Changes underway for Main Street music
Downtown business shifts focus to lessons, equipment rentals
If the painted piano out front wasn’t a giveaway, Main Street Music Center has been providing music lessons in downtown Woodland for several years.
Husband and wife team of Robb and Cheri Wallace bought the building at 527 Main St. in 2004. Apart from outgrowing their warehouse space for their audio/visual rental business RDM Entertainment, the new venture was a response to the old Woodland Guitar & Music Store closing.
“Robb, being a musician himself, realized that there was nowhere for people to go in Woodland for their music supplies,” Cheri recalled. “In an effort to help do our part to keep music alive in Woodland, we decided to make it our personal quest to make sure there was a music store for people to come to.”
Since first opening, the storefront has housed not only RDM Entertainment but studio space for lessons as well. In recent years, the front portion of the store was devoted to retail, both in the form of Davis-based Watermelon Music and later Davids’ Broken Note.
When Watermelon Music left Woodland in 2015, David Lardizabal of Davids’ Broken Note began to fill the space with his instrument repair and retail business. In December, Lardizabal left the Main Street building for a location of his own at 10 N. East Street, Suite 203. He simply outgrew the downtown storefront and although the split was bittersweet it was for the best.
Cheri noted that she wasn’t sure how things would go at the center after Lardizabal’s departure, but with some new signage highlighting lessons and rentals, she admits it was a win-win situation in the end.
Moving the focus away from Davids’ Broken Note has been interesting.
“We’ve always put everyone else first,” she said. Now the couple can refresh and bring their two business ventures to the front, literally.
“We’ve been bombarded,” Cheri said standing in the front of their shop, which now showcases both sides of their business. While customers found it challenging to move around the retail portion of Davids’ Broken Note, newcomers to the store won’t have that issue.
“We’ve gotten quite a lot of response to it,” Cheri said, referencing the sign advertising music lessons in the front display window. A smaller sign near the door notes Lardizabal’s new location.
“We will continue our great relationship with David and will be working hand in hand to refer customers to him for any retail or repair needs,” Cheri said. Likewise, Lardizabal plans to send people over to the center for lessons.
Right now Cheri estimates about 125 lessons per week happen in the four studio rooms in the center. Instructors manage their own schedules and students and rent the studio space by the hour. Violin, piano, guitar, trumpet, trombone and voice are some of the lessons offered.
Cheri noted that people have asked for bagpipe lessons in the past but they do not have an instructor for that. She would love to expand the types of lessons offered, especially with the recent uptick in interest.
As for the rental side of things, the couple has seen a lot of walk-ins from people interested in renting projectors and other items for events. Robb takes care to demonstrate each piece of tech before renting things out. This avoids issues down the line.
Robb also works many of Woodland’s events. Recently, he provided audio equipment to the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Heritage Plaza. Cheri noted he works a lot of the events downtown, which is convenient because if he forgets something it is a short walk back to the shop.
The addition of the outdoor piano, painted by local artist Kent Smith, has proved invaluable.
People from all walks of life enjoy sitting down at the instrument to play a few notes or a full concert. During a recent visit to the shop a man was playing Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” Cheri noted that a homeless man also frequents the piano and plays beautiful music.
“We just want music to stay in the forefront,” Cheri said. “We love what we do.”
Contact reporter Sarah Dowling at 530-406-6234.