A Look at Why we Should Cherish the Institution......

History, and Majesty......

Don’t forget about us.

   It is remarkably easy in this technological age, to order almost absolutely anything at any point and have it delivered right to you, usually quite quickly. And there is nothing wrong with that. (Well, certain workers in a certain company named after a certain rainforest might disagree, but that’s not what this is about.)

This is about magic. It’s about dreams.

   It’s about the aspirations we feel when confronted with the colours, smells and sounds of that most precious thing. A thing that has, in recent years, become more of a rarity, a Narwhal thrashing in the icy waters of cyberspace surrounded by the whaling ships of giant internet corporations. It is, of course, The Music Shop.

Is this a love letter? Perhaps.

   I suppose it depends on when you grew up but I myself as a young man, came to regard music shops with no small amount of awe. They were vast things (likely because I was smaller then), filled with instruments that surely I would never in my wildest dreams be able to afford and were populated with cool, swaggering rock and roll people. People who looked like they had secrets. But not bad secrets, more like the way a wizard might keep his powers under wraps around the uninitiated. 

   Slowly, as time passed…(side note: please read this with Brad Pitt's narrator accent from Interview with the Vampire, it’s…much funnier….) it turned out I could afford some of the instruments within the cavern of wonderment. The wizards shared some of their secrets with me and I would find myself poking around the dusty shelves, ting-a-linging sometimes, trying to find a balance between wanting-to-welly absolutely everything and not being a complete nuisance.

It’s a delicate thing.

Look at the things! The beautiful things!

   Eventually it turned out I could really afford something special, so to whom would I turn? The wizards of course! They would guide me, and indeed they did. I purchased glorious things, I had worked and now I had the musical fruits of my labours, and it was marvellous. I returned again and again, for extra toys sometimes but also for advice, for ideas. It ended up being a place I spent most weekends, some evenings and ultimately, much to my delight, I got a job as an apprentice wizard.

Sorta like this, but with drumsticks and a fair bit more youthful.....

   This is all a rather roundabout way of saying; music shops really were a guiding force in my youth. They inspired your aspirations, and then, they made them real. As a result, I have spent most of my adult life playing music, thanks to these venerable institutions.

Would you look!

   And I think maybe, we should all consider what they offer, as opposed to say, saving a tenner. Yes, we all know that occasionally things are cheaper online. A lot of smaller retailers cannot compete with the corporate heavyweights on price as it is simply impossible to match their terrifying volumes. But what do these smaller shops offer? They offer the things that tangible reality offers. Human connections, good advice from people who really care, who want you to create and will try to provide you the best means with which to do so.

   As I mentioned before, good advice from a friendly face in a comfortable environment is a hard thing to beat. Also, these are actual people who will be able to help if something, unfortunately, goes wrong. It happens. But wouldn’t you rather just hand an item back to a person you know and have them fix the problem?

I too despair at the post office.

And look at how graceful are the staff......

   And oh my, can I try things? Can I touch the instrument? Hear it? Slowly grow to love its clear tones, maybe it’s muddy tones, maybe it’s delicious wash. This aspect is vital I think, certainly if you want to purchase anything of serious value, and there could be an argument made that most musical things have serious value. There should be a connection, and there will be. You can scroll through lists for eternity but it will never match the feeling of picking up something new for the first time, something unexpected maybe, and testing it out, feeling it out, experiencing it. That’s real magic.

But wait, there’s more! Repairs, After Care, Events, Sales, Smiles, Laughter, Oh Joy!

Also, it’s always, always good to feel like a regular somewhere.

   Perhaps this is the half-deaf, cane-waving shuffle slippers part of me, but I do believe we should cherish the shops we have left. There is an arcane air about those spaces that inspires. There is an energy and an atmosphere unlike other shops that you simply can’t experience from the comfort of your own home. Sure we’re all going to shop online occasionally. I do it, we all do it. Sometimes it’s the only way to find a very specific thing that you need, and sometimes, well, it’s just easier, and who hasn’t succumb to a tiny bout of laziness at least once most days.

But corporations are getting bigger and bigger and are slowly but inexorably squeezing the unique, the small and the untidy, until all becomes a giant homogenous blob of tedium.

There is nothing magic about the blob.

Just No.

It’s a tough world out there, and they really are doing their best to survive, so let’s make a collective effort to keep the magic alive.

Rev. Nathaniel Cassowary