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THE MOST ANNOYING INSTRUMENT

#109
mutantbassist said:
No, no no. The term is "that crap techno should be abolished" - techno is not music, you know ;)
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This made me laugh because my son went through a techno phase a few years ago. I kept trying to turn him on to real music but, well, you know about teenagers and rebellion.

So all of a sudden, one day he says I might be right about the stuff he had been listening to. And he changed radio stations to the one I listen to. I was surprised. I asked him what had brought about this change.

He told me that he had been playing a CD to fall asleep to and it hung up. It had repeated the same phrase over and over for close to an hour before he woke up and noticed that A. It was still playing. and
B. It sounded the same as usual, even though something was clearly broken.

And in the right circumstance kazoos can be cool. I saw a duo a couple of years ago that had guitar and baritone uke. In one of their songs the uke player whips out a kazoo for a passage. Irritating, I suppose, but not Earth shattering. But when that section of the song came around again he brought out two kazoos, and not only put one to his mouth...but reached over and put the other in the guiatr players mouth as well. Kazoo duo is funny.

I am picturing a cartoon that only musicians would get. A quartet in a garage, with bagpipes, accordion, theremin, and enormous drumset (Think Grace Under Presure era Neil Peart) They are all looking depressed.ANd the Thereminist/Vocalist says"Man! Why can't we ever get a second gig?"

If I drew better I would put it on paper. Do you think it would be better or worse if the bass drum had a really long name like :'The New New Skippy Torvaldsen Explosion featuring Doug Gerstenmeier?' (That part was based on a vague memory of a Kids In The Hall sketch.)
 
#113
Wildside said:
saxophone, I don't really like jazz. Some of those springsteen and billy joel songs would sound infinitely better without the sax parts.
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I can't stand the saxophone either, though I have to admit Billy Joel's music's one of the few exceptions - it just fits, in my opinion. But there are too many other examples to mention where the sax basically ruins the song, like The Cure's "Give Me It" or "Generals" by The Damned.
 
#117
Double reeds like the oboe, all of which make a horrible........


wait for it, now..........


Rackett

iareplaythebass said:
On the other hand, there's one instrument that most people find annoying... but i think it should be included a little more in modern, non country, music... the jewsharp. bwang,twang,schlang,byown,twong: the music of angels...

:smug:
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Interesting you should bring that up

About 200 years ago, there was a sudden burst of Virtuoso Jew's Harp music in Europe that managed to impress quite a few in the musical community. The two ace players were Franz Koch and Karl Eulenstein, both of whom managed to make a meager living giving concerts of some surprisingly complex music. Koch's story is an especially interesting one, since he was literally plucked (pun intended) out of obscurity as a common soldier and presented to his Supreme Commander, the King of Prussia, for a recital. The King liked what he heard, and Herr Koch got a free ticket out of the army plus a few ducats for his trouble. He spent the rest of his life giving recitals, to plenty of fame and little fortune

In any case, the key factor that raised Koch and Eulenstein above the usual run-of-the-mill horrible twangers was their use of two or more Jew's Harps in rapid succession. The vibrating reed is capable of producing a harmonic series, much like a simple trumpet or horn. Using more than one, tuned to different fundamentals, allowed the better players to produce the entire 12 note chromatic scale

The fatal weakness of the instrument was that it could never be loud enough to be heard in anything other than a fairly small hall with a perfectly quiet audience. Even a single acoustic guitar was enough to overpower it completely

Hmmmm.......

Electric Jew's harp through a Marshall Stack

(expletive deleted) Awesome !!! :D
 
#120
Leinad said:
Damn, I had forgotten about them, there's good Irish trad tin whistle in there somewhere. Must go listen, thanks.
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I've only read as far as post 42, so you may have heard a good tin whistle player by now.

But I have to say that I'm staggered that somebody who is 22 and lives in Cork has to resort to asking for links or listening to Pogues records.

Just go into any pub where they're playing a trad session....sorted
 

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