Where to find the best music shops in Westlake Village? Top-16 options

Great staff. Very knowledgeable and helpful. Selection is a bit limited compared to some of GC’s larger stores but this is very convenient if you’re in the T.O. area.

Everytime we come here we always get good service! The staff is knowledgeable and you can tell they enjoy their profession. DJ, and also the guy with long hair (I’m sorry, I forgot his name), are very friendly, and very professional. When I come here I hope they will be there too in case we need help with anything! 🙂

Sales people were very helpful to choose a great starter guitar for my daughter.

Great selection of keyboards and guitars, only a few ukuleles (kinda disappointing).
Prices (for ukuleles at least) could be cheaper and can be found for less online. Nothing beats trying an instrument in store though.
All string instrument are properly tuned and ready to play which is awesome.
Staff is very nice. They’ll guide you and answer all your questions.
I found out electric guitars are super heavy. Good times.
Will visit other locations.

The selection is usually pretty poor. Staff is ok. Prices are a little high.

staff was nice and helpful but sales was too busy to really help anyone

Make sure you read the fine print on any lessons you purchase. Really sad customer service. Manager is useless. Very disappointing.

They need self checkout. I just wanted to buy some guitar strings. But the two customers in front of me being helped by the sales staff were purchasing instruments. And of course the staff was trying to upsell them everything from a case, to insurance, lessons, etc…. I just needed a $10 pair of strings. I stood at the counter for 10-15 minutes with my card in hand, with none of the staff able or willing to check me out, so I left the strings on the counter and walked out.

Unfortunately came in to rent speakers and was unable to talk to a customer representative for over an hour. The personnel on staff seemed undertrained – a young man in front of us had his guitar purchased by Guitar Center and the buyback forms took 45 minutes to get arranged. The speaker rental took forever too. Sadly this store was severely lacking in service today. Several other customers were waiting as well.

Since we started going to music and arts in Thousand Oaks a couple months ago we had nothing but positive experiences . Kingsley has been so helpful, and he’s so knowledgeable in the instrument my son plays which is the tenor sax. We are very happy with his customer service it will be a life long customer for sure !

Our experience was wonderful. Kingsley helped us secure a rental credit towards a new cello and made sure we had a great experience. We want to thank everyone any this location for making sure everything went seamlessly

Each time I’ve been to Music & Arts the service and knowledge of staff has been terrific. My children are very young so have not started lessons yet, but they do have simple instruments for the littles like shakers, slide whistles, tambourines and kazoos that my children really enjoy. I’ve been researching music lessons and this store has reasonable prices plus can give guidance on instrument repair/valuation.

2/4/19 -(got a response that I cannot “respond to” so I will post that here)
Music & Arts, I see your reply. The email address does not help unfortunately. I have have called and spoken to Corporate and gotten nowhere. I have an email from a school liaison so far nothing, and again at the store level nothing. So far all that has happened is I have had to repeat myself and my story numerous times and have yet to get any kind of resolution. Unfortunately giving me the generic email address to the corporate “customer service” group doesn’t help me at this point, I think we are way beyond that point.

How can you give negative stars! This store takes advantage of the schools that feed into it. Because of the amazing music program LCMS has kids need the ability to rent instruments. So we did over a year ago and have over $1000 in credit that we were told we could use towards a new one at “equal or greater” value in case we ever wanted to buy vs rent. I expected my son to quit but in fact he has excelled and is first chair, in the Jazz program and I want to reward him and use my credit. They are telling me I cannot use the credit towards the instrument he wants (which by the way is over $1000 more than the one they want me to buy) because the one he wants is “professional grade” and the credit only works towards “student” level instruments. What?? Why would I spend thousands on something he has grown out of and not something he can grow into? What is the logic? Let’s teach a child how to ride a bike with training wheels and when they are really good we will buy them a shiny new bike with another set of training wheels. That is the logic. I have called the store, the GM, corporate and have been told “sorry that’s our policy, that’s what’s in the agreement you signed”. The clerk at the store only told me I would get a discount and use my credit towards the equal or greater value they are local and get all the school business so why would they lie? So I signed the agreement I’m not a lawyer I trusted them plus I signed my son up for lessons. It is disgusting how I have been treated and the fact that my son suffers because I wanted so much to buy him this for his 13th birthday. I caution anyone please go to Nick Rail on Kanan, go anywhere else but this horrible place. They are too big and just take advantage of their fortunate position. I am going to the school board next.

My daughter has a singing lesson with Ms. Anita and Ms. Anita makes every lesson full of joy!

California Music Academy in Westlake Village has great teachers, beautiful studios, very good price. My daughter love it and she learned very quickly to play piano. I highly recommend it.

I took voice and guitar lessons here.

My daughter has had a great experience at CMA with Mari as her teacher! Mari takes the time to get to know the kids well and build a true relationship with them. As a result, my daughter looks forward to lessons and is really progressing in both piano and voice.

I would give CMA 5 stars except that it was very challenging to get anyone to return my multiple phone calls to get started with lessons in the first place. I had to call several times and leave multiple messages over a number of weeks.

Now that we are up running the lessons with Mari are great.

Unprofessional place It was not a good choice for kids

This is an ONLINE store ONLY, but don’t let that deter you! Their vinyl is the best money can buy. They have already done all the work for you in finding the best quality ones. Although a somewhat hefty price tag compared to a traditional record store, it is worth it. Their website is user-friendly and offers a wide variety of vinyl. They make listening to great music even better with their “hot stampers.”

Lightning fast shipping and they had exactly what I needed, an empty U.K. Beatles “White Album” cover from ’78! Friendly, courteous, professional and knowledgeable staff! I would definitely take my business there again.

If you want the very best sounding vinyl records this is the place to buy them. I have bought many many records from them and I assure you the records sound better than anything you’ve ever heard. Yes they are expensive but only the very best are expensive. Money back if you are not happy. No, I don’t work for them.

Was looking for a local record store and found this on google maps. It’s not a store…just someone’s house in a neighborhood. I guess it’s an online store only. Very deceiving.

Six fully equipped studios. Amazing people running this great studio and encouraging young people to express themselves positively through music.

We have been with this school for 5 years and could not be more thrilled. The education is amazing! The emphasis in musical theory and reading music is beyond any private lessons! This have been the best experience for us! The teachers are amazing and they work so hard to make sure you understand!

This is the best music education, at a great value. Children learn ear training in addition to sight reading, and are exposed to a variety of instruments even while piano is the focus. Classes are fun and chock full of content. This is a MUCH better option than private lessons, especially for young children. It’s cheaper, too! I’ve recommended CMA to so many people and will continue to do so.

We really enjoy how much our daughter is learning in music

I bought a 2011 Gibson ES 175 from Lovies and it is in excellent condition as advertised online. It was packaged securely and made the cross country winter trip successfully. Thanks Derick!

Lovies Guitars is the best! Great guitars and great service! Will continue to support them!

Excellent selection and service! I have purchased several pro level guitars from Lovies and they are always as described or better.

Ebay üzerinden bu satıcıdan gitar aldım. Gitarın tremolo kolu yok, açıklamalarda belirtmemiş. Fretler kötü bir tesviye görmüş bızlıyor. Minty diye sattığı gitarın durumu bu.

Awful service

Paris is the real deal! He is beyond talented and super patient. If you have kiddos looking to learn a new instrument, call Paris! Super reasonably priced and quality lessons. During Covid he’s been doing virtual lessons and is still great as an extra activity for teens to not just be on their phones all day.

The store near me (Wilmington, DE) has a wide selection of merchandise and fantastic customer service. The guys there are pretty knowledgeable and they will often work with you to beat competitors’ pricing. I recently had an issue with a keyboard I ordered from a store in California. The guys at the Wilmington store not only helped me to work through it, but they also gave me a great deal on a case. The keyboard itself was an excellent bargain too, by the way. Anyway, the experience was so positive, that I had to share it here.

Guitar center’s corporate office is top notch. I get excellent service everytime I call them. They will resolve any problems the local guitar centers can’t. I just hope the branches provided this level of service.

good stuff.

Took a while but customer service did the right thing. Thank you.

Zero ability to contact. No one answers a phone at corporate, and the call center doing customer service is unable to authorize anything. They do apologize. That’s it. The local store managers also have no authority to make things right for a customer. Bad business model.

Trash company. I won’t spend a dime with them.

Good evening, I arrived at the Hollywood store upon opening on Memorial Day with every intention on spending 10k via the vintage shop or ordering a Fender Masterbuilt. I was not greeted by anyone so I ventured into the Vintage section. There was an employee with his head down staring at his iphone and never looked up. I picked up about three vintage guitars and he still said nothing. I asked him if he had any Masterbuilts and he looked extremely annoyed he had to move. He walked over to show me one custom shop and still did not look up from his phone. He was texting the whole time. I asked him what the process was to order one and he just said email me. That’s it? Just email him. His name is Cat. That is the experience I have every time I enter a GC. I don’t know if you guys promote the I am better than you environment but it sure seems like it. In fact, I went to GC Northridge to buy my first guitar a year ago and the experience was so bad I left, drove down to Sam Ash and bought an American Standard Strat. Since my experience on Monday I have purchased two Masterbuilt strats, one from Norm’s in Tarzana and one from Wild West guitars and placed and order for another one with Wild West since Dave is an incredibly nice guy. That is 15k you guys missed out on because of jerk employees. The only pleasant experience I have had at a GC is the new one in Westlake. Another experience I had was at the Northridge location. A Marshall amp came in that I have been asking about for sometime. It was a JTM30. When I picked it up to buy it an employee bragged how he bought it right when it came in. How is that acceptable? An employee has first dibs on gear that can be sold to a customer at a higher price? It is totally ridiculous. Anyhow, I thought corporate should know what is going on from a “could have been” client that spends a decent amount of money on gear. I would much rather spend my money at Sam Ash, Norm’s, Wild West or any other spot where they are actually nice to me and seem like they are happy to help.

Nice Helpful staff!

Great store and honestly priced instrument services and repairs.

Best store ever! Great selection, great prices, great service, local shop, convenient and well stocked! Recommend highly!!!

This place is the best . Great selection of instruments and a very helpful and friendly staff.Don’t waste your time shopping for your musical needs anywhere else !

Can’t give a music store less than 4 stars because I appreciate them simply being in business, but I get the feeling that the people behind the counter are just trying to sell me things.

Always a pleasure & A REAL DEAL with John & the rest of the staff @ Instrumental MUSIC/ Thousand Oaks!

Wally has been serving my family for years. he has an awesome shop with good equipment!

Wally’s is the best. Can’t say enough good things about Wally and his establishment. Great guy, very knowledgable, friendly and encouraging. Wonderful selection of music. Everything a young person needs for school or private lessons.

I had a guitar needing repairs and adjustment that another local store wanted to charge $110 for… Wally charged me $45.

This guy is a treasure and people in our community should grieve whenever this man closes up shop for good. He is a genuine small music shop business owner who cares about the music and not the money. Maybe one of the last left in the US.

In addition, I only met the guy once before about two years ago and he asked me how my new place was and remembered everything about meeting me. Shocked me how caring he was.

I visited wally world music store today looking for a keyboard. Met Wally. Super nice man. Very helpful. Unfortunately he didn’t have what I was looking for but he did have some music books that I bought. He even gave me the names of some places to check out. I’m glad to have met him.

Rented a Sax for a few months and took some lessons. Good experience and very fair pricing. The owner was knowledgeable and helpful.

I have had a terrible experience with repair of my cello. I cannot go into details because there are too many. Length of time of repair and quality were horrible. Our family was a client of this store for many years, but this experience soured everything. If you need your cello worked on, please go elsewhere.

Don’t bring your cello there they give you crummy strings/repairs