Since 1996, local residents have relied on Brownwood Music for everything from band instruments to speakers for churches, and from public address systems for receptions to one-on-one lessons for aspiring musicians of all ages.

The musical lessons more than anything, according to Brownwood Music owner Jodie Armstrong, have resulted in loyal customers that have lasted for generations.

“We have four teachers and that’s a big part of our business, trying to grow those musicians,” Armstrong said. “The students and customers I’ve had over the years, some of them started coming in here when they were in junior high. Now they all have kids and come into visit and I feel like a grandma. It’s really neat to see a guy or a gal at 12-years-old start out on a guitar and barely know how to play and you mentor them and they get excited about it and they come in years later playing amazing and bringing in their kids for their first guitar. Any time you run into a customer that came in here when they were 12 years old and now they’re 36, that’s awesome.”

Current music teachers for Brownwood Music include Payton Chumbley, Kaeli Hardman, Roy Goodgion and Jackie Andersen – a retired pre-K teacher who has taught music for over 40 years, including the last 16 years at Brownwood Music.

Andersen – who provides lessons for piano, guitar, bass guitar, auto harp, drums, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, and voice – currently has 54 students ages 3 and up and offers 30-minute lessons at $20 apiece once a week, and is available from 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Andersen stated her oldest student was 98, and an 86-year-old student dropped by Brownwood Music this week to drop off Christmas gifts.

“Music builds self confidence, it builds self-esteem, it gives you a feeling of success,” Andersen said. “Playing on your phone or playing video games is entertaining, but certainly not as rewarding as the ability to create music. Music will help kids of all ages accelerate academically. And for those older folks like me, if you take on a music instrument it will lesson the chances of dementia, short-term that is, because you’re using the front part of your brain. It also helps with arthritis, too, so there’s a lot of health benefits to playing music.”

Regarding her passion for music, Andersen said, “I started at age 5 on the piano and I’ve been playing piano for 60 years. I tell the kids what I’m giving you, what your parents are giving you, is a lifetime gift. All you have to do is practice. Then there’s a promise I make to them that I guarantee they learn to read music and play this instrument and move on to other instruments. The gift I want from them is I want you to teach someone you love a song that you learned. When you are able to teach someone else something you know and they don’t know, it’s not only a retention of your own learning, it’s a joy I feel every day that I teach that they walked in here and knew nothing and when they leave they not only take a part of me, but a lot of information and a gift to learn to play that instrument.”

For pre-K students, lessons consist of “music videos, which teaches language development,” Andersen said. “I have triangles, tambourines, and bells, and that teaches them hand-eye coordination and balance. I use YouTube learning videos to help them learn to sing and help play different instruments. At 4 they are learning their ABCs and with drums you are learning beats, but you’re also learning how to read the music. At age 4 they’re actually learning to read music before words, which is significant.”

Brownwood Music also offers a summer music camp, which started six years ago.

“It’s open to ages 6-16 at the Adams Street Community Center the second week of July,” Andersen said. “Its a four-day camp in two-hour increments and they can learn piano, guitar, ukulele, and drums. They can pick the instruments or come every day. It’s a lot fun. I limit it to 10 kids per two-hour slot. Last year was our biggest year We had 88 kids that came.”

Aside from lessons, Brownwood Music provides a plethora of additional services.

“Every instrument there is we can order,” Armstrong said. “Whether it’s band instruments or keyboards and piano, or a drum set, or a guitar or a ukulele. A lot of people don’t realize we’re also into sound installation. We do a lot of football stadiums, a lot of gyms. We’re working on a school right now in Junction putting in projectors and smart screens in the room, connecting it back to a plate where you have all your automatic computer hook-ins and HDMI cables, 1/8 inch for your phone and computer so you can actually have sound. We’ve done that at two other schools before, so there’s a lot of different facets that we do here that you wouldn’t think about a music store doing.

“We also deal with audio equipment, church speakers, things like that. I book for weddings, parties, things like that. From George Strait to a string quartet, I can get you that. We do PA rentals and that’s a big deal around here to go out with weddings and receptions. We rent two or three a weekend. We have four or five small ones, a few medium ones and then my husband (Don) goes with the big one.”

Don Armstong, David Curry and Ray Lyons work as technicians.

“We have an AV technician that specializes in video and scoreboards –  we’re lucky he was able to retire to Lake Brownwood,” Armstrong said. “We picked him up and we’ve been able to do a lot of bigger jobs because of him. My husband does all the audio stuff, so they work real well together. One works on video, one works on audio and they come together and put all their transmitters and splitters and whatever they need to make them work all together.”

Brownwood Music also houses a recording studio which operates once a month for about three full days, according to Armstrong, with assistance from Lyons.

Armstrong took a moment to reflect on all that’s been accomplished at Brownwood Music in her tenure.

“I have owned this store since ’96,” Armstrong said. “It was probably open seven to eight years prior as a music store. It morphed from S&M Music, which used to be just pianos and organs. So for 30-something years it’s been a full-on music store, we just upgraded a little bit and added more to it than it already had.”

Looking to the future, Armstrong stated she does have plans to retire at some point, but, “This needs to stay a music store. This community needs a music store, the churches need to have somebody they can trust to serve them. The band students here deserve to buy locally. It also helps stimulates the tax dollars here in the city, too, instead of buying it online.”

Brownwood Music is located at 201 W. Baker and is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Call (325) 646-1365 or visit www.brownwoodmusic.net for more information.