Jun. 22—WINDHAM — Selling guitars made sound business sense to Paul German, as did moving his enterprise from his home to Range Road in Windham two years ago.

The longtime high-tech salesperson transitioned neatly to his new business — NH Guitars.

Lessons and guitar repairs became part of the store's repertoire.

Jams soon followed. Teachers and students. Local musicians and customers. Skilled hands and those learning their way around fretboards and strings.

After all, playing is the thing.

Now there is a house band, the NH Guitars All Stars, and regular open concerts downstairs from his second-floor store at Delahunty Garden & Landscape Center.

Here, under the farmer's porch roof, the All Stars and other bands play for each other and family and friends.

On this gray Saturday afternoon in April, the first concert of spring gets underway.

"Keyboard player, do we have a keyboard player?" hollers a guitarist they call "Super Dave."

"G minor and C," he says, announcing chords in the upcoming Santana song.

A keyboardist appears, plunking down at the picnic table.

With the guitarists, including Kevin Alexander Herrera and Ben Holida, lined up under the porch roof with Matt Carbonello on drums and Rick Joyner on bass, they are off and running.

Latin- and jazz-influenced rhythms and spiraling guitar solos propel the song forward as its singer pleads with a woman to change her evil ways.

In the distance, the melody sifts and lolls among potted trees and shrubs, the notes settling among flower trays to coax good root formation, and, ultimately, blooms.

Closer to the stage, parents, children and grandparents sway.

Nearby, young musicians in the band Porcelain Jumpsuit ready their drum kit and electric guitars for a set to include covers by The Cars and The Beatles.

The teens are from Newton, New Hampshire, and Sanborn Regional High School classmates — Angus Hanisco, Joseph Borgesi, Jacob Corbin and Joe Medina.

The concerts help build a music community, which complements the store's economic function — earning money for its owner and employees.

Among the music devotees is Brett Troupe, 17, a senior soon to graduate from Windham High.

"Anyone who can play music can just come up and play," Troupe says.

He is a store music instructor with 10 students and enjoys helping out with whatever needs doing.

"It's just a huge community built around music," he says.

It offers people in Windham opportunities to grow as musicians, to meet others, and to form bands and play, he says.

He has been playing music since he was 12, when his parents bought him a cheap electric guitar for Christmas.

He played Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, then branched out into jazz and other styles.

Meanwhile, back on the stage, NH Guitars All Stars member Caroline Kerkhoff encourages Nicolette Timmins, 22, of Derry, to come up and sing "Tennessee Whiskey" by Chris Stapleton.

It is her first time singing before an audience, and she sings through any stage fright and from the heart.

In the early years of the 20th century, pianos were a fixture in American homes, but as the century moved on and guitar-based rhythm and blues, country, and rock music grew in popularity, so did demand for guitars.

Between 2 million and 4 million guitars (electric and acoustic) are sold each year in the U.S., according to music industry stats.

Sales saw a boost during the pandemic when people were largely at home and searching for ways to occupy themselves.

German has been playing guitar since he was 11 years old and first heard Kiss' "Alive II."

He graduated from Northeastern University in Boston and has been living with his family in Windham since 1997.

Then, several years ago, as the owner of a lone guitar, a Gibson Les Paul — kept in the basement of his Windham home — he bought another, an Ibanez.

He bought it one day for $100 and sold it the next for $175.

"It occurred to me, 'Gee, I sold one, I could sell several,'" he says.

One guitar turned into three turned into five for German, who had spent more than 25 years in high-tech sales.

Guitar sales became a sideline. He enjoyed it, working out of his garage or meeting people by appointment.

After 21/2 years, he had accumulated some 750 customers.

The business needed more breathing space, and he tapped into his son's marketing skills. Zack German was then a student at the University of New Hampshire.

Zack entered an "X" on a map of New Hampshire and Massachusetts for each of his father's last 50 customers.

He determined that the most central location for the business was the intersection of Route 111 and Interstate 93 — which is very near to where Paul German located the business.

He knew about the location through the owner of Delahunty, Jay Yennaco, whom German knows through his involvement with youth baseball in town.

German moved here in February 2021, what he took to be the proverbial eighth inning of the pandemic.

Turned out it was a little soon, as the pandemic continued to plague the nation and the world.

But playing music with others grew naturally from the store's sales, repairs and lessons. Bands emerging after COVID-19 wanted a place to record, too, and the location became a destination for this.

"Between that time (February 2021) and this time, we've had 18 outdoor events, whether we call them open mics, student jams or acoustic circles," German says. "We get pizzas and beverages and hot dogs and kind of make a fun thing out of it."

The business sponsors the Windham Pride Festival, Windham Harvest Fest and the Windham Baseball Softball League, as well as Derry's Pizzastock, a fundraiser held annually in memory of the late Jason Flood to support mental health awareness and suicide prevention.