Cannon’s Addition music shop offers repairs, supplies and lessons
by Mike Prager
Robin Johson’s dream, at 13, is like that of a lot of teenagers. He wants to play in a rock band. Two of his South Hill buddies are into it, too. They’ve been jamming. Robin’s on bass.
“At this age, it’s so important to keep your kids busy,” said his mother, Dianne Johnson, who supports her son’s aspirations.
“This summer, he’ll have some purpose.” Continue reading “Music District”
– SPOKESMAN REVIEW –
by Mike Prager
Robin Amend knows how hard children can be on musical instruments. He makes a living fixing crushed trumpets, bent trombone slides, broken cello bridges and cracked clarinets.
Amend has been repairing musical instruments for 18 (now 26) years including the past twelve (now 20) at his shop at 1305 W. 14th.
He describes his craft as a cross between being a plumber, a jeweler, and an auto body repairman.
“I like everything about it,” he said of his job. “You get to do something different every day.” Continue reading “REPAIR SHOP SAVES HORNS, CELLOS FROM SILENT DEATH”
from SPOKANE LIVING
by Karen Dunlap
……Four blocks west (of Rosauer’s & Joe’s) is a coffee spot with as different persona as it’s possible to imagine. Still small, but cozy and hip, the Rocket Bakeryat 14th and Adams sits on the same block as AMEND MUSIC CENTER, a neighborhood fixture and a hub of activity for the community. In addition to selling music, repairing instruments and doing a brisk business in rental instruments for local bands and orchestras, especially at the elementary and middle school level, AMEND’S is known for support of disabled musicians, to whom it provides adapted instruments. Robin Amend’s grandfather lost an arm in a lumbermill accident, and his framed patent certificate for a device that makes one handed piano playing possible, plus a number of amazing photos of the device in use, are on display at the store. Anyone who played in a high school marching band ought ot make a visit to AMEND’S; the collection of old uniforms on display is really something. Continue reading “Mid South Hill Neighborhood”
This article was printed in ‘Nostalgia Magazine’ in November of 2000 and gives a little insight into why we have a music store at all and why we think music is so important for all people.
What he remembered most was the smell. Not the heady, hard to breathe, muggy smell of cedars in the rainforest, but that of freshly cut cedar – the smell of a newly split shake roof.
When the accident happened, his life did not pass before his eyes. He didn’t think of his love of wood that had led him into an apprenticeship at the local lumber mill. An apprenticeship that paid wages in wood instead of dollars; wood that he had used to build his first house. And he didn’t think of his job in this shake mill in the forests of Washington. He thought of the pain, pain and the smell of cedar. Continue reading “A Certain Grace”
For many years AMEND MUSIC CENTER has been working on ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES. We have developed many adaptive mechanisms that have been designed to help musicians that are disabled in any manner. This includes changing fingering mechanisms, adding braces, moving existing parts, building support systems and many other physical adaptations. Our crowning achievement was brought to life by means of a Small Business Innovation and Research Grant that we were awarded by the United States Department of Education. We manufactured and developed a device that successfully takes the place of a person’s disabled fingers and allows them to play a musical instrument that would normally require the use of a full set of fingers. Continue reading “The Sound of Hope: Instrument of Change”