Student instruments are LIGHTER. This is very important, especially for the smaller beginner. A professional model (or any double) French horn is not manageable for most beginners, and the same goes for oboes. Both of these instruments are quite heavy for their size. With most other instruments, the weight difference is not as noticeable ... but you still should stick with student instruments for beginners.
Student instruments are CHEAPER, also a very important point. It is quite common for younger students to misjudge a distance and turn around and smack their instrument into a music stand. It happens all the time. They are also prone to leaving their instrument lying on a chair or on a music stand. You can guess what happens next – and it is not pretty.Student instruments are made to be robust; that they will stand up to some rough treatment.
You have not lost anything – you can upgrade in a few years when your child's playing is more advanced. If you don’t need to keep your plastic clarinet for marching, you now have a nice beginner instrument to re-sell to help finance your more advanced model.
Please shop carefully! In the old days, price was a pretty good indicator of quality. But today’s direct importers (such as Merry Musical Instruments) can sell you a much higher quality instrument for a lower price. How is that? We buy directly from the manufacturers and sell straight to you, the end customer, saving you a large percentage on most instruments.
... You might be interested in our article "New versus Used."
