• The closing ceremony for TBT's Farewell to New Leaf event has been posted! View the winning entries and other closing announcements here. Thanks for joining in on the fun and nostalgia. We'll see you this Friday night for the start of our annual Easter Egg Hunt!

advice for instrumental funding

Blu Rose

wOW
Cherry 🍒
Coconut 🥥
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Posts
2,165
Bells
124
MEOW Coupons
0
StreetPass Silver
0
Blue Hybrid Rose
New Leaf Token
Isabelle
White Lily
The Bell Tree Fair 2014 Patch
ど
The Bell Tree Fair 2013 Patch
Ancient Lantern
ok so
hi guys! i need some advice. hope some people still remember me here </3
a great friend of mine said that she would love to start playing the alto flute next year, but our band director has said that the band fund is already strained (8 new tubas for 10 new players next year bringing total up to 24 players/15 tubas, record high) so he will not be buying an alto flute.
bam, crazy idea, why not get her one?
https://www.flutes4sale.com/search?q=alto+flute
company names i recognize are in the $1900-2500 range.
i'm 16 without a job and will not likely be getting one over the summer ("family trumps money" and "summer is family time"). i do, however, have ~$200 right now in cash.


so, the point of this thread.
do i scratch the idea?
or do i start like a gofundme page to attempt to raise the amount necessary?
what do you suggest i do?


i'd really love to get her an alto flute, but it's not like i have any obligation to do so; i have not told her (or anyone) anything of my intentions, and she probably doesn't even know that i am aware of her situation with our director.
thanks for any and all responses <3

also mods, if this isn't supposed to be here, please say so! i looked at the rules and all and didn't see anything wrong, but that doesn't mean i didn't overlook something, of course~
 
Cheapest I could find for you was this. Not sure if it's what you're after, though.

It wouldn't hurt to try raising money for it. Hell, post your dilemma on Reddit for some extra potential donations. I'd help if I could!

As for the rules, as long as you don't ask people for donations here, you're fine. Put it in your signature if necessary.
 
Last edited:
Cheapest I could find for you was this. Not sure if it's what you're after, though.

It wouldn't hurt to try raising money for it. Hell, post your dilemma on Reddit for some extra potential donations. I'd help if I could!

As for the rules, as long as you don't ask people for donations here, you're fine. Put it in your signature if necessary.
haha thanks
i surprisingly don't have reddit OoO
i'll have to make one sometime
 
It took me a while to get what you meant when you said "Family trumps money."
I was wondering why you were talking about Trump's family estate.
But, I agree with Bowie. Try funding.
 
It took me a while to get what you meant when you said "Family trumps money."
I was wondering why you were talking about Trump's family estate.
But, I agree with Bowie. Try funding.
thanks much for the laughs and suggestion~
i guess i'll end up starting this then
 
Yes I also agree with everyone. Create a gofund me, and then post around online :)
 
WHY THE **** DO THEY HAVE 15 TUBAS OUT OF 24 PLAYERS

I PLAY TUBA AND ? THIS MAKES NO ****ING SENSE. YOURE KIDDING RIGHT?

Bass is SO powerful with just 3. 12 more....you will hear NOTHING but TUBA.

Anyway, use kenelly keys. They are my local music store and everything they have is quality.

Also please be honest, you're not going to get her an expensive flute meant for professionals or college students. You're like what, 15?

Stick to student flutes.
http://www.kennellykeysmusic.com/Olds-110PC-Student-Flute.html

Also no offense, but people are very unlikely to donate you 2.4k if you aren't either funny, in a dire cause thats life threatening, or important and famous.

You have no idea whether or not your friend even wants to play flute for more than 4 years.

Do not get her a new instrument worth 2.4k.... that's a horrible idea. I do not even have a 2.4k trombone despite playing it for 5 years because I'm not that serious to continue in college or pursue a career with it.

She is new, she can use a student flute.

600 is reasonable, 2.4k is out of your range buddy.

btw the 1k flutes arent even a total flute, theyre expensive head pieces

youre looking at a site that is gonna charge 10k lmfao
 
Last edited:
Do you have a music store near you? It's better to try out instruments before purchasing them in my opinion since different people respond to different instruments. Also, when you buy online (where they ship the instruments out to your location), the screws, rods and the like can come out of adjustment which can be tedious since you probably have to send it to a repair person to get it fixed. Also, does your school really need an Alto Flute haha? Not trying to be rude but concert bands rarely use Alto Flutes. Most of the time when I see Alto Flute parts it's in orchestral music, I've only seen an Alto Flute included twice in a concert band score and one of them was originally for originally for orchestra but arranged for school band.
 
Do you have a music store near you? It's better to try out instruments before purchasing them in my opinion since different people respond to different instruments. Also, when you buy online (where they ship the instruments out to your location), the screws, rods and the like can come out of adjustment which can be tedious since you probably have to send it to a repair person to get it fixed. Also, does your school really need an Alto Flute haha? Not trying to be rude but concert bands rarely use Alto Flutes. Most of the time when I see Alto Flute parts it's in orchestral music, I've only seen an Alto Flute included twice in a concert band score and one of them was originally for originally for orchestra but arranged for school band.

oh crap i just realized this is an alto flute and not a regular flute...lmfao

yeah, i agree, alto flutes are REALLY rare and the director would have to choose music everytime that has alto flutes.

sorry but its really not worth it, especially since she has never played flute before in the first place.
 
WHY THE **** DO THEY HAVE 15 TUBAS OUT OF 24 PLAYERS

I PLAY TUBA AND ? THIS MAKES NO ****ING SENSE. YOURE KIDDING RIGHT?

Bass is SO powerful with just 3. 12 more....you will hear NOTHING but TUBA.

Anyway, use kenelly keys. They are my local music store and everything they have is quality.

Also please be honest, you're not going to get her an expensive flute meant for professionals or college students. You're like what, 15?

Stick to student flutes.
http://www.kennellykeysmusic.com/Olds-110PC-Student-Flute.html

Also no offense, but people are very unlikely to donate you 2.4k if you aren't either funny, in a dire cause thats life threatening, or important and famous.

You have no idea whether or not your friend even wants to play flute for more than 4 years.

Do not get her a new instrument worth 2.4k.... that's a horrible idea. I do not even have a 2.4k trombone despite playing it for 5 years because I'm not that serious to continue in college or pursue a career with it.

She is new, she can use a student flute.

600 is reasonable, 2.4k is out of your range buddy.

btw the 1k flutes arent even a total flute, theyre expensive head pieces

youre looking at a site that is gonna charge 10k lmfao
lol hi <3

we have 225+ people in our marching band and split up into three different groups afterwards xD
just 24 tuba players for 15 concert tubas. 15 tubas/24 players would be insane, yes.
we'll be borrowing from the middle schools for sousaphones and stuff for marching band season. sorry for not being clear!!

>says in op that i'm 16
>thinks i'm 15
thanks for reading man <3
but yes dw i see your point.

i guess my thing with student-model flutes is that the sound quality difference is very noticed. the majority of the rest of us flute players have flute models that are some level above student model simply because of this fact

noted: be funny, famous, and dire :p

i do have an idea of what she wants to do; i'm not so stupid as to think of getting her some expensive instrument if i did not think it would be used.

i mean if it says in the description i'd imagine that it would be selling solely a head joint

thank you for making that clear~

i'll look around. thank you for your advice, it is honestly helping~

EDIT:
oh crap i just realized this is an alto flute and not a regular flute...lmfao

yeah, i agree, alto flutes are REALLY rare and the director would have to choose music everytime that has alto flutes.

sorry but its really not worth it, especially since she has never played flute before in the first place.
omg i never said that, she's been playing for like 6+ years now on the same student model flute and so we were kinda wanting to give her a boost ahaha~

Do you have a music store near you? It's better to try out instruments before purchasing them in my opinion since different people respond to different instruments. Also, when you buy online (where they ship the instruments out to your location), the screws, rods and the like can come out of adjustment which can be tedious since you probably have to send it to a repair person to get it fixed. Also, does your school really need an Alto Flute haha? Not trying to be rude but concert bands rarely use Alto Flutes. Most of the time when I see Alto Flute parts it's in orchestral music, I've only seen an Alto Flute included twice in a concert band score and one of them was originally for originally for orchestra but arranged for school band.
while i do, it doesn't have anything to do with alto flutes of any sort
i mean the school also doesn't need 20+ tuba players either but hey
again, she has expressed interest in an alto flute and so we were like you know what? why not (money seems to be the prevailing reason)

but yeah she's definitely played flute before
 
Last edited:
I definitely agree with everyone on creating a GoFundMe. I also think of you want the most success you'll post about this just about everywhere that you have a presence online, and venture to new sites to get as much visibility as possible. Keep the link in your signature, too.

However I also agree that, at least for this site, that is a very hefty goal. Most people posting here are younger and don't have a lot of IRL money to just give to people, much less for something that isn't dire. I think for a lot of online sites this very well may be an issue people won't be interested in funding because it is a luxury. If I saw your go fund me and the next person is looking for a student flute so they can start I'd be more likely to fund that student than your friend who wants a rare luxury flute. And before either of them I'd fund the person who's sick and so on.

I think a great option would be to work with your band director, or maybe spearhead this yourself, to get a fund raiser at the school with the other band students. At the fundraiser you can also let people know about your GoFundMe.
 
Last edited:
lol hi <3

we have 225+ people in our marching band and split up into three different groups afterwards xD
just 24 tuba players for 15 concert tubas. 15 tubas/24 players would be insane, yes.
we'll be borrowing from the middle schools for sousaphones and stuff for marching band season. sorry for not being clear!!

>says in op that i'm 16
>thinks i'm 15
thanks for reading man <3
but yes dw i see your point.

i guess my thing with student-model flutes is that the sound quality difference is very noticed. the majority of the rest of us flute players have flute models that are some level above student model simply because of this fact

noted: be funny, famous, and dire :p

i do have an idea of what she wants to do; i'm not so stupid as to think of getting her some expensive instrument if i did not think it would be used.

i mean if it says in the description i'd imagine that it would be selling solely a head joint

thank you for making that clear~

i'll look around. thank you for your advice, it is honestly helping~

EDIT:
omg i never said that, she's been playing for like 6+ years now on the same student model flute and so we were kinda wanting to give her a boost ahaha~

while i do, it doesn't have anything to do with alto flutes of any sort
i mean the school also doesn't need 20+ tuba players either but hey
again, she has expressed interest in an alto flute and so we were like you know what? why not (money seems to be the prevailing reason)

but yeah she's definitely played flute before

Your director is stupid like no offense but alto flutes or other specialized instruments are a huge undertaking for normal families to pull off.

Example, no one plays the sorprano saxaphone coz 1) expensive 2) expensive 3) not many songs with parts having it. or like the E flat tuba.

cool, yeah, but the truth is people dont make music for these and they often need transcribed parts.

http://www.wwbw.com/Pearl-Flutes-201-Series-Alto-Flute-466975.wwbw
1.5k

is your friend even going to pursue this in college? either for fun or for a degree.

its a heartwarming gift in the moment but if your friend isnt going to go professional with it, its better to beg your teacher next year for one. she wont use it if she goes off to college and drops the alto flute.

also, i highly recommend you take her to a music store to actually try one out to make sure she enjoys the sound.
 
What I would like to know is whether your friend intends to keep the flute or if it will belong to the school when she graduates. If it's going to belong to the school I definitely think the school fund raiser is the route to go. If it's going to belong to her then you can still try that route but I think it's less likely to be approved.
 
Your director is stupid like no offense but alto flutes or other specialized instruments are a huge undertaking for normal families to pull off.

Example, no one plays the sorprano saxaphone coz 1) expensive 2) expensive 3) not many songs with parts having it. or like the E flat tuba.

cool, yeah, but the truth is people dont make music for these and they often need transcribed parts.

http://www.wwbw.com/Pearl-Flutes-201-Series-Alto-Flute-466975.wwbw
1.5k

is your friend even going to pursue this in college? either for fun or for a degree.

its a heartwarming gift in the moment but if your friend isnt going to go professional with it, its better to beg your teacher next year for one. she wont use it if she goes off to college and drops the alto flute.

also, i highly recommend you take her to a music store to actually try one out to make sure she enjoys the sound.
this is true
but so are tubas

fair points, so why can't we transcribe or even make the part? might take a little extra time?

thanks, new goal

upon being asked
"Uh, hell yes."

yes, yes it is

okay no one just says "i think i might like this instrument" without liking its sound, ESPECIALLY if it's $1.5k
certainly not the person i'm talking of
What I would like to know is whether your friend intends to keep the flute or if it will belong to the school when she graduates. If it's going to belong to the school I definitely think the school fund raiser is the route to go. If it's going to belong to her then you can still try that route but I think it's less likely to be approved.
she would likely intend to keep it to be clear

EDIT: thanks again btw, i'm definitely not brushing your insights aside like it seems i am upon rereading ;-;
 
Last edited:
while i do, it doesn't have anything to do with alto flutes of any sort
i mean the school also doesn't need 20+ tuba players either but hey
again, she has expressed interest in an alto flute and so we were like you know what? why not (money seems to be the prevailing reason)

but yeah she's definitely played flute before

IIRC there's a few websites that allow people to try out instruments to see which one is the most suitable for them just in case they've thought about purchasing them.

Also, have you guys thought about rent-to-own? It's exactly what it sounds like.

I also did research and there's different types of Alto Flutes. There's this type (which is basically just a really long Flute) and this type (it's curved). So if your friends is on the smaller side they should probably get the second one since the first one might be too big.
 
this is true
but so are tubas

fair points, so why can't we transcribe or even make the part? might take a little extra time?

thanks, new goal

upon being asked
"Uh, hell yes."

yes, yes it is

okay no one just says "i think i might like this instrument" without liking its sound, ESPECIALLY if it's $1.5k
certainly not the person i'm talking ofshe would likely intend to keep it to be clear

EDIT: thanks again btw, i'm definitely not brushing your insights aside like it seems i am upon rereading ;-;

I mean, she would have to transcribe all her music. Which may end up being 5 or 7 pages depending on what band she is. Every season. Every song.

It may not even sound right or required if theres already alto saxes

She's better off doing some outside community music program for youth.
 
Back
Top