Needless to say, I have a child. Three of them actually. I have boy children. Three of them actually. And I have a Kyle child. One of those…which I love very dearly.
Kyle has been my strangest child when it comes to growth spurts. He would go long periods of time with what would appear to be “no growth” or at least no measurable growth. In all actuality, he has been slow and steady and then we wake up one morning and he would suddenly appear 6″ taller. His normal growth spurts would go something like this: his feet would grow, he would grow out, and then he would grow up (thinning up as he would grow up). His feet would stop growing in the meantime and we would not have to worry about any growth until the next time his feet grew. Of course, a little worry would set in when his feet have not grown in 2+ years and his waist line is still expanding more than is probably desired for someone of his age and stature.
Alas, then his 8th grade year hit and suddenly he found his magic beanstalk powder and started to grow like the grass in a Gulf Coast Texas summer not suffering from severe drought conditions. A weed, I tell you, he is a weed! Even a drought cannot slow those things down during the summer. When he started 8th grade he was shorter than me. When I took him in to do his Boy Scout Physical today, he was 2.5″ taller than me. The child grew!
Normally, growth is not a big deal. It has its draw backs such as keeping clothes and shoes on them, but that is normal wear and tear items as far as I am concerned. With Kyle it is low maintenance, unlike Lance and Andrew. Especially Andrew. When he was in 6th grade, he grew so fast every 2 weeks I was buying pants, shoes, or shirts trying to keep up with him. Fortunately, he has slowed down since then. Lance does the growing every 4-6 months consistently. I was noticing this morning that Kyle really needs some larger shirts. I bought him bigger pants. I neglected the shirts.
When growing becomes a problem is when their activities and/or hobbies are directly affected.
My boys are in the martial arts so this affects their uniform and sparring gear. I have not bought the older two boys sparring gear in years because they are not usually present at the dojo on sparring night due to attending their church youth group meeting, Young Mens, on Wednesday night. Lance has inherited most of their out grown gear that is still in good condition. He needs new foot gear.
My older two boys are also in orchestra. Lance will start in 5th grade so this will apply to him as well in just over a year. The reality hit me today, however, just how much growth impacts the children in orchestra when I took Kyle and Bob II to the violin shop (Fishburn Violin Shop) to have him resized for a bigger viola. I was in for an eye opener that I was not entirely prepared for.
I knew that Kyle needed a bigger viola and needed one for a couple of months at least. We held off upgrading him to a bigger viola because it was contest season. It was also concert season and audition time. You do not want to do that in the middle of contest season, or concert season, or auditions. It takes a little while to retrain your fingers and transition them to a larger instrument. They are used to playing on the smaller instrument so the “muscle memory” is just used to playing a certain way to finger correctly. They have to retrain the muscles to finger correctly on the larger instrument. It does not take a long time, but it does take a little while. The bigger the jump in size, evidently the longer it takes (or that is what the kids have told me from their experiences).
To sum it up nicely, it was just not a good time to get him a bigger viola. Today was the first time we got after everything was done. He did his audition yesterday afternoon. He was done with everything. After I was done at the doctor’s office with Andrew and Kyle doing their Boy Scout Physicals this afternoon, I dropped Andrew and Lance off at home and Kyle and I went to Fishburn Violin Shop with Bob II. It was time to acquire Bob III. That would be the third viola Kyle has had since he started playing in 5th grade. They were advised to name their instruments then and Kyle picked the name Bob. It has stuck. So Bob is now, Bob III.
I have to say that upon entering the shop they are not as accommodating as you would expect. See they do not want to step on the toes of the orchestra directors. I really do understand that. They simply provide the instruments and the parents pay the bills for them. I get the relationship there. However, we were kind of in an unique situation – Kyle was leaving the junior high school and heading to the high school. Kyle was leaving one director and going to another director. There were no toes to really step on. Or if there were, which ones do you step on? I do not know.
Actually, I had already asked that very question. The orchestra director at the junior high said to let the high school director size him if I wanted to. I asked the high school director (which I have a good relationship with) if he wanted the junior high school director to size him or if he wanted to do it himself. He asked where I got the viola at. I told him. He told me to just take it to the violin shop I got it at and have them size him there because he trusted them to do it for him. Perfect! It would save me the hassle of getting Kyle and Mr. Ledford together in the same room to get this done outside of his audition.
So that was what I was doing. I was walking directly into the violin shop with the viola, Bob, to get Kyle resized for a larger viola. They off course questioned my motives to make sure I was not going above anyone’s head or that they would not be stepping on anyone’s toes. I get that. They just wanted to make sure they were doing the right thing. I appreciate that. However, they really should have been a little more eager to separate me from my money if you want to know the truth.
So there we stood at the counter with Kyle’s case with his current 14″ viola on the counter. They pulled up the information on my account so they knew what the account status was. We own the viola, but it was a “rent to own” account so I can trade it in for a larger viola in the same “rent to own” class quality.
Then they measured Kyle to figure out what size viola he would need….
This is when reality started to set in. Just how much had Kyle grown this year? I do not think it had hit me until that moment in time. I saw them get their fancy little ruler out and measure from his neck to the middle of his palm with his arm stretched out in front of him and I knew right then and there that it was going to be a considerable jump up in size.
The verdict?
Kyle’s arm measured in at…16.5″ viola…
Fantastic!
The problem? The rental violas stop at 16″. Well still the thunder from the sails why don’t you. See with a cello, there is a full size. With a violin, there is a full size. With a bass, there is even a full size. With a viola, however, there is not exactly a full size. There are things that say that 16″ is a full size, but that is not really true as there is not real true full size viola. Nonetheless, at Fishburn Violin Shop the rent to own violas stop at 16″ and Kyle needs a 16.5″ viola.
I looked at the gentleman and asked, “what do I need to do to get a 16.5″ viola.” I got a look that was priceless. It was one of shock. I am not sure if he had never received such a straight and serious face before with such calm demeanor before or not, but it was almost as if he had no idea how to react to that.
“You will have to pay the difference on the instrument. You have a $416 credit on this instrument here if you turn it in.”
I nod my head and ask, “How much is a 16.5″ viola?”
Again, I am not sure he knew how to respond to my bold and stoic response as he stuttered his shaky response, “I would have to go look and see what we have.”
“Why don’t you go look and see what you have, please.” It was more of an instruction at this point than a request. He wanders off into the instrument humidor for a few minutes.
“The cheapest viola we have starts at $1800 and you have a $416 credit. That does not include the bow and case.”
Of course at this point my lower jaw has dropped and hit the floor. Sticker shock cannot even begin to describe what I experienced at that moment. Fortunately, I recovered well and kept my calm demeanor while asking, “How much is the bow?” I already know how much a nice carbon fiber bow is for a cello, so I am more prepared for the answer that might follow.
“They start at $200.”
“Is that a nice carbon fiber bow?”
“That is a low end carbon fiber bow.”
So I am thinking closer to $300 is probably about what we would pay for a bow.
“How much is the case?”
“They start at $80.”
So I am thinking that we would probably be in the $100-150 range most likely. I have no idea what viola cases start to run, but I do know that the hard cases for cellos start at $500 and go up very quickly. See I am better prepared for these answers as I have already done the research on the cello end of things.
After doing a quick tabulation in my mind and realizing that even with the trade-in value of Bob II, we would be right back up to the $1800, I knew this was not on the planned purchase radar for today. See this is a big purchase and Ben and I have to approve those purchases with each other – typically. Now I will say that if I had come home with a viola (Bob III) paid for, he would have been a little upset over it, but I would have been forgiven…fairly quickly. The kid needed a bigger viola. What was I going to do? Deny him? Not exactly. I could have rationalized putting it all on the credit card. I could have. I did not…
I turned and looked at Kyle with my bottom lip sucked between my teeth. See I was still contemplating what to do. Should I call home and ask for approval? Should I do it without approval? What to do? I had this 14 year old boy, as happy as could be standing there, towering over me, smiling at me. Mommy guilt? Nope…it was make that child as happy as could be…
In what seemed like forever, but in reality was just a brief moment, I turned back to the gentleman at the counter and said, “Please get him an 16″ viola and prepare me a written estimate for a 16.5″ viola for future purchase.”
“I cannot do that. We do not do written quotes.”
“I need something written so that I know what to plan for, we are buying a full sized cello this year and the viola is going to have wait until after we have done. I can buy a 16.5″ viola somewhere else if you would like.”
Needless to say, I had a nice hand written estimate of what a viola, bow, and case costs, minus my trade-in. It might not be a binding estimate, but at least I have it in writing to refer back to.
When the gentleman went to fetch the 16″ viola, I turned back to Kyle and said, “I am sorry, you will be playing a viola that is a 1/2″ too small. You are getting a 16″ viola.”
I have to say that Kyle handled it with grace and his usual self, “It is already 2″ bigger than what I have. It is fine.” He had his usual big smile and was laughing about it.
Then they brought out this 16″ viola case and set it on the counter and opened up the case…
…this thing was huge when compared to his 14″ viola…it was ginormous….
Look at how pretty Bob III looks. He is big, but he looks very nice! I hope that Kyle and Bob III have a nice long and enjoyable time together.
Now Kyle needs to retrain his fingers to finger on a much bigger instrument. He was joking about how squished together his fingers were before. I can see that now after seeing what he should have been playing. I actually really feel bad about waiting. I honestly feel bad about not getting it sooner. I feel bad that he did his audition last night on that 14″ viola instead of one that really fit him. I am not sure how big of an impact that really makes, but after seeing the size difference it just makes me wonder how much it matters.
We signed him and Andrew up for Klein ISD’s Summer Etude Camp right after school gets out so he will get some real work on it at that point. He only has 5 days left with his current orchestra director so not much work there. Unfortunately, this is all I have to give him with a true instructor until we get closer to school starting again.
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