This band is the best! Such great energy. We were dancing, singing and having a terrific time all night long. Truly a blast.
I love this band! Check ‘em out next time they play around Hawaii and you’ll hear and see a special and unique musical experience of throwback stylings of mid-20th century funky, soulful, r&b music that recalls serious roots – reminiscent of the time before “Motown” became a distinct, classic genre of American pop music.
I first saw the Elevations Hawaii perform in a rustic cabin atop Mauna Kapu on the West-side of O’ahu back in 2018 at a private party. They were fantastic! Their blend of vintage soul and r&b with a touch of funk are instantaneously catchy and insanely groovy. The harmonies of the three singers are beautiful and truly “elevating!” The drums and bass were tight and in the pocket all night long, while the guitarist and horn section tore it up with catchy, melodic lines that complimented the vocal harmonies of the three beautiful vocalists! I was instantly hooked!
I have since seen them perform multiple times, including Halloween and Christmas shows at Hawaiian Brian’s, as well as a very special fundraiser at Camp Palehua for a family in need of help for a medical emergency for their 9 year old son.
I heard they performed for free and all the proceeds went to help a little boy that needed a heart transplant. Knowing this about a band who deserves 5-star reviews on the merits of the musical ability and entertainment value alone — plus they do charity shows that help families in need? They have indeed made me a fan for life!
Elevations Hawai’i no ka ‘oi!
An incredible show!!
2. Kalena Discount Ukuleles at Pearlridge Center
Address: 98-1005 Moanalua Rd #807, Aiea, HI 96701, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
Very nice people.
I bought a 6 string banjo and 3 ukuleles from them. Good quality wood instruments for a very affordable price.
Friendly, attentive and patient staff. They talked to me about what I wanted and helped me try out several instruments. They sized me up perfectly from the get-go. Although I looked at several styles and sizes, I ended up going back to and purchasing the first one they showed me for an amazing price with tuner, strap, extra strings and a hard case. I am delighted with my new uke with a uniquely Hawaiian hibiscus sound hole. Its warm tone and soft finish will bring me lots of music-making joy!
Thank you Kalena staff!
Be careful. They have a fickle return policy and they replaced my strings with the wrong ones. I didn’t know my uke could sound bad until it left Kalena. My fiance took it there as a gift to be restrung and you were also rude to her and said that 14 days means less than 2 weeks. You being a musician shop is suspicious. I don’t think you should replace strings if you don’t know how to do it
Would never recommend this place to anyone. The guy that works there made me feel so offended.
Bought the ” toy” violin for Christmas which was advertised as high quality. Cost me $40. It was awful. Couldnt play a single note on it. The bow is complete garbage and the resin was as hard as a rock so it couldn’t be used with the plastic bow strings provided.
3. Pacific Ukulele
Address: 99-500 Salt Lake Blvd, Honolulu, HI 96818, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
I was surprised of the quality for the tenor uke that I got. The owner was very pleasant and even gave me a discount. Highly recommend!
Hands down the best gift I’ve ever purchased for my music loving daughter. The owner was awesome!
When my family and I visited Hawaii last winter, we saw Pacific Ukulele store at the stadium. We bought one concert ukulele there and we brought it back home. My only regret is that we could not get a lasered one due to us leaving Hawaii. However, I just noticed that they had a website and I ordered a customized option. It arrived from Hawaii in 2 days! I also asked and received a coupon as a returning customer. I recommend this store to any ukulele lovers, also, don’t be afraid to message and ask for coupons, the owner is awesome.
4. Progressive Island Records
Address: 99-1285 Halawa Valley St # A24, Aiea, HI 96701, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
The Keiki Kani staff strike the balance of being very caring, and supportive, yet professional. I’ve never thought of myself as being much of a singer, but they have been able to really get me started an a whole new adventure through voice training. Mahalo, Camilla and staff!
Brian and Lilly were exceptionally helpful when I was getting a much needed equipment upgrade! They are a must-visit if you’re a clarinetist going through Oahu. If you are considering any clarinet barrel upgrades, trying something new, or getting adjustments on your instruments, this is the place!
I’ve had a wonderful experience with Brian! I’ve recently bought a Buffet Festival Bb clarinet and this clarinet is so amazing that it made me wonder if the two other Bb clarinets I have (an RC and a R13) were simply not good or never truly well ajusted because I have never played with an instrument that made things so easy for me! The clarinet arrived perfectly well adjusted, even with the big weather and humidity changes it went though during the travel (I’m in Quebec, Canada). It is hands down the best instrument I’ve ever played in my life. Thank you
Brian Corbin is a well-rounded clarinet professional. He is a great player, an expert technician, a keen craftsman, and an incredible resource for instruments, accessories, and general clarinet knowledge. On top of all of it he’s a real standup guy. Pleasure to do business with him and call him a friend!
7. Flyin’ Hawaiian Entertainment
Address: 99-729 Meaala St, Aiea, HI 96701, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
Awesome instructor, Raene, and adult learner friendly. Highly recommend Chuck James Music school!
I took clarinet lessons with Aaron Aranita and was completely satisfied. He is patient and very kind. I imagine he’d be great with kids. Summer at the front desk is delightful and accommodating. Very happy I found this school.
My daughter has taken guitar lessons with Honybal for several months. He is so kind and patient with her. Also, Summer is very professional and friendly. She works with us anytime there is a conflict in our schedule to get us in class for a make-up. I really love Chuck James and I am so glad we have found this school for our musical education.
We had a voice lesson with Ms. Emily to prepare for her school musical. She was knowledgeable and helpful!
I like that it is convenient and that the teachers are generally giving the right amount of challenge vs. fun. I would love to see the studio offer more opportunities for students to play together, whether in a chamber, band, or more recitals.
11. Guitar Center
Address: 1000 Kamehameha Hwy Suite 200, Pearl City, HI 96782, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
Well here it goes my Guitar Center Review. This review only is talking about the ordering from the online store and not my Guitar Center experience in the store.
So to start this off I ordered a bunch of equipment from Guitar Center such as an amp, pedals, wires, connectors and a brand new guitar the whole Shabang! I was eyeing out this one guitar and had seen that the company Sweetwater has exact prices (for the guitar) as Guitar Center did contrary to belief Guitar Center had more items than Sweetwater did (regarding the items I needed). I live out of North America so I just wanted to order everything one time so I didn’t have to wait for things to come in from other places separately. So in the end I ended up choosing Guitar Center as my choice of place to buy my selected items and first Guitar. Just FYI I am a new guitar player and this was my first guitar and my first set of guitar equipment so I had not really known what to expect. So I had put my order through and was waiting for my order. A couple days past and I am looking at some reviews about guitar center and some of the reviews I see online were really nasty and gave Guitar Center a bad name. Like they are unreliable or things like they aren’t safe and sell broken guitars or just horrid stories from peoples past…. I read something from numerous things like how people rather go to Sweetwater now do to the horrid stories of their past that had happened between them and Guitar Center so you could say I was slightly concerned with the order I had spent so much money on /: Anyways the day comes in where I am supposed to receive my items and I am really concerned nothing will come in ): thinking the reviews were right…. then late in the afternoon I see three big boxes outside my house! I come to I get excited and what do you know they are my boxes from guitar center (: I open up everything and everything came neatly packed and even though it had to go through shipping it looks as if everything was brand new. Guitar Center did a great job as to packaging all my items and making sure nothing came in damaged(pedals). Guitar center used lots of bubble rap had styrofoam inserts on each corner of my amplifier and used a grey padding (kind of like memory foam so nothing would get damaged in the shipping process) to hold my guitar one on the top and one on the bottom which was placed in another box. So it was the box with my guitar in it with foam on the outside and a another box to hold that in it was really caring of them. (kind of like memory foam so nothing would get damaged in the shipping process). Each box came with an invoice of all the items that were in the box so in hindsight you know they made sure that all your items were in the box before it had been shipped. Everything worked great! and this was a really great experience for my first time I just want to thank the team at Guitar Center for making such an impactful great experience for me. Also before I made my order they verified with my bank to make sure that it was me who had been purchasing the said items Incase of a fraudulent case which was simple easy and fast (was a 3 minute phone call). Now looking into the condition of the guitar I had gotten the guitar was mint had no scratches and maybe a minor tick or tiny little Knick. When you buy new purses or bags at the store they always have a little Knick in the seems or something minor like that it was no big deal the guitar felt like it had been wiped down with some kind of oil it had a nice sort of film all over the guitar it felt like they waxed it or something haha. In lei-mans terms it felt brand new like how something bought brand new should feel. the Knick wasn’t like a scratch it was the tiniest small tack that really is unnoticeable. The fretboards looked clean and didn’t have scratch marks on it and the case looks really nice. Inside the case came some bolts and screws, the pick guard, and it also came with warranty and stuff like that. The certain guitar I bought was from the slash line so it had come with some slashpicks.pt 1 go to pt2
Bringing me back to music love.
Guitar go brrrr
Nice store, helpful employees, easy to find everything.
First time here. Just killing time
great place for musicians. lots of great brands to check out. and they let you play!
Just don’t feel welcome. They rush you out. This covid thing screwing up otherwise great places. Guitar Center has ridiculous rules and Easy music is a lot more relaxed, I’d rather spend more and drive to town that feel rushed
Bought books as a gift, but they ended up being duplicates so I needed to return them. They are brand new with no creases, and even with the receipt they wouldn’t take the return. Not even for a store credit. I’ve never had an issue with guitar center until today. Better off just buying stuff from Amazon if you think you may have to return it.
Visited 3x since opening. Initially I thought that because they were so new, the customer service would obviously be lacking. Here we are today and…things have not changed. Gonna continue to order my stuff online.
12. Hula Records
Address: 808 Ahua St, Honolulu, HI 96819, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
Anthony is a true craftsman and puts his heart into all his work. Excellent guitar tech and excellent value. Highly recommended.
Initial impression: Whoa! this gentleman really knows his job and is passionate about guitars.
I brought in a 20 year old guitar for a dent repair and he proceeded to thoroughly explain what he would and wouldn’t do(for good reasons). He also inspected the guitar for no extra charge and showed me the things that should be addressed. I was in his shop for about an hour, listening and talking to him. He even straightened the neck on the spot – no extra charge. You don’t find customer service like that nowadays.
He is a one man show, so do not expect a quick turn around for any jobs. However, if you want a job well done, this is the man you’re looking for.
TLDR; I brought in my guitar for a dent and walked out of his shop agreeing to do more work. Why? Because this gentleman knows his stuff.
I have no doubt that my 20 year old guitar will come out better than it did from factory. Will update post when I pick it up.
UPDATE: Picked up the guitar today And I was not disappointed. The big dent that I wanted gone was filled in really nicely. You can’t tell that there was ever a dent there. The work he did on the frets and fretboard are outstanding. It’s so dang smooth. It’s feels so much better than the neck on my American Fender. No joke. Lastly, I was blown away by the sound the guitar produced when he plugged it in and played it. The sound was nuts! Try it with yours after getting it set up. Anyway, I’m very happy with all the work he did. Mr. Anthony brought my old and dull sounding Gibson back to life.
Went to Anthony to get my Stratocaster set up. He was very helpful and made my guitar play so smooth. He is the guy to see if you want it done right.
i m fully dissapointed ….these guyz even dont have a website ,i think these guyz are not professional
I took 2 acoustic guitars to Mr Anthony on July 14th 2021 to have setup he went out of his way to find everything possible that needed to be done to make the action great he was so far behind that he told me to pay a deposit and when he got caught up in a few weeks he would call me to bring in my guitars so I paid him 45$ after 2 weeks I called him he was still behind he claims. Now almost 2 months later he still hasn’t got in touch with me I wouldn’t recommend leaving my guitar with him he ripped me off and I have the receipt to prove it
Poor workmanship, take no pride in his work…advice look else where!
The owner is very friendly and is very knowledgeable when it comes to anything musical. This is the first store I went to look for a brand new guitar and I left with one I enjoyed a lot. I would definitely recommend this store to anyone who wants an instrument or has a question about any instruments. I am very satisfied with my purchase and experience.
I came to Westside Music Hawaii because I was looking for a Kala brand concert sized uke. I was very happy to be welcomed by friendly people and they have a wide selection of brands and models. My new Kala KA-CE is awesome and I LOVE it so much! I’m very satisfied with my purchase. I’d definitely recommend this store if you are looking for ukes and guitars. Thank You WestSide Music!
so many things you can find there. Nice variety for music items. Nice staff too
The shop has brand new & second hand guitars. Electric & acoustic with & without electronics. Strings, wires other accessories & friendly service. I needed guitar strings & cord for my acoustic guitar. Found what I needed so yes I will go back.
Employee was helpful, knowledgeable about music instrument. Park right in front of store
17. Easy Music Center
Address: 1314 S King St STE G1, Honolulu, HI 96814, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
Staff was very accommodating. They demo’ed the Yamaha HS7 and HS S8 and I was blown away… highly recommend them!
This place has an awesome selection of everything you can think of. The staff is really friendly too and super helpful. Will be coming back!
This is a fantastic full service music store. They have most anything I could need. Great staff and friendly service!
Free parking,,… good service, sales staff extremely helpful
The place has great stuff and variety of music equipments.
Fairly well stocked music store, with very poor parking facilities for its central location on a very busy main thoroughfare–I have driven into the parking lot several times but never found an open stall there or anywhere in the neighborhood during the middle of the day. Only found an open stall one time to visit the store and bought a few guitar accessories. Fortunately, we have Coconut Grove Music here in Kailua to visit. New website needs a LOT of work compared to mainland vendors, but that’s pretty standard for businesses in Hawaii where webmasters are hired on a monthly part-time basis, it seems…
I Liked EMC back when they were on keeaumoku or in mapunapuna. Presocialism emc lol
I can’t see how this place stays in business. Poor selection of instruments, amplifiers, and accessories. The salesmen are not very knowledgeable or helpful. It’s the Radio Shack of music stores. Just take your chances and order online.
Glad guitar center is opening up soon. Sales guys are somewhat helpful and one in particular is very helpful all the time and go out the way to do what he can. Although I returned an item a week after purchase because it didn’t fit my rig at all (after buying 3 different types of sub poles from them) only to find out the latest sub pole couldn’t be returned due to a faulty manufacturing part. I even told him that I had nothing to do with it and I come here all the time. His response was “how can I even sell that?”
18. Music Center of Hawaii Inc
Address: 2347 S Beretania St. #200, Honolulu, HI 96826, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
This store is amazing! I had a Jazz brunch gig on a Sunday, and the day before I had a flute that went unplayable. I was in a panic. They had me bring the flute in and repaired it on the spot so I could make my gig. Try getting that kind of service on Amazon… I recently had my flute overhauled, and my flute has never played better. The repairs are top notch, the store is well supplied, the people working there are knowledgeable and friendly. I highly recommend this store.
Outstanding little music store! Hole in the wall locations are always the best. This store continues to provide quality instruments, music and repair at some of the highest levels of expertise for extremely competitive and agreeable prices.
Love music center!
Music Center Of Hawaii is a local music store providing equipment, supplies, and repairs to our local music community for band and orchestras musicians. The service is friendly, reliable, and they will accommodate your needs to the best of their abilities! Music Center is fairly well stocked with instruments and supplies, and they will take the time to order for you whatever they don’t carry at that
time. Highly recommended!!
The shop is great. But the entrance is the only funny thing about the shop. Idk how you would get upstairs with a string bass upstairs with any ease. The shop is quite tight as well.
Friendly staff that looks for your intetest.
A great shop. Much to look at , temptation everywhere for a musician
I didnt know you can’t be laughed at cause you didn’t have enough cash on you … How low class can you be ….
They don’t buy used instrument
19. Best Buy
Address: 98-051 Kamehameha Hwy, Aiea, HI 96701, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
Geek Squad assistance and customer service was excellent.
Customer service counter presonal are clueless and will lie to you. Every one else in the store was knowledgeable, patient and professional. I recommend Best Buy for all your electronic needs.
good
Had to see the geeks. They are so fun!
Absolutely aweful customer service, unlike the Iwilei store. I had to wait 15 minutes before a stock clerk got someone to help me. Then mid-conversation, he just up and left. Seriously, just like that. You’d think he was working on commission and saw a richer target. I had just come from the Iwilei store and what a difference! Never again.
Low on Cashiers so checkout takes forever.
Called them just so I could get transferred to the computer department and they put me on hold 3 times!!! When they answer the phone they should be helping! Worst customer service I have ever experienced out of any Best Buy I’ve gone to.
20. Starbucks
Address: 99-115 Aiea Heights Dr, Aiea, HI 96701, United States , Hālawa Heights , Hawaii , United States
My usual is the Banana Chocolate Vivanno 3 PM. And while this is not the store I frequent, the baristas here have made it perfectly every time, no matter the time of day. Great service and friendly atmosphere is always a nice touch.
言わずと知れたスタバです。
店内はあまり広くなく、いつも混み合ってます。
What can you say Starbucks is over all great good always great in morning the only thing that needs to change is the attitude of employees they like to judge others and talk about the people who enter the store ! I go into store looking like I’m homeless only to see the real reactions of what the employees do yet they don’t know who I am and the real reason of coming which is a great for me to see if they are good people and I discovered s few who are posers and really show there colors by acting like they better then you and really make it known that you don’t belong in the store buying Starbucks. Unfortunately for us we have to put up with this like usual nothing will happen it’s why I need to tell of this behavior ?!!
美味しい
T
Ordered 2 tall coffee of the day and the girl that took the order forgot about it, had to ask the status of our order
I’d give it 0 stars if I could
They have coffee, bagels. At very expensive prices. Go figgah!
