About The Music Room
Come in and experience a music store you’ll love to revisit again and again. Recognized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) as one of the Top 100 Music Retailers in the nation, The Music Room, located in historic downtown Palatine, has everything you need to grow your musical talent.
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Whether you are shopping, learning, looking to rent an instrument or performing, The Music Room promises a personalized experience you won’t get at any big box retailer.
Our friendly, knowledgeable floor staff can help you find just what you need including guitars and amps, folk instruments, rental instruments, music accessories, sheet music and gifts. Every guitar on our showroom floor is set up, in-tune and ready to play.
Celebrating Over 30 Years of Joy & Music
On September 26th 1994, a cloudy and unseasonably cool Monday, two dear friends, Carol Cook and John Giovannoni, set up shop at 49 West Slade Street in Palatine’s downtown, just a few doors down from TMR’s current spot. With 4 teachers, 4 lesson studios, and a very modest smattering of music books and accessories within its 2500 square feet, The Music Room began. Carol’s background was piano, voice and woodwind instruction, and John did drums; Carol would grow the lesson program, and John, the retail and repair operations.
Business was good. Three years later, TMR’s offices moved into the apartment upstairs (right above the storefront) to make room for a fifth lesson studio, and then in 1999, Carol and John acquired adjacent 47 W Slade: 3 more studios, more office space, and now a lower-level group class space. By 2002 though, business was bursting at the seams and faced growing pains again, and they decided it was time to think big—like, “10,000 square feet with mezzanine” big; “stately brick architecture and arched windows on a historic lot” big. Yes, John and Carol set their sights on 26 North Brockway Street, within spitting distance of their West Slade baby.
Carol looked to the Village of Palatine for help, making a thoroughly convincing case: The Music Room brings several hundred families into downtown Palatine each and every week, and what’s more, for a 30-minute music lesson dropoff that lends itself to shopping the area as a parent. In the end, the village awarded TMR financial incentives through its redevelopment fund—Palatine’s whole downtown area was in the process of redevelopment at the time—and after what had been 3 years full of painstaking planning and big negotiations, the dream was finally realized.
It was 2005, and The Music Room’s size instantly more than doubled, allowing for the installation of 10 soundproof lesson studios, improved areas for repairs and rental instruments, and a performance venue in the open space downstairs. Oh, and a heckuva lot more merch: TMR now had a proper sales floor on which to expand inventory—and that with the stabilizing ballast of the robust, long-thriving lesson program to offset any retail volatility. The now-iconic black awnings and hanging flower baskets were installed. (The equally iconic ivy came later, planted in stages in 2012 and 2013.)
The Music Room grew in every sense of the word over the coming years. Important renovations that further opened up the space and brought upgraded lighting. The Gearshift donation program, which continues to this day, began early in 2010, providing a dropoff location for musical instruments of all kinds, which are then donated to various nonprofits.
From its start in 1994 to the years just after the move to the MUCH bigger space across the street, The Music Room had really hit its stride at the reigns of founders Carol Cook and John Giovannoni. Ten bustling lesson studios, improved repair and rental spaces, and a sales floor that boasted an impressive retail department (making TMR a bonafide music store in addition to its longstanding identity as a lesson center) made its place in downtown Palatine more secure than ever. If there had been any doubt as to its status as a community fixture, such doubt was long since erased. (The magnificent storefront didn’t hurt, either.)
The 2010s saw further progress still. In addition to the start of the enduring Gearshift donation program, Carol and John began the process, late in 2011, of actually purchasing the building. (Through its redevelopment fund, you remember, the Village of Palatine had awarded them the financial incentives to enable them to move into the building in 2005.
Also late in 2011, on the 6th of December, co-owner Carol posted an update on The Music Room’s Facebook page: “I have some important news to share with you about my dear friend and business partner at The Music Room, John Giovannoni.” Carol went on to share with the fans, friends, and families of TMR the news that left everyone thunderstruck: her business partner was found, just days earlier, to have an aggressive brain tumor with a terminal prognosis. Business carried on, albeit with the overwhelming burden of this news. Least somber, perhaps, was John himself, whose wit, humor, and shenanigans are the stuff of TMR legend. (Carol went on in that same Facebook post to relay what John had to say about the state of things: “Even though his doctors have a different opinion, John is convinced this tumor is actually just a cocktail weenie that unfortunately made its way to his brain via his nose while entertaining at a party in 1991.”)
But TMR kept momentum. Just a few months later in February of 2012, the two partners closed on the purchase of the building. Carol planted the now-iconic ivy on the building’s north side. Further renovations occurred over the course of that year and were completed by December. The Music Room really, truly had its own space on its own terms. John had the grand, illuminated outside sign installed on the building corner and passed away very soon after, in January of 2013. A large crowd gathered within the store in February for a sweet time of remembrance.)
Now-sole-owner Carol Cook continued operations and kept the ship afloat, taking on new responsibilities right in the midst of her grief and that of her close-knit staff. She even had the building’s brickwork tuck pointed and planted more ivy on the building’s east side. Even so, a number of John’s former areas simply had to lay dormant for a time while staff responsibilities and tasks shifted around to reach a state of equilibrium. I (Luke, General Manager) was fortunate enough to be hired here in 2014 and found things in a state of stability already, with a dedicated core staff including a lesson coordinator, fretted instrument/retail manager, band/orchestra technician, and of course Carol. On top of this was the ever-vibrant teaching faculty, numerous current members of whom date back to this time or further. (Notable is instructor Jenny Laabs, who has been with The Music Room since the very beginning.)
Speaking of faculty, TMR brought on an entire store’s worth when Palatine’s oldest still-in-operation music store, Palatine Music Center, shut its doors at the end of 2016. Retiring PMC owner Steve Achenbach worked closely with Carol as The Music Room acquired and inventoried its assets—and welcomed a new group of teachers who, happily, were able to hang onto their students from Palatine Music Center even as new ones came in. (That same year, the Palatine Historical Society presented a plaque and installed it upon the east face of the building, celebrating the lot’s history, which dates from 1869.)
To wrap up this written celebration of The Music Room 30th anniversary for the sake of space (and your time), we fast-forward to mid-March of the fateful year 2020. With businesses being shut down left and right, The Music Room hung on with an adroit pivot to 100% remote music lessons—a trial-by-fire experience for teachers and students alike—and phone-order, curbside retail and repair services. The rest—yep, I’m going to say it—is history.
Oh, and we did get back to doing those in-person music lessons a few years back, as you may have noticed. ~♪♫~
Nearly 500 students and more than 20 staff members call The Music Room their musical home. Students come here to nurture their musical talent, but they walk away with more— improved communication skills, creativity, cooperation and confidence.
An accomplished teacher and musician herself, co-founder Carol Cook understands the qualities that make for a good instructor. The result is a hand-picked staff of knowledgeable, experienced, professional teachers. They not only play well, they communicate well, motivating and inspiring each student.
Our Teaching Staff
We believe a good music teacher takes time to get to know their student’s interests and goals. The knowledge and experience of our staff are delivered in a professional and courteous manner. Our teachers consistently introduce new and progressive skills. They take pride in what their students accomplish.
Learn more about music lessons at The Music Room.
