoked to continue as a Ninja. We have been taking lessons consistently for maybe 5 weeks and his playing has grown SO much. Lucas is a great guy with a great background and seems really good with kids. Now, I can assume the role of the dad that teaches him stuff outside the Ninja curriculum and just making sure he is doing their assignments correctly. So, I guess I could give the Ninjas a stellar review!

Jason has been my guitar teacher for 8 years and he is the reason for my love of music. I first…read morestarted as a kid mostly because my parents wanted me to take lessons but he truly inspired me to love learning and playing the guitar. He is patient and understanding yet thorough with his lessons. Any song you want to learn, he'll walk you through it and eventually teach you how to learn a song yourself by ear. You truly cannot go wrong with lessons with Jason, he always understood where I was when it came to learning a song or concept and pushed me to improve. On top of that, he has material and music sheets for every concept you could imagine. Jason is funny, enjoyable to talk to, and easy to learn from. I can thank Jason for teaching me absolutely everything I know about music and starting my love for jazz. His musical knowledge is unparalleled and I can't thank him enough for sharing that with me. You truly cannot go wrong with lessons with Jason and I can't recommend him highly enough.

I've been learning the Ukulele under Jason's guidance for of bunch a years now. He is patient and…read moreencouraging with an adult learner. I am now able to play in the Ukulele club and I love it! I am becoming a better player every week.

Passion for instruments was met today . Senor zargarian is a…read moreclass act! Smart, nice, soft spoken, and has a good amount of good stuff.. he sold me 2 begginer harmonicas for my daughter. Real class gentleman. Support his store! Thank you for existing....

Found this location on a day that I needed some instrument cables and guitar strings. The location…read moreis well kept and the owner was very friendly and helpful.

We've been regulars here for over a year now and purchased an instrument here. Emily, the store…read moremanager, is super helpful and patient. They are very knowledgeable and offer repairs as well. This is a great spot for amateurs and professionals alike, and we make the trip here even though it's a long way because it's worth it.

Good personal service knowledgeable representatives ..it's not the cheapest place in town. You get…read morewhat you pay for and you feel it. There's a reason Profesionals come Here and wanna be professionals too. They can get crowded during peak hours.

We love SCM and are so happy with our son's piano lessons…read more It's just the right mix of learning for our 8 year old to build on -- Most importantly, SCM gives back to the community with making music lessons accessible to all

Whenever I have called (total of three times in between different physical visits) the front desk…read morepeople are very pleasant to speak to. Whenever I have gone in person the people at the front desk are very hostile towards me. I know it's not because of how i'm speaking because all conversations over the phone have been completely positive. So why are they so horrible towards me when I walk in? Canceled my classes solely because of how hostile both the woman and man act every single time. Which is unfortunate because the music teacher I had was very knowledgeable.

We have had Jeremy as our 10-year old son's teacher for about 5 months now, and the experience has…read morebeen amazing even with online learning. At first, we were worried that Jeremy had only worked with our son for a couple of sessions offline before COVID. Frankly we were amazed that the rapport and enthusiasm continued even through live online learning. Most importantly, our son appears to be building a love of learning music. Riko has a strong in-house curriculum that combines technical exercises and fun pieces. Our teacher knows just when to push our son, and when to back off. This personalized coaching (and our restraint from getting involved) has helped develop an intrinsic love of music in him. Huge fans of the Riko Method and Jeremy as a teacher!

I am glad we found Riko school of Music for our granddaughter. Mai, her teacher, is…read moreknowledgable,patient, encouraging and always kind during lessons. For a 1st grade child this is important and keeps our granddaughter enthusiastic about playing piano. All aspects of the lessons are presented as fun, allowing this 7 year old to want to play the songs, learn music theory and develop life skills that will certainly last a lifetime. It was a joy to watch our granddaughter perform at the Riko Spring Concert. While she was a little nervous, it was her first single performance, all the students were encouraged and celebrated for their performances no matter their skill level. Thank you for making this a positive experience in a child's life.

This is going to be one of those odd reviews. I've never been to the store or had anything…read morerepaired. I called and had a conversation with Jack. He proceeded to take quite a bit of time on the phone giving me advice on how to go about troubleshooting or attempting to fix an issue and giving me general advice that seemed super honest. THIS is the sort of business I can get behind. This is what will make me call here when I need something. It feels like a business that actually cares about synths and their customers.

Jack helped me and was super kind. Definitely check out this spot for your guitar needs!read more

Parking: there's only 2-3 spots infront of the studio but plenty of parking around the corner near…read morethe neighborhoods :) I signed up for the low cost adult beginners ukulele course by emailing the studio. By design these courses are meant for a group of 4 students. Just wanted to ask about it since the schedule was not up to date. But the person responded very quickly and checked in with the instructor to see when he was available to host one of those courses. Once I heard back I paid to secure my spot. My instructor was Daniel Corral, he was an absolute gem :) he was very patient with me, I have no music experience at all and was fortunate that I was the only student in this class. Daniel gave me a 30 min lesson every week with music sheets and things to work on for the week. I felt really nervous about taking this class since I'm an old lady but he made me feel very comfortable. I can't say I'm amazing now but I understand and feel comfortable learning the ukulele because of Daniel. I highly recommend this studio and I'm sure all the instructors are great!

When my 8-year-old was ready for piano lessons I gave this place a call. The lady whose name I…read moreremember as Sue, was very pleasant over the phone and after giving preferred time slots, called me back in a timely manner with a lesson slot with a great musician named Nipun. My daughter's weekly half hour keyboarding lessons were a great deal at $25 for 30 minutes. While we decided to stop due to homework obligations from school, we plan to resume next year hopefully in the spring.