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My youngest son is 11 years and an aspiring cellist. There is no way come off as anything other than a proud dad but the kid has a talent for the instrument. Only 3 years into it and he's killing it in auditions, at the county level, competitive against kids who have been playing longer than him. His teacher recently moved and gave up a number of her students but he was one of a couple that she insisted on keeping.
Great news, the kid has talent! Oh, cr*p, the kid has talent....we need to start upgrading his equipment. He is still on his initial cello (still sounds good, would like it to carry him another couple of years before we spend equivalent of a college semester's tuition to upgrade his instrument. At least, that's the plan). So we'll upgrade at a lower level, his bow. His teacher warned us the bow could run a couple hundred bucks. So I took him to ye olde strings specialty music store with his cello and he tried no fewer than 14 bows ranging in price from $300 to (gulp) $600. The thing is, he was blind to the price of the bows, only I knew the price. I couldn't believe it, his attack was crisper, technique smoother, with the more expensive bows. <sigh> Side note, he didn't like any of the three carbon fiber bows, said they didn't "feel" right.
A great store, they gave us the top two bows to try for the week, took my credit card info with instructions to bring one or both of the bows back at the end of the week. Yeah, I took home two bows with a combined worth over $1200. Holy moly, and I thought mouthpieces got expensive....these are sticks with horse hair.
But his teacher said she notices a difference in his playing already, maybe she's using some psychology to make me feel better! My GAS sax stuff is going to be put on hold for a while, looks like I need to save for a new cello. (And truth be told, I'm happy to do it....the way he plays....he had an audience at the strings shop listening to him, this 11 year-old kid, as he went through his paces testing bows.)
Great news, the kid has talent! Oh, cr*p, the kid has talent....we need to start upgrading his equipment. He is still on his initial cello (still sounds good, would like it to carry him another couple of years before we spend equivalent of a college semester's tuition to upgrade his instrument. At least, that's the plan). So we'll upgrade at a lower level, his bow. His teacher warned us the bow could run a couple hundred bucks. So I took him to ye olde strings specialty music store with his cello and he tried no fewer than 14 bows ranging in price from $300 to (gulp) $600. The thing is, he was blind to the price of the bows, only I knew the price. I couldn't believe it, his attack was crisper, technique smoother, with the more expensive bows. <sigh> Side note, he didn't like any of the three carbon fiber bows, said they didn't "feel" right.
A great store, they gave us the top two bows to try for the week, took my credit card info with instructions to bring one or both of the bows back at the end of the week. Yeah, I took home two bows with a combined worth over $1200. Holy moly, and I thought mouthpieces got expensive....these are sticks with horse hair.
But his teacher said she notices a difference in his playing already, maybe she's using some psychology to make me feel better! My GAS sax stuff is going to be put on hold for a while, looks like I need to save for a new cello. (And truth be told, I'm happy to do it....the way he plays....he had an audience at the strings shop listening to him, this 11 year-old kid, as he went through his paces testing bows.)
