Our son has been attending LMS since Sept 2016, he was 22 months at the time. We were looking for a parent/tot activity in Spanish near our area to keep Spanish in use outside our home. We attended the Saturday parent/tot class for a year and enjoyed it, lots of music activities. The activities are engaging and the music is catchy.
The school also has a preschool program, which we enrolled our son in Aug/Sept 2017. Our son had separation issues. Maria, the founder, was and is amazing helping him adjust and extremely patient with him and with all the children under her care. She would send updates/photos letting us know how he was doing. The communication is very open and scheduling is flexible if something comes up last minute, bonus lots of help with potty training and consistency. All the teachers and staff are great with the children. He’s excited to go to school and always talks about how much fun Brando (teacher) is. At home, we hear him sing the songs he learns at school while he plays with his younger sister. We’ve also started our 13 month old daughter in the parent/tot class this past February.
Best decision we made for our little ones!
Our daughter has grown so much, musically, through her wonderful experience at LMS. Everyone is so knowledgable, professional, and supportive, from the office staff to her great teachers.
Love the diversity and the acceptance of all people groups and a space to do what you love.
It is for younger kids. I went there when I was ten and didn’t learn a ton.
best music school
3. Austin Music Center
Address: 6815 W North Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
I took my trumpet here twice recently for repairs and had a great experience. The owner is very knowledgeable and kind, and my trumpet looked and sounded fantastic when I picked it up. Their prices are also very reasonable. Highly recommend!
Well be using them again!
Cool place
Great deals
I have had some good service from them in the past, but recently I have had a few problems, but nothing to big. I found cheaper ways to get the same thing I get from here but I still come for them for repairs and such.
Doug is a good guy. Not too many string choices, but if you call ahead he can order what you need. Best for elementary and grade school band stuy, but I am happy with my harmonica and ukelele from there.
Cheap instruments, overpriced in my opinion.
4. Oak Park Records
Address: 179 S Oak Park Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
My favorite record store in the world. The used vinyl selection always blows me away with hidden gems. Alan is a cool guy who is always interested in talking all things music. Always a good time.
I’ve been going here for a long time and it’s my favorite record store in the Oak Park area. He has a really good selection and everything is priced reasonably. The inventory rotation feels pretty good and I always find new things.
Great record store with a helpful owner!
The experience was great but they should add more modern rap records
Niche store. Very hard to find parking close to store.
Great prices, good variety!
Wanted to go check out local spot. Got good reviews. Supposedly opened at 11. Guy showed up at 1130. Was pretty rude barely said hello. Selection was less than I was hoping for. Was more interested on finishing his breakfast and watching some show on small TV in back room
5. Guitarra Azul
Address: 1030 Madison St, Oak Park, IL 60302 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
This is the place to go to get work done on your guitar, or to buy a custom guitar. Danche is the best.
Absolute master, whatever stringed comes to his store will sounds much much better. Everyone has to finish phone conversation before entering music store. There is much more important to listen to the music than somebody’s loud phone conversation.
Conclusion, great service at modest price, and always you got some great free advice.
Ordered online. Guitar arrived quickly. Great customer communication.
what he lacks in person to person customer service skills, he makes up for with quality work. this man can bring dead guitars back to life. he can fix ANY stringed instrument.
prices reasonable to high, but worth it.
friendly and cute dog too!
This was just a tragic experience… The gentleman was very nice and said my guitar would be ready by Saturday/Sunday. I said I’d love it if it were ready on Saturday because I was singing kids songs in the morning Sunday. I’m sure it WAS ready Saturday, but unfortunately the woman responsible for calling me did not do so correctly, as I received no message or missed calls. When I checked in on Wednesday, the woman over the phone said that she did call me and that I didn’t check my messages. I informed her that I did check, but there was no message. Rather than apologizing or taking responsibility for misdialing or simply forgetting, she responded annoyed, “check again, because I did call and you do have a message.” I hung up and went ahead to check all of my missed calls and messages… Nothing. When I arrived shortly after in the store, there was no mention of it and no attempt at responsibility.
My kids enjoyed the friendly dog and my guitar is fixed by the nice gentlemen. Unfortunately, I won’t be coming back to this store because the woman was unnecessarily condescending and stubborn.
I paid $65 to have a brand new Squire Telecaster set up. This is a fair price and he did a great job. It was ready when he said it would be.
The owner acts like he’s doing you a favor talking to you like you’re an idiot. Don’t be fooled into thinking he must know his stuff. There are plenty of better, cheaper and nicer techs available at most any Guitar Center. Waste of money and time.
I was thinking to stop by this store but after reading that this guy has no patience, better look in another place!
If you have an store you should learn how to interact with people,
The man that runs this store is incredibly rude. I went in there on the phone with my fiance because I was planning on getting her a guitar possibly and I enjoy helping local businesses and he came up to me saying “oh you just gonna finish your call in here?” and I replied with “well I’m on the phone and looking at guitars and thinking about maybe getting one” and he then said how would I like it if he came in my HOME and finished a call and I honestly was so taken aback by how absolutely rude and disrespectful he was being to me as someone who literally just said I was looking into buying a guitar and wasn’t being in any way loud or disruptive on my phone. I came back during one of my breaks because I work across the street from him and I said how I didn’t appreciate how rude he was being to me over being on the phone and he went on a whole tirade about how it was disrespectful to be on the phone in his store…not even being loud on the phone in his store…he said it was disrespectful to just be ON THE PHONE in his store. I told him how ridiculous that was that no other store on this street cares about you being on the phone some even let you bring your dog into the store. He had no signs posted that said anything about not being on your phone in the store and was BEYOND rude and I will never give him any business again and encourage everyone who reads this to not give him business either.
7. Cappelli Institute of Music
Address: 1053 Lake St, Oak Park, IL 60301 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
I’ve been taking lessons as an adult student here for the last three months and it’s been a fantastic experience. Props to my teacher Natalia Bazzi. She’s wonderful. Highly recommended.
As an adult returning to music lessons after all this years ,I’m having such an amazing experience , rediscovering how healing music is to my busy life . The staff very professional ,encouraging . I specially enjoy attending the adult recitals.
They never answered my phone calls or call me back again. I left a voicemail in the machine 8 months ago and I’m still waiting..!!
8. Boulevard Studio
Address: 1033 South Blvd, Oak Park, IL 60302 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
2nd hand vinyl and cd’s at good prices. Wish they had a better selection of new music. If you want to buy new, order over the phone first so you don’t have to make two trips.
Very fun and the staff were the best
Im a collector, and want good quality and val’s records are very worn. But she does have a good selection and variety. But over priced. If they were not to worn money is not an issue. But don’t let me discourage you. Check it out for yourself.
Rude employee, doesn’t make you want to spend money, plenty of other local record store to give my money to. Sad that I finally found a record I was searching for, but didn’t feel like checking out and giving this employee my money. Search around and go somewhere that will value your business
Nothing exceptional, older records are still pricey, the old hag up front gave me a ton of flack asking if she could order an Anticon record for me. (pretty widely known indie hip-hop label, she berated me and the band the entire time)
Been going to this place since it opened the last century. Chris(owner) is an Oak Park icon who knows his stuff and helpful. Whether it’s buying the same Fleetwood Mac CD for the 3rd time or opera , you’re likely to leave with more than one. Thanks Chris
Chris gets me music other folk can’t ,he’s kool !
This is a great place to go if you want actual CDs, not a download. If you plan to look around, pack a lunch. If you want a special order, this is the place. Chris is friendly and helpful. This place is why physical media will not disappear.
12. My Music Lessons LLC
Address: 816 Harrison St, Oak Park, IL 60304 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
My son has been taking lessons for 6 years. The instructors are great. Phil is so good with kids for their 2 concerts per year. Worth coming out to check it out!
Awesome experience for my daughter as well as myself. She received Beginner Piano Lessons and absolutely loved Igor’s teaching style. Sad to be moving out of the area and discontinuing her lessons. We highly recommend this school for music lessons.
The administrator “N” was very helpful and thorough. She was able to accommodate me and my children. I also have a special needs child and My Music Lessons instructors were able to meet his needs. I am very satisfied with how we were welcomed and taken care of.
Wonderful pianos and tuning. Oak Park is very lucky to have this small business!!
Wolfgang Loentz is the best piano technician I have ever known. He made several corrections and refinements to my Mason & Hamlin AA grand piano, after other technicians said nothing could be done. He’s also a fine musician, so he understands what a pianist needs to play well. Highly recommended.
Best piano service in town
17. School of Rock
Address: 219 Lake St, Oak Park, IL 60302 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
My son took a “boot camp” over this summer, and has now opted to continue with the ongoing format (a weekly individual lesson as well as a weekly group practice). This is a wonderful model: I love the song choices, and I love the staff’s approach to these kids. I was also really happy about the ease of scheduling lessons at a time that works for us, and the general upbeat “no problem” approach to customer service. Best of all, my son is developing a strong interest in playing music that I hope will carry him a long time. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
I can’t say enough of how great this school is. Such an amazing place to learn how to rock. The staff was very friendly and helpful.
It is a great place for kids to learn, grow and express themselves. The Oak Park School of Rock is a great community. The environment is supportive and the staff works hard to bring the best of out of their students. Highly recommended!
I appreciate how teachers adjust their plan for individuals as well as the fact that students receive both a solo lesson and a group lesson.
9/10, not enuf jaz
MAC DEMARCO
18. Kagan and Gaines Music Co., Inc
Address: 7655 Roosevelt Rd, Forest Park, IL 60130 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
This place is the best. The staff couldn’t be any more service orientated, they always go above and beyond to help there customers out. They were very patient with me ( a non musician) on a problem with my child’s violin. I can’t recommend Kagan and Gaines highly enough for all your music needs.
They’re great folks. When they learned I was leaving for college today instead of tomorrow, they immediately called up their technician and worked to get my guitar to me ASAP (after having previously offered to get me a discount on shipping if we had to ship it off to me). I was a little frustrated that they didn’t call me with an estimate, which they said they would do, but I don’t blame them considering that the technician had to get a medical procedure done. Tremendously grateful they were able to get my guitar to me within a couple hours of calling (and with a reasonably priced cleanup for it too!). Will definitely be coming back here to get my guitar fixed up in the future.
This place is awesome! I was looking to get my electric bass setup for the first time ever and was on the fence for a while about going to a Guitar Center. Then I remembered there being a music store near the Walmart on Roosevelt. I checked on Google maps to see if it was still around and it sure is!
Took my bass in on a Friday not knowing how long I’d be instrumentless for and was surprised to receive a phone call the following Monday that it was ready! I thought I would be waiting until at least Thursday. The folks here left it sounding, looking, and feeling like a whole new instrument all over again.
I’ll definitely be back for any and all my musical needs from here on out. If you’re like me and also curious about this local business, give them a shot!
45 dollars for an on the spot (30 min) electric guitar restring, minus the price for the strings, is a little steep, folks. I appreciate the good work, but I can get the same treatment for a lot less at A Sound Education off Ogden.
Nice and helpful staff, but they require you to give them your phone number to make a purchase. No thanks. Took my business elsewhere.
I gave this place a bad review after dealing with a younger employee But when the manager was alerted to the situation (A few days later) it was dealt with fairly. Kagan and Gains has a long time reputation in their neighborhood of being the first choice for musical lessons of any instrument and Fair pricing on instruments and accessories. It may not be the best place to shop for a new guitar But they can handle all your needs afterwords. I recommend them for all your strings, Guitar cases, Band instruments, ect. You will find all of them are of good quality and pricing.
I hate to agree with the user below who complained of a dishonest experience, but we are going through the same. I’ve read all of the other 5 star reviews and notice a pattern: it seems that for violin and stringed instruments, this is a great place. For renting brass/woodwind instruments via their monopoly with the school districts, they are subpar and dishonest. We should have just purchase a used instrument which would have resulted in us obtaining a superior instrument at, I am not exaggerating, 1/4 the total cost. We just had to call them to stop processing our credit card when we noticed we had been paying an abnormally long time on my daughter’s VERY USED, VERY DENTED saxophone (4 years!). We were “reassured” that, coincidentally, they were just going to call us as well as our payments happened to be completed. Yet they have no records of all the payments that we made, and are asking us to provide payment records going back to 2017 to “prove” how much we have paid in total. Luckily for us, we can easily provide them as they have all been made on the same credit card for years. We are also disputing the amount owed as our daughter’s original “nicer” model saxophone broke, was taken in for repairs, and she was given a loaner, student-model, older and dented sax. Her other one was never repaired and instead she’s just had this one forever. We were told at the time it would be “worked out.” Now they want us to pay the same amount as they were going to charge for the initial instrument to keep this replacement instrument permanently, as they also claim to have NO record that any switch was ever made or that the original saxophone was ever brought in for repairs. Typically, I endeavor to support neighborhood shops, but not when their record keeping is straight out of Mayberry. This is taking a lot of our time and energy to sort out, and we’ve ultimately laid out over $2300 to own an instrument that I have found at multiple music stores online for around $600 and under. We understand that renting the own is typically more expensive, but this feels like being swindled in every way. Extremely disappointed. My husband has been playing music for over 40 years – he also used to play saxophone – and his mother is a professional classical musician. He is used to dealing with all sorts of music shops and has never had an experience like this one.
19. Casey Music
Address: 1142 Chicago Ave # 6, Oak Park, IL 60302 , Oak Park , Illinois , United States
