Unfancied Instruments

I hate saxophone solos in songs, they don't fit. I think this is because my dad was (is) always playing jazz when I was a kid, so I think of the sax playing as kind of loose and improv...whereas in pop songs it's use is far too structured and tame.

I actually hate hearing too much cymbals, that horrible tinkleing sound high in the mix and you just latch onto it and it smoothers the rest of the song. Tinkle, phish, tinkle, phish. Horrible.

I was listening to a Dizzy Gillespie compilation (basically a greatest hits CD) over the past couple days and I realized that much of the time I just don't like the sound of trumpets. But I immediately thought of examples where I do like it. In fact, I think I prefer hearing it used as a sort of quick accent, the way it often is in salsa, rather than hearing solos, but that may have more to do with not particularly liking jazz than with my feelings about trumpets. Except that there are a lot more jazz saxophone solos than trumpet solos that I like.

I guess it would be most accurate to say that I don't especially like certain instruments, but I don't know that there is any instrument I never like no matter how it is used (not counting massive electronic distortion).

Instruments I don't especially like: violin, particularly string sections. But solo Arabic violin and solo non-western modal violin playing in general can be great. Sometimes Arabic string sections sound good or at least okay to me; sometimes they sound really screechy. At any rate, they don't sound the same as western ones. Western violin playing is usually conjures up emotions that I find troublesome, or that I simply can't relate to. (Though electric violin, for whatever reason, I tend to like.)

Trombone seems to me very limited, almost inherently comic, unless it's used to make cosmic drone sounds (a la some Sun Ra). It's okay as part of a mix--again, I know that a lot of salsa uses it--but as a solo instrument I find it tiresome.

Actually, most of the traditional instruments of the European orchestra are ones that I dislike more than I like. Some of them seem quite specialized, French Horn for example. And yet I have probably heard them all used in ways that I prefer at one point or another. This will probably sound like it is simply the result of associations with classical music, but the wind instruments in particular sound too stuffy and proper to me.

Even the piano I don't particularly like the sound of, though I like what Latin players do with it, and what Sun Ra did (most of the time), and what Erik Satie wrote for it, along with other exceptions.

The standard drum kit seems a bit boring to me compared to doumbeks, congas, timbales, bongos, and the like. (I'm not mistaking doumbeks as being in the same family as the last three, Ry Cooder's son notwithstanding.)

Instruments I generally like: guitar or related instruments. Just about any traditional Arabic instruments I have heard. Afro-Latin percussion instruments. Electric keyboards.

Also, flute. Unless you're Ian Anderson (and even THEN in small doses, please), put that fuckin' thing down.

I would say saxophone, but there have been a few numbers with great sax bits in them, like the Cure's "A Night Like This", the Stranglers' "(Get a)Grip(on yourself)" and .....er......"Urgent" by Foreigner. Pink Floyd certainly made the most of the sax on a few albums. Also, James Chance & the Contortions did some great stuff with the horn in question, so I can't rule it out completely.

Slightly less relevant, the britpop/britrock rent-a-string-section (or synth version of it) is essentially a musical crime. Helpful for bland and emotionless fills.

i'll second the DX7 thing, i think the only respectable use of one i've heard is eno. also as 80s cliches go, i hate the way their drums invariably sound, although that's more of a production quibble. still, phil collins must die for at least that.

but the absolute worst is that damn triangle sound that puffy uses on all his 90s stuff, most obviously on 'bad boys' - mase, i think. for a while, every bling bling rap song had it and it made my skin want to crawl right off my body and jump off a cliff.

Now we must turn to the accordion's lovely cousin, better designed as an instrument rather than a dance-party-in-a-case: the musette. I love musettes.

I think cymbals is an odd answer, but I like it (as an answer). They're not offensive when used in taste (actually they're quite common, tee hee), but when I myself am programming drums they don't have anything to do with it.

Synth Pop Roolz! = DX7 Roolz!!!

Shakira Roolz! = Panpipes and Harmonicas Roolz!!!

Anyone else notice that people just don't seem to play Strats as much as they used to? Back in the '80s, any turd with a funny haircut had to have one. Now you just don't see them as much.

it's harsh and static and often dumb

but hey, the trumpet is _musically_flawed_

i'm not saying how it's flawed because you would never be able to hear trumpet playing again w/out the flaw annoying you -- even Miles types can only just work around such serious musical limitations so it goes w/out saying that most trumpet music is "ham-strung"

ie there is no excuse for trumpets in the 21st cent. whether it's war or peace

Bernadette plays "Dancing Queen" a lot; it always depresses me hearing such an ecstatic song rendered into something almost funereal (depresses in a good way, obv.).

I like the idea of bad instruments being redeemed in some contexts. There's been too many great house tracks with cool saxaphone parts in them for me to hate saxaphones unreservedly, but ever since Richie Boy and DJ Klasse's "Madness On The Street" I've swung towards actively liking them.

You are dumb.

good harmonica in rock?
Message to Pretty - LOVE
Set You Free This Time - BYRDS

y'know, i don't really think this is true, having also played both

That's it, I'm buying a saxophone

I've never ruled out any instrument entirely. But the flute is pretty goddam BORING much of the time. And quite limited, unless you're a Dolphy or Kirk, as somebody named Lee opined upthread.

If instrument x is superior to instrument y b/c it's harder to play, then that would mean that the lute and the theremin must be superior to the saxophone because oh hang on a minute, they are! wtf.

I have to disagree with everyone about the sax. One of the most beautiful sax/guitar solos is the tag team effort at the end of the live performance of "It Makes No Difference" between Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson during The Last Waltz.

Oh, and Garth also actually managed to insert an accordian into "Evangaline" without making me want to giggle at the idea.

The "Soul Glo" commercial on "Coming to America".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQENuTc-Tak

Gotta love Flatt and Scruggs, and Steve Martin can make me die laughing while blowing me away with his skill on the banjo at the same time ("you just can't sing a depressing song when you're playing the banjo.... When you're playing the banjo everything's OK"... I always thought the banjo was the one thing that could have saved Nixon: "I'd like to talk about politics, but first a little Foggy Mountain Breakdown!"")

Also employed quite successfully by los Blue Aeroplanes.

I think I pretty much hate banjos. I'm sure I might like them if it's Cooper-Moore playing them in some sort of free improv./free jazz context, but otherwise they usually annoy me. There have been a lot of banjos this year at the Grower's Market in Albuquerque. Where are my rumberos this year? I haven't seen them.

Down with fusion drummers playing piccolo snares.

I love the banjo. Play a little clawhammer myself.

Up thread, Alex mentioned the harmonica on Talk Talk's "Spirit Of Eden". I know exactly the part he means. But I've always wondered, is that really a harmonica?? Sometimes I think it might be something else -- it sounds quite electric, if you know what I mean. Any thoughts on this??

same harmonica guy plays on colour of spring, laughing stock, spirit of eden, and mark hollis's solo album.

Harmonica is generally good if it's put through a small guitar amp (see When The Levee Breaks/old Muddy Waters songs)

I don't hate it all the time, but most of the time -- the flute.

same harmonica guy plays on colour of spring, laughing stock, spirit of eden, and mark hollis's solo album.
― scott seward, Saturday, 22 August 2009 21:14 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

It must be harmonica. But amplified and distorted. Sometimes I thought it sounded guitar-like.

it's a very cool sound! the sound he gets on spirit of eden. and it's so loud too.

fully agree

Mark Feltham from Nine Below Zero wasn't it? Here he is on The Young Ones!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRfavWYwz-M

Mark Feltham in Britpop shocker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdvqss4S_-I

toy pianos sound like shit.

Once i was at a show where someone started playing a ukulele WITH A CAPO. I immediately left.

Also, it's pretty insane that ukulele is not mentioned on this thread yet!

2002 to 2006 was a more innocent time for the ukulele.

i read this thread title as being about instruments that have not been made fancy

u american or somethin?

Harmonium: C/D?

Ha, I'm usually strongly on the side of "no instrument is inherently bad" but, yeah, I'll admit that I never really understood the new music world's toy piano fascination.

NRBQ made good use of toy pianos

So does this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEi2RBN-Bkc

the analogue synthesizer.
just cos you got one, doesn't make you a vorticist trailblazer from the mid-20th century.
retro bumturds

Toy pianos are good substitutes for if you want xylophone and can't afford one.

B-52s used toy piano well

and they're just so darn cute!

i love toy pianos. baritone ukes are ok.

the theremin.
oh, hey you're from mars in the 1950's !
how mysterious and exciting !
i hope i am also so lucky for you to employ similar exciting never-heard-of evocations of "the strange" i would never expect you to use O WOW the faux eastern-european waltz man you guys are so spooky !

just kidding, I hate toy pianos.

i'm totally into Lullatone now, thx anagram.

What a sickeningly brilliant thread this is, it confirms my teenage hypothesis that 99.9% of people are diabolically clueless cunts who pretend to like music.

― xelab, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 23:12 (Yesterday) Permalink

I hate disrespect toward whenever instrument when played for novelty value, or simply not caring for playing it well. I love the theremin if played well. I feel bad for it if it's St. Vincent using it live for a 10-sec 'sci-fi noisey' solo.
I hate whatever music is made with primarily lifestyle value in (the back of one's) mind.
lots of uke and mandolin as played by youth completely devoid of the respective instrumental traditions. so, 90% of the horrendous 'nu-folk' genre today.
also, whatever instrument that is played just in order to be sampled (although, thankfully, that seems to be old hat nowadays).

I hate the overuse of a particular instrument in a particular time period. I hate the obligatory cello which is all the rage in many feature-long documentaries. I hated the obligatory glockenspiel and toy guitars on everyone's home recording 'projects' (you play "for fun" and then you call your shit music a "project").
I hate all the cliches related to instruments. like, "the cello stands for the human voice". "the harp is so relaxing".

wholly unrelated to my previous postulates, my current pet hate is the hang. it strikes me as such a fucking precious instrument, in a faux-hippie sort of way. industrial hippieness or something.

i dunno i kinda liked the way michael hutchence played it.

the ukulele sounds good when this chimp plays it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0fZq-B13ok

toy pianos just have an inherently unpleasant tone (to me)

i bet you could do something cool with a toy piano run through a bunch of pedals tbh

I know a dude who plays the Hang, it sounds all right but it always sounds exactly the same, also he spent like $10,000 on it wtf why would you pay that much for a percussion instrument that produces maybe 8 tones

anything you could do with a toy piano you could do better with a different choice of instrument!

i'll take a bajillion tinkly indie glockenspiels over a thunky toy piano

the theremin.
oh, hey you're from mars in the 1950's !
how mysterious and exciting !
i hope i am also so lucky for you to employ similar exciting never-heard-of evocations of "the strange"

This is not the only use (or even the original intended use) of the Theremin! Clara Rockmore's classical theremin playing was really beautiful. It can produce a really smooth, pure tone in a way that acoustic instruments can't, really.

xposts

Yeah properly played a theremin is a thing of absolute beauty.

I like the John Cage pieces for toy piano that I've heard.

i hate the fucking banjo so much, the only thing worse is when Steve Martin plays one

oh yeah, accordions and ukeleles, but I associate them with artisanal beardo types in my neighborhood

i dislike 99% of music produced on the flute

I like the John Cage pieces for toy piano that I've heard.

this is probably the exception to my hatred

god, I love flutes. I wish I could play the flute.

The KAZOO to thread!
― Julio Desouza, Wednesday, June 19, 2002 8:00 PM (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

All kazoos say to me is that the person playing it thinks they're being funny...except Something Happened To Me Yesterday, that one's alright

I feel like John Cage is also the impetus behind a lot of experimental musicians using toy piano

Cage is the impetus behind a lot of trends in experimental music tbh

John Cage's work with ukulele's is mind-blowing.

I'm not even sure I make an exception there. I always felt like the (otherwise great) ECM disc of The Seasons started to drag when it got to the toy piano suite.

xpost to crut making an exception for Cage

Man, flute hatred is a thing I don't get. I mean, other than the sound of someone who's just learning the flute: everyone hates that.

there's a lot of terrible music where flutes carry the melody

my flute hatred is largely due to its tonal range and air-y quality -- i have thought long and hard about this

Do you like the recorder? I love the recorder, esp. in twos and threes

I love the flute in its strident upper register, piccolos too

I like flute in a lot of cases (ha including my own band), but can see how it would grate. I don't actually like a lot of solo flute classical music. However, in stuff where it serves as texture in an ensemble, it can really create some beautiful sound. Also, in its lower range, the flute is surprisingly rich, not thin or piercing at all.

A lot of great extended techniques are possible with the flute!

xpost OTM about lower register

I'm partial to alto flute, in Feldman pieces and in "California Dreamin'"

But yeah, sure, a lot of the popular WAM flute repertoire can get schlocky.

xpost

xp Sund4r - I will make the same argument crut made about the toy piano -- yes, but you can also do it with a better choice of instrument!

I like flute in a lot of cases (ha including my own band)

I am now a lot less sorry I missed your last gig! ;)

I will disagree in flute's case -- you could substitute many things to play in its range, but a flute's timbre is pretty unique. Closest thing I can compare it to other than recorder would be a human whistle? I think it's airy-ness is actually a benefit when you start combining it with other instruments, it just sits so naturally on top of them, and doesn't clutter up the arrangement.

x-post haha Sarah, well you've seen it before

I'm not arguing that the flute is inherently awful, just that I generally cringe at hearing it, and then make my way to the bar until it is done playing. It's entirely personal. I understand what you are saying on an intellectual level, but viscerally .... no, with a few exceptions. I can deal with flute in Deerhoof songs for some reason, but it's not just a case of "I really have to like the music on other levels to like the flute's inclusion" because I still can't stand "I talk to the wind"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp_YRl1qWTk

please do not youtube bomb this thread with flute music ... start another thread if you must

that's not a flute in Deerhoof, that's her voice /rimshot

Kraftwerk's "Ruckzuck" to thread.

sorry.

oh it's just that i realize that there are plenty of other people who hate specific instruments besides me

i do not mean to question your musical perceptions, which i respect. i was just having a lil moment.

Going through the entire orchestra, my least favourite instruments by section are trombone, clarinet, glockenspiel, double-bass (<3) and celeste (<3).

I don't like mandolins but bouzoukis are OK

I don't like most Nord synths but they're light and durable so users are forgiven

I don't like non-fingerstyle acoustic guitar (unless played at Christy Moore's level) (I reject my own dislike of that instrument for other reasons)

Dominique OTM. Going to listen to "Cassandra's Dream Song" (or maybe Aqualung) now.

"no input mixing board"
no you're not a magician.
you've plugged a cable from the output into the input ffs
like anyone with the smallest amount of curiosity does when they get a new piece of audio kit (tuba, kazoo, drum kit, etc)
OK, i usually like the sounds that it makes.
but calling it that is braindead in the extreme

i'm surprised to have it dawn on me that i am cool with all instruments

depending on how much reverb i'm listening to them through

"no input mixing board"
no you're not a magician.
you've plugged a cable from the output into the input ffs

hahahah - i have listened to way too many sets of this "amazing" instrument -- i think i dislike the flute more

well, maybe it's about the same?

There's a particular kind of guitar sound I really really loathe but I don't know enough about guitars to identify whether it's a technique or a kind of instrument or what. It's when the guitar is used as a rhythm instrument and makes a kind of chunky strummy sound - not acoustic guitar exactly but trying to get that strummed acoustic feel. Oasis and post-Oasis britrock acts do it a lot. That kind of guitar I really despise, it seems to slow the song down and adds nothing textural to the song either.
― Tom, Thursday, June 20, 2002 1:00 AM (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This. Hate this.

Other than that I'm fine with pretty much anything apart from banjo. All about context. But who the hell is using toy pianos?

toy pianists, man
can't escape them

Bad flute playing disfigured a lot of otherwise acceptable Krautrock ime. I mean, why didn't Tangerine Dream say to the guy who played flute on the 2nd track on "Alpha Centauri", "Listen, this isn't really working, we'll use your stuff but stick it way out in the right speaker, in the hope that no-one notices that it's the same aimless hippy noodling as 90% of the flute playing recorded in the Federal Republic of Germany in the year 1971. So thanks for everything, our management will be in touch regarding expenses, fees, etc.- but don't expect too much, not after that!" But no,they let the guy loose to stink up the title track, oy!

i guess i wasn't even thinking of actual 'toy pianos', more plastic children's toys that have a few keys (maybe a pentatonic scale, maybe a major scale, maybe some random notes). i like those.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/e3/51/bf80820dd7a01ff236e9d010.L.jpg

I am deeply sad about all this flute hate.

Pretty sure I have no instrument where I think it's always bad. There are definitely types and trends of usage that irk, e.g. "smooth" sax playing, but that's not the sax itself so much as the style.

I love a bad flute.

But who the hell is using toy pianos?

It's totally a thing in the new music composition world. Toy piano festivals, composers with PhDs writing toy piano pieces for virtuoso pianists with performance doctorates, etc.

http://uncagedtoypiano.org

Now if people were actually using those plastic children's toys, I might be able to get on board with that.

I can't think of an instrument I literally never like. Harp annoys me like 90% of the time, but then there's Alice Coltrane and (I guess) Joanna Newsome. Sax in rock, I mean hello, Baker Street? Gaucho? I guess there are specific guitar sounds I don't like, like an electric through one of those Korg digital processor chorus effects. Oh actually Ovation guitars are never good. Also pretty much any "acoustic electric" guitar plugged in.

Right now, a 12 minute droning Future Days-ish composition of flute and harmonium, with faintly medieval melodies, like Roland Kirk jamming with Nico, is the the exact thing I'd like to be listening to. Such a thing must have been produced circa 1974, right?

Wow, you just described my idea of the perfect piece of music.

Nico, who said about her first album that she wished someone could invent a record player with a button that could remove all the flutes from the mix.