High Strung and the COVID19 Concerns
In accordance with Mayor Schewel's "stay-at-home" order,  we are extending our closure until the City of Durham lifts that order. We are not monitoring our phones but you are welcome to reach out to us through the website.

renting  an  instrument :  an  introduction

  • Renting a violin, viola, or cello will allow you to play on a high quality student instrument, with a significantly smaller initial investment than it would cost to purchase a similar instrument.
  • When you rent at High Strung, all of the rent that you pay on time accrues as credit. This credit can be used for up to 50% of the price of a new violin, viola, or cello when you know you are ready to buy!
  • Additionally, our rental program includes a maintenance plan, which covers almost any accidental damage that may occur during the course of your rental! Click here for details.  


renting  vs   buying

"Why rent when you can buy instruments so cheaply these days?"

RENTING FROM HIGH STRUNG allows you or your child to begin on an instrument that's a lot better than most folks will let themselves buy for a beginner. A lot of the parents we see have never held a violin themselves and are not even sure what to ask. We're happy to make the somewhat intimidating world of bowed instruments understandable, and help your student by starting them on an instrument that's better than most parents would be willing to buy for a beginner. It's hard enough to start playing a violin, without it fighting you on tuning, string height or falling bridge and soundpost! 

The rental fees you accumulate over time will build equity you can use towards purchasing an instrument when your child has enough experience and confidence, and you are ready to purchase an upgraded, next-level instrument for them.

brand names :
YEAH , ABOUT THAT. . .

Parents ask all the time, "Do you carry X-brand?" or "...my child's teacher says I should get a Z-Brand violin." 

We say this:
If the violin sounds great and plays well, Iwe couldn't care less about the name on the inside. Sometimes they are famous brands, and sometimes they are from such small shops that there's no way they would be well-known names.

Violins are wooden instruments. Each one -- even within the same make and model -- will vary in terms of its tone and workmanship. Buying an instrument isn't like buying an iPod or shampoo; it's more like buying a horse or a house. An iPod can be mass-produced with consistent, nearly identical results which makes it an ideal commodity to market on the internet. Horses, houses -- and yes, instruments, too! -- all have characteristics that can be both generalized AND distinctive. It's this distinction that causes individual instruments to be very different from the next.

We work with companies that provide consistent quality service and quality instruments. And we never hesitate to return instruments to the vendor if they don't meet our standards for what we know an instrument should exhibit at a particular price level.

A  note  to  parents  of  young  string players:

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"My child wants to play violin...WHAT AM I IN FOR?"

Learning a bowed instrument is really, really hard...but also really, really REWARDING. With constant encouragement from you, dear parent, your child CAN and WILL do it!

It's going to sound um...awkward, at first.  But what your beginner needs is understanding and support, not jokes about how they make it screech and you have to hold your ears. Kids take things pretty seriously, and -- trust us -- they'll make progress pretty quickly if they're getting encouragement and not teasing.

You will have to attend a few concerts a year, the ones your child plays in, and concerts by professional string players. Listening to live music performance provides inspiration and role models for your student, and will strengthen their bond to playing the instrument. 

Listen to them practice, and occasionally ask them to play for you, even if they always act embarrassed. (But don't hover at practice time or get over-bearing. Students should be playing for the love of music or the challenge of mastery, not to avoid being yelled at.) 

Get a private teacher if you can at all afford it. The public school teachers can only provide but so much individual instruction in a class of ten, twenty or thirty students. Private lessons will propel your student towards more competent playing (and more enjoyable listening for you!) Your school teacher will thank you for it.

Improve the instrument as your child improves. As your child gets better, their instrument needs to get better. If your instrument is really awful, your child will probably be roughly the same.