Besides my life as a teacher, performer, arts administrator and CEO of ClassicalMusicCity.com, I also am a parent to three children. My youngest one is a cellist who started middle school this year. My older two children played viola and violin and I used to just rent a second instrument for them to use at school, in order to avoid A) having to remember to take an instrument every other day and B) avoid taking a string instrument on the bus. Renting a cello, however, is about twice as expensive as renting a violin or viola and it turns out that the middle school has a fleet of 3/4 size cellos. I decided to take the chance and let my 11 year old spend 1 1/2 hours every other day playing what might be an instrument of questionable quality. I was worried about what it might do to her technical skills (which we are always working on) to play an instrument that might have too much string tension, poor strings, etc. I spoke to the orchestra teacher about my concerns and he assured me that even though the instruments were not great, they were okay. He did say that the cello bows were pretty bad, which gave me an idea. I decided to go ahead and purchase a 3/4 size carbon fiber Cadenza 301 cello bow for her to use at school. The bows are very even and stable and she will just keep it at school, so the durability of a carbon bow is a big plus for anything that is used in a middle school classroom.
For anyone out there who is interested in doing the same, I recommend this 20% off sale from Prodigy Instruments. Shipping is free, so even with tax, I was able to purchase a 3/4 size Cadenza bow for at total of $122.96. I also figure that when she outgrows the 3/4 size bow, I can just donate it to the school and get a tax deduction, which further lowers the actual "cost" of the bow. Even better, the school now has a great cello bow for student to use for years to come.
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