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I have a question about the percussion instrument clarification that it must be a "membranophone". I noticed at my local and state competitions that many of the percussion instruments were not membranophones. For example, I saw several xylophones and marimbas made of various materials. The blocks of these instruments make them ideophones. I also saw PVC tube percussion instruments that resembled tubular bells or the resonators on professional marimbas. At best, they may be ideophones, and they probably also have aerophonic character, but they're still not membranophones. I even saw guitar-like instruments, chordophones.

Have teams been penalized for this to anyone's knowledge? Will they be at World? Is membranophonic character too hard to judge, and most judges will be lax on this?

...Where is this clarification, that percussion instruments must be membranophones?

A percussion instrument (according to this) is a musical instrument where sound is produced by one object hitting another, and under Hornbostel-Sachs, both idiophones and membranophones are typified as percussion instruments. Therefore, xylophones/marimbas/etc. are perfectly legal. I believe there's even a National clarification that says anything listed under idiophone or membranophone on Hornbostel-Sachs is allowed.

The PVC instruments you mentioned are also considered percussion, as they are struck to produce sound through vibration of a column of air (which is caused by the vibration of the PVC). To be considered aerophones, the vibration of the air must produce the sound, and the instrument itself should not vibrate.

Teams should not be penalized for making ideophones, as they are perfectly within the rules (also, making 27 pitched drums to cover the entire range would be a HUGE pain). However, dulcimer-like instruments may or may not be legal, depending on the judge's interpretation of "percussion".

I believe dulcimers to be perfectly legal because it's like a piano, there are only two hammers. I've never heard of a piano being classified as a string instrument.

Pianos ARE considered string instruments/chordophones, though, because it's the vibration of the string that causes the sound, even though the string is struck. (With that logic, I guess dulcimers would be banned as well.)

Oh... good thing my brother didn't make a dulcimer then!

AlphaTauri wrote:...Where is this clarification, that percussion instruments must be membranophones?

A percussion instrument (according to this) is a musical instrument where sound is produced by one object hitting another, and under Hornbostel-Sachs, both idiophones and membranophones are typified as percussion instruments. Therefore, xylophones/marimbas/etc. are perfectly legal. I believe there's even a National clarification that says anything listed under idiophone or membranophone on Hornbostel-Sachs is allowed.

The PVC instruments you mentioned are also considered percussion, as they are struck to produce sound through vibration of a column of air (which is caused by the vibration of the PVC). To be considered aerophones, the vibration of the air must produce the sound, and the instrument itself should not vibrate.

Teams should not be penalized for making ideophones, as they are perfectly within the rules (also, making 27 pitched drums to cover the entire range would be a HUGE pain). However, dulcimer-like instruments may or may not be legal, depending on the judge's interpretation of "percussion".

From http://soinc.org/official_rules_clarif
Only wind instruments (Aerophones) and percussion instruments (Idiophones and Membranophones) are allowed, no stringed instruments (Chordophones) or Electrophones are allowed. To determine whether or not an instrument is allowed, check the musical instrument classification list: http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary ... odinstrume... and http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary ... tmain.html

Whoops, my bad. Forgot about the "and idiophones" bit. Thanks!

I'm thinking a lot about this event for next year, especially about the wind instrument. Usually we wind up making a flute, but I'm wondering what would happen if we changed it up a bit. What are some other wind instruments that anyone has made for Sounds?

I would love to make a mello, because I would just rock the event, but the one brass instrument I saw this year, a trombone, had a horrible tone. I think flute is simply the easiest instrument to make, so that's why everyone does that.

zyzzyva98 wrote:I would love to make a mello, because I would just rock the event, but the one brass instrument I saw this year, a trombone, had a horrible tone. I think flute is simply the easiest instrument to make, so that's why everyone does that.

Do you think that if you made a less common instrument (and pulled it off) then you'd score more points?