Nothing worth having comes easily. However, Jeff makes a complex skill as easy to grasp as humanly…read morepossible. He is blessed with a calm demeanor and the patience of St. Monica. Always striving to build confidence in addition to capacity. He a consummate cheerleader. He's more than an instructor. He's a mentor and coach....a Jedi! Ever accommodating and flexible. Jeff's a highly skilled professional musician, with a deep and comprehensive understanding of music construction, composition and guitar theory. More than appreciation, Jeff exudes a reverence for his craft witnesses in his work. Add that he's amazing family man, while giving back to the community daily. I've been a student of Jeff's for about 1 1/2 years now. I was introduced to him by my cousin - a student and friend for nearly 30 years. I would give Jeff six stars if I could. You'll never meet a finer man. If you are fortunate enough to become a student, you'll see from day one, that to which I refer. I kick myself for waiting so long.

I've enjoyed my guitar lessons with Jeff for many years now. He always has a new challenge for me…read moreand he is very knowledgeable on all aspects (and styles) of playing the guitar. I've recommended Jeff to several friends and they have all been pleased with Jeff's knowledge and his easy-going teaching style. Jeff is great with young students to even old guys like me. If you want to improve your guitar skills, you couldn't do better than to treat yourself to lessons from Jeff Bishop.

Owner has been very rude. Sure there are better places with nicer people to get your guitar fixed.read more

I sold a couple of Gibsons to Imperial after I did a lot of research & review of other shops in San…read moreDiego and LA. Imperial always showed up at the top of the customer satisfaction reviews. They gave me a fair market offer to buy them outright and I took it. I'll go back...

It has been a blessing to have gotten Chetan to be my daughter's piano teacher…read more On top of Chetan's musicianship, his patience is one of reasons my daughter can keep up the piano lessons during her high school years. His ability to "read" his students has made each lesson serious and engaging, yet relaxed. Chetan's balance of firm yet encouraging feedback motivates his students to put out their best. He puts a high standard to his students: emphasizing practice with the metronome and having musical clarity. As part of teaching musical skills, he mentors his students to develop good practicing strategies and habits. I have observed significant growth on my daughter's ability since she began studying under Chetan (nearly 2 years now). Chetan is also the type of teacher who is willing to put extra effort and time for his students' success. Highly recommend Chetan if you are looking for a great teacher.

We highly recommend Chetan and the San Diego Piano Academy! Here's a personalized review from my…read moreson, who has been a student of Chetan's for five years: I first started lessons with Chetan as an inexperienced and overambitious student who had learned bad foundations. Chetan wasted no time working with me to fix this mess, patiently fixing my foundational habits with the perfect balance of basics while still letting my technical skill thrive on more complicated pieces. Chetan made perfect choices of what pieces to play and gave me accurate and helpful feedback, bringing me to competitive status and transforming my subpar skills into something truly amazing. His unique teaching style allowed me to not only be competitive, but to rise to a level where I have now earned prestigious awards. I am certain anyone with a spark of motivation and hard work can achieve their wildest dreams in piano playing through Chetan's outstanding guidance, encouragement, constructive feedback, and vast expanse of knowledge on how to best perfect a student's playing.

Brought my brand new HSS player 2 for a set up, they were not only incredibly fast (3 days with an…read moreexpedited fee) but also extremely knowledgeable. Nick explained to me everything the staff was going to do and walked me through the whole process. I believe Jeff was the one who actually worked on the setup, and he did an amazing job. Now I can't stop playing this guitar! Thanks guys!

After suffering property damage and parts loss at other shops, Repair Zone first claimed they would…read moreintake my guitars. When the time finally came around they fell through and said "we don't want any of your work". Sounds like a fake shop, most importantly when they said that over the phone they felt the need to reiterate maybe three times instead of ending the call like a normal retailer and shutting the fuck up. What a clown show. Update: Some of the other shops that Repair Zone are scared to be just like, and probably are already, have posted statements which are on Yelp (see American Music Store in Encinitas) that talk about unrelated topics like my cancer treatment and claiming meth use. This has nothing to do with their shit job(s) and continuous inconsistency. Yelp took these down and I took the liberty of posting that for the public as those are direct attacks on me. See photo evidence for the property damage and loss I suffered at that page.

If there's one thing Rick loves more than drums, it's people. I've been taking lessons here for…read morenearly a decade and Rick is such an awesome teacher. If you look at my previous reviews, Rick has far surpassed the instruction I've received from some of the top musical talent in San Diego across multiple disciplines. What's even more awesome than his teaching, his method book series, and his studio, is Rick, the person. He's always so positive with a "no bad days" vibe and he has such a way of connecting with people and making you comfortable and excited to learn drums. I've never heard a foul word or disparaging comments about another person, ever, and I've spent hundreds of hours with Rick at this point. If you're wanting to learn drums in the most fun way possible (by playing along with songs you know and love) and you want to do it quickly without it feeling like a chore, Rick is your guy. He's technically proficient in what seems like every musical style you can think of, from punk, metal, jazz, blues, country, swing, etc there is nothing he can't play or teach. Do yourself a favor, stop your search for drum lessons here and call Rick immediately. You will absolutely not regret it.

I've been taking lessons from Rick for the past 4 months now, it's always such a pleasure! He comes…read morewith many decades of experience in drumming and there's no limits to how much you can learn about every detail from him. He has a very well structured teaching program and you can see yourself progressing well and quickly! Would highly recommend Rick to anyone!

Today is 01/02/25, Thursday, the day after New Year's Day. It's 11:15am that I'm writing this…read morereview. I've been waiting for 15 mins for the store to open even though the hours say they open at 11:00 am. Their voicemail is full but the recording also says 11:00 am opening. Their website says open at 11:00 am. I'm not quite sure if everything says the store should be open but they aren't open. I purposefully came here to get my guitar strung with fresh strings. I wanted to support local stores specifically. The worker came in around 11:18 am. We all have hard days. I only dinged one star because truthfully it was only one worker for the whole store he was very very apologetic... He cleaned, oiled, and strung my guitar. He took his time and carefully did everything while also having to man the whole store by himself! He apologized profusely when he had to step away to help customers. I could be upset set, but it's the beginning of the year and we're all human. $12 for full restring (all 6 strings) you pay for the cost of the strings you want put on. I chose Elixir for my acoustic electric and those run around $20-ish bucks

It took some convincing (most of last school year), but my 5th grader "decided" to play an…read moreinstrument this year--the violin! Yay! Our school provided a list of required items, based on the instrument selected. They also listed local places where parents can go to rent or buy an instrument. Disappointingly, both of the recommended places are owned by the same big company that has been absorbing local shops the last few years. So I busted out Yelp on my phone and Music Central came up as an option. I gave this shop a call and Charlie was kind enough to answer all of my questions over the phone. He left a great first impression from the different shops I reached out to that morning. I decided to take the afternoon off from work and pick up my daughter early during her minimum day so we could see Charlie while he was working--glad I did! Charlie answered more of my questions and measured my daughter for her first violin (insert proud parent tears of joy here). We discussed rental terms and Charlie answered another round of questions to help make me very comfortable signing a contract. I like how standard repairs (like string replacement) and maintenance (like tuning) are included with my rental. And I LOVE how I can "trade in" my rental for the next size up instrument (in similar condition) without breaking my contract! During our first visit we picked up a few of the required accessories listed for the violin and Charlie gave his recommendations on what is really needed to help save me some money up front. As a dad on a budget, this was much appreciated. This shop has a large collection of acoustic and electric guitars in the back. There are also lots and lots of music sheets in stock too. Much to my surprise, Music Central also has a large collection of ukuleles from different manufacturers. My eldest daughter has been interested in ukuleles for years (we have owned a few inexpensive ones to foster her exploration of this instrument) so this may be the focus a future visit. I mentioned this to Charlie and he shared that he teaches ukulele for the shop. How cool is that?! Thanks for an awesome first visit Charlie! Looking forward to a long relationship with Music Central to help my daughters make beautiful music.

We had such a great experience purchasing our piano from Greene Music, thanks in large part to…read moreIgnacio! He was fantastic to work with--knowledgeable, straightforward, and genuinely focused on helping us find the best option for our family rather than simply making a sale. Ignacio was incredibly patient with all of my questions, both over the phone and in person, and always made me feel welcome when I came into the store. He took the time to explain the different options and helped us feel confident in our decision. We're thrilled with our piano and really appreciate how easy and enjoyable Ignacio made the entire experience. Highly recommend working with him and the team at Greene Music!!

We had a wonderful experience purchasing our first piano from this store. We knew very little about…read morepianos going in, and our salesperson was incredibly helpful in explaining the basics of upright pianos and what to look for. He showed us several options within our budget, as well as a few above it, and gave our daughter plenty of time to play each one and really feel the differences. What we appreciated most was that he was knowledgeable and helpful without being pushy. He gave us the space to take our time and make the decision that felt right for our family. The entire process, from choosing the piano to completing the transaction and arranging delivery, was smooth and easy. We're very happy with our purchase and would definitely recommend this store to anyone looking for a piano, especially first-time buyers.

I lucked into taking lessons with Laura because it was the closest studio to my job when I moved…read morehere. A happier accident there will never be. Laura has taught me more about guitar playing at a technical level and musicianship as a whole than I would have thought possible. She is an expert in every aspect and has a brilliant talent for translating complex concepts into simple ideas that even I could understand. If you want to truly take control of your guitar booking with Laura will be the best investment you could make.

I have been playing guitar for 30 years but only had lessons the first few years of my playing…read more After years and years of playing for self enjoyment and staying stagnant in my expertise I decided to take lessons again to up my game. Laura was recommended to me by a friend and I decided to give it a shot. I am still pleasantly surprised by the experiences. She teaches guitar like no other, truly amazing. I was not interested in having a teacher that only shows where to put fingers. Laura covers all aspects of guitar playing and performing. She has many many years of experience as a player and performer. She teaches aspects of playing I never thought of, including relaxation,confidence and focus. She was able to show me things about my playing that I never realized after 30 years of playing. She specializes in metal but she is very accomplished in all styles of playing and in music theory. Whatever it is you are looking to learn she can teach it to you in a way you cannot find from watching videos or reading books. Too bad I wasted so much time and effort trying to advance that way. I am pleased to say I moved from an intermediate player to advanced in a surprising short period of time. She has been able to unleash the true guitarist that was deep down inside that I didnt know existed. This has been accomplished with frequent lessons and about 30 mins to one hour of practice a day. I have been taking lessons from her for about a year and a half. She is a wonderful person, a true joy to be around. I cant say anything negative about her or her teaching and would not be able to give any advice on what she can improve on. Give her a shot, you will be glad you did.

We inherited an old flute for our child that my husband's aunt had used in her high school days…read moremany decades ago. It looked very vintage, to put it nicely, and definitely needed a lot of TLC if it was even still usable. After some research, we found the Windsmith, located in the neighborhood of North Park, with exceptional reviews. We were lucky to have found Franco, who specializes in woodwind instrument repairs, to take a look at the old flute. He said the necessary maintenance was not extensive and gave us a very affordable quote for repairs to get the flute back in shape. In less than a week, we had the flute fixed up and ready to be played. Thank you Franco, and we will be back again for regular maintenance. My other child is interested in playing the trumpet so we hope to bring business to his partner Jim at the Windsmith, who specializes in brass instruments. We are so happy to have found this place. Thank you!

Been going there for years for several of my horns, and they are always on top of everything, and…read moredo great work. Can't recommend them strongly enough.