Very nice school and all teachers are very nice and professional…read more High recommend! Better than all other schools I've ever seen!

Very good music school. The owners and teachers are very professional and friendly…read more My 5-year-old daughter takes singing and piano lessons here. Both teachers(Ms. Cao and Ms. Ouyang) are very good. I takes piano lesson with Ms. Ouyang too. My kid loves the singing class and she always tells us she wants to go to the singing class. For piano class, my kid was shy at the beginning but Ms. Ouyang finds a way to make her feel comfortable. Also Ms. Ouyang takes efforts to find the right way to motivate my kid. At the beginning, I thought the piano class is just playing piano, but it turns out there are lots of things to learn and lots of ways to learn it. One example is ear training. I don't have music background, but I roughly know that ear is important and it can be trained, and I know absolute pitch is rare. But what I don't know is that absolute pitch can be trained to get it only before age 9 (or 7). For adults, you either have it when you are born or don't have it. There is no way to train an adult to get it. Fortunately, Ms. Ouyang reminded me that in the class, and showed me the method to train it. Then I started to train my daughter. She does not get absolute pitch yet, but I can tell her ear is much better than before. As of playing piano, I also googled a lot before and when my kids taking classes here. From what I can tell, Ms. Ouyang is very professional and teach the right methods and habits from beginning. I am so glad that my kid has a such good training in her age from beginning. I wish I could have it. Anyway, after sometime, I decide to learn with Ms. Ouyang too. Before that, I kind of learn by myself for 3 months by googling and watching youtube. But once I started taking lessons, I realized that I made so many mistakes before and I did not even aware of them if Ms. Ouyang did not tell me. Learning piano and music is very practical and one really need good teachers to help you. I highly recommend teachers in Forerunner for both kids and adults.

Several years ago I decided to try taking piano lessons at this place. When I was a kid, i was a…read morepiano prodigy who lost all of his skills as I stopped playing for a long time. I took lessons at two locations, the former small corner place in Seafood city and a new location next to Allen Court in Milpitas. Although I only relented the basics and chords for a couple of months, I managed to regain piano skills my own way. By learning the songs I like and not the ones restricted by the book. Sure the price is a little much since it is for musical lessons. Regardless, the people here do take care of you as long as you practice on your end. I can say that because I can now play 6 songs from various games and learning more at this time.

I've been singing on and off for over 10 years. I've never learned from a professional coach and…read moremanaged to develop a decent voice over many trial and errors. I heard from one of my friends about "speech level singing" and have always been curious as to what it meant and what I could potentially be missing in my technique. The first thing you notice when you met Liezl is her charisma and passion. She is very upbeat and eager to genuinely help people find their voice. She heard my vocals and was instantly able to prescribe scales and practice drills that catered to my specific needs. In 3months time, Liezl and the Pnc family has helped me develop my lower range, free up tension in my higher range, and even find new layers to my vocal style. What I like most about Liezl beyond her technical skills is that she is an artist herself. She understands the struggle, fear and anxiety that comes with pursuing your dreams and encourages you to overcome yours.

I went to Starving Musician (Santa Clara) in search of an electric drum amplifier and an Epiphone…read moreSheraton. I was in luck this day as I found both a brand new e-drum amplifier and a used Sheraton at fair prices. Looking the guitar over I noticed the nut for the instrument jack was loose and asked that it be tightened prior to purchasing. On a semi-hollow & hollow body guitars this can be a tedious task, hence why I asked for assistance. The guitar tech, Dimitri, stopped what he was doing and went above and beyond my expectations to remedy the problem. It was not a quick fix and he kept me updated throughout the process. Starving Musician is my first stop when looking for music gear. They have been around as long as I can remember and offer the best trade-in value for your used gear. Always a great experience.

Basically a great place for nice condition used equipment at decent prices with sales people to…read morehelp you with your selection. You can also sell some of your stuff here. However, sometimes.... ? A few days ago, I got this... I came in to sell or consign an 8 track reel to reel Tascam 38 in hardly used, pristine condition, value $800-1,000+. I was told that they do not sell this kind of thing and to go to Rasputin or Street Light. ????

We have been using the professional services of Mr. Norio Kawato of San Jose, CA since February…read more2010, when our new Yamaha Disklavier DC6MK4 was due for tuning. He was recommended to us by the Yamaha Peninsula Music Center where we bought the piano. Our first impression was quite favorable and we decided to do the second free tuning offered by the vendor with the same specialist. The second time around, I gave him an unusual challenge when I measured with a force-meter the force applied on the damper pedal. The force was larger than the one measured in vendor's shop on other pianos (my own research) and the pedal made a louder noise than the standard. I had addressed the same question with the official Yamaha support technicians and had they had sent me a replacement spring, which was softer and expected to create a smaller force in the pedal.These people knew Mr. Kawato because he had been trained by Yamaha Corporation. Mr. Kawato promptly accessed the respective place in the piano and determined that I already had the right (softer) spring there. Then, in a matter of 5 minutes or less, Mr. Kawato made the piano in pieces (which scared my wife and me!), spread them around the room and reached deeply into piano's internal mechanics where he found a loose screw from the factory. He tightened it and that did the trick. Then Mr. Kawato quicky made the piano back in one piece (which calmed us down!) From that moment on, we settled to Mr. Kawato as our preferred piano tuner and will call him from wherever he might be in the future. Further on, my wife and I discovered that Mr. Kawato is a fine person, with whom we can talk various subjects of mutual interest, Japan being the preferred one for us - while he continues to do his job. We hope we have not bothered him too much with our conversation. Last time we had him in our house, Mr. Kawato upgraded our piano's operating system, which took about one hour due to the low speed of our connection. He did everything on his own time and to our satisfaction. In conclusion, if you are looking for a professional piano tuner - any acoustic piano or Yamaha disklavier - you have him in Mr. Norio Kawato of San Jose, CA.

Norio has tuned our Disklavier several times over the last 4 or 5 years. I first got his name from…read morethe South Bay Yamaha store. He knows his craft and the instruments very well. Quiet, meticulous and looks over the instrument for any other issues to be addressed. If you talk with him, you find some very interesting stories if you happen upon a common intersection. Besides a variety of businesses who have piano tuning needs, he has tuned pianos for concert performances by some fabulous professional piano players and musicians with very exacting demands and top tier very large grands. I found this out only because I mentioned being at a particular performance to him--sold out crowd of fans; well known name; pianos keyboards and vocals; Paramount Theater. Meantime, he is very low key and not at all promotional. Charges also seem reasonable for time he spends, in home service and the like. I recently called him and he graciously gave me a referral to a tuner in SF, since it is outside his normal travel area; nothing in it for him besides goodwill with a customer, but he responded promptly with an on point referral to meet my needs.

Expert repair, sales, selection. I have found my archetier!…read more And next to delicious food in Japantown.

WARNING: DO NOT let the older lady touch your instrument case! She will just open it, touching your…read moreinstrument, and making (not needed) adjustments without asking. She doesn't know what she's doing (maybe she can do basic things like changing strings and tuning, but nothing more) and tried to move my bridge but obviously had no plans to move my soundpost or make my bridge higher which would have been needed with her move. She does not stop when you tell her to stop numerous times. I had to start yelling... The luthier found issues with my instruments which other shops were not able to diagnose, yay! However, my instruments were left scratched up (!) and very dirty after the work. They needed to be shaved/sanded and the dust was left all over the bridge, fingerboard, peg box, and instrument surface. One was damaged (chipped); they made no fuss when brought to their attention, immediately apologized, and fixed it. This shop came recommended by multiple professionals. Maybe they figured I wasn't a professional and thus treated my instruments poorly? On the plus side, the price for all work done were very reasonable. They also have parking in the back.

If you need a guitar teacher look no further. Jasun has been teaching my daughter for 7 years and…read morewe can't imagine going with anyone else. He meets students at their level and helps them to reach their full potential. As a Fremont school teacher, I notice good teaching when I see it and he is one of the best. Patient, kind, and extremely talented, but you'd never know it based on his humble approach. Just sign your kid (or yourself) up now and you'll see what I mean!

Jasun is a talented musician and gifted teacher. We feel fortunate to have connected with him. He…read moreis passionate, patient, and able to connect with students of all ages in a meaningful way. My daughter has been with him for over 4 years now and she loves Jasun. I recommend trying a lesson; you won't regret it.

Been searching forever for a small professional recording studio nearby. We came in to take a look…read moreand Jinny was very knowledgeable and friendly about their professional equipment, room setup, and recording process. The location is nice as well; it's located upstairs in a quiet business center so you won't get street distractions (windows where people would stop and stare at you or cars honking) as I've seen in other studios. Price is reasonable as well! Looking forward to record more in the future.

We had our wedding pianist record music here and the whole experience was excellent. From the…read morestart, Jinny was very responsive over text and call, making scheduling easy. The studio was spotless and already set up when we arrived. TJ, the audio engineer, was extremely knowledgeable and accommodating -- he made the process smooth, catered to our pianist, and even had the files uploaded before we left. Later, when we noticed a small audio issue in one file, TJ immediately helped us fix it. Everything was handled so smoothly and professionally -- highly recommend!

Reviewing as a total music novice family. We needed to rent a violin for my 5th grader for…read moreorchestra. We could not have been more helpful, patient and kind helping us set up a rental. Similarly, when we made the return at the end of the school year, the process was seamless! Highly recommend!

Just bought a ukelele from here to keep practicing as a beginner, they have good intro/beginner…read morepieces up to more expensive and studier pieces. The range I saw was from sale items at 49.99 up to 200+, they have a good, moderate amount of choices at each level, with different brands and accompanying acessories! My ukelele is a soprano, a great beginner ukelele I was practicing with, got it for $75 with tax and a carrying bag included in my purchase, if I remember correctly, tag price was $69.99 I did ask if there was something similar to a brand/type of ukelele I started my practice with but I was then getting sold onto the more expensive pieces that I didn't have experience with and didn't ask for so that was a miss for me. Wish I got more of a relevant recommendation but the workers were sweet, they let us browse by ourselves for a good amount of time before stepping in (which good for me because I needed time to think, compare, and browse). When we went, there were a handful of other customers inside the store, it's located in a small shopping center but the store is bigger inside than it appears on the outside. The parking situation was just okay, not bad, could use a tad bit more space, we went ~1p the parking lot was full minus 2-3 spots but I noticed cars came and went from the time we got there until we left so it seems like there's a couple spots free at any given time due to the traffic coming in and out for small errands. Lots of instruments and accessories to be found inside and the workers seem to be happy to help find what is needed! Pretty well organized inside to find what you need on your own though, I was able to find the ukeleles quickly.