Photo by David Pollan

Photo by David Pollan

Photo by David Pollan

Photo by David Pollan

Photo by David Pollan

Driven by a passion and love for teaching music, Eric and Robin Williams built and opened Arbor Music 10 years ago in Magnolia as a venue to offer music lessons and sell music supplies.

"Our goal is not just to sell music supplies, but to teach people to play music for life," Eric said. "We want to teach a lot of people how to play music."

The idea to open their own business spawned after the Williams spent years teaching music. Eric taught lessons at another music store and worked as a music therapist at a psychiatric prison. Robin taught orchestra in Katy. However, the Williams were driven by a desire to make a living teaching music and to do so in an area that did not offer many opportunities to those looking to learn. They bought their current property in Magnolia because of its proximity to The Woodlands.

"We picked this area because it was near The Woodlands, which was an area that was growing and there wasn't much opportunity for music lessons," Eric said. "It felt like a good spot."

The Williams renovated the property on their own, Eric said. They built out the rooms to offer lessons, installed all the wiring and fixed the ceilings and walls.

"We did pretty good for a fiddle player and guitar player," Robin said.

To grow Arbor Music into a business, the Williams added a retail component to their venture. Through the years, they have grown their retail to offer musical instruments, strings, music books as well as repairs to guitars and other instruments, Eric said. The other half of the business is the offering of music lessons. The Williams opened their doors to other music instructors, which would allow them to also make a living by teaching music.

"We are just music teachers, not business people," Robin said. "When we opened this place we wanted it to be comfortable and homey and a place where kids want to come and see their teachers. We have some really good teachers who stick with us."

The 12 music instructors who use Arbor Music as a place to give lessons pay to use the space and reserve time slots to teach, much like a barber will pay for a chair in a barbershop, Eric said. The instructors are paid by their clients.

Eric teaches guitar lessons and Robin teaches the violin and cello. All the instructors combined teach lessons for most instruments. However, there are no instructors who teach brass or woodwind instruments, Eric said. The lessons cover a vast array of musical genres, and Arbor Music has about 284 people of all ages who take music lessons. The lessons focus on all aspects of playing an instrument from technique to hand positioning to musical theory, Robin said.

"We are not just teaching our students one song," she said. "We want to teach them everything about the actual instrument."

After 10 years at 33219 Egypt Lane in Magnolia, the Williams are planning on relocating Arbor Music to 33311 Bear Branch Lane in Magnolia. Eric said the new property is double the size of their current property and the move will take place in either May or June of this year. The business has grown significantly in the last decade and the Williams are running out of space at their current location.

"We are kind of bursting at the seams here," he said.

Arbor Music 33219 Egypt Lane, Magnolia 281-259-5585, www.arbormusic.com, Hours: Mon.–Thu. 10 a.m.–7:30 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.–3 p.m.