Musical Instrument Store Near Me in Kendall: Kendall Conservatory of Music

Kendall Conservatory of Music has been selling instruments and teaching lessons at 7153 SW 117 Avenue, Miami, FL 33183 since 1972, and it opens at 11 am on weekdays and 10 am on Saturdays. A half-hour lesson costs $34. For a parent whose search for a musical instrument store near me starts the week a middle schooler joins band, this is the Kendall shop that stocks the reeds, valve oil, rental horns and method books on the school supply list.

Joe and Earline Yeargin founded the store in 1972. It was later bought by Carlos Avila, who had worked there for 17 years before taking over the business. The website's own count puts the business at 54 years in music education and retail as of 2026, and it describes the place as a music school first, with the store built around what its students need.

That school side is large. The about page says 15 to 20 teachers instruct hundreds of students every week, and students can join ensembles in several genres to get performing experience. Master classes come through regularly with local, national and international artists. A September 2026 post on the site, titled Why Band?, argues that learning an instrument is a full-brain workout that builds discipline as much as technique.

The conservatory calls itself a regional supplier for elementary, middle and high school band, choir and string programs, and the shelves reflect it. Expect reeds for every woodwind, mouthpieces, caps and ligatures, woodwind drying papers, cleaning kits, orchestral strings and bows, stands, cases, and method books and sheet music. Special orders are taken for anything a band director lists that is not on hand.

Instruments run both new and used. The retail page lists electric and acoustic guitars and basses, drum sets and cymbals, MIDI keyboards, pedals, violins, violas and cellos, brass, amplifiers, mixers, rack gear, ukuleles and Latin percussion, so a drumline student and a salsa-band conguero can both shop the same aisle. Brands featured on the site include Conn-Selmer, Alvarez and Walden.

In-store repairs are done while you wait, and the shop links a repair rubric from its homepage. Tuning a standard guitar, bass or ukulele is free. A full string change with cleaning and polish costs $15, a partial change $8, and a Floyd Rose restring $25. A neck adjustment is $20 and a basic electric guitar setup is $30. Stuck brass mouthpieces, the classic first-week band emergency, are freed at no charge.

String players get a separate menu: bridge height adjustment for $45, soundpost work for $30 and tone voicing for $80. Drummers can have a head replaced for $35 or a five-piece kit tuned for $75. More demanding band instrument jobs go to technicians Glen Perry or Damian Sanchez, and a guitar specialist, Albert Fortes of Six String Theory, handles bigger fretted repairs.

Private lessons cover piano, guitar, voice, woodwinds, strings, percussion and brass from Monday through Saturday. Pricing is published: $34 for 30 minutes, $56 for a full hour and a one-time $40 registration fee. That half-hour slot is the right length for a beginner who cannot yet hold a trumpet embouchure for longer, and the hour makes more sense for an audition student preparing all-state excerpts.

Because the teachers work in the same building as the counter, a student who breaks a string or splits a reed mid-lesson can have it fixed before walking out. Parents waiting in the store can pick up the next book in the method series instead of ordering it online and losing a week of practice.

Band and orchestra rentals run through the conservatory's partner Veritas Instrument Rental. Families start online at rentfromhome.com and enter the store's code cd22d, which links the rental account to this store. Veritas plans are structured as rent-to-own, which matters for instruments like saxophones and cellos that would be a heavy upfront purchase for a student who may switch instruments in a year.

Do the paperwork a week before school starts so the instrument is home before the first rehearsal. If your child's director has a brand preference, bring the supply list to the store so staff can match the right mouthpiece, reed strength and book. Skip buying a bargain-site clarinet without checking with them first, because a cheap horn that leaks will frustrate a beginner faster than any teacher can fix.

Kendall Indian Hammocks Park is about three quarters of a mile away, a county park with shaded hardwood hammock and open fields where a lesson-day sibling can burn off energy. It is a practical stop if you arrive early for a 4 pm lesson and need to fill the time outdoors rather than in the car.

The Palms at Town and Country shopping center lies roughly the same distance in the other direction, with restaurants and errands for parents waiting out an hour-long lesson. Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus is a little under two miles away, close enough to combine a college errand with a reed run, and its arts programs give older students a next step after high school band.

Address: 7153 SW 117 Avenue, Miami, FL 33183. Hours: Monday through Friday 11 am to 8:30 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. Email cavila@kendallconservatory.com for lesson openings or special orders. Used gear is also listed on the store's Reverb shop, which is a quick way to see what is on the floor before driving over.

Bring the instrument case for any repair so the work goes home protected. For a school instrument, write the student's name on a tag inside the case before leaving it on the counter. Ask the Karpo APP for a family-friendly dinner near SW 117th Avenue to end a long lesson day, or for another Kendall music shop when you need a second opinion on a used instrument.