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3rd grade strings (1 Viewer)

Dragons

Dragons

Delusions of Grandeur
Local Elementary school starts strings lessons in 3rd grade and son wants to play violin. 

Teacher sends home paperwork on several local places to rent or buy instruments. She also fills kids head with "don't buy online" propaganda.

Rental is $27/month with $20 going towards equity of a future $825 purchase of a student violin (or credit towards other instrument).

Amazon has a $220 violin with a 5 star rating.

How do I navigate this?

 
Dragons said:
Local Elementary school starts strings lessons in 3rd grade and son wants to play violin. 

Teacher sends home paperwork on several local places to rent or buy instruments. She also fills kids head with "don't buy online" propaganda.

Rental is $27/month with $20 going towards equity of a future $825 purchase of a student violin (or credit towards other instrument).

Amazon has a $220 violin with a 5 star rating.

How do I navigate this?
Click to expand...
Having raised kids that tried different instruments I'd say rent for now. Good chance they change their mind on which instrument or quit altogether at that age

 
Rent knowing the kid will have zero interest in 3 months.  Or buy and be prepared to sell the instrument soon enough. 

 
I like the credit towards other instruments, but one school year rental is more than an entire violin on Amazon. The size comes into play, but I have a 1st grader that would likely use the 1/2 size in two years. 

Am I over thinking? Just rent and use the credit if either of them go on?

I want them both exposed to music, so they may change instruments, but I expect we'll need instruments in the future.

 
Maybe check the make and model # of the student violin on amazon or somewhere else and see the price difference.

 
Look into renting. Check other areas other than the school.  We went through this with our son last year.  3rd grade and wanted to play viola.  It cost us $175 to rent for the year.  This year going into 4th grade after having to practice every day, etc. he decided he did not want to continue orchestra.  We turned in the viola at the end of last year and don't have to worry about it.

 
Check if there are any stores that sell used instruments. 

Ran into same issue with my son doing band this year and bought a used instrument that I sell back in a year for half the cost if it doesn't stick. 

That said, for 3rd grade, I'd go with the online instrument and call it a day if no other options.

 
My 11 yo started strings last year. He was in 5th grade. He wanted to play cello, so we opted for the rental. Costs us about what you are looking at. 

Never really looked at an option to buy. A decent cello costs some dough, and we wanted the option to give it back whenever he was done with it. Looks like that may happen at the end of this year.

For the money at the end, I probably could have bought a cello, but I know nothing about buying one and I just consider it the cost of doing business with a kid. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
We've been renting a violin for my daughter now going on the third year. Cost is something like 23.99 a month. Similar deal where most goes to equity. They also cover any damages, loss, replacement strings, etc. Also can move up sizes. Seems like a a good approach for a young kid trying out a new instrument.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
My parents rented me a trumpet when I was in 6th grade band. I gave it up the next year, but it was kinda fun for a while.

 
shifty said:
Maybe check the make and model # of the student violin on amazon or somewhere else and see the price difference.
Click to expand...
We're renting a used Eastman VL80 Student w/ a retail value of $742.95 (new is apparently $825).

Used Eastman 80 for $348 I think new is $372.

New with "cosmetic defects" for $220 (1/2 size is no longer in stock)

Same but w/o cosmetic defects $250

I guess I have a month to decide whether it's better to plop $350 down now and hopefully get use out of it for two kids. Or bide my time with the rental.

Thanks for the puns and advise so far. Keep them coming.

 
Dragons said:
I like the credit towards other instruments, but one school year rental is more than an entire violin on Amazon. The size comes into play, but I have a 1st grader that would likely use the 1/2 size in two years. 

Am I over thinking? Just rent and use the credit if either of them go on?

I want them both exposed to music, so they may change instruments, but I expect we'll need instruments in the future.
Click to expand...
Size matters. You will probably have to change about every two years and presumably the rental company will swap out the sizes for free.

 
Dragons said:
I like the credit towards other instruments, but one school year rental is more than an entire violin on Amazon. The size comes into play, but I have a 1st grader that would likely use the 1/2 size in two years. 

Am I over thinking? Just rent and use the credit if either of them go on?

I want them both exposed to music, so they may change instruments, but I expect we'll need instruments in the future.
Click to expand...
Go virtual instead.

 
My 4th grader just started clarinet and the little missus went ahead and did the rental route. 37 smackers each month.

What a racket.  (now I hope my daughter tries tennis just for the pun).

 
My kids have played in the various bands through the years. A few things to consider: The teachers may want particular instruments due to the sound, no need to the teacher ticked off at Johnny. The kids can be harsh on instruments, usually, the rentals come with service plans. I know I've used the service plan more than once and the price to fix things has been right... ie zero.  And the rental allows for easier switching of instruments. My son switches between alto and tenor sax all the time. He uses the school tenor, and I think part of the deal was he needed to be in the rental program for that. It was a while ago when that started and the details are fuzzy now.

back to the regularly scheduled pun score

 
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