The teacher is not only an amazing, kind-hearted, smart and trustworthy person but he is also one of the best musicians I have seen around. I have been in the music business for most of my life having taken many singing and guitar lessons from different people and he has to be the most patient musician I have collaborated with yet.
The acoustic guitar was the perfect sound for the vibe we were going for- and Jim is extremely professional and an excellent musician. He helped us choose all of our ceremony songs- I really had no clue where to start – and they turned out fantastic! I would highly recommend Jim – he was amazing to work with and was the perfect addition to our wedding day!
I had my first lesson today and was impressed to say the least. Sathyam helped me get warmed up and then we did several exercises where he was assessing my voice quality. He then taught me a technique I can use while singing a song to check and see if my larynx is tightening up. I was very impressed at how efficiently our time was used and how much I learned in just the first visit. Highly recommended.
I booked a lesson with this company weeks ago. I’ve called the company and the instructor dozens of times with zero response. I’ve sent emails, and still have them, asking for a call, email or smoke signals if they prefer, to let me know whats happening. Today I logged into my account and the lessons I’ve paid for are no longer in my account and all my money is gone. This isn’t the company I thought it was, and I hope you can help make sure no one else gets scammed, thanks.
2. American Music Store
Address: 1279 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas, CA 92024 , Rancho Santa Fe , California , United States
Needed a guitar and amp rental and the owner quickly put together a nice setup, affordable, and easy to work with. Thanks!
Great experience here. Staff was super nice, was greeted immediately and felt very welcome. Guitar picks are 2 for $1! Best Music Store in North County.
Bud is the best in the business when it comes to getting work done on your guitar. He’s very honest and isn’t trying to sell you on empty promises. I take all of my guitars here. I tell all my friends to take their guitars there too.
The shop leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve only dealt with the repair side of the shop, and after the last incident, I won’t be returning. The greying owner is of little to no value. Unhelpful. I brought a piece of gear to get fixed back in September or October of 2020. After about 4 weeks, I called the repair guy and he hadn’t yet looked at it. Understandable as he said they were busy. Another 4 weeks go by and I still hadn’t heard anything back, so I decide to call. The repairman had taken a look, couldn’t quite figure out the problem and said he’d be able to drop it off in a week as he just did a drop off and told me he tried to call me. When? I received no calls from him, no missed calls, nothing! I called this shop multiple times. Showed up 3 times between December 2020 and February 2021 during hours posted and nothing. Lights out. No sign. Nothing. Finally, after roughly 6 months of waiting to pick up my still broken gear, I called and finally got through to someone. He stated they were open till 6 and I told him I could be there by 545 and he said, “Well, I have things to do later” as if he wasn’t planning on even staying open that late.
Would’ve appreciated any sort of updates on the status of my gear instead of having to jump through hoops to figure out what was going on. Poor communication, rude service.
The owner of this store is the worst I’ve ever seen at any music store I’ve been to. I asked him to setup my guitar specifically to a lower tuning which he had no problem with and a full setup. The thing was, I was considering selling this guitar and possibly trading in for another one. So this guy gives me the offer that if I don’t like his setup, and it’s not perfect, I could trade mine for one of his on the wall. I said that’s a good idea because I barely had any money at the time. After the job the guitar had horrible tuning stability, dead frets, and a notch in one of the frets he told me that made the guitar unsellable and he wouldn’t touch it. Unbelievable I try to take it over and over again to get him to do the job right and he says the guitar isn’t meant for lower tunings. Maybe it would’ve been better to mention that at first. Pathetic. Waste your money elsewhere if you’re a sensible person
Place is cluttered with old equipment and guitars being worked on to the point where it feels unsafe to walk around to look at guitars on display. As for the guitars on display their all out of tune, dusty and not setup so they don’t feel playable. The man working the front seemed knowledgeable but reluctant to try and sell anything or help find guitars that weren’t up on display. Selection of gear seems limited/ used and or ill-maintained. Amps could not be tested because guitar lessons were taken place in the other room that must not have been sound proofed. I can’t speak for how good the guitar lessons are but as for the rest of the shop it seemed neglected and appeared to have no interest in selling any gear.
3. Music Mart
Address: 122 S Solana Hills Dr, Solana Beach, CA 92075 , Rancho Santa Fe , California , United States
Great place, Heritage dealer. Very knowledgeable and patient staff.
Needed some guitar strings and Jeremy was super knowledgeable, friendly and helpful.10/10!
Small shop but a great selection of decent and high end guitars. John was very helpful to answer my questions. These folks listen to your needs, provide valuable feedback and best of all they are not pushy salesmen. Jeff also jumped in to advise why an amp can be useful to a beginner. Pay these guys a visit; you’ll be happy you did.
Good place but they don’t carry fender products so
Terrible service. They can’t stay focused on helping the next customer. Nice shop and nice people, but was very disappointed in the service (or lack of) that I received. I got passed over for other customers several times. Not good.
4. Violinesse Violin Studios
Address: 16950 Via De Santa Fe, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 , Rancho Santa Fe , California , United States
The 1 hour alchemy crystal bowl sound bath at Sacred Sound of the Soul was incredibly grounding and relaxing. I am fighting a minor infection at the moment and I felt a surge of energy as the experience was coming to a close. Noriko is very gifted at blending the singing with gentle gonging of the bowls. I would have like them to be mic-ed for a little more amplification (my mat was at the perimeter of the room). These sound baths are a gift to the self just as other healing modalities such as body massage or mat infrared light therapy. Highly recommend.
I have been to the Sacred Sound for multiple sound yoga classes, each experience is unique, transformative and mind & auditoryly phenomenal! It’s like a long, multiple orgasm, in my ear!
The sounds the crystal tones bowls make is otherworldly. The vibrations work down to the cellular level, energizing each single cell it vibrates. I had no idea a musical instrument like a crystal tones bowl can create such bliss. Truly ear & mind blowing.
Speaking of blowing, there’s the flute, also drums and a guitar like instrument. The variety of musical instruments, combined yoga, breathwork and meditation elevates the practice. Often, I’m so inspired after a yoga class there I dream of being a certified sound yoga instructor, playing for my yoga students or how I can incorporate sound into my meditation.
Needles to say, I love crystal tones bowls and the beautiful music they produce in the hands of seasoned sound yoga teacher. Try it out, you will vibrate at a higher frequency!
7. Guitar Sounds
Address: 4407 Manchester Ave # 104, Encinitas, CA 92024 , Rancho Santa Fe , California , United States
Orphaned Objects is so much more than just a resale shop! It’s like a boutique, with something for everyone. All proceeds go to the Helen Woodward Animal Center and support the wonderful animals in search of their forever homes. It’s a store that supports a great cause and has truly awesome items!
Great place to look around
High end thrift shop. For example, we found a woman’s Armani suit. Lots of brand name clothing and furnishings. You have to know your prices to know if the prices are right. They did have a beautiful leather coat… unfortunately it was made for a tall person–but the price seemed like a bargain.
An expensive thrift shop. Some very nice high-end items (like a brand name purse that originally sold for 500 you can buy for 200 at Orphaned Objects) but mostly just same stuff as Goodwill but at 5x the price.
I liked it except for the passive aggressive dark haired lady sales associate not sure what her problem was. She was just rude and is bad at customer service. Hey guess what it’s a thrift store you are suppose to sell things. Other then that it’s alright a little overpriced and the other sales associates are really nice.
Be aware! this Thrifty store overprices their used items you can end-up paying more for the same thing that if purchased it new! Check prices with google before you buy something in this store. They are really abusing their customers.
13. James Nichols- Solana Beach Guitarist-Guitar and Piano Teacher
Fantastic! My daughter loves to go there and has so much fun learning the piano. And I love their super professional, excellent staff. Excellent spot
My daughter took piano lessons at Leading Note Studios for about 6 years and unfortunately we had to say good bye last December because we moved to another State. For all those years, I couldn’t wish for a better place! Camille, the owner, was extremely professional and a good human being; my daughter’s piano teacher, Ms. Mary, was outstanding! I highly recommend Leading Note Studio!
I LOVE Leading Note Studios. My daughter has been a student there for over 5 years. My daughter has been lucky enough have had lessons from several teachers. She also has enjoyed camps and recitals too. What sets the studio over the top is that they have a recording studio as well, and my daughter has had the chance to record and mix her own music! Keep up the great work Leading Notes.
17. “Bloom Again,” the RSF Garden Club Upscale Resale Shop
Address: Corner of La Granada &, 17025 Avenida De Acacias, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 , Rancho Santa Fe , California , United States
We love The Fine Tune Academy! Our daughter started in 5th grade and focuses on drums. The lessons are challenging, but she loves them and her instructors, so she’s happy to work hard. One thing I didn’t expect but love, are all the fun events we get to attend to support the kids. Fine Tune doesn’t put on the typical music recitals, they kids play proper rock concerts! They play community events, street fairs, family friendly breweries, beach front hotels, as well as host their own concerts. The instructors perform at these events too so we get the added treat of hearing genuinely talented adult musicians perform as well. The kids can also opt to get studio time and film videos for their bands! Our daughter has had and continues to have such a great experience at The Fine Tune Academy. We highly recommend this school.
Our 7 years experience with Fine Tune Academy has been amazing!
Our son and daughter started to take lessons as young kids and both advanced quickly in
playing guitar, piano, ukulele, singing and songwriting.
Their teacher is very knowledgeable, passionate, energetic and fun! They have always enjoyed their lessons
and so did we, since the lessons are in our home, and we could always listen in and enjoy their progress.
They both performed in many shows that Fine Tune Academy has put on, Street fairs, Open Mics, Del Mar Fair….
It helped them to become confident performers.
We would highly recommend Fine Tune Academy!
Rick and Ivona Clark
Our daughter has learned so much over a short period of time with Fine Tune Academy, we could not be happier. She loves her instructor and is very motivated to practice and improve. Along with learning skills on the guitar, she has learned how to perform in front of an audience, and has had many opportunities to do so because of Fine Tune Academy. She is having fun and has gained confidence. We are so glad that we made the switch to Finr Tune Academy, it is the best!
It is with some regret that I am revising my original, very positive review of Finn and The Fine Tune Music Academy. I went looking for an instructor for my 9 year old son, and secondarily, for myself. I found Finn at Fine Tune and started lessons for both of us. I will say that our first lessons were very well planned and structured. Finn was always positive, fun, and encouraging. He was a welcome visitor in our home–to the point that we exchanged gifts and my wife often sent him home with treats! Over time, I found the lessons to be less prepared and structured, but both my son and I continued to enjoy and look forward to our time with Finn. We took lessons every week for roughly 6 months, after which I decided that as a properly motivated adult with some playing experience, I could continue on my own for a bit while my son continued his lessons with Finn. I let Finn know via email that we would both continue our lessons for one more month (giving him plenty of notice of the change) and that my son would then continue by himself thereafter. In response, Finn cancelled all of our lessons, effectively immediately and stopped responding to me entirely. I thought there must have been some miscommunication, but as I continued to inquire with Finn, I confirmed that after I notified him that I would only be taking one more month of lessons, he did not want to finish those lessons nor continue at all with my son. I found it particularly troubling that someone who teaches children just getting into music would walk away from a nine year old kid so abruptly. Finn did say that my son could continue with “another Fine Tune instructor”, but I certainly would not consider this option after the very unprofessional way Finn treated us. As I told Finn directly, I was shocked and saddened by this unexpected turn.
We have been working with Sally Piano for over a year now . We used to take lessons in San Diego and recently moved to the Irvine area and found out they offer lessons in the are and we were so excited that we can keep working with them. They have a great music program and our son takes guitar lessons and our daughter takes Piano and Voice. our teachers are so wonderful with our kids and they try to make each lesson fun for them. They have been learning so many songs over the past few months and they are getting ready for their summer recital. Recitals are very well organized and at each recital , they have trophies and prizes for all the kids which keep the kids motivated. They also offer the Piano Guild exams and certifications and we are looking to start that for our kids this year …
