I am the founder of The Vocalist Studio International and I know Lauren Bateman personally, as a…read moremusician, as a business owner and as a voice coach. I have been to the LB Music School. This school has excellent facilities and qualified teachers. As for Lauren, she is flat out one of the best teachers I have ever met. Here command of vocal technique and understanding of how to teach students how to train voice and therefore, how to apply it to singing better is world class. She flat out is one of the most qualified voice teachers in the Boston region. Anyone that participates in this school is going to get a great experience.

My 8 year old son has been taking music lessons at LB for almost a year and I can't tell you how…read morehappy it has made him. Little background, my son has autism and adhd. To say he struggles is putting it mildly. He strives to be like his peers and do the things they do, but unfortunately some of his struggles just make that too difficult for him. We tried soccer and t-ball. Those just ended with him in tears feeling defeated. Music has always been something that interests and soothes him. So, we thought we'd give lessons(he likes to sing)a try if he was on board. Since our initial email the teachers and staff at LB have accepted my son with open arms. I can 100% guarantee the half hour he is in his lesson he is striving. He is happy and gets to express himself without being judged. He is included and pushed to shine. He gets to be himself and the rewards we get from that are priceless!

A friend told me about Guitar Stop so I brought in my acoustic which had a bad case of fret buzz. I…read morethought it needed an entire setup (I'm still very much a beginner player). However, Jeanne made a minor adjustment to the truss rod and fixed my lousy stringing error and the buzz was gone. This cost me $5. I returned to the store the next day and Annette was extremely helpful and very patient with all my questions about a new electric guitar. I ended up purchasing my first electric with a great amp. They even include a free gig bag and six picks! Very cool. Overall, I'm very pleased with this family-owned store and will visit them again for my guitar needs. Thanks for reading and rock on!

I had a strange experience there with a guitar repair…read more Ten years ago I bought an acoustic guitar with a pickup at GuitarStop. A few months ago the pickup stoped working. I brought it in to Guitar Stop. Their technician examined the guitar, cleaned the dust out, and came to the conclusion that the pickup/preamp would need to be replaced. They gave me the customer service phone number of the guitar manufacturer, and said that because they were no longer distributing that brand, there was no way they could get the parts, or do anything else to help me. Even though I bought the guitar there, they told me I'm on my own. One odd experience was that the technician didn't talk to me. All this info was mediated to me by the people behind the counter. When I had a question, they would ask the tech, the tech would tell them, they'd tell me. It was odd to have a middleman coordinating. I then did what I didn't want to do: I brought the guitar to Guitar Center on Mass Ave, across from Berklee. The guitar technician came out, introduced himself to me, and walked me through all the options. A couple days later they called me and said the guitar was completely fixed. It was the wiring, the very thing that Guitar Stop claimed it wasn't. There was NOTHING WRONG with the pickup or preamp. It works/sounds beautiful now. When I brought this to the attention of Guitar Stop, they told me how "filthy" my guitar was, how their tech tried every everything, etc. They offered to refund me the $20 bench fee, but it feels picayune to accept that. I always want to support local business and not the "big retailers," but in this case, if I need any work on any guitar, I won't feel confident bringing it to Guitar Stop.

The Music Shop is a great neighborhood music store focused on lessons with a retail and repair…read morebusiness on the side. We have taken guitar and piano lessons here for the last two years and could not be happier. The teachers are engaged and interested in teaching kids things that enhance their skills and keep them interested. The range of music you hear them teaching demonstrates their commitment to the student - not their own interests. I wish my parents sent me to this kind of place growing up instead of learning to read music for "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Bad enough for piano, imagine it for a kid that wanted to learn rock guitar. The space was recently spruced up and has a nice vibe. If you are interested in lessons for guitar, bass, uke, drums, piano and a few other instruments this place is definitely worth checking out.

My apologies as this review is WAY overdue. Also, please note that this is only my second review on…read moreYelp... ever. I was so thrilled with my experience at Wood & Strings that I was inspired to post. In the past few months I have had two fantastic customer experiences at the shop. 1. For my birthday I received a set of brushes for my drum kit. In a heavy practice session I damaged one of the brushes. I brought them back to W & S and they were exchanged with no questions asked, simply an apology and a smile. The staff person also upgraded the style of brushes to a better brand/make. 2. More recently (and more significantly), I returned to the Wood & Strings shop as I was in the market for a Banjo and a Dulcimer as gifts for family members. Most of my communications/interactions were with Mick (sp?). Mick was the absolute man. He was patient, informative and packaged together a fantastic deal for a brand new banjo and slick, vintage dulcimer. Not only did he guide me through my instrument decision making process with poise, patience, and knowledge, he threw in tuners, stings, gig bags, stands, and cases to boot. I cannot think of another store I would turn to in Boston, New England, the US for my string and percussion needs. My whole experience, from start to finish, was pleasurable, authentic, entertaining, and informative. The shop is old schooled and filled with music treasures. All of the staff are knowledgeable and simply put - great, real folk. We need more shops like Wood & Strings around Boston, and we all need customer service experiences as I had with Mick and the gang from Woods & Strings. Thanks guys.

1. Illegal bait and switch 2. Complete incompetence…read more3. Unhinged rude attitude 1. Illegal bait and switch - I called and asked if I could bring a guitar for assessment. Guy on phone said I could bring in and they'd assess for free. After five minutes of my free assessment, the lady tried to charge me for it. The guy then changed his story and said he actually meant that they would assess it for free only if I dropped it off but not dropped by with it (which doesn't make much sense if you think about it) 2. Complete incompetence - A) I told her that the guitar frets were out of tune. She denied it and said nothing was wrong with the guitar. B) I told her I wanted to action lowered. She said it was impossible to lower it anymore without causing buzzing. C) I told her something was rattling when I played the open G string. She said it could be anything causing it, even a loose truss rod So I took it to Stubblebine lutherie. Without even playing it, he inspected everything about the guitar - he listed exactly what was causing it to be out of tune (mainly the nut grooves), exactly how the action could easily be lowered without causing buzzing (he said the action was actually pretty high), and exactly what was causing the rattling (loose tuner component), and offered to fix everything for 100 dollars 3. Unhinged attitude - She started making fun of me for the questions I was asking. When I handed her the tuner, a rubber piece fell off, and she blamed me for breaking it to her coworker. When I pointed out that some of the frets we're out of tune, she blamed it on how I tuned it. When I clarified that I was told on the phone that the assessment would be free, she started to try to guilt me into paying and trying to get me to tell her how much money I made in my job. When I eventually did offer money because I felt bad, she made fun of me again

Terrific work on a vintage French alto saxophone and tenor saxophone. They were fast, and their…read morerates were very reasonable. It was also helpful to be able to try out a case for the tenor in the shop and see that it was a good fit.

Great people. Was looking for some trumpet accessories. Amazing collection of antique instruments…read more Very accommodating.

Came in for strings. What a shop. So many beautiful, high quality guitars. Price for strings was…read morereasonable and I'll be back. Wish they had lessons.

I went in to buy a new Martin acoustic, but the staff's bored snarkiness made me think they learned…read moretheir social skills in high school, and stopped there. The good news is I bought exactly the guitar I was looking for, the bad news (for them) is that I bought it at a different guitar store that had much better service.