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If my partner and I make a flute out of copper and a harp, then will we have a chance to win a medal at state if we live in a average state (not super competitive) but do well in everything else? Or will the flute bring us down? (I'm just scared because flutes are common, so the judges will compare us to every other flute in the competition and our originality point will be docked)
Sorry. I'm just obsessed about instrument choices and I really want to medal. But harp and flute sound nice together, so I like it.
Any other songs that fit flute and harp other than Canon in D? I really want to do the Andantino from Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto, but I don't think my partner can play it. (I'm playing the flute and she's playing the harp. Maybe a Harry Potter medley? (Sorry for the constant switching of instruments. We hope this is the last).

Well, let's just get one thing clear here.

You can win a medal at state with any combination of instruments.

Okay, now that that is out of the way....

You're the only one who knows what works best for you and your teammate. You know what you are both capable of playing, what you both like, and what sounds best with your own personal style of playing. Find something you like and go with it. Just because someone suggests it on here doesn't mean it is the best option, nor does it mean that it work well for you and your partner.

I wouldn't worry about flutes being common. You just make the pretties sounding, most musical, in tune flute out there and nail it. Sometimes an instrument is unique and interesting to look at, but when you get right down to it, if it doesn't sound awesome then unique and intricate just don't matter that much. When I judged an invitational one student came in with an awesome looking instrument that made my eyeballs pop! He spent a lot of time working on it. Very detailed. Then he played it and it was out of tune, made a tiny sound, and was very unimpressive musically. Then, a young lady came in with a very average looking metal flute, well made but bare bones in design... She put it to her lips and I got goosebumps from the way it filled the room. It blew me away. One reason people do a lot of flutes is that they are affordable and have lots of potential. Oops, that's two reasons.

Um...we have our first instrument planned and everything, but what about our second instrument? We don't want the first one to outshine our second, yet will still want a great second choice. We are on quite a budget. Help????

How would you recommend attaching strings to an instrument so that it could be tuned?

I thought that tuning pegs weren't allowed. Says so in the book.....

the noobs wrote:

How would you recommend attaching strings to an instrument so that it could be tuned?

I thought that tuning pegs weren't allowed. Says so in the book.....

You might want to look at the rules a little more closely. It says no PROFESSIONAL tuning pegs. You can make your own....

chalker wrote:

the noobs wrote:

How would you recommend attaching strings to an instrument so that it could be tuned?

I thought that tuning pegs weren't allowed. Says so in the book.....

You might want to look at the rules a little more closely. It says no PROFESSIONAL tuning pegs. You can make your own....

So we can just make our own parts?

the noobs wrote: So we can just make our own parts?

Of course, I'm only a competitor, but I think that's the idea of the event. They want to see us be inventive and find new ways to make musical instruments work. I really enjoy the challenge, honestly.

Yup... That's how it works. In competition it seems like instruments sort of fall into one of two classes: there are invented instruments that look like nothing that you'll see in an orchestra (or rock band, etc.) and there are copies of "real" instruments. And a lot of the challenge is how to make instruments without real instrument parts. How can you make frets? Or keys? Or a bow? Or tuning pegs? As students build instruments they get hands-on lessons on how to change the pitch of a marimba board (is it called a board?) or how to drill a flute hole so that the pitch goes up, etc.

Sorry for the extremely ridiculous question that I asked recently.
Well, I received my guitar (medium tension, 80/20 bronze) strings yesterday. I think that the strings' tension will break the PVC pipe on the harp.
I am going to drill holes onto the neck and the soundboard and tie knots in the holes to secure the strings in place, and I'm pretty sure that the tension of the strings will snap the column of the harp in half. Do you think that medium guitar strings tuned from C2-C5 will break a PVC harp? (Look at PVC Piper Harp. It is approximately 34 inches at the longest string's location (C2)
Should I just build another instrument and return the PVC? Or should I take the chance that the harp will not break and use the harp for the competition, which is in 3 weeks?