<p>There is another side to this discussion. When I was a student at IU in 1978 (ouch), I happened to play on a very fine old Italian viola which was for sale. It was unique in that it had a gorgeous, rich timbre but was a "smaller" size (viola players will know what I'm talking about). My teacher at the time recounted to me how right after WWII he had come out of the service and was getting back into playing. He found himself trying a Pecatte bow which had a price tag of something ridiculously low by our standards. Still, it was too expensive for him and he let it go. He never forgave himself, as he never again had a bow he liked as much, and he knew the bow would have appreciated in value exponentially.
Similarly, the viola I was trying had a price tag of $12,000, which was a lot of money in 1978. My father took the plunge anyway. I've had a fabulous instrument for my entire career and now have a fabulous investment. It plays a large role in our retirement plans and gives us peace of mind. I would not advocate buying an expensive instrument for a 15-year-old, but for a serious student the long term benefits are many. It is a safe, reliable investment. Many people buy string instruments as investments and loan them out to players. (Sadly, many people buy them and they don't get played - that's another story!)
On another note, a few years ago I began to pick up a lot of violin playing and needed a good instrument. I bought an excellent French violin (1929) for $12,000. It can be done.</p>
<p>I think that the key to this is in the sound the instrument can make, not necessarily the price. The price of an instrument (and here I am talking from experience with violins and other string instruments, so keep that in mind if worried about brass or woodwinds and so forth) is based on a lot of factors;there are genuine strads out there that have dead sound, yet probably would still fetch million dollar price tags (or did) from collectors because of the name, there are 30,000 dollar modern violins that play as well or better in blind tests then strads did (talk about audience experience, not the musician playing it)......There are modern luthiers who 5 years ago were selling 15k instruments who today get 300k at least (Sam Schimotovsky (sp?) comes to mind). Prices get jacked up by demand, by word of mouth, that may or may not reflect the real value of the instrument. A 6000 dollar gem may outplay a 50,000 dollar "name brand", you just don't know. </p>
<p>There may be cases where it is worth upgrading even if the person is not showing signs of going on with it, for example, maybe they have the desire to do music but are fighting the instrument and it is discouraging them. Based on my experiences with my son, there are times when no matter how much the student works on technique, the instrument cannot go where they need to go (same can be said of bows as well), and if they are hitting this wall it can turn them off. Not saying buy a student a 30k instrument, just saying the current one may be limiting their enjoyment of the music (this is hypothetical, not knowing the girl in question). The only way to know for sure is to have the person play their current instrument then compare it to other instruments at a music shop, to see if anything there plays better. </p>
<p>Now let me try to simplify this to some basic rules that seem to have worked with my son as he has moved up (and again, I am using the violin as an example, since it is where I have a bit of experience)</p>
<p>1)With the current instrument, make sure that the problem is not the bow (string instrument) or setup (sound post, strings)..sometimes the instrument is out of wack, or it is the bow that is the problem (hopefully there is a friendly music store that would let the student try out a variety of bows...). </p>
<p>2)If you decide it is the instrument, get a feel for the things that the current instrument is lacking. For example, if you are a violinist and a cadenza in the Mendelsohn concerto is a struggle, the violin can't handle the range, whatever, or if a solo bach piece sounds terrible played on this violin (but not on others), make note of that. Have the problem sections/pieces, plus a list of the things the current violin does well in mind to play on any instruments you look at.</p>
<p>3)When looking at instruments, initially don't look at the price or the labels...tell the shop your price limitations (range), but ask to play them without knowing the name, etc. The best bet I have found is to compare the current instrument against the new ones, do it head to head (current against A, current against B) to see which ones seem better using your tests.Then compare them against each other, A against B, and B against c, etc...weed them down (maybe cut down by half each round)........if you find an instrument you like, at that point look at the price and maker.....</p>
<p>And if you are lucky to live where there are a number of shops, do the same thing at those shops.....then comes the fun part. Most reputable music stores (again I am talking strings here, it may be different with other types) allow you to check out instruments to try and home (and I wouldn't buy from one who won't allow that, to be honest). Try to check out the best in each shop, then compare them at home,and see which you like the best.</p>
<p>The key again is sound in the instrument. Good makers make not so good instruments (or have seen them mistreated and destroyed), no name makers can put out a really good product despite otherwise creating junk. And while price can be an indicator of popularity, often prices are assigned (i.e by demand) by people who assume that Maker A always makes golden instruments, so a lesser quality instrumentby A might cost twice as much as B's best</p>
<p>And you never know what you can find or where it will be. My son's current instrument is an old french violin from the 1860's that probably was made to an apprentice to Bernandel, one of the luthiers in the Gand/Vuillaume line of things), though we don't know for sure. In any event, we paid a nice sum less then 10k, and the violin just keeps getting better and plays better then a lot of violins costing 5 or 6 times more my son has tried over the years. It had been sitting in a local violin store for a long time, the story really specializes more in student and low end instruments, and turned out to be a gem.</p>
<p>One last note, that will probably get some people upset, but I need to say it. Some music teachers may have less then the students interest in mind, there is a significant presence in the music teaching business of teachers steering students towards a specific music shop because they have a deal, where the store 'rebates' a certain amount on the violin being sold (which in turn leads to music stores jacking up prices to account for the rebate), and I have seen music teachers defend this practice on the ground of 'the help they give the student'. I know from some music dealers I trust that there are local teachers who basically tell them if they don't do the rebate deal, they won't refer students..which is unethical IMO, but that does go on. How common it is I don't know, Strings magazine did a poll and roughly 20% of the teachers who responded said it was okay to do so. I think if a teacher actively helps in the search for a new instrument, accompanies the student or sits in on a listening session at home or whatever should be paid for their time, but it should be aboveboard.</p>
<p>I want to add here that many teachers and music shops are ethical, that if a teacher recommends a place that they may genuinely believe they are a good shop, and there is nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, keep in mind that you are the one buying the instrument, you are the ultimate consumer, and if you find a violin you like someplace other then the teacher recommends, that checks out (I recommend paying a luthier to look at it, to make sure it is in good shape), the decision should be yours and a teacher that gets ****ed you bought it someplace other then they recommended is suspect to me.......(We have been fortunate with my son's teachers, they have always given feedback on the violins and bows, and if they recommended places they didn't try to disuade us from looking elsewhere, they also encouraged it).</p>
<p>I think that the key to this is in the sound the instrument can make, not necessarily the price. The price of an instrument (and here I am talking from experience with violins and other string instruments, so keep that in mind if worried about brass or woodwinds and so forth) is based on a lot of factors;there are genuine strads out there that have dead sound, yet probably would still fetch million dollar price tags (or did), there are 30,000 dollar modern violins that play as well or better in blind tests then strads did (talk about audience experience, not the musician playing it)......There are luthiers who 5 years ago were selling 15k instruments who today get 300k at least (Sam Schimotovsky (sp?) comes to mind). </p>
<p>There may be cases where it is worth upgrading even if the person is not showing signs of going on with it, for example, maybe they have the desire to do music but are fighting the instrument and it is discouraging them. Based on my experiences with my son, there are times when no matter how much the student works on technique, the instrument cannot go where they need to go (same can be said of bows as well), and if they are hitting this wall it can turn them off. Not saying buy a student a 30k instrument, just saying the current one may be limiting their enjoyment of the music (this is hypothetical, not knowing the girl in question). The only way to know for sure is to have the person play their current instrument then compare it to other instruments at a music shop, to see if anything there plays better. </p>
<p>Now let me try to simplify this to some basic rules that seem to have worked with my son as he has moved up (and again, I am using the violin as an example, since it is where I have a bit of experience)</p>
<p>1)With the current instrument, make sure that the problem is not the bow (string instrument) or setup (sound post, strings)..sometimes the instrument is out of wack, or it is the bow that is the problem (hopefully there is a friendly music store that would let the student try out a variety of bows...). </p>
<p>2)If you decide it is the instrument, get a feel for the things that the current instrument is lacking. For example, if you are a violinist and a cadenza in the Mendelsohn concerto is a struggle, the violin can't handle the range, whatever, or if a solo bach piece sounds terrible played on this violin (but not on others), make note of that. Have the problem sections/pieces, plus a list of the things the current violin does well in mind to play on any instruments you look at.</p>
<p>3)When looking at instruments, initially don't look at the price or the labels...tell the shop your price limitations (range), but ask to play them without knowing the name, etc. The best bet I have found is to compare the current instrument against the new ones, do it head to head (current against A, current against B) to see which ones seem better using your tests.Then compare them against each other, A against B, and B against c, etc...weed them down (maybe cut down by half each round)........if you find an instrument you like, at that point look at the price and maker.....</p>
<p>And if you are lucky to live where there are a number of shops, do the same thing at those shops.....then comes the fun part. Most reputable music stores (again I am talking strings here, it may be different with other types) allow you to check out instruments to try and home (and I wouldn't buy from one who won't allow that, to be honest). Try to check out the best in each shop, then compare them at home,and see which you like the best.</p>
<p>The key again is sound in the instrument. Good makers make not so good instruments (or have seen them mistreated and destroyed), no name makers can put out a really good product despite otherwise creating junk. And while price can be an indicator of popularity, often prices are assigned (i.e by demand) by people who assume that Maker A always makes golden instruments, so a lesser quality instrumentby A might cost twice as much as B's best</p>
<p>And you never know what you can find or where it will be. My son's current instrument is an old french violin from the 1860's that probably was made to an apprentice by Bernandel, one of the luthiers in the gand/vuillaume line of things), though we don't know for sure. In any event, we paid a nice sum less then 10k, and the violin just keeps getting better and plays better then a lot of violins costing 5 or 6 times more. It had been sitting in a local violin store that really specializes more in student and low end instruments, and turned out to be a gem.</p>
<p>One last note, that will probably get some people upset, but I need to say it. Some music teachers may have less then the students interest in mind, there is a significant presence in the music teaching business of teachers steering students towards a specific music shop because they have a deal, where the store 'rebates' a certain amount on the violin being sold (which in turn leads to music stores jacking up prices to account for the rebate), and I have seen music teachers defend this practice on the ground of 'the help they give the student'. I know from some music dealers I trust that there are local teachers who basically tell them if they don't do the rebate deal, they won't refer students..which is unethical IMO, but that does go on. How common it is I don't know, Strings magazine did a poll and roughly 20% of the teachers who responded said it was okay to do so. I think if a teacher actively helps in the search for a new instrument, accompanies the student or sits in on a listening session at home or whatever should be paid for their time, but it should be aboveboard.</p>
<p>I want to add here that many teachers and music shops are ethical, that if a teacher recommends a place that they really think they are good there is nothing more then that. On the other hand, keep in mind that you are the one buying the instrument, you are the ultimate consumer, and if you find a violin you like someplace other then the teacher recommends, that checks out (I recommend paying a luthier to look at it, to make sure it is in good shape), the decision should be yours and a teacher that gets ****ed you bought it someplace other then they recommended is suspect to me.......(We have been fortunate with my son's teachers, they have always given feedback on the violins and bows, and if they recommended places they didn't try to disuade us from looking elsewhere, they also encouraged it).</p>