As your student develops as a musician, they will begin to"out grow" their beginner instrument. Although the beginner instruments are quality horns, they are still designed for beginner students. Intermediate level "step-up" instruments often feature a higher quality of material, better ergonomics, and improved resonance, tone quality, and intonation for your student.
If you are currently renting an instrument from Buddy Rogers, all of the money you have paid towards that horn is applied to the new step-up instrument. If you are not renting from Buddy Rogers, you can easily contact them to see if you can do a trade-in with the instrument you have.
You can step-up the instrument at any time. Buddy Rogers does have some promotional offers available (such as save $100 on the step-up instrument) if you do it in December/January when they come to our school. It is easiest to step-up the instrument when you are still renting it, since they just transfer your rental to the new instrument. If you are at all interested in upgrading your student's instrument, we recommend you do it before you have completely paid it off. If you are going to own an instrument, it would be better to own the step-up horn, which will be a good fit for them for many years to come, as opposed to the beginner horn which they will "out grow" by high school.
Most of the differences come from the materials the instrument is made out of. For example, a beginner clarinet is plastic while the step-up clarinet will be made of wood. This drastically improves the tone quality, how it vibrates (the resonance), and the intonation. A step-up flute has white-gold springs which allows the keys to respond quicker. A step-up trombone will have a larger bore and an F-attachment, which increases the student's lower range and provide students with additional slide position options (They can play low C without moving their arm all the way out to 6th position!). Overall, the design of the step-up instrument will let your student produce a better sound. As a parent, you may or may not notice the difference - Ask your student about it! Every single student who has tried a step-up horn can feel and hear the differences in the new horn over their beginner one.
Yes! In November, our Buddy Rogers rep will visit our 7th and 8th grade band classes to share info with them about the step-up instruments. Students will have the chance to try the new horn and compare it to their current instrument. We will also have a flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone available for the students to try-out during class/lunch/study hall for the next couple weeks. Additionally, you can contact Buddy Rogers at any time to make arrangements for your child to try a step-up instrument.
You have several options. Buddy Rogers will be at our December concert and you could speak with them then. We also schedule a date in December where our Buddy Rogers rep is available at the school in the evening to meet with any parents who may want to discuss a step-up instrument for their child. However, you can contact our Buddy Rogers rep (Stew Blatt - sblatt@buddyrogers.com) at any time and he will get it all set up!
Questions about the step-up program? Feel free to contact Buddy Rogers or your child's band director.