Cathy is amazing! She is able to work with me on what I want to learn on my own schedule. She is…read moreflexible and is willing to help me with whatever I need. Highly recommended. five stars!

I have been working with Cathy for over a year now and have enjoyed each and every class. Even…read moreduring Covid we have been able to continue our lessons online via Zoom without missing a beat!! Cathy can easily see and hear what she needs to in order to effectively teach the lesson. I'm grateful that in these times I haven't had to give up my lessons that I look forward to each week. Thank you Cathy for being a very patient guitar teacher, I'm lucky to have found you online!

I had my daughter's violin service by Frank. He was professional, timely, experienced, and helpful…read more I would most certainly utilize this violin shop again.

I recently purchased a new violin from Frank Marchitto. The entire experience was quite…read morepleasurable. I gave him a price range and I was given the opportunity to try violins until I found one that suited me. After having it for a few days I needed an adjustment and Frank was very accommodating with an appointment. I found him to be very friendly and knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. I would definitely go back again. Barb H

Classes are a little more expensive than other toddler classes but Matt has great experience and…read morebrings lots of enthusiasm. It takes about 3 classes for kids to warm up but my child really enjoys, singing and dancing. Its a great introduction to rhythm, melody, ethnic and heritage songs and different meters. Their favorite part of class is when Matt dumps out a big pile of instruments for them to explore. The class is a little loud and overstimulating for me as an adult at times but I really enjoy doing this with them. This will be our 3rd session. I also appreciate Matts laid back deamenor and flexibility. Sometimes my kid is acting up but Matt will dance with them or work to include them in the class more.

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.

In my fairly long experience, there are only two types of music stores…read more Type A, you walk in and you're looked at like you're a perp. If you look like you might even start thinking about taking an instrument down from the walls, you'll get a lecture about not touching the merchandise and a series of inquiries about whether you're a serious buyer or not. The staff may be knowledgeable, but they'll talk to you as if you're a mentally-challenged space alien who has never heard of a major chord or a scale and is need of being spoken to like a slow-witted dog. The prices are fixed, as if Moses had passed them down on an extra set of tablets from the mountain top, and any discussion of same is an apostasy that will quickly get you invited to get serious or get out. Type B, you walk in and the staff are already playing something. They check to see if you need help but will leave you alone to look if you say you're just looking. If you have a passing question about something, instead of answering it they'll pull down an instrument, give you a demonstration, and ask you to try it out. They'll talk to you frankly about the best place to buy X, Y, or Z and may point out the good features of what they have but are trying to match you up to whatever it is you need or are at the right stage for. They love music, maybe just a bit too much, but they love musicians even more, and they really love aspiring musicians. Hermie's is firmly in the Type B camp, and are going to be Cool about just about everything you can imagine. They know the scene, the area, the schools, the teachers, the bands, and they know their stuff. Prices are going to vary quite a bit, like they do at any instrument-oriented store, but as a working musician's place this is incredibly friendly towards the amateur and the student. The staff took time today to show my young musician a bunch of things he hadn't seen before on the guitar and lit a fire on inspiration in him. Honestly, I can't tell you whether you will get a good deal on X or Y here, relative to all the good deals in the universe. It's a small store, and they have more at the Albany location. It's a bit out of the way on the Jay walk in downtown Schenectady. But I've seen so many ***ho*es in the music business over the year I know by now how to tell what's what with the stores. Hermie's is good people.

I called Hermies with a single outrageous question "Would you be able to fit me in for a single…read moremusic lesson today?" I travel full time. I had one day in Schenectady. My boyfriend had taken his bass guitar on the road when he learned I had played cello as a kid. "It's really similar" he said. But I found myself unable to remember anything from playing music. 3 years of cello, a few months of trombone & piano, and 12 years of choir...but my brain seemed as good as having never done anything musical. Larry answered the phone and was both welcoming and confident that he could give me enough info to get me started. "Stop by anytime before 8pm". Around 2pm, I entered the shop and Larry greeted me just as warmly as on the phone. He checked out my travel bass & tuned it for me. I watched as his fingers whirled around the strings moving from fret to fret. I heard a little voice say "there's no way you're going to be able to do this again". I felt lost. Larry handed me the bass & walked me through a set of scales. I fumbled and hit the wrong string, or both strings at once, but I made it through. I went forward and then backward through the scales. It was awkward, but I did it. We'd chat a moment, he'd teach me something else about the bass, and like a good instructor "show me your scales again" and I would run through them forward & backward again. For fun, he taught me the bass line for Louie Louie. How can you not get tickled playing Louie Louie? That lesson was what I needed to get started and believe maybe I "can" learn this instrument. The previous review raved about Hermies. I'm a fan too. This is a must stop if you are thinking of picking up any instrument. Violin, Guitar, Cello, Bass, Flute or Sax. This is the place to go!

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.

The Music Studio provides lessons in music fundamentals for children beginning at age 4 and group…read moreand private piano lessons for children through high school. There is also a limited adult learning program. My daughters started at The Music Studio at age 4 with music fundamentals that links musical games and activities to learning rhythms, notes and the very basics of keyboards. I don't think the kids realize they are learning as the group lessons are fun. After 2 years in fundamentals, the girls went on to creative keyboarding, which continues the group atmosphere but is focused on piano keyboarding; students are required to practice daily to support the in-class lessons. There is also a recital where students perform individually. After completing the 4 years of group instruction, some continue on to private lessons. The complexity of music pieces increases, and students have 3 recitals plus an evaluation where three pieces of music from different periods are performed for outside evaluators. The teachers are highly skilled and dedicated. All have bachelors or higher degrees in music and piano.

Eh, why not. I think I wasn't born for piano, so why give it only three when they really tried?read more

Remember the little music stores from way back? You remember, the ones that carried real…read moreinstruments and real music and were run by real people who knew classical music? Helpful folks who would look things up for you and special order stuff? This is one of those places! Heaven.