I have been taking guitar lessons with John for almost a year and it has been a great experience…read more Besides that the staff are kind and knowledgeable and aren't pushy about upselling/selling junk. The luthier is also very knowledgeable and I plan to use his service for some nut slot filing.

Just bought a digital piano (Roland F107) from Hilton Music store in Colonie Center and could not…read morebe more pleased! As a total piano novice and with limited space in my house, I wanted something compact but with full functionality - 88 key weighted keyboard, etc., and this fit the bill perfectly. Owner Bob Hilton worked with me and was terrific - pleasant, knowledgeable, and not pushy. We asked about delivery and turns out he lives not far from us so he delivered it himself on his way home that very same evening! Also very impressed with the sturdiness of the "console" that comes with the keyboard. I have it free-standing in a room (not enough wall space) and was concerned that my rambunctious cats would jump on it and knock it over - no worries after putting it together with the cover closed over the keyboard.

This place has outstanding service. Everyone that I've had the pleasure of dealing with here has…read morebeen incredibly knowledgeable and seems to be willing to go to any lengths to help me. The instruments here are also beautiful and make me wish I could play all of them.

Do you have any idea how expensive it is to buy a cello? And did you know they come in sizes. So,…read moreif you have a kid who wants to learn how to play an instrument, they will soon grow out of the size that fits them. It's kind of like buying them sneakers except with a few more zeros tacked onto the end. Welcome to the world of rental instruments. We rented a cello for the boy down in Princeton last year. It seems the rates in Albany are generally higher than the rates in central Jersey. I guess it's like anything else, business can charge what the market will bear. The good news is that John Keal Music has an introductory offer which is really really cheap for the first few months. So if your kid turns out not to be into it, you won't have to lay out a lot of money every month. Fundamentally, I don't like renting. I would prefer to buy. So we were able to use our introductory period as a chance to try and find a cello we could own. Fate smiled upon us and now we are the proud owners of a slightly larger cello than the kid should be using. But like his dress pants, he'll grow into it. John Keal was great about taking the instrument back. They made the entire process super easy. It was a pleasure working with them. If the shop were a little less expensive, I'd give them that fifth star. And should the next kid want to take on an instrument, I'll be sure to check in here first. I'll also be sure to try and push her in the direction of something cheaper than the cello.

Everything you need in one place!! Lessons, instruments and supplies, repairs and recording and…read moremastering!! Scott Apicelli has done a great service to the community and for keeping music alive!

I met the owner when I wandered in looking for sheet music. Had such a nice time I ended up buying…read morethree instruments! We also brought three instruments donated to a music scholarship I was working on. They took the time to estimate the value and what each instrument needed. No charge. Will always go to them from now on - even though it's about an hour north of us.

They also advertise on Reverb.com. I offered to buy a guitar full price (less shipping). Drome…read morelisted the guitar for more than the street price it sold for new in 2015! They wanted $80 to ship?! Really!? Monster Music in NY ships for free! Guy at Drome told me they would get a proper shipping estimate. They let my Reverb offer expired. I didn't hear back from them. So I put in another offer, they rejected it almost right away. I sent them a PM message, that I wasn't happy. I called them on the phone and the guy said he was too busy and he was a little rude. Bad customer service people. No one wants to hear excuses you obviously had time to reject my offer! There are literally thousands of guitars on Reverb. You can find great deals for almost anything. Don't buy from brick and mortar stores they are outdated, lack selection, overcharge and sell new crappy guitars. Find a dealer on Reverb that has a return policy. Use USPS it's $30-$40 to ship a guitar. UPS and Fedex are the worse companies, porch thieves love them cause they dump and run. Bad music stores pass those high costs on to you and don't care. This doesn't make brick and mortar stores competitive. FedEx and UPS are in SERIOUS financial trouble for a reason. If you are a dealer and you use them, you will also suffer or continue ripping off customers by charging high shipping.

This place is amazing it has everything that you're looking for. If you are a music buff and you…read moreabsolutely love music than this is the store you want to go to. If you need anything for any type of musical instrument chances are they have it here. The customer service that is here is very friendly and they go above and beyond when they are talking with you to make sure that you have exactly what you were looking for. They have certain people that are in charge of certain areas, it's like their specialty areas and their knowledge is overwhelming. The reason why I dropped it down one star is because parking is a little strange you don't park in front of the building you park beside the building but there's two entrances and the one entrance goes in front of the building and if there's somebody who happen to be in front of the building you get stuck and you have to wait for that person to move that would be the only downside. Other than that this place is phenomenal. I would recommend this place for any music lover. Thanks for listening.

I considered buying a new guitar, but the Guitar Center did a great job renewing and restringing my…read moreacoustic Yamaha guitar.

I highly recommend avoiding the Guitar Center for lessons. Their system is designed make it…read moredifficult to get all the lessons you pay for. I wanted to take the summer off but still have make up lessons I was owed. They use automatic deduction for payment and refuse to refund any money claiming that they can't once the money has been taken from your account. So I was charged for four more lessons than I wanted but here's the thing - once you are no longer allowing automatic deductions they remove you from the schedule. Pretty difficult to get the make up lessons you may be owed if you're not on the schedule. I spoke to the manager about this and he personally scheduled a make up lesson for me for yesterday. I showed on time only to be told the teacher wasn't there and I wasn't on the schedule. Then he tried to blame the lessons manager. Another interesting thing that happened was that once I was no longer doing automatic deductions the teacher canceled twice. She had not canceled once since I started in September. Avoid this place for lessons.

Been going to Collar City Guitars since they opened. It's great to have a music store of this…read morequality on Troy. Peter and staff are very helpful, honest and do good work. It's great to see the evolution of the gear they have, a great selection of instruments and gear. Highly recommend, you can't go wrong.

FANTASTIC little shop in Troy. Lots of different types of gear. We came in looking for EarthQuaker…read moreDevices pedals and were not disappointed. (Tho, sadly, they did not have a Spires, which is the one I am still looking for.) We were able to try several pedals. My partner has been seriously looking for a looping pedal for as long as I've known her, so we saw that they had a few, and they were gracious enough to set them up for us to try (even the Electro-Harmonix one that they said was not very intuitive (Guess which one we ended up with.) They were VERY friendly, but at the same time did not hover over us. They let us spend about an hour playing with different pedals, talked about the shop, and guitars, and loopers, several customers came in and out, and all three of the guys behind the counter worked on some repairs. (They are a very repair centric shop.) The layout is a bit tight, but it's cozy. They have comfy seating, and really nice displays. It feels crowded, and it is, but it's in that... Clean and homey sort of way. They don't have a HUGE selection... It is not going to be an experience like guitar center. But it's going to give you that caring and dedicated local shop experience. And that's so much better. The prices were GOOD. (The looper ended up being cheaper than Amazon.) He even gave us each a EarthQuaker Devices sticker. (Before we even bought anything.) These guys are an Earthquaker licensed shop, too, so if you're looking for those pedals, this is a place to go.

MDM did not put my daughter's feelings about her singing first. They did not listen to her when…read moreshe was trying to explain to them that a certain singing situation made her uncomfortable. I was so hoping that MDM would be a place where they cared about my daughter's singing and her confidence. Management did not follow up with issues or get back to me when I asked questions. Very sad situation and experience for our family.

Our family loves MDM! The staff are so friendly and approachable. I have had nothing but great…read moreexperiences since I sent my inquiry into vocal lessons. Ms. Nicole is such a patient, attentive, and professional coach. I love the diversity at the center; it makes it welcoming and comfortable. MDM also communicate with parents via a communication portal. I never knew how much I needed something like that until they sent me a video of my kiddo singing her first song. Had no idea that was gonna be a remember forever moment. I'm glad I have copies of it. Soooo affordable and very accommodating with online lessons to help support the community during Covid. Love what they are doing to keep us all safe! Thank you thank you!!

I took my bass here in July. It needed a new strings, an adjustment and a new nut put on the input…read morejack. I thought there pricing was a little steep, but honestly, I could be wrong. The nut is the wrong size, the fact it comes right off without twisting is a big indicator. One of my strings rattle, which may be due to the length of the string or a bigger problem. In short, I wasted my money, everything they did needs to be done again just to make my bass playable. Thank you New Music for the encouragement to just do it my damn self.

Horrible sales person with fake English accent. Ripped me off and then when I went back to complain…read moreto the owner the owner told me I was full of sh!t.

Both My girls have enjoyed piano lessons for over two years. Bryan is an amazing teacher, so well…read moreversed. They really look forward to their weekly lessons and concerts during the year! We are so grateful for GMA.

We started at Guilderland Music Academy in the Fall of 2017 when they first opened. The location…read moreis convenient and we have had a really great experience there. My daughter started with group piano lessons, and has moved to a private lesson. She is 8 and has enjoyed her lessons and her teachers. She doesn't always have a lot of an attention span, but she loves the lessons and stays engaged and interested in playing piano. We have had a couple different teachers, and they have all been great. During the lesson, parents sit outside the rooms, which have a glass window in front. There are chairs and tables to sit at, as well as Wi-Fi. One of the things I love about GMA is they communicate so well. They are easy to get in touch with and I always receive a friendly, prompt response. They have worked with me to change our class time when we had a conflict because of a change of our swim practice time and work through other scheduling questions. My daughter has learned a lot since she started her piano lessons, and she is enthusiastic about continuing. My other daughter will also be taking lessons there as well and we look forward to continuing at GMA.