Renting an instrument for orchestra???

[pannm]

I was super excited yesterday when I got the mail and there was an orchestra letter in it!

I am happy to know all of the info. from people on here, because now I know that the best option is for us to rent from the place that works with our school!

Rent is $18 a month. After 24 months of renting, 70% of the rental fees can be applied to the purchase of a new or used instrument. Of course, we can continue to rent up until they need the full sized one, and that money is applied as well. We figure, by the time we need the full sized one, we'll have almost ALL of the money in our account to purchase a nice one- should be anywhere between $350-$550 (that's what the sheet said and that is what the agreement rental states)...

Their rental INCLUDES: ALL mantinence, cleaning, tuning, size upgrades, music stand and music books that our orchestra teacher has chosen from them.

I am quite excited to hear how great of a deal it is! I will, eventually want to buy her one if she enjoys playing it, but there is no way I want to buy her one until she is in a FULL SIZED ONE!!!

AND, it really helps that our rental fee goes towards the cost of purchasing one!

 

[Gillian]

That sounds great!

I'm waiting to see what our school says. There is a rental place here that's around $20/month, and a friend's teacher suggested this place
https://www.stringworks.com/
but they don't give a rental credit.

 

[Gillian]

Ds wanted to play the sax in 4th grade. I wasn't sure he would stick with it so we opted to rent from a local store, coordinated through the school at $37/month. We had to the option to rent for 3 mos, or 10 mos the 1st year. We opted to rent for 10 mos and gave it back in June. The next Sept we could sign on again with rent to own and all money paid in past apply toward purchase cost.
Now he's starting 6th grade and though he wants to play in the middle school band, he never practices and doesn't exactly love to play. The rental is a Yamaha which I've never seen for less than $1300 to buy. This is way too much to spend, imho, for kids who are unsure if they want to play or are not very passionate about learning it & practicing, as is the case with ds11.

We were able to find a Yamaha in nice condition for $500 on craigslist, after a lot of hunting on ebay, etc. It was not the cheapest one out there, but we were able to check it out in person and learn the history of it.

It was a lot of cash to lay out, but we figured it was worth it. This is our second year not paying rental fees and we think we could sell it for at least half of what we paid. I am hoping he will continue to play, and if he makes it through high school with this one it will have been a great deal.

 

[gardenergirl]

I didn't read through all the posts, but I'll share our experience- (maybe too much info, but hopefully will be helpful)

I would recommend you rent, but only from a reputable specialty shop.

We rent from Baroque Violin shop in Cincinnati OH. Maybe that is nearby for you. We live in Lexington, KY, so a bit of a drive for us, but that's okay.

Both my kids play violin. It's $179 ish (can't find the bill right now, sorry) each for a year (12 months). That includes the case, bow, travel stand, I think a beginner book, and nice sounding violin. I pay in advance in August, but I think the monthly charge is about $18-we get the summer months free-I think because I pay a year at a time?

We started with 3/4 and moved on to 4/4 size. My older dds violin had a "buzz" and they fixed it or replaced it-it's been a couple of years so I don't remember exactly what happened (now, I know NOTHING about violins, so keep that in mind), the handle on one case broke (we were rough with it), they just sent a new one to me in the mail (no cost to me-covered under rental agreement)-no questions asked. The stands are disposable (just check out amazon reviews) this is not unique to Baroque. We have had those replaced with no issue/questions either. Call and they are shipped out same day-it's great!

Off topic, but I bought a $20-25 sturdier music stand for home-it doesn't fold up really and it's heavy, so the travel one is just for Saturday class, and Strings day. the little travel ones last much longer this way as I leave them in the trunk of the car except for those events.

My kids are in middle school now, and carrying these instruments on the bus every day. (they didn't ride the bus to elementary school-started playing in 4th grade) If anything happens to it-it's "covered" under rental agreement. I don't like to waste money and would just freak out if someone fell on a $1500 violin during orchestra (it has happened! ) This way, they have decent instruments and I don't worry so much about the investment.

For us it's worth it. (Yes, I've spent over $500 on a rental violin each over 3 years, but that's not much money in violin dollars, really, and included two different sizes) We have also done extra weekend classes at the local university and have private lessons. (in other words, we use the violins quite a bit) No issues with quality (or at least nothing that couldn't be fixed-and how much would a luthier charge to fix a "buzz"? I dunno, but don't want to find out). You do have to find a good shop though. Strings are cheap to replace, and it's common for them to break.,so this isn't really a +/- but just tell them which string and they will send it to you in the mail, or my favorite is to drive up and let them put it on and then we drive on to IKEA and/or Trader Joe's

If they are still playing when sophomore/junior in high school, I'll think about buying then. Originally I said I would rent for a couple of years and then use the credit for renting to buy (because they would both be 4/4 then, but reconsidered with the bussing and general clumsiness of middle school).

The advice from local teachers/ university staff here was not to rent from the local instrument/band shop, but from a violin/strings shop.

Plus it's so fun to go there and look at all the violins!

Good luck!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

My DD decided she wanted to play the violin--she started asking around her fifth birthday, I put her off for a year, thinking she wasn't serious. She finally started private lessons at 6--we rented a violin for $10 a month. It included credit towards a purchase, and we were able to easily trade sizes as she grew.

She's now 8. Her private teacher had commented that she was going to need a higher quality rental. But, it ended up not mattering--she switched to cello in May, I think. Her cello rental (1/4 size) is $30 a month including insurance. We get a better price because she takes private lessons (or, maybe a higher quality instrument at the same price). Her teacher is impressed with the quality of the cello she rents--I guess smaller cellos have a tougher time getting a rich sound. And she'll be starting orchestra at school this fall, too.

Bottom line, I believe in renting at first with a beginning musician. It can take time for them to decide they like it, or find the right instrument for them. We ended up buying our older kids quality, used instruments from a music store, once they were set (trumpet and sax).

Also, our DS14 plays the bagpipes--we had to order those from Scotland. But, we wanted to be sure he got quality. Fortunately, he played the chanter for 2 years first, so we knew it was something he loved.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My daughters take private lessons. I pay about $25 per month each including insurance just in case it breaks.

 

[Styx Fan]

If a string breaks, you will want it fixed quickly. That's why I would suggest asking parents who already rent fromt he stores in your town.

I played violin throughout school. My teachers always kept a supply of strings, especially for violin and viola which they sold to the kids at cost. You don't want to be sending an instrument in to change a string! They are fairly cheap and changing a string is just a basic part of playing. Once you learn how to tune your own instrument, changing a string is easy peasy. Absolutely no reason to miss playing time over that.

 

[princessmom29]

If you know what you are doing and take the time to do your research and find a quality used instrument it can be cheaper than buying, even in the fractional sizes. My DD started violin this year and I purchased a used instrument from sharmusic.com. It was a "second tier" instrument and 100% of the purchase price gets applied when we trade up to a bigger instrument. I spent what i owuld have spent for 1 year of renting a crappy violin from a music shop in town that knows NOTHING about stringed instruments. She is just barely big enough for a 1/2 sized instrument and barring a large growth spurt we should get 2 years out of this size. We will come out much better and DD will have a much better quality instrument than she would had we rented.