The Story of Sound Beach Music

Tony Sanns and his wife Tina had a small music studio in their home in Sound Beach where Tony taught lessons.  Being a professional drummer, he had mostly drum students. As an accomplished musician however, he also taught beginner guitar and piano. Wanting to move the "business" out of their home, they took advantage of an opportunity to rent a 480 square foot storefront in the Market Square strip mall in their home town located about three minutes from their house in July, 1978.

The back quarter of the store had a room where lessons could be given. There was a piano, a drum set and a guitar amplifier. The front of the store started off with some sheet music, a few glass display counters, one of Tony's used drum sets and a guitar or two for sale as well as some basic accessories such as guitar picks, strings, drum sticks and drum heads. The new shop was called Tony Sanns Music.  After five months of business, Tony and Tina hired Steve Subject, a local 25 year old singer/guitarist who performed and taught locally, to teach guitar and bass students a few days a week. Little by little, the store added more new and used instruments and accessories for sale. The store gradually became too small to support the growing demand for lessons.

 Another storefront became available in the shopping center and it was converted into a teaching studio containing three rooms, one with a drum set, one with a piano and the other for guitar and wind instruments. This added another 400 square feet to the shop. The wall separating the original teaching room from the rest of the original store was removed and the sales floor expanded to accommodate more inventory with the shop now expanding to accommodate string, woodwind, brass and keyboard instruments as well as repairs and rentals of all instruments and amplifiers. The variety of accessories was greatly expanded to accommodate the needs of all musicians, including effects pedals, reeds, cases, harmonicas, tuners, etc.

During this time, Steve Subject, who now had 40 half-hour lessons per week, also began working in the store as a salesperson and rapidly took on management duties. On January 1st, 1985 Steve bought the shop from Tony and Tina and they moved to Florida. In September the shop was renamed Sound Beach Music. In April of 1987, Steve asked his then girlfriend Sally Morrison to come to work in the store with him. She took on most office duties freeing Steve up to teach and work more closely with the customers. Sally instituted new systems for the day to day operation of the business and took on managing the employees. The amount of employees rapidly grew as more and more new students continued to sign up.  The store was now filled front to back and top to bottom with merchandise and the available teaching rooms were maxed out!

In 1988 business was really beginning to pick up. When the lease was up in 1989, an adjoining storefront became available and another 500 square feet was added for another teaching room and a large drum and sound reinforcement showroom. Sound Beach Music flourished in this location for another 5 years. When the lease was up in 1994, it was clear that it was time to expand once again.

Sound Beach Music moved to a new location on the same street closer to the main road in a much larger shopping center called Miller Place Square, in the town of Miller Place. The business was now in a newly renovated 2,200 square foot store on two levels with the drum shop and five teaching rooms downstairs and an expanded showroom upstairs. The shop, which seemed so cavernous when first moved into, began to fill up and it was clear that more expansion was needed. They arranged with the deli next door to lease some space underneath their store and proceeded to open the wall downstairs to add a 400 square foot space. They moved the drum shop into that space and converted the original drum shop into more teaching rooms for a total of seven. The store area now totaled 2600 square feet. 

After 10 years the latest expansion took place in 2004 as a brand new shop was built three doors down at 5,000 square feet, encompassing ten teaching rooms downstairs, an expanded waiting room, a large much needed storage area and a 500 square foot drum shop. Four of the rooms were for piano lessons and two large rooms were for drum lessons. The next ten year period was a time of great growth for Sound Beach Music, now accommodating teachers for ALL instruments serving around 350 students weekly.   Upstairs was a large showroom floor with a front office managed by Eija Golda, a longtime friend who came on board several years previous, and an actual office for Steve and Sally. There was also a large repair shop to handle the increasing need for this service.  About 1200 rental instruments were being provided for the surrounding school districts.

On January 1st, 2014, a new era began at Sound Beach Music as Steve and Sally turned the reins over to the new owner Brian Chabza, a string teacher and in store employee with 15 years of experience. Brian, in addition to playing and teaching several instruments, performs professionally in a variety of ensembles. He is also a very talented stringed instrument repair person. His long experience at the shop enabled Brian to step right in and pick up where Steve and Sally left off and to continue the long tradition of excellence and customer service to the community, provided by the store since 1978. He began a very successful ensemble program whereby students can meet and connect with other students to practice and perform musical pieces in recitals at local venues a few times a year. They expanded their abilities personally, and their musical skills, in concert with a group performing classical, jazz or pop music.

In March of 2020 the COVID 19 pandemic forced us to close our doors to the business for the first time since our inception for a total of 10 weeks. Our open to the public full-service music store business model was forced to drastically change if we were going to survive. A massive undertaking went into getting all of our instructors teaching their students through virtual lessons. Online orders began to pick up and Brian was camped out at the store shipping items all over the country and making sure the daily actions of Sound Beach Music continued. 

Sound Beach Music continues to be a vibrant member of the North Shore community by supporting many local organizations such as the fire and police departments, youth programs, the North Shore Little League and a host of others, providing much needed funds and logistical support. The shop awards a musical scholarship each year to a graduating senior boy and girl from the three surrounding public school districts. Of the tens of thousands of students and employees who have passed through the portals of Sound Beach Music over the years, many have gone on to professional careers as performers and music teachers. Brian and his superb team are carrying on the long tradition of excellence the store has been noted for.  They are embarking on new paths, always looking to build on what works, drop what doesn't and to move into the future with hearts and minds open to any and all possibilities for continuing to educate and serve the wonderful community that Sound Beach Music calls home.