Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Cello or Violin?

And to be honest, DD never really made a "bad" sound on the cello. She did, though, get a lot of blisters and was frustrated because she had trouble playing certain notes (you have to press down *really* hard). For the first couple of months, she kept saying that she couldn't really make anything nice on it. A year later she was admitted into the school's chamber (top) orchestra. So I think it's frustrating at the start, as others have said, though since you guys are going to have to choose a string instrument in this case, saying that piano is easier at the beginning doesn't really help.
By the way, is he purposely avoiding band, or does the school not provide it? Obviously if he wants to do orchestra go for it, but DD was jealous of band the whole time in orchestra because they seemed to have a whole lot more fun than the orchestra. (Despite her enthusiasm for the idea at the end of 5th grade when they were choosing). She finally just switched over to band and is enjoying it a lot better. Once again, I'm just throwing this out there, but I see that he wants to do percussion, and it doesn't exist, which makes me think that there is no band program anyway.
Oh, another thing to consider! If you think he is musically gifted, then cello actually might not be the best choice, unless he wants to go with it for 3-4 years. My daughter said that it was dreadfully dull and that only the violins got interesting parts. She didn't practice a single time at home and maintained first chair until the beginning of 8th grade, when she was in the chamber orchestra with students who had been playing for longer than her. Finally she did get challenging parts, but still not "melodies", just more complex background/harmonies, etc. So that's another thing to consider. I can't say that every orchestra program will be like this, maybe our teacher just chose violin-centric songs? I don't know, I'd ask him if he would be upset if he was just playing simple notes and not anything very interesting. After 3-4 years it does even out, but that is a long time to go if it bothers him! Some kids like it being like that, because they don't have to try as hard, but some kids also don't like that, like my daughter.