WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU RENT OR BUY AN INSTRUMENT:

You will need an instrument to participate in orchestra. Most families choose to rent or purchase their instrument from the music store. The school also has an inventory of instruments available for students who are unable to get their own by other means. For your convenience, Ted Brown Music Co. Offers a rental program tailored to our school. You can visit their website for details.

Students who play Cello or Bass should rent an instrument from the store that they can keep at home for practice, and will be loaned one that they can use during the school day.

For all instruments you will need to be sure that you are getting the right size. Violins and cellos come in 1/2, 3/4, and 4/4/ sizes, Basses come in 1/2 and 3/4 sizes, and violas come in 12", 13", 14", 15", and 16" sizes. Mr. Anderson will measure and size all students in beginning orchestra, the music store should also be able to help you choose the correct size.

Violins and Violas

• Your instrument should have a naturally colored finished (they come in various shades of brown). DO NOT buy an instrument that is painted so that you cannot see the natural grain underneath. These instruments are VERY low quality and often are un-playable because of poor workmanship and materials.

• Your instrument should come with a bow that has a clean, white ribbon of horsehair and a cake of rosin.

• A shoulder rest. This is essential for holding your instrument properly, it needs to be purchased separately.

• An extra set of strings. Strings break and you will need to replace them.

• Beginning students need “Essential Elements” book 1.

• A folding music stand

Cellos and Basses

• Your instrument should come with a bow that has a clean, white ribbon of horsehair and a cake of rosin.

• A rock stop, which will keep your instrument from sliding across the floor while you are playing. I recommend the xeros end pin strap.

• Cellos should buy an “A” and a “D” string at least. These are the strings that break more often and a whole set can be rather expensive. Basses do not need to purchase strings as they are very expensive and they rarely break. Bass strings can be purchased as needed.

• Beginning students need “Essential Elements" Book 1.

• A folding music stand

LET THE BUYER BEWARE - Watch out for deals that 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” (ISOs) 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. Furthermore, even if repairs or adjustments are done, you could spend $200 adjusting, repairing, and upgrading your ISO, and it still would only be worth the $75 you originally paid for it.

If money is an issue for your family, you are far better off renting or borrowing a quality instrument from the school rather than throwing money away on an ISO.

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 real instrument.

Why does that instrument from the music store cost so much more than the one on-line?

A good quality instrument starts with good quality woods. These woods and materials are more expensive than the softer woods that are used on the ISOs. They are then aged and seasoned for about 8 years before they even start to turn it into a violin. Those ISOs may have still been a tree last month. These "green" woods will expand and contract as they dry out making it difficult or impossible to keep the instrument in tune.

The black parts of a violin should be made from ebony, a very, very hard, black wood. The cheaper instruments settle for just painting a piece of softer wood black. These painted fingerboards don't stand up to use and wear down. Cheaper tuning pegs wear down and will not hold the strings tightly in the peg box causing them to always go flat. The neck and scroll of the violin should be made of aged maple. The ISO's have necks made of soft wood that mushroom's out and does not hold the tuning pegs so that the strings will always be flat and go flatter no matter how many times you attempt to tune it. I once saw an ISO in my classroom so poorly constructed that the entire scroll snapped off when I was tuning it. A local luthier told me that such a repair would cost upwards of $1000 which would be well worth it if the scroll broke off of a $10,000 professional violin, but is completely out of the question for an ISO that was purchased for $75 on-line.

Finally, a quality instrument is made by expert craftsmen and set-up by an expert repairmen (luthier). Those ISO's rolled off a factory line and went straight in a box without an expert making sure that the bridge, sound-post, and fingerboard are properly set-up and ready to play. If there is ever a problem with an instrument you got from the music store, they will be able to make it right. That can't be said for that instrument you bought from e-bay or Amazon.

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