Does anybody know where you can find cheap musical instruments online that kids would use if they were in a school band? My niece needs either a trumpet or clarinet and her mother does not have a lot of money to spend on an instrument and if memory recalls, they're not cheap. Any suggestions?
Buy a cheap student instrument, you can probably find either one for under $200. They're usually pretty durable and will last until the child decides if they want to continue to pursue the instrument at a higher level. You'll most likely end up wishing you had just bought a starter instrument if you try renting, they're usually monthly rates around 20 dollars.
I noticed you asked for a site as well so here's a couple new ones: Clarinethttp://www.wwbw.com/Etude-Student-Clarinet-Model-ECL-100-463674-i1412686.wwbw Trumpet You can usually also usually find some cheap used ones as quite a few quit early in their music careers. Don't worry about an expensive instrument at this point as they're all going to sound like crap anyways, you just wanna see if the interest is there.
Beware the cheapo student horn. Better for the pocketbook, worse for the student. Often times the cheapos, especially ones made in China, don't work properly and hinder the students development. For student line instruments, I would really only trust Yamaha. You can get a used Yamaha 250 clarinet on ebay for $200-$300 and a 2335 trumpet for about the same. These horns retail for about $1K but as tamericus mentioned, a lot of kids quit early on so the market gets flooded with these instruments and it keeps the prices low. Casey makes a good point about renting one. That's what my parents did when I was in beginning band. Rent to own. Also check to see if the school band has instruments in stock to lend out. I recently donated my old student horn to a middle school for that purpose. One more thing, when I was in school, kids started on cornet instead of trumpet. I don't know if that's still the case. But if the kid wants to play trumpet, make sure that the school isn't making them play cornets.
Dwight recommends the recorder. <iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QXLUSw84vi8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yeah. I was going to say the same, though I'm glad Cannonball chimed in as he actually still plays. Yamaha's were good beginner horns back in my day for saxes, clarinets, trumpets, etc. Things change of course, but as far as I know Yamaha's are still good horns.
I'd check pawn shops or craigslist. No sense spending big money on a nice instrument if your niece has no idea how to play it yet. If she takes a serious liking to it, then go shopping for a nice one and don't skimp on quality. who knows, that instrument might earn her a fat scholarship someday. If not, then don't bother.
