BROOKINGS – Instruments, lesson rooms and rentals are now being offered in downtown Brookings, at 404 Main Ave.: Monell Music Company, owned and operated by TJ Monell, 35, with a little help from his wife Samantha, and their two children, Jaiden, 13, and Avalon, 10. The Monells are natives of Colorado, but they’re no strangers to Brookings.

“We came up here six or seven years ago,” TJ said. “Sam was looking at a master’s program at SDSU for food safety and dairy. It didn’t quite work out at that time, but we just loved the town.

“So when we had the option to move somewhere, COVID kind of helped push us to make the decision – to sell our house in Denver and move, in the September, October 2020 timeframe. Brookings was our top choice in terms of where to go. The school system is terrific. These guys are doing great in school. (Jaiden at Mickelson Middle School and Avalon at Camelot.) 

“And since we moved here, it’s been awesome to see the music in this town. Just amazing: the community band, the Pride (of the Dakotas), and SDSU has really good music programs.”

Hit by microchip shortage

Following the family’s relocation to Brookings last year, Monell took possession of the building on Main this past June. The store offers guitars, drum sets, percussion equipment, a lot of accessories needed for band and orchestra, a lot of the oils and reeds, saxophones, trumpets, clarinets and violins in different sizes.

The Monells remodeled and renovated the entire space. 

“It took a lot. Painting and flooring, we did a lot of that,” TJ explained. “We tore out two rooms, put in some carpet. In the back space, we redid the bathrooms, redid the flooring.” The two rooms are being converted into lesson rooms, which can be rented by area music teachers for $2 per half-hour.

“They can bring their students with them or I can direct students to them, if they have available time and space,” he added. “Then I just manage the monthly calendar, just to help them so that they’re not getting double-booked.” 

“We rent instruments as low as $20 a month, essentially for a violin or saxophone,” Monell said. “It kind of goes up from there, if they want a big upright bass or something.”

One wall of the store holds a wide selection of ukuleles, which are now played in more venues than little grass shacks in Hawaii. 

“These are called concert size,” he explained, showing off a larger one. “It’d be kind of like an alto saxophone. And then it goes up to a tenor size. They actually make them even bigger now. They’ve really grown quite a bit.”

Monell admits that he has been dealing with a few challenges as he works to keep the family’s new business going and growing. 

“We’ve kind of been hit by the microchip shortage and supply shortages.” He explained that microchips are used in some pieces of musical equipment, such as “guitar amps and keyboards.”

“It’s been a tough time to try to get started,” he added, again laughing a bit. “But I keep pushing to go forward. And more inventory continues to come in. I’ve got a lot more stuff coming. A lot of my inventory is on backorder or delayed shipment. Things just keep trickling in.”

A near lifetime in music

“I’ve been playing saxophone since third grade,” Monell said, referencing his own musical background as he grew up in Colorado. “Picked up guitar and bass in seventh grade, started my first band in seventh grade.”

He kept playing, took lessons and “everything they had to offer at school: saxophone, quartet, jazz band, marching band, all that stuff.”

Following high school graduation, Monell stayed in Fort Collins, working in a music store and playing bass in a band.

“My whole dream was to become a touring musician,” he said, laughing easily. “I had a band. We toured the country, played shows and recorded a couple of albums. We went from New York to Texas to California. Nothing special, just in a van.”

The band was a quartet: In addition to Monell on bass, there was a drummer, a singer and a guitarist. The band’s on-the-road gigs touring the country delayed Monnell’s going to Colorado State University.

He “was thinking about doing music,” but he focused on “becoming an entertainment lawyer.” 

Instead, he earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 2012.

While at CSU, he met Samantha. They had attended the same high school: “But she was three years younger than me, so I didn’t know who she was.” They married in 2010.

Meanwhile, music remained a part of his life. 

“I did play in the music programs, in the concert band on saxophone, stuff like that. Enjoyed it; I just wanted an undergrad (degree) that I could use to go on to law school.”

Following graduation, Monell stayed in Fort Collins and worked as a paralegal in-house for an engineering firm. Then he and his wife moved to Denver and he worked in a branch office of the same engineering firm. Next came another change of plans.

“When the time came to go to law school, I ended up deciding to go and get a master’s (degree) in business,” he explained. “That’s what I’ve been working on for the past few years.” He did some of the needed work – via the University of Colorado – online and some in-class while living in the Denver area. He got his degree in spring 2021. Next stop was Brookings. And the Monells are here to stay.

For TJ himself, his mission is a simple one. 

“I’m hoping to help support music teachers and their students. The community’s been pretty awesome.”

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.