$50 Gift suggestions for: A clarinettist, a violist, and a cellist

March 19, 2006 11:28 PM

Gift suggestions for: A clarinettist, a violist, and a cellist(who is also a composer). ~$50 each, I have 12 days to get these gifts. Prefer online ordering.

3 (student) musicians are playing for my senior undergrad recital, and I want to get them thank you gifts. This is often done around here in the form of gift certificate cards, which definitely works, but I could use suggestions on vendors if I go that route.

I'm thinking of a big fat gift certificate to tismusic.com (obscure piano and vocal music vendor) for my pianist, but I imagine a violist has little use for piano and vocal music.

Other note: The cellist is a composer by trade, and the other two are aiming to be professional musicians.

posted by sirion to human relations (18 comments total)

for the string players: Shar Music (www.sharmusic.com). Cellist specifically: www.cellos2go.com
Also, Amazon could be good for anyone (musical or non-musical).
Where are you located? Gift certificates to a good CD shop are always appreciated. If you're in the Bay Area, definitely Amoeba Music.
posted by purplefiber at 12:14 AM on March 20, 2006

yes, Amazon is good for anyone - but if you have a really good local music shop, especially one that can order things, then a gift certificate for there would be better. These shops can get hold of most things if you ask.

(woot! first question tagged 'viola'!!!)
posted by altolinguistic at 1:01 AM on March 20, 2006

What about a gift certificate to a local copy shop where they could get some business cards made up? I'm a music student (trombonist), and it seems like the kind of thing we'd appreciate.

For the cellist specifically: maybe one of those really great editions of the Bach cello suites, with the manuscript as well?

For curiosity's sake: what instrument do you play? What material are you playing?
posted by rossination at 1:21 AM on March 20, 2006

My cellist friend loves Shar.
posted by MadamM at 1:37 AM on March 20, 2006

Booze. Every musician I met through uni (and professionally) has enjoyed their booze. Nice scotch or equivalent is always welcome.
posted by coriolisdave at 2:22 AM on March 20, 2006

I'm not a musician, but I do enjoy the challenge of a good gift.

For the violist I'd first head for a nice bow.

The thing about anything artistic is that everything has it's own unique signature; regardless of how cheap or expensive it is. Sure, they may try it initially and find that the resultant sound isn't what they're looking for now, but some time in the future they may suddenly need something just like it.

For the Cellist/Composer; Also a bow? Or maybe blank sheet music and a nice pen?

For the clarinettist; A mouthpeice? See art comment above.

These suggestions probably need some sort of technical understanding of their existing instruments.
posted by krisjohn at 2:57 AM on March 20, 2006

I'd steer away from the bow/mouthpiece ideas - firstly they're expensive (a good bow costs a hell of a lot more than $50), and secondly it's a personal thing, like part of the instrument, not just an accessory.
posted by Lotto at 3:34 AM on March 20, 2006

krisjohn - the thought behind your suggestion is a nice one, but the recommendation is that one spends between 1/4 and 1/2 of the value of one's instrument on a bow - and a young professional's (or good student's) instrument is likely to be worth several thousand dollars, at least. I'm a good amateur viola player (violist to Americans) and my bow is insured for £800 (around ($1400).
posted by altolinguistic at 4:16 AM on March 20, 2006

Viola crew represent!

I'd suggest gift certs too... or what about taking them all out for a very nice dinner?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 5:37 AM on March 20, 2006

coriolisdave's suggestion is a good one.

If you go the gift certificate way, you might think about American Express gift checks, instead of a store-specific one. They can be spent anywhere you can spend a travellers check - or, indeed, just turned into cash.
posted by klpage at 5:41 AM on March 20, 2006

For the clarinettist; A mouthpeice?

I'd avoid that. As Lotto said, a mouthpiece is the link between the musician and the instrument, and is not something that generally needs to be replaced unless it breaks. But you're also not going to get a good one for < $50. br>
A nice bottle of wine or scotch would be a nice gift.

Or, you could buy some formal wear accessories (e.g. cuff links). Since professionals often need to wear black tie for performances, some appropriate accessories could be a nice gift.
posted by andrewraff at 8:01 AM on March 20, 2006

For the clarinettist, a nice glass-plated wooden reed case is probably the most useful accessory you could find for under $50. Or maybe a snazzy swab.
posted by gsteff at 8:02 AM on March 20, 2006

Ooh..I forgot about amazon gift certs...I love getting amazon gift certs

ross:I'm a singer (used to be a violist, actually)

Great suggestions so far! Thanks!
posted by sirion at 8:25 AM on March 20, 2006

Don't try to get musician-y gifts just because the recipients are musicians. More generally, to thank someone for doing a job for you, don't give them something to do with that job, give them something that they can use when they're not working. It sends a message of "here's something for you" rather than "here's something for your role", and it means you'll be able to buy something you know well instead of something that they know well and you don't.

More practically: Booze sounds like a great approach to me. Staff paper and a nice pen? People tend to use computers these days, or if there's a big hand-notation job to do, hire someone. In any case it's about as thoughtful as buying graph paper for an engineer (i.e.: not at all, it's a consumable). Same for picking particular recordings or editions of sheet music: I can guarantee you that those musicians have very strong opinions about which recordings are their reference ones and already own those.

Hrm, I just noticed that the poster is a musician, so (s)he probably already knows what I just went through, but I'll leave it in for the archives.

Booze, yes. Something fancy they wouldn't buy for themselves. Port was always a favorite backstage when I was still playing regularly.
posted by mendel at 9:10 AM on March 20, 2006

And remember: These are musicians. They probably don't have a lot of money to spend on themselves. I play the viola and I would *love* to get a gift card to Amazon, Borders, something like that. The local community symphony I play for gave out Borders gift cards to their musicians (can't afford to pay us, but wanted to do something nice) and I really enjoyed it. Really.
posted by eleyna at 10:33 AM on March 20, 2006

Another nice idea: those really cool new LED stand lights? I've been eyeing them myself.

But yeah, booze could be a pretty good idea.
posted by rossination at 10:55 AM on March 20, 2006

/me boos the violists.

I'm sorry, I have to.

/violinist>

Stand lights/cool metronome/booze all sound like good ideas if you're thinking along the lines of musicians' accesories.
posted by Lotto at 2:39 PM on March 20, 2006

Booze and gift cards are good ideas. A nice dinner out is also a good idea! Really nice chocolate in addition to your other gifts is often appreciated. As far as the booze, a good bottle of gin, wine, or even champagne is welcome. I agree that it doesn't have to be a musical gift. As a musician myself (harpsichordist), it's nice to be thanked with non-work related stuff. So, a gift card to a good wine store, or cheese shop, or even a department store might be nice. Or if any of the musicians have passions in other areas - cooking, for instance - a gift card to a place like Williams Sonoma might be extremely well received.
posted by doublehelix at 7:25 PM on March 22, 2006