The what are where of beginner instruments

What brand instruments should you look for? which ones do you stay away from? Where do you get a cheap instrument from? All questions I hear and see weekly.

Flute: Yamaha, Jupiter, Selmer, Trevor James , Emerson

Clarinet: Yamaha, Jupiter, Selmer, Le blanc , Buffet

Stay away from anything off eBay. This includes ones that are yellow, pink, lime green, blue, black purple or any colour other than the original colour of the instrument. %99 of instruments on eBay are trash, junk, garbage. They break easily, need constant adjustment, are never in tune and above all sound absolutely terrible!! Some traders will try and sell cheap imitations of the same instruments even putting 'YAMAHA 2010' in their name. What more can i say but stay away!

Unfortunately cheap and instruments don't always come in the same sentence. But a few places to try.

Your music /flute/clarinet teacher
Sometimes music teachers know a few students who are willing to sell their beginner instruments or trade up. They may also have a relationship with the local music dealers around who sell instruments. So ask. They are the experts on yor instruments and know what to look for

Pawn shops
I often look in pawn shops to see what instrunents are available. Yes most of these instrument look dirty and will definetly need a clean, oil adjust and maybe a repad. But they are cheap. Maske sure that you stick with the above brands

Schools
Often schools will have instruments that their studnets have used and are selling these second hand, So get in touch with the band.music coordinatior and ask.

Music shops
An obvious place i know! Although quite often these instruments are new and hence more expensive. But it doesn't hurt to check

A final word about Online
If you find an reptuable instrument that is online please make sure that 1) You do your research about that particular brand and 2) There is a try before to buy period. You dont want to have to spend $200 on an instrument that wont suit you at all, If possible see if you can try a similar brand in a music store before you commit

Thats it from me

Amended link

Amended link from Monday

http://www.4shared.com/dir/14152364/42577d84/Public_Domain_Flute.html

That one question

Well so much for the plans of mice and women! Oh Well

One question keeps coming up both with my students and on yahoo answers is the one of flute music. " Where can I find this piece of music... , What would be a wonderful/nice/ beautiful flute piece to play? Where can I find harry potter /Pokemon music for flute' Are just some of the question that got asked in the last week. So I thought , instead of answering them with the same links. I would put them all in one place with a little explanation.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/14152364/4257
Fabulous site of free flute music by an Aussie guy Mathew Taylor, He has taken most of the public domain flute music and put it all in one place. Pieces by Mozart, Bach , Bizet and more infamous ones. One site I go back to daily for inspiration and/or music.

http://www.score-on-line.com/freescores.…
Another site of public domain music. Good although not as much music as above. Again all classical. But worth knowing about.

http://www.flutetunes.com/
A famous one but a good one. Mostly classical but some traditional/popular pieces. Has sheet music and mp3 versions.

http://flutegirl.ca/downloads.html
Another famous one maybe known to flute players on the Internet. Full of popular/ movie tunes as well as some classical pieces. Also has Bb clarinet versions for some and mp3 and/or videos to listen to/look at.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
Final one for all instrumental musicians! Excellent site full of classical pieces. You just need to search by instrument. Has pieces for single instruments as well as orchestra parts.

Well that's it from me today, Have to go and actually practice all these pieces

Beth