I discovered McCormick a year ago when I found a beginner's open jam session on Meetup. At that…read moretime I had been learning bass for about 5 years on my own through YouTube tutorials and tabs. It used to take me several weeks just to learn one whole song at tempo. Improvisation skills were at zero. Plus, I didn't know anyone else who played an instrument, so I wasn't making much progress. The two times I had previously attempted joining a random open jam, I was completely lost and frustrated. But then I attended that first McCormick jam session... What I love about the open jams is that it's run by an instructor, so they'll often suggest easier songs and run through the chords on a whiteboard before starting. The people that attend are welcoming and friendly for all skill levels, and it's nice to see the same faces come back each month. Beginner/intermediate players get a chance to play along to easier songs, but there's also a chance for more advanced players to improvise and solo. I wound up having so much fun that first time, that I signed up for private lessons the week after, and have been going to the monthly jam sessions ever since. If you take private lessons, you can also sign up to join a student band that practices once a week to perform at concerts 4x a year. For beginners/intermediate who think they're not good enough to join a band, or if none of your friends are musically inclined, this is PERFECT. No matter who much you practice by yourself and can play along to a recording at home, it doesn't beat playing live in a group. Private lessons + band practice + monthly jams have seriously leveled up my skills in the past year. Now, I can learn a song well enough to survive a jam session with only a couple run throughs beforehand if I've never heard it before. I can survive a 12 bar blues jam without any prep. Plus I've also connected with a couple people during the jam sessions, and am now learning 3-4 new songs each week! Also, shout out to Jules who's helped me learn songs much faster by simplifying basslines that I thought were too hard to play, and getting me to work more on listening and improvisation instead of relying 100% on tabs. He's an excellent and encouraging teacher, and I've picked up tons of tips and advice in the past year. Really happy I found McCormick! I've always loved playing an instrument, but it's 100x more fun if you get to play with other people.

Amazing teacher, amazing students , amazing learning environment to really grow and harness…read moremusical skills. I would give it 10,000 stars if I could.

I can't find enough wonderful words to describe Musika Studio, its team of musicians, and its…read morewonderful teachers. We frequently visit the Mesa Verde Plaza, and since my son recently turned four, I stopped by the studio to ask about their age requirements and recommendations for starting his music journey. They offer piano, drums, guitar and singing lessons as their selection of services. Ms. Sauson, the owner, patiently explained the curriculum and starting age, then offered a complimentary trial lesson to ensure it would be a good fit and that he was ready to begin. They have cameras in all rooms, so parents can sit and watch and listen to the lesson. As an educator and speech pathologist, I watched closely to observe how she engaged my child, her behavior management, reward system, and overall demeanor with young children. Needless to say, I was very impressed by her competence and approach. My son responded beautifully to her guidance, redirection, and positive reinforcements. He has been attending consistently since that trial lesson and is doing wonderfully. I've also met her other staff members and teachers, and you can truly sense that these people genuinely love music and love teaching. It's a fantastic, well-priced music studio in Costa Mesa. I highly recommend checking out Musika Studio if you're looking for a great place for music lessons. They also engage with the community through various events, which is always a bonus when supporting a small business that gives back so much.

This review is for SAOUSAN JARJOUR, who is the studio owner/teacher (who was my daughter's Treble…read moreChoir teacher). Beware of her fake smiles and fake nice voice. Judge her for her actions. Most troubling was Saousan was my daughter's Treble Choir teacher, but she showed zero regards and zero respect for her own student! I am deeply disappointed and upset with the way you handled yesterday's situations, which I lost all trust and respect for you. You did not honor your offers for the trial lessons, and you made it our fault when your teacher did not have the correct sized violin for my daughter. YOU WASTED ALL OF OUR TIMES. It was clear my son's trial classes for drums and guitar were not communicated to Andrew, as Andrew told us he was only scheduled for only one instrument for 30-minutes. While he enjoyed his time with Andrew, my son was sad that he felt rushed for the time having to do 2 instruments in the 30-minute slot, while knowing that his sister received a full 30-minute trial piano lesson, and was also scheduled for another full 30-minutes for trial violin lesson. Only when I asked you about this that you said that we had to pay if we wanted the trial lessons to be longer, which you never communicated in all of our emails exchanges prior. It was clear you made many excuses and you changed the rules whenever it suited you when you could've just taken responsibility for your mistakes. For my daughter's violin trial lesson, Erin told me that she didn't have the correct violin size for my daughter's trial lesson. Then you made it be our fault when you told me that we needed to bring own violin to trial class. Through all of our communication exchanges in writing/emails over 2 weeks, not once did you mention that we were required to bring a violin for her trial class. If you had told us, we would have gladly gotten it for her for her trial. It is beyond absurd for you to even expect any families to bring instruments their child has never played to a trial class, especially not letting them know they had to ahead of time. So my daughter was sad as well as the trial class she had been looking forward to was cancelled. Even through all of this, I still thought of giving you another chance when I told you that I'd like to reschedule the violin trial lesson, but that thought was short lived when you did not to let us leave your studio. You acknowledged that I was upset (because how else was I supposed to feel being treated this way? Certainly not with smiles and gratitude) and I told you I'd call you so my daughter did not have to endure this mess. The mess that you created by not honoring your words for the trial lessons, and for not taking responsibility for not having the correct sized violin. What was most egregious and made us decide never to come back, is when I told you about these issues in passing, and that I would call you at a later time, but you refused to listen, chased us outside your studio leaving your own student, who had private piano lesson WITH YOU at the time (on Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 4:30pm) in your piano room alone. I would hate to be that child's parent who paid you for their child's private lesson with you because he did not receive the full time for his lesson because you felt entitled to continue to lie to us. You made all of this about yourself and with your long list of excuses. I was clear in that I did not want to discuss things with my daughter next to me, but you refused to have any consideration for her, or listen to my request as the parent/client. Then you further disrespected us with by patronizing us as if money was an issue regarding the violin. It was never about money, it was about wasting my son's time, my daughter time, and our whole family's time. These sequence of events were truly appalling. Learn to listen to your clients. Honor your words. Know that some conversations should be had between adults, without your students around. You owe ALL of the families to whom you serve and their children - YOUR STUDENTS - their time and respect. By your actions of entitlement, you also did a disservice to your own team of teachers, with whom my children would have loved to work with but we refuse to support you and your business. In the parking lot, you begged us for a second chance, but there is absolutely no way that we could trust you to be around and teach our children ever again. Your begging for another chance showed us that you only cared about the money you suddenly realized that you lost. You should've done the math before you offer trial lessons that you won't honor. You should do better, as a person and a professional.

Kim the owner is a quality human being and a pleasure to talk with . If you need equipment or…read morelessons give him a try you won't be disappointed.

Customer service and communication could be improved. Scheduled a lesson over the phone for me and…read moremy wife and was excited to take a lesson after seeing the great reviews but unfortunately we caught the flu and woke up in the morning feeling like crap and my wife was bed ridden. I texted the instructor or owner, Kim, asking if we can reschedule because we still wanted to take the class. Received no response, so I made a courtesy call to provide a notice and was received by Kim,to my surprise I was met with the response of "no you can't reschedule" after explaining to him that we were very sick and how can he expect us to show up when we don't feel well. His next response was "I need a 24 hour notice" I'm sorry Kim but the human body doesn't work that way. I told Kim that I'm willing to still come in myself but Im very sick and was being courteous as I do not want to get him sick. That's when his tone changed and agreed to a reschedule. Thanks for offering the reschedule but no thanks. There was never a mention about a 24 hour notice over the phone, and do you really want potential customers who are sick coughing in your face? I guess customer customer service is not a priority, so I will take my business elsewhere.

Dan, the owners' son is so helpful and nice. This place deserves more than 5-stars! I've been I…read more The shop 3 times now. One to rent a violin, next to return it and finally, to fix a broken string. They are so friendly, helpful and pricing is extremely reasonable compared to other shops. I loved that it took less than 5 minutes to fix the violin string repair. Wow. I'd never go anywhere else.

I was so impressed from the family vibe of the store. I feel bad but I think Dan helped me and…read moresorry if I heard name or forgot name but he was so generous it's helping my shoulder rest. My shoulder rest broke and he was so fast and sweet to help me fix it. Very professional and timely. Would recommend this violin repair for everyone!

We love this place my son started his music journey there when he was just 4 years old . He started…read moreon the kids rock bands playing the piano than went to privates and did his first performances with them than did some music video clips it was great to develop his love for music. Sophie and her mother help him a lot and Danny was always very helpful with the administrative part and scheduling. We just left there because he started doing trumpet at school and got really into it and these days he is 14 and is part of the band at school and the wind assembly. We are so grateful for this place they supported my son creativity and got him very enthusiastic about playing music. Is a great place to start your kids musical path. We will be looking to starting our 4 year old musical journey there soon.

This review predominantly pertains to the decidedly unreliable and/or mediocre loose management…read morepolicy of The Music Factory. There was far too much play it by ear, did-you-get-my-email, did-you-get-my-voicemail inconsistency. The instructors were good, but I did not get an impression the organization/mgmt. behind them was really that well oiled or structured. The school accepted my money for DJ/Production type lessons; I was under the assumption the lessons would continue under one instructor or another for some time or at least indefinitely in the sense that the lessons can be renewed monthly with the school, etc. A little over a month into lessons the 1st DJ/Instructor I was working with resigns, and this individual more or less alludes to the possibility of the school discontinuing the DJ offerings in its program. An unexpected statement or loose reference from someone providing the lessons, etc. The school staff reassures me lessons will continue under another instructor. Unfortunately, the other instructor could only work remotely. I agreed to work with the new instructor remotely. The new instructor later changes his mind about having time in his schedule to meet remotely. So the school informs me via email that it cannot offer me further lessons at this time etc. I cannot recommend The Music Factory. The services and management proved to be unreliable at best. Look elsewhere until the day this business drastically improves its practices.

We rented out a viola for elementary school music class. We paid a monthly rental fee…read more The viola we received was like new. We were so impressed with the service, the product and the pricing. Dropping off at the end of the school year was easy peasy and all the staff were chatting with us and so friendly. Highly recommend if you're unable to get your hands on an instrument at the school.

I recently visited Irvine Art and Music to select a new GS Mini-e Mahogany, and I couldn't be more…read moregrateful for the assistance from Gabriel. His help was incredibly valuable and made the experience both enjoyable and stress-free. Gabriel was patient and knowledgeable, introducing me to several options and allowing me to hear and understand the subtle differences in each guitar. He didn't rush the process and ensured that every choice was tailored to my desired style and size. The GS Mini-e Mahogany turned out to be the perfect fit for my emotional storytelling music. Thank you, Gabriel, for your excellent service and for making this a memorable experience!

I took drum lessons here when I was younger with John. I…read morerecently had the pleasure of coming back to watch my nephews guitar recital. This studio has been here for a long time. I have a great memory of it and it was so cool to see it again. Fred, Anita and John have always been warm and wonderful teachers. A great place for children to learn or teens or adults!!! My brother and nephew are great at the guitar thanks to Fred. My sister and niece are great at piano thanks to Anita! Highly Recommended !!!!

So suppose you were throwing a Rat Pack/Godfather/Mafia theme party and you wanted to go over the…read moretop. What might you do? Well one of my ideas was to hire an accordion player to play some tunes for the party guests. The question then became, where in the heck do you find a friggin accordion player for hire? Craigslist had one, but he wanted a whole lotta money to play the party (and traveling fees). I left messages at some schools that offered accordion lessons (and none of them called me back). A search of the internet found me a bunch of leads, but almost all of them were disconnected numbers. The one other number that I found was for a DJ, not an elusive accordion player. Then I found AFG Music. The owner, Fred, actually answered the phone and he indeed had an accordion player available to play parties. The minimum time for hire was just an hour, which I thought would be plenty. Score! Signed a contract, left a deposit, and at the agreed upon time I had an older gentleman with an accordion at my party. How did it go? He was a monster hit. The older folks at the party were singing and dancing. His music made the younger folks all smile. The only problem was that I hired him for only one hour and when I tried to get him to stay longer he couldn't because he had another party to go to. Dammit! AFG has all kinds of musicians for hire. I discussed a few options to add a violin player with Fred. Sounds like they play parties, weddings, you name it.

La Jones repaired my bass guitar & did an exceptional job , also completed the repair on the same…read moreday!!

OUT OF STATERS: Be warned that if you're trying to rent…read moreequipment, they will NOT let you use a non-California ID. So either come with someone with a California ID, or go somewhere else. Whoever has the California ID has to use a credit card in THEIR name also. This is not posted on their website but was told to me when I tried to use my New Jersey ID. Otherwise, the rental process went well. Staff friendly, but the out of state ID policy threw us off.