Local Holiday Shopping: New Canaan Music [Q&A]

[This is the first installment of our annual guide to local shopping. Please note the Holiday Stroll will be held this Friday and Saturday.]

New Canaan Music, located at 90 Main St., offers not only instruments for rental and purchase, but also lessons for all levels. We stopped in to talk to owner Phil Williams and store manager Gaby Beecher about what’s on offer for this holiday season.

Here’s a transcription of our interview.

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New Canaanite: It’s early, but how are things going at the start of the holiday shopping so far? 

Phil Williams: There seems to be a lot of traffic in town. We had a busy black Friday, busy Saturday. That’s a good, encouraging sign. 

We’ve had some changes to the parking on South and Elm. Do you see any effect from that here on Main? 

Phil Williams: Not so much. I will say that, in terms of paying for parking, people in 2025 don’t need another reason to not shop in town. But I haven’t seen any direct effects of that here at the shop.

Where do your visitors park? 

Phil Williams: Wherever they can. We recommend people go to Locust Lot. 

What would you say to someone who is learning about your store for the first time? 

A new Epiphone Tribute Series SG guitar. It has the look and feel of a classic SG by Gibson, but for a fraction of the price. It’s great for a beginner that can move up to an intermediate-level guitar. It’s a brand that Gibson took on for its lower-price point guitar. Priced at $349. Credit: Michael Dinan

Phil Williams: I think lessons are the most important thing they should know. We offer very flexible lesson packages. We’ve got our seven lesson studios going. Really high-level instructors. I don’t think we get enough word out about the level of teaching, from beginner to expert level.

Gaby Beecher: One of the things to also highlight, especially about our store is that in the musical instrument world, most of what you see here is MAP [Minimum Advertised Price] protected—meaning, it’s not going to cost any different to buy this online or at a big box store, but we’ll load it into your car, we’ll help you know how to use it, answer questions on how to use it and get you. To be an authorized dealer, they protect their pricing. So if you look up a Yamaha FS800—very popular guitar—you’re not going to find a new one at another shop for less. The difference with us is we inspect everything that comes in here, make sure everything’s perfect. We see guitars coming in here in January that have all these issues. We go over every instrument that we sell before we put them out on the floor, and we’ll reject stuff and send it back to the manufacturer if we need to. It’s not just coming off a shelf and getting shipped to somebody. I think sometimes you hear people talk about the ‘New Canaan tax.’ People think it’s more expensive to shop in New Canaan than to shop elsewhere, and they refer to it as the ‘New Canaan tax,’ but I don’t know if that’s actually true. I think most of the retailers in town work super hard to win the business of the community, and I think that’s maybe not a fair assessment.

The Alesis Recital Pro digital piano, with 88 weighted keys. Good for adults and children. Priced at $399.99. Credit: Michael Dinan

What do you have planned for the Holiday Stroll?

Phil Williams: For the Stroll, we have an Open House, food and drink for people who want to come in out of the cold and see what we have for this holiday season. The New Canaan Music Orchestra will be performing at 5:30 p.m. on the mainstage [at South and Elm]. It’s always a good time with our instructors playing and getting the town into a cheery mood.