View Wentzville Music, LLC in a larger map

Affordable Band and Orchestra rentals available in Ballwin and Chesterfield area

Music and Arts, the nation's leading company for rentals and back to school needs, is opening express locations for band and orchestra rentals in both Ballwin and Bridgeton Missouri.  Our express locations are designed specifically for the beginning band and orchestra students to help them get their instrument, accessories and back to school needs in a convenient location.  Go to www.musicarts.com/rentals for more information.

Rent online and have your instrument shipped to your home, rent online and schedule a store pick up, or come to any of our store locations for your back to school needs. 

Affordable prices, great service, quality, and availability.  Call today or visit our website for more information!

Band and Orchestra Instrument Repair Services in St. Charles County

In the spring of 2012 we constructed and opened the newest repair shop for Band and Orchestra Instrument repairs in St. Charles county.  Our shop features best available tools and professional and experienced repair technicians to fix your instrument right the first time at an affordable price. 

We are the only repair facility that offers Ultrasonic Cleanings for brass instruments in St. Charles county.  Ultrasonic Cleanings uses sound waves to throuroughly and safely clean your horn inside and out.  This technology is proven and is the industry standard throughout the nation and we are very happy to offer this level of repair to the area.

Once your instrument is repaired we offer a 12 month or 24 month service policy that will take care of all repairs on your horn.  This is a great way to keep your horn in tip-top condition.

Come visit us today!  Shop tours are available upon request!

The following is a Jupiter Baritone sent into the shop because of valves not working.  According to the customer, the instrument had been cleaned the following summer and had not been played very often during the year.

Upon inspection it was determined this instrument really needed to be cleaned Ultrasonically.

residue accumulating inside tuning slide ...

outer slides were dirty as well

More expamples of dirty outer slides

These are the bottom valve caps, notice the build up (the black sections) of residue

More build up of residue around the edge

These are the valves of this 4 valve baritone after removing the valve guides.  Notice the residue build up around where the valve guides were located.

The instrument is checked for reachable dents and those dents are removed, then it is dissassembled and degreased in a tub.  Once we've cleaned out as much as we can with a brush, it's time for the instrument to be placed into the Ultrasonic tank.

Here is the baritone in the Ultrasonic tank.  Notice the water is clear and look at the left hand portion of the picutre and see the valve caps.  The black cloud rising from the caps is the build up of residue being removed by the ultrasonic sound waves.

Notice more residue being removed from the inside of the tuning slides

After the instrument is cleaned in the Ultrasonic tank, it is rinsed in a rinsing tub, and dried.  All parts are checked over to ensure all residue is removed.  Slides are treated with slide grease, valves are cleaned and oiled.

Here are pictures of the final result ...

Clean valve caps, notice they look almost like they did out of the factory

The tops of the valves before valve guides, felt and stems are put back on

Close up pic of a valve cap

Close up of the top of the #3 valve

valves are clean

slides are very clean, free of residue that can cause the slides to stick and become frozen

ready to be re-assembled

Inside a tuning slide.  Since the instrument was cleaned Ultrasonically, this is how the entire inside of the instrument looks.

Information on Ultrasonic Cleanings

UltraSonic Cleaning

A CLEAN HORN IS A HEALTHY HORN

“Why musicians should have their instruments cleaned professionally”

UltraSonic Cleaning Technology and unique chemistry equal a modern environmentally safe approach that not just rinses the instruments but thoroughly removes the calcium buildup in a horn. This is truly a dream come true for the repair technicians.

More and more band directors are beginning to understand the need for annual professional band instrument cleaning. Do you use the same knife, fork and spoon day after day with out cleaning it? Consider this analogy….. Not thoroughly cleaning your instrument inside and out professionally at least once a year amounts to using unwashed eating utensils over and over.

Every horn player and band director knows that the calcium / organic materials build up inside a horn. This is contamination to the metal and in time causes the metal to oxidize and metal failure occurs.

The difference between a medium-large bore and a large bore trumpet is only .003". Many trumpets have over twice this thickness of debris coating the interior surfaces. In addition to making the horn feel tighter this material can interfere with valve and slide action. An UltraSonic cleaning removes deposits of old oil and grease, corrosion, and plaque deposits from the interior of your instrument. After a thorough scrubbing out, the instrument is re-assembled, replacing all the corks, felts, and bumpers and replacing springs as needed. At the same time the technician makes a thorough examination of your instrument and can find and correct small problems before they become major ones. Instruments should be professionally cleaned yearly.

Although periodic cleaning or flushing of your instrument at home has it’s benefits, the Ultrasonic cleaning process can effectively remove all the internal and external contamination much more thoroughly than you can at home.

Professional musicians can surely tell when the horn does not have the desired tone. They have trained to listen for the proper tone when playing. Some say, the rich sound of the horn is lost when contamination builds up in the instrument. The smooth slide valve action is compromised in some severe cases. Both rotary and piston valves that stick can be quickly and easily cleaned effectively when our trained professional band instrument technicians use the Ultrasonic cleaning system that is designed specifically for musical instrument cleaning and restoring.

Scales Music in the Weekly Scorecard

Scales Music is mentioned on the weekly scorecard for Music and Arts .... come visit the new store!  It looks great!

From the scorecard ....

Music & Arts Purchases Scales Music, Enters St. Louis Market
On Monday, March 12th, Music & Arts acquired Scales Music in St. Peters, MO. Scales Music opened in May of 2011 and has been partnered with Music & Arts as a rental affiliate. This new Music & Arts retail store will be the first location in the St. Louis market. Sean Scales, former owner of Scales Music, will serve as a Music & Arts Educational Representative for school music programs in the St. Louis area. Sean has 10 years of experience working as an ed rep with the school music community in the local area.
"We have really enjoyed our partnership with Music & Arts and we are very excited to take this next step in order to provide the wide variety of products and services that Music & Arts will bring to the St. Louis area," says Scales.

As a former affiliate, Music & Arts will continue all of the location’s rental operations uninterrupted. In addition, Music & Arts will retain all of the current private music instructors and their students with a goal to actively grow the lesson program in St. Peters. The transition will include many great benefits for the customers, including an expanded product selection in the store and online, a full time ed rep to work with local music educators, and expanding the lesson facility.

"From the time our doors opened just last May, we have been committed to making instrumental music more accessible and affordable to all students from 1 to 100," says Scales. "The decision to sell this company to Music & Arts is the next step in that commitment."

Progress so far ...

Here are some pics of the progress so far.  A tractor trailer full of merchandise, new slat wall, new computer systems ... and of course the most important items ... a power drill and a circular saw!  Your new Music and Arts store is well on it's way to becoming a reality.  

We will update when we are completely up and ready to go very soon!

multiple tractor trailer's full of merchandise

ah, just the beginning

slat wall ready to display merchandise

need some print music?

Steve and Brian with power tools!

slat wall time!

Scales Music sells to Music and Arts

Greetings to all of our customers and students,

On Monday, March 12th, Scales Music will be sold to Music and Arts.  Music and Arts is the leading school band and orchestra speciality music store in the nation and has been partnered with Scales Music since April 2011 as our affiliate rental instrument supplier. 

Attention to our school band and orchestra Rental Customers, all rental operations will continue uninterrupted.  If you have any rental questions or need assistance you can contact the Rental Customer Service line at 1-888-731-5396 or contact us locally at 636-244-3770 or you can continue to use Questions@ScalesMusic.net if you prefer to email.  We will continue operating in the same location at 412 Jungermann Rd, STE 201, St. Peters, MO.

We have really enjoyed our partnership with Music and Arts and we are very excited to take this next step in order to provide the wide variety of products and services that Music and Arts will bring to the St. Louis area.  We are also thrilled to announce that the owner of Scales Music, Sean Scales, is now the newest Educational Representative for Music and Arts and will be serving local school music programs throughout St. Louis.  Sean brings 10 years of experience in this position and is looking forward to getting back into the schools supporting music education in our schools and in the community.

All lessons will continue uninterrupted.  We are very happy to announce that Music and Arts will retain all of our current private music instructors.  Music and Arts is a leader in providing quality lessons with experienced instructors and we will be actively looking to grow our lesson program in St. Peters.

Music & Arts has served students, teachers, and families through retail stores and school representatives since 1952. Based in Frederick, MD, the company specializes in instrument rentals, music lessons and band and orchestra instrument sales.  Music & Arts now has over 100 retail locations in 20 states.

From the time our doors opened just last May of 2011, we have been committed to making instrumental music more accessible and affordable to all students from 1 to 100.  The decision to sell our company to Music and Arts is the next step in that commitment.  We are expanding the product selection we have to offer both in the store and via online orders, providing a full time Educational Representative to work with local music educators, expanding our lesson facility and there's much more to come! 

On a personal note, we'd would like to thank so many people that helped us during this journey.  We appreciate every single customer that made the choice to do business with us.  It's been so great seeing students, both young and not so young, enjoy their time taking lessons with our great teachers and improving on their instrument week after week.  To the parents and the students, thank you.  It has been a pleasure getting to know you and we appreciate that you chose to take your lessons at Scales Music.  We are looking forward to your continued improvement and performance opportunities as you continue with Music and Arts.  We'd also like to thank all of our friends who offered their support, advice, and at times physical labor to assist us. 

The best part is that this isn't goodbye!  All of our customers and students were essential in making this move possible and bringing a wonderful company like Music and Arts to the St. Louis area.  So thank you, tell your friends about us, and we look forward to seeing you in our store again very soon!

A New Year, New Products and other News ...

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to 2012!  As we look back on our first year in business we are especially thankful to every customer and student that made the choice to give us your business.  Our goal from the start was to help make music and the pursuit of playing a musical instrument more affordable and more available, and I think we are on our way to making this happen  So a big THANK YOU to all of you.

Currently we are still building our private music instruction program not only with individual lessons but with group lessons on Piano (Piano Adventures), Guitar (Group guitar) and Violin (Suzuki group style classes).  We have also brought on a new clarinet and oboe instructor, so our line up of private instructors is constantly improving.  

Keep checking back, there are new things coming for 2012.  After a strong start in 2011 we are looking for ways to improve what we do and what we offer.  One of these improvements are step up band and orchestra instruments.  Coming soon ... Ventus (Eastman professional trumpets), Amadeus/Haynes flutes, and Otto Benjamin professional strings (from Eastman strings).  More to come soon!

We also have some great deals on some electric and acoustic guitars and basses.  Come by sometime to see what we have in stock.

Thanks again for a great 2011 ... and we welcome 2012!