Most annoying instrument (to your ears)?

[pbass2]

I'm way over the ukulele. I compose a lot of music for commercials and I can't even count how many times I've had to use happy strumming uke in the last few years because of it's overuse in indie pop songs and whatnot. Then there's the whistling...

I know this isn't an instrument per se, but next up for me is any kind of big indie folk singalong chorus a la Mumford, Edward Sharpe, et al. Good lord make it stop…..

 

[jubl]

The electric jug. Until hearing the 13th Floor Elevators I would have lost a bet it existed.

 

[Humbled]

Music is music.

I like music.

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

Hey guys, there's guy in the back of the room who just said "slap bass"

 

[lbbc]

A bad oboe player

 

[gfour]

The harpsichord. I once had the misfortune of attending a 30min solo piece...

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

It also the recorder for me. That instrument is responsible for me not to liking music in general when I was in the elementary school.

 

[Eidolon0274]

Poorly played fretless, trombone, oboe

 

[walldaja]

Apparently many of you understand why the English made playing bagpipes illegal--audio terrorism. That said, most of us are able to avoid encounters with bagpipes. What gets my blood pressure up are trumpet players who have variable intonation--they may start a note on pitch but rest assured it won't stay remotely on pitch. For some unknown reason they also manage to play much louder than required also. I confess, I am a trumpet player but I believe I can vary the volume of the horn while maintaining the pitch (perhaps I live in denial?).

 

[basslicks]

My singing as backup vocals.

 

[baileyboy]

Bagpipes...

This. Annoying as all hell, always.

 

[MojoPenguin]

I like most instruments even "exotic" ones likes sitar or chinese ones. However don't get me started on freaking acapella BS or even worse acapella with Autotune

 

[_godspeed_]

Not a huge fan of the Yoko pipe

 

[39-Bassist]

Bob Dylan/Neil Young-style harmonica

I say forget the instrument, listen to their voices...that is annoying enough....lol

 

[DavC]

X-wife whinalodium

Glockenspiel ...

anything that's out of tune

excessive technical wanking of any sort . ! especially when using the wrong modes / notes

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Thanks for trying to help but you may as well ask me to lick a frozen lamp post as ask me to deliberately listen to pedal steel

Okay then. I'll send Lefty and Guido over and they will convince you it would be in your best interest to listen to some Dickey Betts on pedal steel.

 

[40Hz]

First place: tie between Theremin and Glass Harmonica

Runner up: slap bass.

 

[pbass2]

This. Annoying as all hell, always.

For some reason the bagpipes get me going (I do have some Scot in me or so I'm told, from way back somewhere in the family tree….). Like, I get instantly choked up and wistful. It's hilarious. My family however is not on the same page, so I have to save my highland jams for when they're not home!

 

[Bass'd on a true story]

This is not so much the instrument's fault as the player's, but generally any instrument that is immediately evocative as belonging to a very particular genre bothers me.

Banjo and mandolin are good examples of this.

 

[Gaolee]

Nothing, but nothing, is worse than bagpipes. Not badly played violins. A whole elementary school violin orchestra playing without tuning is better than a bagpiper. A stadium full of drunken vuvuzela players is better than a bagpiper. Your disreputable neighbor's old van backfiring and snorting at 4:30 in the morning is better than a bagpiper. The sound of a million souls wailing in horror after being condemned for eternity is better than a bagpiper.