Then you probably have questions, and maybe a little worry about the cost. Good. You came to the right place.

I'm Danny Banta. I've been fixing band instruments for thirty years, and since 1982 I've been renting them to the families of southern Illinois from my store on the courthouse square. I have fitted more fifth graders with clarinets than I can count, and I've taken the dents out of a good many of those same clarinet players' trumpets by the time they got to high school and changed their minds. I'll help you get your child the right instrument, and I'll keep it playing.

Every instrument that goes out of this store has been over my bench first. When you call, you get me. When something breaks, I'm the one who fixes it.

Here's how it works. You pay by the month. Every dollar of rent counts toward owning the instrument, and when your payments add up to the price, it's yours. There's no extra payment at the end and no interest.

If band doesn't take, bring the instrument back in good shape and you owe nothing more. No questions, no penalty. If your child switches instruments, every dollar you've paid moves over to the new one. You can pay off the balance any time and take 20 percent off what's left.

To start, all you need is the first month's rent, your driver's license and about fifteen minutes.

Like-new instruments rent for less. See the full Rental Rates 1999-2000, with purchase prices and how many months to own.

• A good student instrument, new or like-new, the kind band directors ask for, checked and adjusted at my bench before it leaves the store.
• The case, with a name tag already on the handle.
• A starter kit: valve oil and slide grease for brass, cork grease and a swab for woodwinds, three reeds for clarinet and saxophone, and a polishing cloth.
• Repairs from ordinary use, and from the ordinary accidents of ten-year-olds, at no charge while you're renting. Your child gets a loaner while theirs is on the bench, so nobody misses band.
• A free checkup over Christmas break. Bring it in any day between the last concert and the first day back, and I'll clean it, oil it, adjust it and send it home playing like new.

The method book is whichever one your band director chooses. I keep every one our area schools use on the shelf, at list price.

I repair every band instrument from piccolo to sousaphone, whether you rented it from me or not. Here are typical prices for student instruments. I'll look it over and give you a firm price before I start.

A word about pliers. Please don't. A stuck mouthpiece or a frozen slide comes loose in a minute with the right tool, and I do it free. Every year I see four or five that met Dad's pliers first, and a free job turns into a forty-dollar one. Bring it in.

Start with what your child wants. A child who has wanted a saxophone since second grade will practice a saxophone. A child talked into the flute because there was one in the attic usually won't. Wanting it counts for more than anything else on this list.

Lips and teeth. Don't worry about this as much as you've been told to. A child with fuller lips sometimes does better on a larger mouthpiece (trombone, baritone, tuba) than on a trumpet, but that's a tendency, not a rule, and every band director has stories both ways. Braces are fine; kids play with braces all the time, and the first week is sore for brass players. The one thing that matters is front teeth: a child still waiting on grown-up front teeth will have a hard time with brass and clarinet. That's one reason band starts in fifth or sixth grade and not sooner.

Arms and hands. The trombone needs a long arm for the far slide positions. Most fifth graders can't reach the last one yet, and band directors work around that for a year, but a very small child will be frustrated. Clarinet players need fingers that can cover the open holes all the way. Saxophones are heavier than they look, and the neck strap carries most of the weight.

Percussion is for children who would rather hit things, which is a fine reason. But know that a beginning percussion kit is bells and a practice pad, not a drum set, and percussionists learn to read music the same as everybody else.

Ask what the band director needs. A band with twenty flutes and one trombone is no fun for anybody. Many directors hold a tryout night where children blow on a few mouthpieces and the director helps match them up. Go to it. Have a second choice in mind, and let your child know it might be the one.

Be careful with bargains. I've seen too many flutes and clarinets bought new for well under a hundred dollars that can't be repaired: the metal is soft, the pads don't seal, and nobody stocks parts. A child can't tell whether the trouble is the instrument or themselves, and they nearly always decide it's themselves. If you already own one, bring it in and I'll tell you honestly whether it will do.

Rental season hours: from August 16 through September 11, I'm open Thursday evenings until 8, so working parents can come in after supper.

We're on the north side of the courthouse square, between the bank and the shoe store. Look for the trumpet in the window. Park anywhere on the square.

Phone: (555) 555-0135
E-mail: [email protected]

If I don't pick up, I'm probably holding a torch to a trombone. Leave a message and I'll call you back before closing.

I started on the cornet in the fifth grade, on a rented instrument, from a store a lot like this one. I played trumpet all through high school and then for three years in an Army band, which was parades, ceremonies, funerals and a great deal of standing still in the sun. It was in the Army that I started fixing the band's instruments, because somebody had to, and found out I liked it better than playing them.

After the service I went to band instrument repair school on the GI Bill, and spent twelve years at the repair bench of a music store in St. Louis. In 1982 my wife and I moved back to southern Illinois, where she grew up, and opened Banta Music. I still play trumpet in the community band on summer Thursday nights in the park, and I still get nervous before the solo.

Orchestra strings are a different trade from mine. For violins, violas and cellos, read Bow Rehair & Violin Repair, where a luthier explains bow rehairing and violin setup in plain words, with his prices.