The Absolute, MUST read guide to parents of beginning orchestra students

The Absolute, MUST read guide to parents of beginning orchestra students

by Andrew Ryan Henke

So your kid chose to be in orchestra! Congratulations!  I'm sure you're thinking, "Great.  The to the next two months will be full of squeaky, out-of-tune, Twinkle Twinkle."  As many jokes as there are about beginning strings players, it is a truly beautiful thing to watch a child grow as a musician and fall in love with this art form.  It can also be not too squeaky or out-of-tune if you have a good teacher.

However there's one giant potential pitfall for you as a parent!  Finding an instrument!

So... you're stuck finding an instrument for your kid and you know nothing about string instruments.  I've heard this lament thousands of times from parents like you; but there's good news!  I was a public school orchestra teacher for nine years and now manage a violin shop.  I am here to help!

This is a list of do's and don'ts for getting an instrument for your child, getting the most out of your dollar, and having a pleasant experience through the process.

The Do's of shopping for an instrument

1. Shop around.  All instruments are not anywhere close to made equal.  One shop will rent you a $120 piece of junk for the same price as another shop down the street renting you a $700 excellent student-level instrument.

2. Ask people in-the-know for the best shops.  This does not include just anyone who already rents/purchased an instrument.  This means private teachers in the area, professional musicians in the area, public school teachers (though in Georgia, public school teachers are not allowed to recommend one shop over another), and students who have played for years (and are decent musicians).

3. Ask questions about the instrument.  Once you find a string instrument specialist shop (if they have drum sets, saxophones, and walls of amps, you aren't in the right place), ask the salesperson questions about the instrument.  You're giving them your money, they should not be against answering your questions.  If they are against it, run the other direction.  If they let you ask but have no clue about the specifics of the instrument, run even faster.

Here are some questions you could ask to gauge the quality of the instrument and the quality of the store you are getting it from.

1. "How much are these instruments new?"
If the answer is less than $300, they are probably garbage.
2. "What strings do you put on these?"
If the sales rep has no idea, they are probably the cheapest garbage that came standard on the instrument.  They will sound terrible.  They probably don't know what good strings are and are banking on you not knowing either.
3. "If I need a repair, can you do it here?  How long would a repair take?"
If they need to ship the instrument off to some other state to get things fixed, that's a bad sign... especially if it's something minor like your bridge fell over.  It's going to take a month to get it back and, in my experience, once you get it back, the problem is either not fixed at all and they said they couldn't do it, or it's fixed with the absolute least amount of effort possible and barely passes for a fix.  Any real strings shop can put on new strings, put up a sound post, reset a bridge, or make the pegs not stick in minutes.  Larger repairs they will do in days.
4. "When you get these instruments in, what all do you check to make sure they are set up correctly?" This question is to test what the salesperson really knows.  You don't have to understand the answer, but if the salesperson stutters, draws a blank, or says they do nothing to check the instruments, you're probably not at the best store.

4. Ask questions about the contract.  It is entirely possible for you to get screwed through a violin rental.  See Don't No.1 below for a story about this.

The Don'ts of shopping for an instrument

1. Don't go in uneducated.  Music instrument rentals and sales is a surprisingly cut-throat business.  If you go into the wrong store clueless, they will take advantage of you.

I just had a customer in my shop last week who rented with another company nearby.  They noticed a problem with the instrument at home, so they brought the instrument back in for repairs.  The store blamed them for an issue with the make of instrument, did horrible repair work that broke again weeks later, yelled at them and refused to fix it again even though they were paying for insurance, and sold them a piece of garbage $200 cello for 1.2 thousand dollars.  I often wonder why this specific shop is still in business after hearing many stories like this.  Some of our competitors are decent shops... this one isn't.

The only possible use for some of the
horrible instruments I've seen in my time.

2. Don't buy an instrument online!!!  Unless you know for sure that it's a decent make and quality, don't buy one online.  I know you can find instruments that look perfectly fine for $100 on amazon.  They are not perfectly fine.  These are garbage instruments that will make your child hate playing music.  They sound terrible, feel terrible, often have major functionality issues, sometimes aren't even set up, and will break for no obvious reason.  $100 on an instrument ordered online is $100 flushed down the toilet.  It's not a beginner instrument; it's what we in the business like to call a "violin shaped object."  Renting an instrument from a reputable company through their website might be an okay way to go if you know the company has consistently good quality instruments.

Do you see all the violins on display?
Yeah, me neither.  Don't go here for one.

3. Don't go to a general music store.  Find a string specialist store, usually called a violin shop.  You might have to drive a bit, but it is so worth it.  You're most likely going to need maintenance on that instrument eventually.  You want someone who can take that violin apart and put it back together, not a saxophone player who has never worked on a violin in his/her life.

4. Don't be tricked by too-good-to-be-real deals.  There is no good way to mass produce a string instrument.  Even the cheapest, decent quality violins cost between $500 and $700.  Most stores have an affordable rental plan, but if you aren't shelling out at least $15 a month or so, you probably got a terrible instrument.

If you have any questions about this process, your instrument, another shop, or Ronald Sachs Violins, feel free to email me.

If you don't have a store near you, Ronald Sachs Violins does rentals through our website and has the best quality instruments in the entire south-east of the country.  Atlanta Symphony Orchestra members often walk into my shop, try one of our rental instruments, and say, "Wow, you rent these?  These are excellent!"  We'll even ship the instrument to you for free! https://www.ronaldsachs.com/t-violinrentals.aspx

I truly hope this blog helped!

By Andrew Ryan Henke
http://www.ronaldsachs.com

Andrew Ryan Henke is the manager of the Marietta/East Cobb branch of Ronald Sachs Violins.  He has played string bass for 22 years and was a public school orchestra teacher for nine years.  He also is a fantasy author of the epic trilogy "The Lumin Prophecies." www.andrewryanhenke.com