BUSINESS

Fondren Guitar expands for students

Nell Luter Floyd
Retail columnist

Fondren Guitars in Jackson has expanded to better accommodate its music students.

The store at 607 Fondren Place upgraded what was once storage space underneath Rooster’s restaurant in the Fondren Corner Building – across the street from the store – into four lesson rooms.

“We completely transformed it from a dungeon into a modern space,” said J.D. Burns, general manager of Fondren Guitars, which specializes in new, used and vintage guitars, basses and amplifiers and offers repairs to guitars as well as music lessons.“It was a complete build-out of the space with Sheetrock, lighting and air conditioning added.”

Three spaces inside Fondren Guitars are also used for lessons, Burns said. Having the new lesson rooms means instructors and students won’t have to give lessons on the stage outside Fondren Guitars as they once did, he said.

Fondren Guitars School of Music has eight music instructors and almost 200 students, he said. “Within the last 18 months our lessons have started to take off,” he said.

Lessons are offered in guitar, bass, drums, piano, voice, banjo, mandolin and ukulele to students from throughout the metro area, some of whom are as young as age 3, he said.

Private lessons cost $100 a month per student for a 30-minute class once a week. Students have the option of participating in a student rock band, which is lots of fun and a vehicle for learning to play music with others, he said. The rock band program meets once a week for an hour and costs an additional $70 per student. There’s even a rock band that adults may join, he said.

Burns said the school of music can handle additional students and wants to be “synonymous with the best lessons program in town.”

Many youngsters participate in numerous activities after school and lessons are scheduled around them and can be as late as 7:30 p.m., he said. “We tend to have a surge around 3 or 3:30 when school is out and then after 5 when parents are off work,” he said.

Patrick Harkins, who moved back to Jackson from Austin, Texas, and opened Fondren Guitars nine years ago, is the reason for the success of the lessons program, Burns said. “He is the master mind behind it,” he said.

Music is a universal language, a creative outlet and helpful with numerous aspects of learning, Burns said. “It can also be very therapeutic and fun,” he said.

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Panera Bread is hiring employees for its restaurant that is scheduled to open later this fall at Renaissance at Colony Park in Ridgeland.

Applicants may apply online at www.panerabread.jobs.

The 80 employees already hired are in the process of being trained, said Allie Munsey, recruiting and branding manager for Panera.

The bakery-café will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, offering hand-tossed salads, signature sandwiches, pasta, flatbreads and hearty soups served in edible sourdough bread bowls. The hours of operation will be Monday-Saturday, 6:30 a.m.to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Contact Nell Luter Floyd at nellfloyd @bellsouth.net.

Fondren Guitars owner Patrick Harkins has opened a new school of music in Fonden Underground in Jackson. The school features seven lesson rooms for his students.
Fondren Guitars owner Patrick Harkins, left, is expanding his business with assistance from J.D. Burns, store manager.
The new Fondren Guitars School of Music feature more lesson rooms.
Fondren Guitars owner Patrick Harkins has opened a new school of music at Fonden Underground in Jackson. The school features seven lesson rooms for students.