Posted by Mark Heter on November 04, 2003 at 09:47:53:
In Reply to: When students should buy a horn posted by Doug Whitten on November 03, 2003 at 22:33:47:
The idea of having to time an instrument purchase set by an academic syllabus is absolutely foreign to me. If they are "Ed." majors with no professional aspirations, I would think that the school horns would do fine. As a kid who learned in a high school system which did not have the budgetary ability to provide tubas in addition to sousaphones, having my own horn was motivation enough. Plus, I joined the union when I was sixteen, and taking a school horn on professional jobs posed some problems. Like many of my contemporaries, I worked in a machine shop during the summers to get the dough together for my first horn. Not the greatest instrument in the world, but good enough to make the state auditions, and get into college, and take on my first jobs. I certainly did not wait to get my own axe until some college professor told me to do so.
I guess the difference here is motivation...
It would seem that any musical instrument salesman would jump at the chance to pitch to nine college-level students, no matter what horn they played. Other than the ubiquitous "Big Y" dealers, is there anyone else in your neighborhood willing to cut a deal on a good horn to your kids?