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Thread: Which is the best musical instrument?

  1. #26

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    (Neil Young for hippy chicks, James Taylor for the co-eds and intellectual types.)

    We live where we live. When I tried to convince my wife that wearing snake skin cowboy boots (so cool) was not beyond the pale in Texas, I was informed that we did not live in Texas.

    Ha...well, I do admire those who wear what they will, despite where they live. Check out the "sun ra thread" (something for everyone on that thread--you can disdain clarinet, "avant garde" music, or jack white)

    Oh, and believe me, I didn't ever set out to be a banjoist/accordianist!...or the weird guy with the hurdy gurdy. It just happened that way. Yeah, I woulda rather've been Rod Stewart...(or Jeff Beck, actually)
    Last edited by catmandu2; May-01-2012 at 2:58pm.

  2. #27
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    Oh, and believe me, I didn't ever set out to be a banjoist/accordianist!...or the weird guy with the hurdy gurdy. It just happened that way. Yeah, I woulda rather've been Rod Stewart...(or Jeff Beck, actually)
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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  3. #28
    Registered User jim simpson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by Denny Gies View Post
    I'm with OldSausage, nothing quite beats the spoons, for fun and hatred.
    I'd like to have this on a t-shirt:
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  4. #29
    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by Denny Gies View Post
    I'm with OldSausage, nothing quite beats the spoons, for fun and hatred.
    There is always an exception, though. There is a family that attends an Irish session I used to go to. Dad plays key accordion, mom plays spoons, daugther plays bodhran. Talk about the "trifecta" of off-putting instruments! But they are all three very good musicians, very tasteful and sensitive to the music and the rest of the group. The mom especially has an incredible touch on spoons, just fitting in perfectly. She doesn't do the "clackety-clack" kind of thing at all. She's a true accomplished percussionist.

    A true story I still get a chuckle out of: Speaking of off-putting instruments, a friend of mine is a very good bones player. The bones people actually have had a national group and my friend was on the board of directors. They were planning a national convention and someone came up with the idea that they could have a bigger, better national convention if they combined with the national spoons players organization. My friend said he personally thought it was an OK idea, but the idea was roundly shouted down. Reportedly someone exclaimed, "We don't want to be associating with spoons players!" I guess everyone needs someone to look down on!

  5. #30
    In The Van Ben Milne's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    This would have to be up pretty high on the list


    [/YOUTUBE]
    Quote Originally Posted by Pete Summers View Post
    I vote for piano. It is, at least, the most versatile.
    I gotta disagree with this, sorry Pete. The piano while developed for its dynamic range really only has one timbre.
    It's size isn't exactly conducive to being transported around easily, which rules out scenarios like being thrown into a backback, carried on a bike and played at the beach etc.
    Oversized one trick pony =/= versatile to me.
    Hereby & forthwith, any instrument with an odd number of strings shall be considered broken. With regard to mix levels, usually the best approach is treating the mandolin the same as a cowbell.

  6. #31
    Registered User neil argonaut's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ben Milne View Post
    I gotta disagree with this, sorry Pete. The piano while developed for its dynamic range really only has one timbre.
    It's size isn't exactly conducive to being transported around easily, which rules out scenarios like being thrown into a backback, carried on a bike and played at the beach etc.
    Oversized one trick pony =/= versatile to me.
    Plus, a piano is unable to bend notes or play anything between the semitone gaps, unlike voice, violin, guitar, etc.

  7. #32
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    I always found that the biggest advantage of the pipe organ was in never having to carry it.
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  8. #33

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    About that Kazookulele. No hybrids. Only pure instruments allowed. Except electronic instruments like the keyboard or the Ewi.

    Yeah, the sex analogy was lame and the article was on the smug side. But it made me look up "knees-up."

    Every instrument is made objectively and subjectively better or worse by the peformer and the use to which it is put. I'm still being impressed by the mandolin regardless of whether my neighbor ever heard of one.
    I saw Homer & Jethro once. This mandolin therapy isn't helping me get over it.

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  9. #34

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Article aside, I like these kinds of exercises in artistic or aesthetic "reasoning"; my approach may be a little different than the author's--though I understand he was writing for a different audience

    Lots of ways to approach the issue: one way is, from the perspective that "the best tool allows the imagination to execute its concept"...in which case, we'd have to give credence to the synthesizer (the best of the most recent offerings, as newer ones generally incorporate the state of the art--amazing the capability of sound these can produce). Another way is, thinking about only "common" instruments or traditional Western instruments (or possibly the 2000 varieties mentioned by the author), which constitute a much more limited palette of expressive sound (i.e., violin)...

    ...in this realm, I'd give consideration to doublebass

  10. #35
    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    I agree with the remarks about the piano, per se, but if one were to think outside the traditional box and have a concept of "keyboard family" instruments (which I personally don't play, BTW), you'd come pretty close to serious versatility and universality. You'd have: piano, organ (many variations), electronic keyboard, accordion, keytar, melodica, harmonium, harpsicord, synthesizer and probably others I'm not even thinking of.

  11. #36
    Registered User otterly2k's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    I have to say... I'm with Jamie on this one-- if forced to choose, I'd have to choose voice - it is the most accessible, most often used, most versatile and most personal, equally excellent solo or in ensemble, most prevalent across cultures and history, most directly connected to the ears and brain from where the ideas come. Nearly everyone can "play" it, and nearly everyone already does (inasmuch as speech is actually the same as singing). It may be the closest to universal (or at least global) that there is other than the heartbeat.

    Aside from that, the question is like asking which flower is most beautiful. Impossible to answer.
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  12. #37

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by John Flynn View Post
    I agree with the remarks about the piano, per se, but if one were to think outside the traditional box and have a concept of "keyboard family" instruments (which I personally don't play, BTW), you'd come pretty close to serious versatility and universality. You'd have: piano, organ (many variations), electronic keyboard, accordion, keytar, melodica, harmonium, harpsicord, synthesizer and probably others I'm not even thinking of.
    John, an "entry-level" Roland synth has dozens of the most popular keyboard sounds sampled (grand piano, B3, Rhodes, etc.), plus about 1000 other samples; take a more sophisticated analog board, and you have virtually infinite ways to treat a sound wave. Electronic keys (synths) are really in a category by themselves--way beyond anything else...it can likely exceed your imagination with a press of a button, turn of dial--unlike a violin, OTOH, with which you'll have to be pretty darn good with. But of course the synth is "virtual" or analog; it's like comparing kites with drones

  13. #38

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    When was the last time anyone thought to themselves "The thing I'd really like to purchase today is a fine album of synthesizer music!" though? My guess: 1983.

  14. #39

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Well I gotta tell you--bluegrassers and mandolin devotees notwithstanding--there is much, much more interest, as well as recording and artistic use, of synthesizers, these days

    Not that I have any particular interest in either the genre or the scene...but if you're going to play a popular dance club, standard equipment is "two turntables and a microphone" (or, better yet, a laptop)

    If the criteria for "best" is: most money-making ability, or "popularity," or ubiquitous presence in more pop music genres than anythng else, or experimental and innovative capability for multi-media artistic expression--better think synth

  15. #40

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Oh you and your money and multi-media artistic expression.

  16. #41

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by OldSausage View Post
    Oh you and your money and multi-media artistic expression.
    sorry

  17. #42

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Definately the Nyckelharpa, followed in a near tie for second by the Bagpipes & Hurdy Gurdy . Check out any of Pete Puma Hedlund's videos, and his student, Brownwyn Bird (Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers) made her instrument.



    Last edited by Dobe; May-02-2012 at 12:36pm.

  18. #43

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Needz moar synthesizer.

  19. #44
    Registered User pefjr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Harmonica.
    I have the world in a jug, and the stopper in my hand.

  20. #45

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    I so want a nyckelharpa (i believe roger landes was advertising one for sale recently), but my economic state prohibits this--so gurdy is my surrogate

    Sausage, on the synth forums, I said my gurdy was an "acoustic synthesizer" ... but it will be an excellent voice to sample and patch on my synths

    Thanks for that lovely clip dobe--Scandinavian music is one of my passions (btw, scandi pop music makes heavy use of synths as well as trad instruments in a lot of that techno-tribal scene--a great genre to hear experimentation and some very interesting sounds and lovely melodies...not for everyone, I'm sure)

    Quote Originally Posted by OldSausage View Post
    Needz moar synthesizer.
    No, needs bass clarinet
    Last edited by catmandu2; May-02-2012 at 4:05pm.

  21. #46
    Capt. E Capt. E's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Is not rythmn the basis underlying all music? Perhaps the drum is an instrument to consider.
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  22. #47
    Registered User Elliot Luber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    I'm partial to the mandolin.

  23. #48
    Registered User Cheryl Watson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    My question has been: Why do so many members of my family HATE the sound of a mandolin; even the finest Loars played by the greatest players in the World? Is hating the sound of a particular instrument genetic? Even my neice (when she was so little that she was barely talking yet) uttered only two stern words when I played a very sweet tune for her on the mandolin: "Put BACK!!!" Geesh!

  24. #49

    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by cwtwang View Post
    My question has been... Is hating the sound of a particular instrument genetic?
    Perhaps with a techno beat you would have more allure ; ). We are so culture bound. But your question is probably the most interesting aspect here, and I presume something the author might have had on mind when he conceived his article

  25. #50
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Which is the best musical instrument?

    Quote Originally Posted by OldSausage View Post
    When was the last time anyone thought to themselves "The thing I'd really like to purchase today is a fine album of synthesizer music!" though? My guess: 1983.
    I was going to say 1970 with Switched on Bach.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
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