Exclusive selection: The top 18 music shops of Sherman

Love it!

It will open for the season on April 1st. It is quite a large store with beautiful items. Run by volunteers. The prices are reasonable. Can’t wait to go back.
I went on April 1st. Opening day fir this years season. Wonderful! Beautiful gift shop. With lovely volunteers to greet you and help. Can’t wait for my next trip.

Nice quaint store, filled with great gift items, friendly staff very helpful they had the book I have been searching for

Great honest shop here. Had a great online interaction with Dave via email. Want to know why I trust them? Because they talked me out of a purchase. Ha! Thanks again!

Woodbury Music is the best shop around of all of your instrument needs! The shop owner Dave, is both friendly & knowledgeable! I have gotten both common things done (fixing of saxophone keys) as well as unusual things done (fixing of a dulcimer bridge) and everyone has always been great! I have also taken lessons for almost three years now, and my teacher Mike is not only a dedicated teacher, but also a very talented professional. Stop by and check it out!

A hidden gem UPSTAIRS. Don’t miss it. Dave the owner is great, and talented. Patrick Gill is the PREMIER guitar TECH in the whole northwest CT region. He works miracles at a very fair price. Excellent teachers, Will for piano and keyboards and Mike for guitar and bass. Better check them out. I only trust my guitars to Dave and Patrick. Won’t go anywhere else. Seriously.

Albert and Andre were absolutely amazing and they helped me find the prefect stand for my violin. They let me try it out and showed me several alternatives to help make sure I was satisfied with my purchase!
I highly recommend BMC for all music needs.

Staff is friendly and helpful! Bought a used violin for my granddaughter, brought it back to trade it in, was given a fair trade in price, will be picking out a new used one!

This place is amazing. The people working there today were super helpful and professional. From the phone call inquiring about an instrument to actually renting it. The whole process was super easy and fast. I will definitely recommend them to anyone looking to rent an instrument.

Just stopped by quick. Had a great hour. They are the best

Good info from employees

Instrument rentals are great for their prices

Keith took great care of me! I’m a beginner guitar player and broke one of my strings, had no clue what to do. I purchased the strings there and he taught me how to put them on right in the store. He even tuned my guitar, and gave me some tips to keep it maintained. Service like that is RARELY found. TY Keith!!

Our 13 year old son has been taking private saxophone lessons at ” The Music Shop” for over 4 years, starting with Leo Liddle. Keith Wilson, a very talented musician took over as his teacher and we love his dedication and perseverance to help expand our son’s musical knowledge with the sax, while also making it fun. The expansion of his new location makes the updated atmosphere a wonderful learning environment, and also has great on site repair service.

Keith has has done maintenance on my flutes several times and at a reasonable cost. Now all my flutes play much better. He is a flute player himself and very personable. I’m grateful for him and the lovely music shop.

Friendly staff and good price for instrument rentals.

I signed up through a coupon website for my four children. They enjoyed it very much!! I felt like my kids were in good, capable, knowledgeable hands and I would have continued lessons except for the distance, we live about 30 minutes away. Thank you Turnpike Music Garage!!

My son has been taking guitar lessons with Don. He has been introduced to many artists and looks forward to his lessons. We chose the Music Garage because we wanted our son to learn the basics and build a foundation for playing guitar.

A little hard to find, but owner was very helpful in my search for a solid-woods Classical guitar. Looked at a very nice A/Yari. Has some nice guitars, but he is limited by space constraints. If the f-ups in Washington and the greedy sob’s on Wall St would all drop dead, this store would have a good chance of growing.

Had an excellent selection of strings. Plan on visiting again soon.

I got My sons cello at this store and the bridge was broken and the stand

I bought a Maton Mini from Blue Bus – great service, price and product. Will definitely go back to them again!

I can’t say enough about this place, it really is much, much more than your average music shop.
Owners Sanna and Patrick are kind, thoughtful and very customer focused. I purchased a beautiful Maton guitar and an AER amplifier there and also had Patrick do some work on my old Guild acoustic, and my experiences were extremely positive. Patrick took time with me and really understood what my goals were musically, and all his advice and recommendations were very useful. Sanna was also great, and always got back to me very promptly with any questions or concerns I had along the way.
Blue Bus also has a dedicated team of teachers that I also highly recommend, available to teach people of all skill levels.
They also have an “open mic” evening which has been put on hold because of the pandemic, but I know they want to resume it when things get better (which can’t happen fast enough).
It has been a real pleasure to support this local business, the individualized customer focus from them makes it so worthwhile.
Highly recommend!!

Good prices friendly service. Fixed up my old Yamaha acoustic guitar and got it sounding great.

Nice looking small shop with an interesting selection of off brand guitars. I always like when the smaller shops aren’t afraid to stock higher end gear. The selection of acoustic guitars especially. The pedal section could use some fleshing out.

Bought a Maton guitar ….. company doesn’t have a clue on how to set a guitar up….. I have purchased no less then 50 guitars been playing for 50 years…. this company shouldn’t be allowed to sell guitars much less Maton .

Needed one string for my son violin rental. The lady was trying to sell me on a pack of strings that I do not need.

Big Jim is great! Very knowledgeable & helpful Great customer service!

Employees are fast to ask me if I needed help. They made suggestions(along with why they suggested it) and answered all of my questions without asking someone else for help which means that really know what they are talking about. I bought a drum set for the brother here and they helped him pick out the perfect set for what he needed it for. They also helped him find a few sticks that matched what he liked. They checked what they had in stock and we were out in less than an hour.

I have been shopping at the New Haven Sam Ash for maybe 20 years. As of recently both of my kids have become very interested in learning instruments and recording and even live sound.
I found a great package deal online for a keyboard for my oldest and scheduled a store pickup the Friday before Christmas. Not only was everything ready for me when I got there, but the entire staff put together amazing service and the best shopping cover up ever!
My youngest fell in love with a violin package and not only were we able to purchase the last one, but the staff did everything they could and worked as a team to get me out of there with a gift for my son, who was with me at the time, without him even realizing.
Quality of product, amazing prices and the best customer service I have ever had. The team at the New Haven Sam Ash is top notch and is more the reason why I am a customer for life.

Costumer service depends on who attends to you. Other than that its a good musicians store

The staff is what makes this place great! Billy, the manager, is a class act who goes out of his way for his fellow musicians

Always a solid selection of guitars. Knowledgeable staff that will approach and acknowledge you. For a chain, this store is consistently very good.

Rude and didn’t give me the time of day to hear what I had to say or help me

No one greeted me and asked if I needed help.

I went to Sam Ash music New Haven, CT, looking to hopefully purchase a banjo or gain some valuable information I might need to move forward. An employee named ”John” (Guitar department) was helping me through this experience. However, when I declined to purchase a banjo there due to several reasons, mostly their poor selection, he instantly became very rude and snappy and hastly ripped the instrument from my hand. This is definitely do to the fact these employees make their money via-commision. Guess John was just acting nice to customers and is not truly a sincere helpful guy…

A fantastic environment all around with great employees to teach of all levels. Would recommend them every time!

I highly recommend Greenwich Music for lessons, gear, and repairs. Friendly professional staff and service.

So thankful to Greenwich Music! I went in to “rent” a drum set for our musical at Riverside School last weekend. On a limited budget I went in hoping for a “deal”. Joe, the owner, did not hesitate to loan us the drums for our practices and all three performances! Peter Pan was a wonderful performance- the music added to the greatness!

We were kindly helped in the store, but we were buying a guitar for our son and we don’t live in the US. We were having problems with internet so we couldn’t research correctly at the moment, but they assured that the amp could be used in 220 current. We arrived home and we connected the amp and it didn’t work. So the amp was burned. Apart from that the price was a bit higher than the same thing in other stores, it’s not nice to pay 50 dollars more, but that is just business and anyone can charge what they want. It was our fault that we didn’t do a good research before buying. But the very kind person that assured us that it would work because he used to be an electrician, and it only needed a basic adapter, was totally wrong and now we are home and we lost an amp, so we paid extra for the set and it didn’t work. You were very kind indeed, but please if you are not sure about something, don’t sell it. Because we lost money and we can’t go back because we don’t live there.

It’s a nice place! It’s a bit small but otherwise it’s nice.

Their hours aren’t very convenient and I was having a guitar strung and I dropped it off and I didn’t get a call before the store closed and then they were closed the next day Sunday so I didn’t get my guitar until Monday and that was extremely inconvenient. They also have a very small selection of basses.Update, they aren’t even open a couple hours on the 4th of July so I won’t get my guitar till Tuesday I am very upset with this store.

Rudest customer service I have ever encountered. The man I spoke to on the phone yelled and hung up on me. When my daughter went in person to drop off the instrument for repair at the agreed upon time, he remained upset and kicked my daughter out of the store. Strongly encourage anyone looking to have their instruments fixed to look elsewhere. Disappointing experience to say the least.

Terrible customer service. Called and said I would be by in 10 minutes for an emergency repair. Guy was nice on the phone. When I arrived 5 minutes early they had closed up and locked. Super helpful…

Great Equipments and awesome service

Good experience

Great music store.

Not Happy with associate’s knowledge of products

Buenisimo

Not bad for a big chain type music store. Lots of good used gear, plus tons of new stuff. If you go there during one of their big sales, you can get some pretty sweet deals.

Don’t know whats going on with this place. Stopped by last week, couldn’t tell if they are going out of business, or just got robbed. Next to no inventory, things out of place. Store beat up and run down looking. Was once a great store. Almost always walked out buying something in the past. Now just a handful of overpriced guitars behind 1 counter and bunch of junk hanging on 1 wall. I wish them the best.

Customer service is nonexistent. Came in with my boyfriend to pick up an order that was placed online and was to arrive at the store within 5 days. Associates said that an email would be sent when the order arrived at the store. Two weeks later, no email is sent so we track the package and come to find that the package was delivered a week ago. We arrive at the store and wait at the service desk that says “Online Order Pick-Up” for a while. 10 minutes later, we are redirected to another part of the store. Why would there be a specific part of the store for online order pick ups when it isn’t used?? We wait for another 15-20 minutes while one salesperson is standing around not helping a customer. Finally, someone helps us and all we had to do was a sign a piece of paper and leave with the product. We spent about 30 minutes waiting to sign a piece of paper and pick up something we already paid for. It sucked.

There’s no place on earth like the Orange Guitar Center, and that’s for the best. I’ve been coming to this location for the past 15 years, and its decline over that time period is tragic. I remember when I was a kid it was my favourite music store. The employees made me feel so welcome even though I was barely a beginner. Now, it couldn’t be more opposite. I had some time to kill after work today and I needed some strings so I took a short drive down. There must’ve been 3 or 4 employees, and maybe 2 or 3 customers. I walked around for 20 minutes without even a glance from any of the people working there. When I finally was offered assistance, I asked to play one of the locked used guitars ($2k) and the employee looked at me like I just shot somebody in front of him. “Are you going to buy it today? Because that isn’t something we normally do” (B.S., I’ve asked to play guitars 3x as expensive at other locations and they were happy to oblige me). How am I going to know if I want to buy an instrument before I get to play it? The employee begrudgingly, as if he was doing me a favour, got up from behind the desk he had been sitting at for the past 20 minutes and unlocked it for me. I fiddled around with it for a short while, and it was immediately evident that the guitar was in dire need of a fret dressing and general clean-up, which they failed to do when they bought it in. I then headed into the acoustic room to check it out before I left. As I was getting ready to head out, a customer stopped me and asked me if I could help him pick a guitar. I wish I could say that was the first time that’s happened here, but this is the 3rd time in the past few months that a customer has been so desperate for help, and made feel so unwelcome by the staff that they had to ask me, another customer, for help. I pointed out a Yamaha to him, and as I was taking it down I noticed it had the wrong tag on it and was priced $100 higher than it should be. And god forbid you actually get help and make it to the register, because that’s where they’re gonna try as hard as they can to push Asurion’s insurance coverage on whatever you’re buying. Many employees will ask you 3+ times if you want it. I’ve seen others refuse to take no for an answer, and they will often gang up on you to make you uncomfortable enough to capitulate and say yes just to get out of there. This is mainly corporate’s fault, as the main metric they care about is insurance attachment. I’ve seen the District Manager show up to stores and berate the staff in front of customers for failing to hit their insurance sales goal. It is incredibly predatory, especially towards beginners. I was foolish enough to get the insurance once and I eventually had to give up trying to use it due to the constant run-around I got from Asurion. I worked for GC for a few years and that was ultimately one of the main reasons I left. The only reason they get 2 stars is because they have a very full and extensive selection of gear. I implore you not to visit this store, and I implore you further not to give any Guitar Center location your money. They care nothing for art or creativity after the Debt-Leveraged buy-out and only will help you if they think you’re gonna spend a lot of money. For shame.

It was our first time there. We did the wine tasting. The wine was very good. We will be back for lunch next time.

Great sweet and semi sweet fruit wines. The tasting room was nice to sit in. Will be back

Great little low key winery. We went there today for the Quince Festival. We both loved the little food box we received with various quince related meals. This was our second time here and we’ll be coming back as it’s literally a few minutes from our house. There was a nice guy there that helped me out when it was packed and I needed to close out my tab…he walked behind the bar and was able to expedite us. Thanks!

So pretty

Came here on a mini fam vacay and it was so lovely. Definitely come on a good weather day because the view you get of the vineyard the silo and the farm across the street is so nice. We liked the ground level table by the flower bushes very pretty! The wine flight was a good and affordable plus there cheese platter was very yummy. Only thing was there wasn’t a ton of choices for the wines or cheeses or sliced meat. But other than that the experience was so lovely; we watched hawks, drank, laughed and took a nice stroll along the vineyard as well.

Great little stop for some tasty wine samples along 37 on the way home.

Not a friendly stop on the CT wine trail. The two women working the tastings made me feel like my being there was more of an inconvenience than an opportunity to sell their wine. After all this, she asked for a gratuity! They were not friendly, not up for questions about their product them asked for a tip?!?! Not headed back there anytime soon

awful wine food and customer service
Do not recommend

The young lady doing the tasting was very nice and polite but as we went outside we tried to bring our own food and was told we couldn’t bring it, but they were also bringing a whole tray of hot dogs and hamburgers. I said ok I’ll bring it back to the car can we buy these ( hot dogs and hamburgers) we were told ohh no you can go inside and buy a cheese tray. We brought back our food as we watched a big group of people eat Hamburgers and hotdogs as we were told with no food. They also have stairs leading to a table and we were told we couldn’t go up the stairs out of safety but had to go around to go up a path. It was a highly disappointing experience besides the lovely tasting host especially after visiting Land of Nod, sunset vineyards, and Hopkins Winery.

Great lessons for all ages, good gear, super friendly teachers.

So I have been battleing this in my head for awhile so I just happen to notice this little shop walked in knowing very little, was super friendly, and answered all my questions, by the time I left he had me set to buy one, So today I’m going to go buy it, I. So excited !!!

The people here are friendly, knowledgeable, supportive and very helpful. I have been taking bass guitar lessons here and am absolutely amazed with my progress. Besides the one-on-one lessons, I also enjoy their group sessions where we get to learn and practice songs together. I also bought a couple instruments, strings, amplifier and some accessories from them at great prices. If you want to take lessons on any musical instrument, or want to rent or buy any musical instrument, I highly recommend the Music Bureau, conveniently located at Salem Four Corners.

This business has changed hands a few times. But still has a great selection of core instruments and accessories. Also offer lessons.

So during this pandemic we are dealing with I felt myself wanting to start jamming again. So with almost every retail store being closed and having to rely on online and waiting, (I’m not patient,lol) I took a shot to see if any guitar stores were possibly doing curbside in Ct. Found the music shop in southington,ct was doing curbside. Upon calling I spoke with Scott, great customer service!! After talking to Scott about my music style and and what I was looking for, within 20 mins I had received pictures and fell in love with what scott suggested. Normally when I buy a guitar, its multiple guitars i play and usually takes a couple hours to choose. Let me tell you scott nailed it!!!! The guitar, an ibanez art120 and a 75watt peavey amp with effects and cab sounds built in…and let me tell you both products are hands down amazing!!! On top of that within 20 mins he threw a new set of strings on and did a full setup!!!! Totally worth the hour and a half ride!!!! These guys rock, thanks again scott!!!!!!!

The best small town music shop! I love how friendly everyone is there. Especially Scott, he is always very upbeat and knowledgeable. He looks out for the customer’s best interest. I would definitely recommend The Music Shop to anyone.

I’ve been taking saxophone lessons at The Music Shop for a couple of years at this point, and I can’t say enough good things about them. I’ve had a few different instructors here, all of whom have been friendly, knowledgeable, and fun. The lesson times are convenient and the pricing competitive. I often say that learning a new instrument as an adult is one of the best things I’ve done for myself, and I’m glad I chose The Music Shop for this purpose!

The cellos were in not in good shape and we had to pay a luthiere to redo repairs that were poorly done when we received the instrument.

Great place but website could be better such as pics of some used equipment. I’m a drummer and would like to see what they have for new and used cymbals,stands,drum kits etc. And prices. I have done business with them and always had a great experience the reason for three stars is the website doesn’t do the music shop justice. All and all great store great people.

My daughter’s piano teacher in East Hampton recommended this store for the purchase of a piano. Thank you Gil for your help selecting one of your pianos. We purchased our piano several days before Christmas as a gift for my daughter. As it can be challenging to find delivery at the holidays, the store owner went out of his way to deliver the piano personally on Christmas Eve. The piano sounds wonderful and my daughter was thrilled. Thanks for the excellent service, wonderful piano, and beautiful music that now fills my home.

Came here for some guitar strings and the employee was super awesome

I didn’t come to purchase any thing but the employees were more than happy to show me their selection and teach me about the purpose of the parts on the guitars/bass.

Very knowledgeable and friendly.

My daughter is signed up for lessons and her teacher is great (I hear the others are as well). Just try not to deal with the guy that owns it.

I tried to return my daughter’s Viola due to the school no longer providing classes. It was a total nightmare to get an answer in regards to my credit. They are very irresponsible and I am very disappointed by the lack of care towards my return which was even misplaced! Mom and dad are not helpful at all and he should really look at keeping them home, they make things worse!

Arrived at 10:00am (they open at 10am, but not today). I waited and they finally arrived. All I needed was guitar strings, but they had none. What a waste of time.

Highest quality guitars, sold by a great staff at very competitive prices!

The guitars in this shop are amazing; all of them make me sound like a guitar hero. The staff is friendly, knowledgable and more than happy to help.

I love this store. Ian and Dan are very knowledgeable and made my shopping experience one to remember. I was able try many different guitars and was able to find the guitar that was right for me.

Had a guitar cable when I needed it.

Not many mandolins

Thé Owners are lousy business

No prices listed

Cool place good use equipment for sale too

Knowledgeable staff.

Great customer service definitely would visit again

Nice record (and CD) shop to find those classics on vinyl that you’re looking for. After Cutler’s in New Haven closed and I purchased a turntable, I was desperate to find a record shop. I was lucky to find that Merle’s was still in business. The owner told me that he purchased a lot of Cutler’s stock. When I was browsing the store, looking for Jazz, Vocal, and Classical, the pickings were very thin, but I was able to pickup four albums to get me started. The owner played an album for me so I could check it out because I was unfamiliar with the record, which I really appreciated! He was also very knowledgeable, which is a huge plus when dealing with vintage music – you have to know what you’re selling. I’m only giving it 4 stars because of the selection, I wish it was like Cutler’s… I guess I went in with that in mind…

Went in to trade in some of my old receivers and turntables. The staff was very friendly and helpful and gave me a reasonable amount in store credit I used to pick up something I wanted. Excellent selection of records, reasonably priced. Many used receivers, turntables and speakers. Very cool music art on the walls for sale too.

Pricey. A lot of original records and great place for treasure hunting. They guarantee their records. The ambiance is very chill. Records playing. Gym next door can be loud if by wall and distracting.
Decades of records to look through and priced as originals.
Would go back again for a specific record. Priced too high for routine record shopping.

Ridiculously disorganized shop where the clerk pulls prices out of thin air at checkout. Piles of junk everywhere, a bit of this and a bit of that, questions regarding specific artists/genres/etc lead you on a wild goose chase in places with no logic and no pot at the end of the rainbow. I’ve been collecting for many years but even I would never ever claim to be able to price every record in existence on sight.

This place is terrible. Ever since I’ve started going here I’ve received nothing but horrible service. My main problem with the place is that NOTHING IS PRICED! Rather then having stickers with the price on it on the record, you need to go to the counter and have the person up there appraise it and pull some price out. Its always extremely overpriced. Just today I went in and wanted to buy a CD. The lady at the counter told me $22. Well, that would be a fair price if it was new, but it was USED. Yes, the CD was on the uncommon side, however when I looked at it online, I saw it going for $22 NEW. For used prices, I saw it as low as $13. Stay away from this place at all costs. Its nothing but a waste of time and a rip off. If you want to go to a record store with staff who knows what they’re talking about and aren’t arrogant, I would recommend Redscroll In Wallingford or Replay Records in Hamden. Those people are great and have extremely fair prices (that you don’t need to ask about, thankfully)

Prices are pretty high, vinyl not bad, but achieve humble grading. But there a lot of vintage turntables, amplifiers etc. The owner is a King Of Promotion.

Chris Parker no longer lives here. – son

I have had nothing but positive experiences at the New Milford Music Center. I am proud to have them in our community, and will continue to support them. We have used them for rental equipment and repairs, as well as a quick impromptu lesson on how to correctly play a clarinet. We are sorry to hear Bill has left, and certainly wish him well in Florida. Best wishes to the new owner.