Procuring a cello

[FAX]

I suppose another idea would be to take a couple of strings off the Alvarez, put a kick stand on it, and "voila!!" - Instant Cello!

FAX

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by FAX

I suppose another idea would be to take a couple of strings off the Alvarez, put a kick stand on it, and "viola!!" - Instant Cello!

FAX

I took the liberty of altering your post by two characters, Mr. FAX. This way you end up creating a clever pun. I hope you don't mind.

[Jilly]

Originally Posted by SNR

I took the liberty of altering your post by two characters, Mr. FAX. This way you end up creating a clever pun. I hope you don't mind.

Musicians!

[penguinz]

Originally Posted by SNR

I took the liberty of altering your post by two characters, Mr. FAX. This way you end up creating a clever pun. I hope you don't mind.

Viola?

[Ecto-I]

Originally Posted by SNR

I took the liberty of altering your post by two characters, Mr. FAX. This way you end up creating a clever pun. I hope you don't mind.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by SNR

I took the liberty of altering your post by two characters, Mr. FAX. This way you end up creating a clever pun. I hope you don't mind.

Not at all, Mr. SNR. Feel free. Although, I did think my pun was sufficient since Mr. JimNasium's daughter is a child and Bill Cosby has frequently noted that kids love Instant Cello.

I was thinking, however, that if Mr. JimNasium's daughter is, for some reason, insincere about this new avocation and doesn't practice, he could decorate a small room with Italian Renaissance prints, put iron bars on the door and, as punishment, put her in the homemade cell-o.

FAX

[Jenson71]

The cello sounds really cool.

[Vegas_Dave]

Originally Posted by JimNasium

My daughter has decided that the cello is her instrument of choice in fifth grade orchestra. I, of course have zero clue about the cello and so I beseech the collective genious (sic) of the Planet for answers. I'm assuming that the best route to go is a rental until we decide if she's going to stick with it. I've been quoted $35/month for rental with one years rent allowed to accumulate into equity on a purchase. Is this a good/standard deal? Any other input would be helpful.

I own 3 music stores in Las Vegas (www.kesslermusic.com).

The price you are being quoted is a pretty standard deal and is actually cheaper then the national average for Cellos.

When I rent a cello, I do them at $25 per month, with the first 2 months rent Free. I also allow 100% of the rent to go towards purchase.

Dave

[tiptap]

My son has been playing cello for 12 years. He started with a half size. It happened to be his aunts who kept it along with her regular size.

And it makes a great deal of difference which instrument you get. To get the real benefit you should look for a private teacher. Ask the rental store to let you take a couple of different ones over several lessons and let the teacher see which one is easiest in getting a good sound. Otherwise take the instructor with you with the bonus of a nice dinner to try them out. (Many times it is just an adjustment to the sound peg that can make a big difference.)

A cello can be an investment. (I have 100,000 invested in three violins, two cellos and a bass and the Steinway.) But ALL of the instruments have increased in value.

As an example what a good instrument provides, my daughter's violin teacher asked her to play way up on the neck to see how bad the sound could be as he did so on his own violin. After playing the professor turned to my wife and said, "You gave her too good a violin."

[seclark]

Originally Posted by tiptap

(I have 100,000 invested in three violins, two cellos and a bass and the Steinway.)

wow...
sec

[Zebedee DuBois]

Got a vehicle with a big enough storage area to haul that thing around?


There's always room for cello.

[Saulbadguy]

YO YO MA!

Did you just say Yo Yo Ma?

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by tiptap

My son has been playing cello for 12 years. He started with a half size. It happened to be his aunts who kept it along with her regular size.

And it makes a great deal of difference which instrument you get. To get the real benefit you should look for a private teacher. Ask the rental store to let you take a couple of different ones over several lessons and let the teacher see which one is easiest in getting a good sound. Otherwise take the instructor with you with the bonus of a nice dinner to try them out. (Many times it is just an adjustment to the sound peg that can make a big difference.)

A cello can be an investment. (I have 100,000 invested in three violins, two cellos and a bass and the Steinway.) But ALL of the instruments have increased in value.

As an example what a good instrument provides, my daughter's violin teacher asked her to play way up on the neck to see how bad the sound could be as he did so on his own violin. After playing the professor turned to my wife and said, "You gave her too good a violin."

Yep. A friend of mine is an eye surgeon. Makes great money. He's also a former music major in college and is principal violist in the local symphony orchestra.

He's living his dream right now. He's a musician with buttloads of money to spend on his music. Get this: he owns roughly $500,000 worth of violin and viola BOWS. The instruments he owns total out at around $1.5 million.

What's great about this is when the aspiring students make it through the long years of school orchestras, he helps them out a lot. He's let students borrow his best bows/instruments for all performance occasions, and a few times he's "borrowed" them to students and said, "feel free to return it to me when you're done using it." In other words, these instruments worth tens of thousands are being handed out.

He's really got it made. He calls his eye surgeon job his "day job that pays for his real career."

[tiptap]

If you are looking to buy and that should be after seeing if your child will want to continue, I suggest the Tulsa Violin Shop on Central in Tulsa OK of course. The owner is a cellist and travels to Europe looking for instruments.

[bringbackmarty]

Where do you live? 35 is okay, renting is good, setup is very important for string instruments. You need to make sure that the string height is not too high for her, and you don't want her to have too expensive a bow in the beginning because she will drop it when learning how to play a few times. If you are in kansas city, there are a couple of places I could reccomend, and I would be happy to meet you there to help you select an appropriate instrument for your child, as well as give you some tips on what to look out for in terms of poor setup, bad pricing, and the like. The size and setup are the most important because with the string family it is very easy for your kid to hurt themselves by working too hard. Tendonitis, carpal tunnel, back and neck problems are common.