Posted: 8/2/2012 9:29:00 PM EDT
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Daughter, 1st year High School. Joining band wants to play Clairinet she's committed to it for a year (all I ask of her) and she may continue if she likes it. Anyway I have no experience in wind instruments. I can get advice from her band teacher, and the "Traveling salesman" that will be coming to her school but I'd rather be better informed on clarinets.
So any help on where to search ,brand to look at, starter peices, new used, prices etc will be greatly appreciated. Thanks |
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Rent. Most/all schools have programs that allow you to rent the instrument. It's not cheap, but it beats the hell out of spending hundreds/thousands on an instrument, only to have the kid give up after a year. Ask the father of a clarinet player, trumpet player and baritone sax player anything...... |
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I'd be renting the first year at least, after that if they want to continue (and they are any good at it) then maybe buy one. House full of violins, violas, cellos that my kids played for a year or 2 then decided it wasn't for them, of which they begged me to buy because they just know they will keep it up and become master musicians, which they didn't. Band type instruments lose alot of value after you buy them. Cellos and violins that I payed over $700 for, can't even sell for more than $100. I ended up just donating them to the schools to get them out of my house.
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Thanks gents, All the information is beneficial to me..
Music is constant in our house.. We are a house full of musicians (kids) drums, keyboards, guitars. This is the first request for a "Woodwind" instrument. I received a recogmendation for a Yamaha student clairinet "Yamaha YCL250 Clarinet" for $500.00 and used starting from $300.00 @ Amazon. Any opins on this model?... I'm going to wait until the traveling salesman comes to look at rentals... |
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Check out Musicians Friend: Here's one like the one I bought my daughter 6 years ago. same company (Prelude). I had to have it re-padded once ($120.00), but my daughter played it everyday for four years before the the re-pad. I think I paid $349.00 back then new. I buy a box of 10 reeds for her every two years, which you can find on the site too. It's made out of rubber/synthetic. Unless she is going to play professionally, I'd stay away from the "wood" ones that cost at least $1000.00. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/woodwinds/prelude-by-conn-selmer-cl711-bb-student-clarinet Hope this helps. |
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Every pawn shop I've been in had used clarinets, usually for $50-$200 depending on brand and condition.
I even managed to get a steal on one that had aparently been sitting there for a long time. It is some sort of older Selmer that was made out of solid Rosewood. They had it for $100, so I took the chance and bought it (my Mom played one alot when I was a kid and always wanted to take it up again). When I got home I looked it up and it is worth alot more. It made a great Christmas present. |
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Well I purchased a used Yamaha 20 off of Ebay Auction for $130.00 shipped.. its in great shape,comes with a new La-Voz reed? and a Herco swab? It was used for one year then given up... The cork on the mouth peice needs to be replaced. I may just buy a better new mouth peice for it. Should be here end of next week.
By the way what does re-corking and re-pading cost? I doubt it needs it given its condition and description.. But I wonder if it would be beneficial or un necessary... Thanks again for the help... |
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http://www.musiciansfriend.com/woodwinds/valentino-synthetic-clarinet-joint-corks
And I'm sure of you did some Googling, you could find a page that tells you how to do it. |
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The daughter of my fiancée started with a clarinet in the 6th grade. It was a plastic one rented from the school. She then got a second one a year later made of wood. It's an R-13 model and wasn't cheap at $750 but she showed some real aptitude. It paid for her college (partially) and she starts this semester.
She used real wood reeds and played several types and brands until she found what she was comfortable with. She bought them from her band director. We bought her a crap load through musicians friend and she wound up pissing me off and giving the damned things to friends in band that didn't have reeds... Damned leeches need to buy their own shit. We went through a metric shit ton of Chapstick for her. Her mom bought her a new $2500 clarinet for college. She wants to be a band director or music professor... If that fails then she's going to be a nurse. |
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Quoted:
She wants to be a band director or music professor... If that fails then she's going to be a nurse. Sorry to be negative but I'd recomend going for the nurse right off the bat. Of the three relatives in my large family that went to school for music the closest any of them got to being a band director or music professor is a music parapro at the local high school. The others are a computer programmer and a cake decorator at Walmart. There just isn't the number of jobs to support the quantity of music graduates being turned out. Now on to the OPs Yamaha clarinet... IMHO Yamaha instruments are the "Honda" or "Toyota" of music instruments. Always a servicable quality instrument at a good price. |