A few weeks after school started, the kids brought home fliers about school orchestra. Blondie has been talking off and on over the last year about playing in the orchestra and this year she really, really wanted to join. Being from a musical family myself I am not one who wants to discourage my kids when they express interest in learning an instrument. The problem with a string instrument though is that there are many different sizes, based on the size of your child and I know very little about them (and neither does DH who came from a strictly band family). My mom and sister played the cello but I still don't know much about it. DH and I agreed that she could be in the orchestra but then we had to decide on which instrument and renting it.
At first DH wanted to play the cello but after looking at rental prices we decided that that wasn't in our budget at this time - not only would we have to play a monthly rental fee for the instrument, but we have to pay for the orchestra class which is $200 for the year. The beginning group meets Monday and Wednesday mornings before school so there is also a time investment on my part to take her to school early twice a week (and then drive her both ways on the days she is off-track). I haven't been too impressed with the band program at the school since we have been going there, but the orchestra program is really good with an excellent teacher who has been teaching there for several years.
I took Blondie to a local music store one day after school to have her measured for an instrument and she would have needed a 1/4 size cello. After we found out the monthly price for that we decided to look into violins and violas. The 1/4 size cello was so cute that I was a little tempted, but it was about double the rental price of the smaller instruments. I think Blondie was a little more hesitant to do the violin because there are so many kids that do that so we looked at the violas. The size viola that she needed the store didn't have but we were told that they could restring a 1/4 size violin for her with viola strings. At that size apparently it doesn't make a huge difference. So after talking with Blondie and DH about it we decided to do the 1/4 violin with viola strings. It is tiny!! She will probably grow up to the next size next year so we will need to decide what we want to do then. (The viola has the 3 lowest violin strings and then one string lower. It is very similar looking to a violin but is typically a little larger and a little wider at the base. And one thing that I didn't know before is that the viola reads the Alto Clef.)
I picked up the instrument when Blondie was at school and a couple of other things that she needed for it and she has been so excited!! It is fun watching her get better at it and she enjoys telling us the things that she has learned each day. They will have their first concert for the parents in December.
3 comments:
You can tell her that Aunt Melissa has played the Viola since the 5th grade. I wanted to play the cello but it wouldn't fit on the school bus! That is too bad you have to pay for renting one. Good Luck! Viola have such a pretty sound, that E string on the Violin always got on my nerves :)
I started out playing violin before switching to clarinet, and sometimes I regret it. I think string instruments have a beautiful sound and most of the great classical music is for orchestra, not band. Not to mention the reeds, they can be a real pain.
You can tell her I also played the Viola!!! It is funny but I too wanted to play the cello but it wouldn't fit on the bus. I loved it. Sometime put up a video of her playing it. It would be fun to hear what she is learning.
Post a Comment