Our
Blog:
11/2/2011
Has it really been a year since I remember to write
anything?
This has been an interesting time to be in business for
sure.
We want to thank all of you that have supported us over the
past years.
We appreciate the relationships we have made with our
customers and support base.
We strive to improve what we do, all the
time. We hope you will consider checking with us or stopping
by
before making your next purchase. We hope you find our service and
friendly atmosphere, selection and competitive prices make it worth
coming to Albany Music & Sound for all your musical needs.
Again,
Thank you! John
11/3/2010
I am glad the elections are over. Whether your
candidate one or lost, it is time for some positive thinking! Every day,
I count my blessings that I have a job and my business is still here. We
could have done it without all our loyal customers and friends. I don't
get a chance often enough to just say "thank you"!
I never would have
imagined in my wildest dreams when I was a kid that I would own a music
store. Wow. Crazy how life turns out. We want to inspire you to discover
how fun this life is. We think we sell the stuff that makes going home
at the end of the day worth while because it gives you something to look
forward to. Who doesn't need that? We want to continue to partner with
you to strive to be the best at what we do and provide you with a cool
store to shop at and a place to come with your questions and concerns.
Your continued support will help us help you, and be a great blessing to
us at the same time. So once again, thank you! John
You don’t
have to give up good service and great prices. We are
priced very competitively on all our guitars, amps, sound
systems, drums, etc. In fact the MSRP and MAP price are
on every tag. The only thing you gain by buying out of
town is no service and we won't try and sell you the free
manufacturers warranty! When you shop at Albany Music
& Sound, you will find our prices are mostly the same
as the other guys but every guitar is set up and you get
to touch the instrument before you buy it. If e don't
have what you want, we can order it. We will still give
you the deal and when it comes in, we make sure it is set
up before we call you. No Worries. So how could you go
wrong with that?
We strive to succeed in being the best locally owned
music store with personalized service for each and every
customer that walks through our doors. That is why this
is an informational web sight designed to invite you to
come and visit us in person. We hope to intrigue you
enough to want to make the trip to find out first hand
why we have been successfully selling music gear for over
22 years. If you want to choose and instrument with a
hands on approach to find your life long love, then this
is the place for you! Every instrument has its own
personality and feel. You can not choose an instrument
wisely by reading a description on your computer, you
have to play it. We hope to see you soon. Every
day, someone asks me why we don't sell on the Internet.
The answer is, we don't think we could be the best, but
we think we are the best local music store around. Thank
you and we hope to see you soon!
John and come meet our
newest staff member, Peter. Peter is a guitar player and worship Pastor
at Turning Point church in Lebanon. Peter has roots in punk rock and has
now been leading worship for 6 years.
We promote beginners:
We always have a package deal for almost every
Instrument. We want to help you get started playing
today. Don't waist any more energy dreaming about it and
come on in today so we can put your energy to work
learning how to play. There is no such thing as a stupid
question! We check out every single one of these before
we put them out so that we know you are getting a quality
instrument.
Reading Reviews: We have had
several people come in and tell us about their recent
purchase on the Internet and how it got "good"
reviews. The challenging thing about reading reviews is
that most people that purchase lower end products don't
have the skills to know if what they purchased is really
good enough for you. Yes it looks like a guitar. Do you
know what intonation is? Is the action set right? Or do
most beginners know what that means? We do and we can
show you. Just because an
instrument or piece of equipment works when you turn it
on or looks nice does not necessarily make it great. John
| Blog:: Today's market is a buyers
market for sure. There is a vast amount of
product out there and prices are low. But how do
you know what to guy? The old fashioned
"Brick and Mortar" stores that display
the products that they offer for sale are still a
great way to purchase musical products. Musical
instruments and products very a great deal from
instrument to instrument. 10 of the same model
will all look, sound and feel a little different.
We understand that price is important to our
customers but it isn't everything. If you get a
smoking deal on a guitar that looks great online
but once you open up the box find out that nobody
took the time to check it out, make sure it is
set up properly and inspect it for damage or
defects. It can be pretty frustrating. Then if
you bought it over the internet, you have to send
it back and sometimes it can take weeks to
rectify the problem. There is a lot of cheap
guitar shaped objects for sale over the internet.
The unfortunate thing is that they most often
don't play in tune and the strings are too far
off the fingerboard to ever have any fun trying
to play the guitar. You will get what you pay
for. If you aspire to become a musician, think
carefully about how important it is to you to
have a "Real" instrument that will be a
joy to play every time you pick it up instead of
a frustration. We inspect setup and test every
instrument before our customers take it home. If
we miss something, we are here to solve the
problem and help you quickly resolve your issues
so you can be playing your instrument
successfully. We do sell over the internet and
those items are checked out with the same care as
the items that we sell person to person but the
same time delay can apply because of the extra
time it takes for shipping and return. We want
your business either way. Please contact us if
you are looking for something and need help. We
will offer competitive prices and superior
service. If we can help you, please reward us
with your business. We do free guitar tune-ups and
adjustments for any guitar purchased at our
store. We will even change the strings for you
with the purchase of the strings and show you how
to put them on correctly for the first year after
your purchase.
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FAQ
We
hope that you find this information useful! Here are some
frequently asked questions about lessons and purchasing a
guitar:
1. How long will it take?
Answer: Depending on your natural abilities and your
willingness to practice, you should be playing simple
melodies 3 chord songs within the first month. Everyone
is different, but if you practice everyday, within the
first year, you should be able to play more complex
popular songs. The more you practice, the better you will
be! We hope you will enjoy the process of learning as
well as playing itself. The important thing is "Your
Doing It".
2. What kind of guitar should I buy?
Most people know someone or have seen someone playing the
guitar and that is what inspired them to want to learn.
If you have always wanted to play like Stevie Ray
Vaughn, an electric guitar might just be your best
choice. If your favorite guitar player is Garth Brooks,
you might want to buy a steel string acoustic. If your
guitar idol is Andrea Sagovia then you might want
to purchase a classical. Children often start on a nylon
string classical guitar both because the 3strings are
easier on the fingers and because the body of the guitar
is generally smaller. However if your child is big enough
to play an electric and that is what they want to play
then you may be making a mistake buying some other type
of guitar. A visit to your local music store might help
clear that up for you.
3. What Brand Should I Buy?
Of course we think you should buy the brands we carry,
how ever our unbiased answer is: There are many good
brands on the market. Here are a few things you need to
establish before you buy.
A. Find a famous maker brand name: there are many good
brands on the market, depending on who you talk to, some
are good and some are not. We have found that you can
find good and bad guitars within each brand name. Try to
stick with some of the companies that you have heard of,
that have been around for a long time!
B. After you have established a credible brand name, find
a store with a good reputation. If you know someone who
has purchased a guitar from the store your looking at and
they are satisfied, that should help you feel more
comfortable.
C. The five things that we stress paying attention to
when buying a guitar are Brand, sound, feel and
appearance and price. The first thing that will catch
your eye is the appearance of a guitar. Please make sure
you play the guitar, listen to the guitar and of course
compare price with similar models. If you don't know how
to play the guitar, ask a salesperson to play several of
them for you. Try some inexpensive guitars and have them
play some expensive guitars. See if you can tell the
difference. If you think you have found a guitar that
sounds good to you, have someone else play several
guitars while you look in the other direction. See if you
can pick out the guitar that you liked. Look to see how
close the strings are to the fingerboard. If the strings
are hard to push down, your fingers are going to get sore
a lot faster. This is called the action. Listen to the
treble notes and the bass notes. Do they sound clear or
muted? Play the guitar with a pick somewhat forcefully
and see if it projects well and if it has a good sustain.
It you buy an inexpensive guitar you may have to
sacrifice in some of these areas. But if the guitar
doesn't play easy, you will never be satisfied with it.
Remember, you get what you pay for, both in service and
in quality!
4. How much is this going to cost?
We carry guitars from $79.00 and sizes from 1/2 to full
size. We have tried other less expensive guitars and
found that they are not quality conducive to learning. If
you purchase an inexpensive guitar, make sure that after
you tune it, it will play in tune. Many times I have
heard the comment that someone does not think their
guitar will stay in tune. Usually what is happening is
that the guitar doesn't have true pitch when you play
some of the fretted notes. This will give the impression
that the strings might be slipping. If you have suspicion
that you’re experiencing this problem, tune your
guitar with a chromatic electronic guitar tuner and then
check some of the fretted notes up and down the neck. If
the intonation is off, some of the fretted notes will
register out of tune although the open string is in tune.
If you are an adult, you might enjoy a nicer guitar to
begin with. If you take good care of your guitar it will
last for years and years, provided you get a quality
guitar to begin with. Lessons presently range from $13.00
for a 1/2 hour lesson, ($20.00 per hour) once a week for
guitar. Guitar lessons are held on Wednesday's,
Thursday's and Saturday's.
5. We are concerned that it will be too loud.
Most smaller guitar amplifiers come equipped with a head
phone jack that you can plug any set of headphones into.
Inserting the headphones cancels the speaker so that the
sound only comes out of the headphones.
6. Can I learn the style of music I like to listen to?
When you first start playing, you usually will learn some
simple songs that are easy for beginners to learn. We
will try as soon as possible to begin to show how to play
the kind of music that you want to play. Most of the
popular music that you hear is a little more difficult
than you are going to be ready for at first. However, we
will focus on what you want to learn as soon as possible!
7. What about those mail order and internet places?
Because of the many considerations involved in choosing a
guitar, we think it would be best to make your decision
after you have taken some time to look and listen. 10
guitars of the same model will all be different because
wood has such unique characteristics. So you are going to
want to try before you buy. Service is very
important to all of us and it is very hard to get the
service you deserve from a company down the road several
hundred or thousand miles. Please remember, you get what
you pay for! We often have sales on our guitars and drums
etc., and you don't have to pay more than you would to
order something from a catalog, you’re just going to
sacrifice the help that we can give you, if you purchase
one of our products.
8. How old do you have to be to start?
We now have 1/2 size guitars that would be appropriate
for a 7 or 8 year old. If you start your child at an
early age, they will begin by learning single note
melodies and simplified chord fingerings. When their hand
can reach all the way across the fingerboard, they can
learn to play full chord fingerings. If your child can
read and has a desire to learn to play guitar, we
encourage you to get involved in music lessons. Children
that start at an early age will better develop their
musical ear.
9. Can I teach myself?
Yes you can. We sell teach yourself type methods and
video's. Many adults are just too busy to commit to a
lesson once a week. There are some great books available
for you. We have found that if you take lessons, you can
learn faster than if you try and teach yourself. We want
to help you turn your desire to play into reality, and we
can best help you if you take lessons from us. If that
doesn't work out, come by and will help you find the
right self teaching book!
10. Using youtube and all the
other free stuff on the internet.
There is a lot of free
content out there. Some of it is really good. The great thing about
getting book is that you have something to look at when the video is
over. I am constantly inspired by players I see on youtube and
elsewhere. I also think it is of great value to have a book in front of
me that shows me what I am supposed to be working when I practice. I
suggest you use every form of media that is available to you to help you
on your journey towards becoming a better player.
If you live
in our area, we invite you to come in and spend some time
with us. We will be glad to help you select the
instrument or accessories that are right for you!
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