WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU RENT OR BUY A BAND INSTRUMENT:

You will need to rent or purchase an instrument to use in class from a local music store or borrow an instrument from the school. For your convenience, Ted Brown Music Co. Offers a rental program tailored to our school. You can visit their website for details.

Most music stores offer all or a portion of the rent to go toward the eventual purchase of an instrument and offer insurance to cover repairs during the rental period. Be sure to ask about the store’s policy when you rent.

Students who play the euphonium or tuba will need to rent their instruments from the school as these instruments are typically very expensive and are not available to rent. Whenever possible students who play these instruments will be provided with one instrument to keep at home for practice, and one to leave at school for classes.

If you cannot afford to rent an instrument, the school has a instruments that can be borrowed from the school free of charge. Please contact Mr. Anderson if you would like to borrow an instrument from the school. If money is an issue, you are much better off borrowing one of the school's instruments than buying an "instrument shaped object" as described in the next section.

Make sure you also have:

• Essential Elements book 1 for your instrument.

• A box of extra reeds (for clarinets and saxophones)

• Valve or slide oil (for all brass instruments)

• A folding music stand (for practice at home)

Let the Buyer Beware - Some internet deals are "to-good-to-be-true"

Remember: you very often “get what you pay for.” You may be tempted by a cheaper price that you find on the internet, but there are a lot of inexpensive “instrument shaped objects” for sale that no amount of money will ever make play as well as a quality instrument. Some music stores won’t even attempt repairs on such instruments, so if they break, you’re stuck with an instrument shaped paper-weight.

Students who buy these ISO's are often frustrated because it is impossible for them to produce a characteristic tone or to play in tune. These students often wrongly think that they are to blame and quit because they think they aren't good at music. Please save yourself the frustration and purchase or rent a quality instrument.

Instruments sold at music stores are manufactured in factories where trained craftsmen who are passionate and knowledgeable about their instruments ply their trade. The instruments are designed by engineers who know how to make an instrument playable and responsive for young players. Each instrument is play tested by an expert musician on that instrument before it is shipped off to a music store which does final play testing and adjusting as necessary before it goes into the hands of a student. If there is a problem with an instrument you purchase or rent from a music store, they have trained repairmen who can make it right. The same can not be said if you purchase an instrument from Amazon, or e-bay.

Those "instrument shaped objects" I mentioned are often made with inferior materials that don't hold up to the rigor of playing. I've seen clarinets who's bodies did not fit together properly due to poor workmanship or materials; they have become stuck together and cracked. I've seen flutes and clarinets that had keys made of such soft metal that they bend while you play them. I've seen clarinets that were brand new, but every single pad was worn out already because the edges of the tone holes were not properly finished. I've seen trumpets which, although they look like a trumpets, are hard to produce a sound on (even by an experienced player, let alone a beginner) due to improper materials or poor design.

You can’t go wrong buying from a reputable music store that will stand by what they sell.