Guitar Center reportedly facing "imminent bankruptcy"

[MineralMan]

18. Some place to sit. Yes!

While I was stationed in Turkey, while serving in the USAF, I often visited a music shop in downtown Samsun, Turkey. It had all sorts of instruments, from traditional Turkish folk instruments to more familiar western instruments. I spoke Turkish very badly, but I spoke music pretty fluently.

Every time I went in that shop, there would be a group of local musicians, sitting in chairs and playing music together. The first time I went, I just looked around the shop and listened to them. Later, I showed up with my 5-string banjo and sat down with them. I didn't have to speak Turkish. Little by little, I got what they were doing and joined in. I passed that banjo around the room, and taught some licks to the folks playing there. They'd never had one in their hands before. It was great fun.

Over time, I bought several traditional Turkish folk instruments in that shop. Each time, one of the musicians hanging out there showed me how it was tuned and played and I sat in with them and played it a little until I learned the ropes of it. We didn't talk much, but we laughed a lot and made music. I shipped all of those instruments home with me and still have them, 50 years later.

Successful music shops welcome musicians and have places where they can sit and make music. That's how it works. Walls and displays of instruments without that are a lot harder to sell. Hand the instrument you want to sell to the customer and let him or her work with it, and maybe join in the music that should always be going on and you'll make more sales.