A music store that aims to be fun

FAIRFAX — The slogan at fp Music Academy is “learning that fits your lifestyle.”

Now, with the opening of a retail location in Fairfax, the store and music lesson studio aims to be more accessible to more people — and more fun.

The shop, called Music151, is a 5-minute drive from the Westdale area on Highway 151. It offers supplies for everything from guitars, ukuleles, violins, violas, and cellos, to trumpets, trombones, saxophones and acoustic and electric drums and much more.

The selection covers “all the common instruments and even some uncommon ones,” said company President Mike Nemeth, noting the electric marimba.

The store carries supplies for instruments and books and materials for music students and teachers. It also has audio equipment like cables, microphones, stands and speakers.

“We want this to be a nice comfortable space for everybody to come,” said Nemeth, 61, noting he is taking suggestions from customers on what to stock.

“We try to keep our prices competitive, and we work hard to stock items that are affordable,” he said. “You would be surprised at how affordable some of our instruments are. In fact, on some items that we stock, we can beat Amazon’s prices.”

‘Want it to be fun’

Nemeth has created a few other elements to build a music community.

There’s a sheet music exchange, where people can bring in old sheet music and exchange it for other sheet music. And the store is gathering donations of gently used instruments to include in an instrument lending library.

When you step inside the door, too, you’ll find the “instrument of the month” that customers can try out. The month of November featured a gong.

“Each month, we will find something accessible that is fun to play when you walk in the door because we want Music151 to be fun and a place where people want to hang out,” Nemeth said. “This is more than just your traditional retail location.”

Teaching space

A portion of the new store is an internet-connected teaching space.

The 1,000-square-foot room, which is audio and video enabled, is used by fp Music Academy’s eight teachers for lessons and recitals. The space also is available for rentals.

The wired studio, Nemeth said, “helps leverage our teachers who aren’t based locally. We can host individual lessons or group lessons and take all of our teachers and leverage their strengths to bring them right into Music151.”

Nemeth started fp Music Academy five years ago to offer virtual music lessons.

“We offer music education for over 20 different instruments,” he said. “We have teachers in five states and students from coast to coast.”

Lessons range in cost, from $17 to $30 per half hour, depending on the instrument, the teacher and the length of the lesson. Most students start with half-hour lessons.

“Most students prefer lessons once a week, but some students take lessons every other week, and some have taken lessons multiple times in a week,” Nemeth said. “We do not mandate fixed times every week like many do. With us, it is easy to reschedule lesson times and/or days, and it is equally easy to change a lesson from in-person to virtual.”

And students are “rewarded” for their progress. “My students covet and celebrate the check mark that I put on their music when they master a piece,” he said.

While Nemeth started playing piano at about age 6 and has always had a piano in his home, he spent most of his career working as an electrical engineer.

“This is kind of a second career, if you will,” he said. “I can bring some of that engineering mindset and activate that side of a person’s brain. Music and engineering can sometimes go together.”

Fulfilling work

Nemeth said he feels very fulfilled in that second career.

“I’m still teaching, too, so I really enjoy seeing my students’ progress,” he said. “It’s just so heartening to see that they try at something and they master it and they get excited about playing certain things. It’s really neat to see that catch fire with my students, both kids and adults.

“And I love the excitement that some of my teachers have for certain aspects of what they do,” he added. “I get to see and hear them get excited about the impact they are making and the progress we see in our students. That’s really fun from the academy side of things.”

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