Music Your favourite musical instrument?

[pitot-tube]

What is your favourite musical instrument?

 

[Smurf]

you forgot synthesizer

 

[CompuChip]

My three picks

I voted piano because it's the first instrument I learned to play and though I don't get to play it as often as I'd like sometimes, it's still a relief to just sit and fiddle a bit. I checked guitar because it's so versatile (so many different styles) and much easier to carry (e.g. to a party or a camp) than a piano -- still want to learn that sometimes.
One of my favorite instruments to listen to is the violin, I can like a song just because it has a good violin part Unfortunately I've heard it's very hard to learn, I really admire people who have mastered it.

 

[brewnog]

I voted for Piano and Guitar.

I play both, amongst many other instruments. While neither of this is the most beautiful-sounding of instruments (not by a long way), I feel that both are incredibly versatile; much more so than any other instrument I can think of. Most musical styles can be played (to sound convincing) by someone skilled in either.

I've recently acquired an accordion, and while it's a challenge, it's a joy to play. Unfortunately the range of sounds which can be made from it are rather limited. I've decided I want to learn to play the cello.

 

[falc39]

Piano, and in a sense all keyboard type instruments. Piano players on average pick up harmony and voice leading a lot faster due to the intuitive layout of the keyboard.

 

[Chi Meson]

Piano for me, since it is one of the few instruments that my thick-meaty fingers can actually play without getting in their own way.

And Glen Gould's Goldberg variations is my alltime favorite recording. OK, "recordingS", since he did them twice.

 

[wolram]

You did not put down a jews harp, my grandad used to play one, i think one must have false teeth.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I play bass guitar. Kinda counts as a guitar, but the mechanics of playing it are very different, besides being an entire octave lower.

 

[oedipa maas]

I think that the guitar and violin are the two most expressive and versatile instruments. (although I am biased because I play both). I also play a bit of piano and mandolin.

On the fiddle I like French Canadian and east coast party music:


so this is what people did before techno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rqP07wConU&feature=related
La Bottine Souriante - only show I've ever been to where nobody sat down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeTZ8tM__Lo&feature=related
"Cajun Stripper"


"Orange Blossom Special" - folks, please give your children videogames instead of musical instrumentsOn the guitar I go in for zippy fingerpicking and wacky tunings


Richard Thompson, "1952 Vincent Lightening"


Bob Dylan, "Blood In My Eyes" - bet you didn't know Bob could play guitar this good


Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi"


Bruce Cockburn, "Foxglove"


Jimi Hendrix, "Wind Cries Mary'

 

[binzing]

Cello, drums and guitar here. Played cello for 'bout a year and a half. Given a tab and some time, I can play most things on guitar, and drums because they're integral to everything.

 

[JamesU]

Voted for (bass) clarinet, played it for 5 years

 

[pitot-tube]

Already you can see the flute clarinet and cello are not so popular even though my other poll of the kind of music people like shows that classical music is very popular.

 

[Integral]

It isn't listed, I play a mean CD.

 

[DaveC426913]

Anyone play the fiddle?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Couldn't vote. Love the clarinet, hate the oboe.

 

[hypatia]

The flute, for its enchanting sound!

 

[binzing]

Fiddle :(noun) redneck and or illiterate hick word for violin. See also violin

 

[Evo]

Hammered Dulcimer

 

[RonL]

I play bass guitar. Kinda counts as a guitar, but the mechanics of playing it are very different, besides being an entire octave lower.

I think it was a bass guitar that hooked me on Outkast "Hey ya"

 

[DaveC426913]

Fiddle :(noun) redneck and or illiterate hick word for violin. See also violin

Irish fiddle.

 

[jim mcnamara]

shawm - even tho I played tenor recorder for a long time. Badly.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Fiddle :(noun) redneck and or illiterate hick word for violin. See also violin

1. a. A stringed instrument of music; usually, the violin, but also (with defining word as in bass fiddle) applied to other instruments of the viol kind. Now only in familiar or contemptuous use.

I'm going to have to go with the oed on this one. I once tried to get familiar with a violinist, and she used me contemptuously. I don't reckon I'll fiddle around with her no more.

 

[turbo]

I picked guitar because I love the blues, and it's my favorite instrument to perform blues with. It's so expressive. Also, once you master barre chords and learn relevant runs, you can transpose up and down the neck to play along in any key. I used to host blues jams at local taverns, and when somebody came in with materials in keys suitable to their vocal range, it was a snap to adjust to them. Quite a difference from my first instruments (trumpet, French horn, baritone) and non-transposing keyboards like organ and piano that I learned later. I could never have grown as quickly (stylistically) as a musician with any of these other instruments. Guitar!

 

[Bladibla]

Human beatbox

 

[DaveC426913]

Last night I went out for some good old fashioned Irish jig music in a local pub called Dora Keogh's. The place was surprisingly packed and in full swing. Players straggled in after 9, and came and went but there were about a dozen at peak - a couple of fiddlers, a concertina, some pipes, guitars, a couple of boudrans - and a strange instrument I've never seen before.

It looked somewhat like bagpipes; it was worn around the waste and had a couple of what might have been drones - if they'd been cross-bred with a French horn - the body of the instrument pointed down like bagpipes, but he played it with the mouth against his thigh, lifting it and lowering it to change tone. It operated on a bellows held under the arm, not a bag, and not at all by mouth. It had a very reedy sound, not at all like bagpipes, which have a much more (forgive me) horny sound.

I was looking around for someone approachable enough to ask about it, when a nice lady in a tartan blazer came and stood next to the stage, so I asked her. She called them '...' pipes. I couldn't catch the name - it seemed to be all vowels.

She talked to me for a bit about how beautiful they were and then she turned to talk to the players. When a waiter came by, I asked him who that nice woman was, did she work here, and he said "Yeah, that's Dora".

Figures, in a bar of 100 people or so, I start interrogating the one whose name is on the door...


P.S. Of course its name was all vowels and soft consonants - it was an Irish word.
Turns out they were http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uilleann_Pipes" . (I'll get back to you on how to pronounce that.)

 

[Ouabache]

Coincidence you discuss Uillean pipes. That happens to be my favorite. I was introduced by way of Enya, their pipest has a hauntingly beautiful sound. Especially on slower pieces. Very expressive. On a Celtic radio program I've heard the name pronounced Il'-in Enya features their Uillean pipes on at least one song per album.

Another very expressive instrument (i am in agreement with others here) is violin/fiddle. Their sustain especially on double_stops is beautiful.

I play a brass instrument that requires your ear to play. It does not have discrete positions but is a continuum. Can you guess what it is? I also play guitar and mandolin.

 

[turbo]

I play a brass instrument that requires your ear to play. It does not have discrete positions but is a continuum. Can you guess what it is? I also play guitar and mandolin.

'Bone!

 

[Ouabache]

'Bone!

yessir! ...(a.k.a. sackbutt, slush pump...) Also comes in handy as a siphon. It pulls a nice vacuum.

 

[Evo]

You have to listen to this. My favorite and Astronuc loves it too. The instrument she's playing is the hammered dulcimer. The whole song is beautiful and worth a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itwL5y0He-k&mode=related&search

 

[Ouabache]

Hammered Dulcimer

Yes they have a beautiful & distinctive sound.. I remember hearing a hammer dulcimer playing the intro song on Crockett's Victory Garden.. The first one I'd seen up close, was in Indiana (1983) at a Fiddler's Gathering.. The dulcimer player was sitting on a stump and hammering some enchanting sounds. I hear they're a bear to tune.

You did not put down a jews harp, my grandad used to play one, i think one must have false teeth.

false teeth this is an inside joke to anyone who has ever attempted to play one of these. The first time, invariably the metal bar will snap against your teeth... No fun...

 

[Andre]

four other instruments

 

[Ouabache]

Hammered Dulcimer

What do you think of this Persian instrument? santur
(some dating it back to ancient Assyria and Babylon)

four other instruments (citer, erhu, bamboo flute & plucked gourd)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiOgOQc

i applaud your direction of thought, I've also enjoyed this clip before.

 

[Danger]

I couldn't vote, because my favourite isn't listed.
To me, there's nothing quite so awe-inspiring as the sound of a hippopotomus farting in a kettle drum.

 

[CompuChip]

a hippopotomus farting in a kettle drum.

I can't believe that was not in the list. Is this even a serious poll?

 

[Danger]

Apparently not. The sound of a rooster being raped by a cement mixer, which quite accurately describes my wife's singing voice, is also not on the list.

 

[Ouabache]

This is a seriously biased list. Even within western music, we should have tuba, euphonium and trombone added to the poll.