11 Plus Exams Forum

Can anyone recommend a good flute to buy for a beginner? I had a look on Amazon at an Odyssey OFL100 Flute Outfit or the Tiger Student Flute with Case http://www.djmmusic.com/p-2502-flute-fo ... utfit.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or this one http://www.gear4music.com/Woodwind-Bras ... 4Music/A4Z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Any other suggestions or good places to buy. I need it by next week but don't really know how you judge what is ok or not. Thanks.

Can't the teacher advise? Some county music centres etc. will let you try before you buy, or hire at first. It's really easy to make a mistake with instruments if you aren't familiar with it yourself.

I really need to just get one as we are joining another child for the lessons at school who already started this week (as I didn't send the forms back in time!). Looked at renting but that is about £30 for 3 months whereas you can buy one for around £100. I wondered if people had experience of buying one for their child and if it was any good. DD currently play other instruments so I am pretty confident she will enjoy it and continue.

I'm not an expert, but I think if your daughter already plays another woodwind to a reasonable standard she'll outgrow a £100 flute within a year. If you ask a music teacher you could well be recommended something a lot more than you want to pay, hence we have an £800 Yamaha sax instead of the £300 Jupiter I'd have chosen, but...daughter has gone to G6 in two years, having started from G3 recorder, so we'd probably have had to buy the more expensive one by now anyway.

However, IMHO as long as you buy from a reputable music store you'll probably be OK and get something which is at least playable; which one depends on who has the best offers at the moment, they seem to be fairly competitive.

Mike

I bought a Yamaha for my DD with an additional curved head. It was around £600. There is something called Take it Away. Am on iPad at mo so can't go and look for a link. It is an Arts Council scheme that offers a 0% finance deal in order that parents can purchase good quality musical instruments for their children. It is my DD's flute teachers opinion that it makes such a big difference to a child's tone and confidence in playing having a decent instrument that it is not worth compromising on. The flute is a lovely instrument I hope you DC enjoys it.

We got a Trevor James on eBay. It cost around £100, needed a service, £70, but took DD through to grade 5.

My Dd also has a Yamaha with additional curved head and we are very pleased with it, the good thing about these is that if your child decides they want to give it up you could sell it second hand for a price very close to the price you paid. Our school let parents buy through the school and therefore not pay VAT, you make a small saving that way too

Pop into your local music school and look at the ads on their board. We have bought all our instruments second hand from ads on the music school board. If you don't live near find someone who goes and get them to take a photo of the board on their phone and send it to you. We ask for them on a few days loan then take them in to the music teacher and ask them to check them for us. We saved ourselves money on one instrument when the teacher pronounced it no better than the one we had bought on ebay for thirty quid! So we took it back. DS

We bought flute for my daughter earlier in the year. Her teacher recommended a yamaha. We did try one or two other makes second hand also but the yamaha beat it hands down. You need to watch out on the cheaper flutes - the rods easily become bent and they cost a lot to repair, so it's not really a saving in the end.

Thanks for all the replies. Can you tell me which Yamaha model the people who have it have? I will get my DS to check out Watford school of music ads after school today.