All Music: 26 Years Serving Syosset

If you ask Guy Brogna what his stranded-on-an-island, top album picks are, he smiles widely.

"Anything by Frank Zappa—One Size Fits All or Roxy & Elsewhere," he says. 

With three young daughters already into music--"Please…I've been to Jonas Brothers concerts and they like Justin Beiber"--and wife Danielle, a former wedding singer, Brogna's life is music.

Irwin Natman and Brogna run All Music, a successful music store in the Plainview Shopping Center that services the Syosset Central School District, among others, and sells all things music. With an arsenal of 10,000 instruments, 20 talented teachers conducting lessons, they sell amplifiers, sheet music other musical accoutrements.

Brogna joined friend Natman as co-partner in 2001 when his band Scatterbrain, a Long Island eclectic trash metal band that toured Europe and the United States during the early '90s, broke up. He played bass.

"I had a vision to make this into a guitar center," says Brogna. Where Natman began with 10 guitars and a small budget, growing to 100 guitars a decade ago, they now house 500 on the floor and thousands in stock.

With their newly launched website ( www.allmusicinc.com), All Music is raising the bar to be the "go-to" guys in the guitar arena.  

Location is the key to maintaining a thriving business in this economy. "I think China View and us are the oldest longtime businesses in this strip mall," says Brogna. "We've been in this same spot downstairs for 26 years."

He explains their business divides into four parts; sales, rentals, lessons and repairs.

"No one here works on commission so each customer gets the same attention for a $5.00 piece of sheet music or a $5,000 guitar," says Brogna. 

Servicing a town like Syosset is important to All Music, as the district has produced talented musicians, winning numerous awards and accolades for excellence in music. 

"Rock Band has a lot to do with increasing kids' interest in the guitar.  The most fun is seeing our own students grow as musicians," says Brogna.

Spencer Leonardi takes guitar lessons from teacher Matt Godfrey, loves heavy metal music and has a knack for playing lead guitar. The 12-year-old gathered some friends together (Niv Skidan-vocals/rhythm guitar, Davan Wadhwa-vocals/bass, Samuel Mathew-drums and James Wang-keyboards) who, all but one, take lessons at All Music and formed Metallic Flames.

"Our first performance ever was at Willets Elementary School Talent Show last spring," says Leonardi. "Then we played Rock the Lot in September."  Metallic Flames set list included classics "Don't Stop Believing," "Living on a Prayer" and "Eye of the Tiger."

"Rock the Lot" is All Music's music fair in the Plainview Shopping Center showcasing local bands and offering discounts to shoppers to "rock out" in a celebration of music.

Joan Chiarello, a 13-year veteran band and orchestra Director for Baylis Elementary School, sends her students to All Music.  "They are so accommodating, great with rentals and convenient repairs, even supplying replacement instruments in a pinch." Chiarello conducts two performances a year; winter and spring concerts (coming May 11) as well as "Music in the Parks" on May 21.

Chiarello says they are very helpful in competitions like All-State and NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association http://www.nyssma.org), finding the correct arrangements on sheet music.

Natman, also in the '70s wedding band circuit as a piano player, bought Straub music in 1984, naming it All Music. He's a longtime Syosset resident, and his twin teenagers are juniors at Syosset High School.

"My son, Spencer, plays drums just for fun, and my daughter, Danielle, plays oboe in the orchestra and band run by music director Marc Salzman," Natman says. "Syosset's been good to us."

For more information call All Music at 516-433-6969.  Store hours:  Monday-Friday 10 to 9, Saturday 10-6, Sunday 11-5.