March always signifies the corner where we say goodbye to winter and hello to spring. Moods change, people venture out a lot more and the days are longer just to mention a few of the dramatic changes at this time of the year. As far as music goes, patios open, backyard parties start to happen and music starts to be heard again in the places where people gather. It's not that I would even dream of complaining about this past winter but it is always nice for us here at the store to be able to open the door up and let some fresh air in, literally and figuratively. For us, our year goes like this. August/September are very busy months, selling products and getting our school up and running, a big task given its size. October/November, continue to be busy with the school and we spend lots of time ordering and receiving extra product for the Christmas season. December is a giant blur as we all work a fair bit harder and longer to sell all of the Christmas product. January is a bit of a hangover month for us but by about half way through we are pretty much back to normal. Mid January we get to travel to LA for the Namm show which is always a nice break. January/February are usually pretty busy with sales and a bit of a second wave in student registration. So... By the time we get to March we are totally ready to relax a bit and dig back into what we like best which is promoting and selling gear. September til now this year has pretty much followed that pattern with the exception of the consistency of other years. About 60% of the time we have improved our business over last years recession and the other 40% of the time we have been the same or actually a bit down. All in all we are improving slightly but nonetheless, the inconsistency is driving us a bit nuts to be honest. However, we are improving and that is something that we are truly grateful for. Now, looking forward we are excited about our expanding video library and all of the new products slated to arrive in the next while. We are continuing to explore new ideas to expand and improve our business which if nothing else is fun for a nerdy entrepreneur like me. In our world like many others, March signifies the beginning of many more sunny days ahead. We're looking forward to a great spring and evening greater summer. We hope to see you soon.

Here at KAOS we are always looking for new ways to expand our business. An idea that we are currently working on is a new, guitar centric website that would cater to guitarists of all levels. The site would potentially offer product reviews, a user forum for people to discuss product and music in general, a section of instructional playing videos, a free classified section for people to buy and sell gear as well as shop for band mates and possibly a store that would offer hard to get guitar related products like play a long books, accessories and guitar swag. Before diving in head first, something we often do, we thought we would ask your opinion. If you'd like to contribute to this idea we'd love to hear from you about what you would find useful in a site dedicated to the guitar enthusiast. If you do send us your ideas, we'll enter you to win a $100 KAOS Music Gift card to be drawn next week. Click here to email us your ideas.

Hi everyone, I just got back from the NAMM show in Anaheim, California and I have tons to report. This years show was not only fun it was very educational for business guys like me. There were lots of new and interesting products. By the end of this week I will have the January Newsletter ready which will be full of pictures and information about my trip. Watch for it and make sure you are signed up for our emails so you receive the notification. Click here to read about it.

This past Sunday, we hosted the first 'Music in the Kingsway' concert in partnership with Yamaha Canada and our friends at The Kingsway Conservatory. All of the performances were simply outstanding but our headliner, Heather Bambrick stole the show with her unique sense of humor and absolutely stellar vocals. As a special treat, Heather had Dave Restevo with her. Dave is undoubtable one of Canada's greatest Jazz pianist. All of the performances were carried out on the Yamaha Avand Grand Hybrid digital grand which performed brilliantly. With almost 200 people in attendance, the show was a full out success. We'd like to thank all in attendance and everyone involved with this production. We certainly hope to do more of these concerts in the future. Read more about this concert.

Yup, another year has gone by. As with every year since I became a responsible adult with actual responsibilities, it flew by in what seemed like a month or two. Looking back I'd have to say that all in all it was a wonderful year. Despite a world wide recession, our store was able to maintain our school business and only experience a slight decline in our instrument business. Everyone here at KAOS was healthy, happy and relatively prosperous as far as I know. From September 09 until now we have returned to our post recession sales numbers and our school is as healthy as ever. For all of this we are extremely thankful and happy. Coming up for us we have a couple of cool things happening. Firstly, this Sunday January 10th we will be holding our first ever 'Music in the Kingsway' concert which should not only be entertaining but also educational as it features the new Yamaha Avant Grand hybrid digital grand piano. Also, the following week I (Bill) will be traveling to sunny LA to take in the annual NAMM show which highlights all of the new instruments that are slated to be released in the upcoming year. When I get back I will get straight to work on a post NAMM trip newsletter to let everyone in on what I saw and got to experience.