Recently I was on the hunt for a new acoustic guitar. My old one had it's head snapped off due to a clumsy fall with a little help from gravity. I had received that guitar as a present for my 10th or 11th birthday, and it stayed with me for 10 years. But since that one broke, and I was researching for a new guitar, I tried a couple different music stores to find its replacement. The first one I went to was recommended to me by a friend, and let's just say that I had no idea how good that store was until I went to a couple of other ones later on. In that store, I was immediately welcomed by a man behind the desk, and I told him the story about my guitar, and what guitar I'm used to playing. He recommended a couple of guitars to me, and just let me be by myself in the show room to test them out. I was in there for a while, and an older gentleman was also across the way playing on some Martins. He looked over at me and said that I play well, and we got into a little conversation in which I told him about what had happened to my guitar. I told him that I really do not know much about guitars because I kept the one that was given to me when I was 10, and never bothered to upgrade. He revealed that he was a regular at the store, and always came in just to play different guitars, and that he knew the owner of the store well. He then decided to bring the owner over to me, and from there, I had an exceptional experience. He explained to me what I should be looking for in guitars, how I should feel with it, what sound I preferred, and the visual aesthetic of it. He said that I should choose a guitar that would look nice in a guitar stand in the corner of my living room. I didn't buy anything from the store, but I wasn't pressured to either. I simply got a free education, and was ecstatic that I decided to go.

But, I wanted to do more research. I went to my local music store and tested out guitars. Again, I was helped immediately, but in this case, I had shared what my budget was, and was brought over guitars that were well over. Did I mumble my budget? I tend to mumble. But I left that store without purchasing.

Then I was on my way home from Connecticut, and I knew that I would be passing a Guitar Center. I had been in that exact Guitar Center before with my mom, and didn't have the most memorable experience. All I noticed was that there was not a single female in that entire store, and while that usually doesn't phase me, for some reason, I felt weird. But I truly wanted to give Guitar Center a second try. This time I was by myself, and now I knew a little bit more about guitars, and what I was looking for.

So I stepped into the store, and unlike the other places I visited, I wasn't greeted. But that was fine! The other stores I went to were much smaller, and were not major chain stores. So I leisurely walked around, took note of their extensive wall of electric guitars, and then found my way to the sealed room of acoustics. Again I noticed, not one female was in that building. But when I walked into the acoustic room, there was a husband and wife. Of course the husband was the one trying out the guitars, and the wife was just wandering around. I put my purse by a stool, and chose a guitar to start strumming. I was in there for about 10 minutes, until a young male employee entered the room. He immediately went to the husband that was trying out different guitars (the wife had left at that point to wander around the bigger show room).

The employee asked him about what he was looking for, and what his budget was. The employee helped him out, gave advice, and then remained silent on another stool in the room thereafter. The stool he decided to sit on was right next to mine. I thought: wow, this is great. He just sat right next to me, so now we can just have a nice conversation about guitars. He even looks my age, so I'm sure this will be chill. I continued to quietly strum some chords and pluck some notes, and yet, I was not said a word to. I even looked up at the young employee and tried to make eye contact with a little smile, and I was given nothing. I was completely being ignored. I couldn't believe it.

Did he not just help that other man in the room? Wasn't he going to ask me the same questions he asked him? Just to put the icing on the cake, a father and son waltzed into the acoustic show room, and the employee leaped off his stool, and immediately went to be of assistance. That was the final straw. So, I left the room. I still wanted to walk around the show room to see what else Guitar Center had to offer, like overpriced DJ set-ups. But, again, none of the male employees decided to ask me if I needed help with anything. Plus, usually in these situations, I would be asked if I needed help, and then I would say 'no thank you.' But in this case, I actually wanted experienced people's opinions! I still didn't know too much about the guitar world, and wanted some more insight.

I truly felt that since I was a female, and probably one of a total of five that walked in that store that day (or week, that wasn't just the wife of a guitar enthusiast), I was ignored. I felt like no one was taking me seriously. And that is just a larger problem in the music world, and it has always been like that. For whatever reason, women are seen as less-than in the overly male-dominated music world. I experience this constantly as a female trombone player as well (an article on that in the works).

I am just over it and tired of it. I have no intention of ever going into a Guitar Center again. Oh and by the way, I got a new acoustic guitar that I am over-the-moon-happy about. Not from Guitar Center.