Music stores don't have to be places where Fender Stratocasters are locked away in glass cases.
The Spicer family set out to create a different kind of music shop when they opened Spicer's Music in December 2012.
"We didn't open with the mindset of being a retail store," said Tim Spicer. "The retail was secondary."
Spicer's Music was opened to bring music to the community. The Spicer family said they wanted to use their love of music to help people.
Tom Spicer, Tim's father and retired high school teacher, shared his musical talents with his family.
"There were always instruments around the house when my brother and I were growing up," Tim said. "Growing up I picked up a bunch of different instruments."
Tim's mother, Jean Spicer, works in the mental health field.
"There is a big background - I guess it kind of runs in my blood - of working with others," Jean said. "My method for that turned out to be music."
Seven years ago, the family started Spicer's Garage Band Camp, a Monday through Friday summer camp where students ages 8-18 can learn how to cover songs and eventually compose and perform an original piece.
Spicer's Music is the successor to that project.
"Friday night is a concert with stage, lights, fog and guitar solos," Tom said. "that started as a way to infuse music in the lives of kids and help them positively through that."
Tom said he wants to use his love of music to help the community.
Tom graduated from Auburn with a degree in special education and said he wanted to combine his affection for music with what he learned at Auburn.
"We really opened with the mindset of lessons, of summer camps, of doing some programs with kids, and of doing some things in the community," Tom said.
Tom said the family wanted to run a new kind of shop.
The family focuses on teaching lessons to people of all ages.
Tom said he wanted Spicer's Music to be a comfortable place where musicians can come together to share their talents.
Tim said comfort is essential for students and parents alike when they come to the store for lessons.
When Tim was taking lessons growing up, he said his mother was so uncomfortable waiting in the stores that she would sit in her car.
"It seemed like there's a consistent old-stale carpet, grey walls and a couple people sitting behind the counter that kind of look down their nose at you," Tim said.
Spicer's Music has couches, televisions and coffee for parents while they wait for their child's lesson to finish.
Spicer's Music guitar technician, Josh McKenzie, has been a friend of Tim for years.
"We worked together at another store and played in bands together..." McKenzie said. "When I found he was opening the store I was really excited because I knew his heart and vision."
McKenzie joined the staff at Spicer's Music as soon as possible, happily joining his friend.
McKenzie describes selling guitars as "matching someone up with the perfect girlfriend."
However, the Spicer family's vision of helping the community has spread beyond the walls of the store.
The family is working on a non-profit business that provides instruments and lessons to low-income or at-risk children.
Tom said he is hoping to help people who "wouldn't generally be able to afford a guitar or lessons in any conventional way."
The Spicer family hopes these students will teach their friends and peers what they're learning, further spreading the love of music the Spicer family holds dear.
The family furthers their community goal by going to local elementary schools to teach lessons to the students.
"We're always trying to think of a different group of people we haven't been able to touch or reach through music yet," Spicer said.
One of the first projects that Spicer's Music created was a jam session for older musicians. They bused in people from retirement homes to get together and play music.
It's taken a year and a half for Spicer's Music to get to where they are now, but the family is already planning new ways to help the community.
"We have a lot of ideas on the drawing board," Spicer said. "One thing we don't want to do is too many things at once and not do anything effectively."
Spicer sees his store as more than just a music shop.
"I think of it as a ministry," he said.
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