musical instruments

[NobbyNobbs]

does anyone know of a charity/organisation that can rent/donate/sell proper musical instruments (a 76 key keyboard or a piano) to a deserving child for not a lot of money? shes got to grade 1 in less than a year having never been near any sort of music before and shows massive talent, but we only have a broken old keyboard and she now needs the notes that are missing! we looked at buying new, but dont have �400-700 in our back pocket to spend

[Sooze2]

Does she learn it at school, perhaps they have one they could loan to you? You could phone your local charity shops to see if they would keep any that come in for you to look at, our local charity shops often have key boards in stock. Also there are often pianos advertised as free to taker in news papers because not many people have the room for them these days. Just a thought.

[Sooze2]

Have you seen this one on Amazon uk - Yamaha NP30B-K Portable Digital Piano (black finish). Its �169.99 and had the 76 keys your are after. There are loads on there but I saw tis one first.

[zaman]

A lot of music shops seem to offer rentals for students.

[ScienceGeek]

Our local music shop hires to school kids (but not adults ) or there is the county council music service. We hired my instrument from the county.

[JsMum]

Hi, you could place an advert in your local paper, many times here Ive seen free to collect so all you would need is to arrange a van to get it, many pianos are considered too large now so many are going as cheap as 50 or 100 pounds, Dove charity furniture shop get pianos a lot, another way to get funding is a book called Education Directory offering grants for music, sport and Education.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Educational-Grants...1778&sr=8-1

 

There is also a individual needs grant too, these are in the Library as reference too.

 

We have a piano, J just plays his own music and in his sensory room he has musical instruments, its very theraputic, as a toddler he did Music Therapy and attended the Surestarts music lessons and Dance sessions.

 

Good luck with getting her a Piano.

 

JsMum

[baddad]

Hi Nobby Nobbs -

 

May sound a bit quirky off the bat, but if she's got a half decent PC you could invest in a controller keyboard and low-latency soundcard... Controller keyboards these days are often actually more realisitic (touch sensitivity, ADSR control, foot pedals etc) than standalone models with inbuilt speakers and cost much, much less. In addition, she'd also have the option of recording, mixing, producing her own work to CD, along with all of the other "virtual" instrumentation/studio options that offers, which is about a million times better than any GM midi-set you'd get in a keyboard... on the downside, she might (?) have to settle for 5 octaves, but she could transpose up or down an octave at the flick of a switch.

 

Have a look at the Computer Music mag website - they'll probably have some reviews on current models, and they used to have a section for readers to sell on their old equipment, I think.

 

Hope that's helpful

[Mumble]

Hi

 

Baddad's suggestion is sensible at least as a filler until you know if it's definitely what she wants, although it would cause difficulties with practising long chromatics, having the correct position, use of the damper pedal etc. so I would seek some advice from her teacher before going down that route. If you're going for an electric keyboard for piano (as opposed to keyboard) lessons, I would steer well clear of the general electric keyboards - you need one with full hammer-weighted touch sensitivity and you definitely need full sized keys.

 

When I started learning the piano, we got an old piano that had been in a pub that had closed down for �7 from a junk shop! It needed some tuning, a couple of new strings and permanently sat on a block of wood as one corner was rotten, but it was good enough to get me through to Grade 3. When I started working, the first thing I bought was a proper, second hand, digital piano, that could be hooked up to the computer. I would recommend a digital piano in terms of space saving, lack of need for tuning, and additional extras (automatic transposition, ability to record and play duets solo etc), but it is a more expensive option (although perhaps you save long term as piano tuners can be expensive and it would have greater re-sale value).

 

I know many music shops offer a rental service where you pay a rental each month for either 6 months or a year and then have the option of returning it or having the rent you've paid deducted from the cost and you can buy it outright - would that be an option? Or else, putting a wanted advert in some local papers would be a good idea - I know my Mum really wanted to get rid of the old piano as soon as I left home and had problems getting anyone to take it, so you might just be lucky.

[pearl]

You could try your local freecycle group as well.