Yesterday (Saturday), Katie and I went to Freiburg to check out some music stores. We’d like to start a band in the middle school and grow the orchestra program to include middle school, but we’re limited in the number of instruments we have right now. We were hoping to find music stores that would be able to rent out instruments.
Germany is quite different than the US. Here, band and orchestra programs do not exist in schools. Kids who learn instruments just take private lessons and join community bands. There are a few community orchestras, but the majority of music groups are bands. This means that music stores that rent instruments are much harder to find.
Katie and I found Gillhaus in Freiburg, which turned out to be an excellent band store. They rent instruments with all the accessories for a reasonable rate. They repair all their own instruments. They sell music. They even have a rent-to-buy (Mietkauf) program like stores in the States! We were very impressed by the store, and will definitely be contacting them again in the future.
String rental stores are a little harder to find. There are several good violin makers in the area, but they usually only sell their instruments; they do not rent. We found one string shop down the street from Gillhaus. It primarily operates online. I tried a violin out just to see if it would be worth it to rent from this guy. The violin itself wasn’t bad for a cheap student instrument (rents for 9 Euros/month), although the bow was really lacking in quality.
This particular place rents violins and violas, but has just stopped renting cellos. The man in the store gave us the number of his friend that sells cellos, so I’m hoping we will be able to find something that works. We can’t have an orchestra without instruments, so hopefully we will be able to find a place that rents violins, violas, AND cellos, or make use of two stores.
Katie and I made sure to take advantage of the Subway and the Starbucks in the train station on our way back home from Freiburg. It’s amazing how excited we were to have Subway! I didn’t realize I missed it until I smelled it at the station!
Katie as she is about to enjoy her sub sandwich
