The Song Fight Bulletin Board

QOTD: Name one instrument that, if you had the power of omnipotence, would not exist. Optional challenge: Why?


The fucking tambourine. I mean, for an instrument that gets given more often than not to those "in" a band or on a stage who have no sense of rhythm, tune, or basic musical ability, it's one of the more complicated percussion instruments to "get right". Not only do you have to know where the beat is when you're banging on the thing, but you've also got to to be playing slightly off the beat, to get the shaky jinglys to line up. At the same fucking time! And this is what most non-musical people get handed to play right off the bat! And you wonder why more people don't play musical instruments... it's the tambourine effect.

No wonder Linda McCartney's vocals always sucked. She was trying to play the tambourine at the same time.

Maracas are almost as bad, though they don't have the tambourine stigma for me. And for some reason, I really like sleigh bells. Go figure.

/rant

QotD: The recorder. Every time I think, 'Hey, I remember these things as a kid--maybe I should get one for my music...' I buy one and remind myself that they're a piece of crap that really don't give you a lot of versatility to begin with... They're just a bane in my side...

More Cow Bell! Look at all those Song Fight! entries! (and exclamation points!). <---does this go here?

Rabid Garfunkel wrote:I mean, for an instrument that gets given more often than not to those "in" a band or on a stage who have no sense of rhythm, tune, or basic musical ability

Yeah. Preach!

Who was that masked man?

*quietly pushes tambourine-laden songfight entry out of sight behind him*

QotD: There was a time when I would have said the fucking banjo. "What a plinky piece of crap!", I would have declared, and I would have told the joke that goes "What's the definition of perfect pitch?" (A: When you throw a banjo in a dumpster without hitting the sides).

But I've since heard the banjo used in songs in a way I like, and it's kinda grown on me to the point where I'm thinking about picking one up someday.

Now I'd have to go with the pedal steel. Oh My God it's whiney! It has the power to sound really cool, but I only ever hear it used to make the most depressing sound possible. Cry me a fucking river, pedal steel!

What's the definition of a gentleman? Someone who knows how to play the accordion and doesn't. I know. I KNOW.

I'm not a big fan of the flute. But I recognize its role in a larger context.

Any instrument sucks when played poorly. Hardly a reason to dislike it. Banjo simply has very little dynamic capability but can contribute to an arrangement's texture, like harpsichord.

Not an instrument, I don't care for hand clapping in a song.
....well, unless it's totally out of time like Steve Martin in the Jerk.

roymond wrote:I'm not a big fan of the flute. But I recognize its role in a larger context.

Any instrument sucks when played poorly. Hardly a reason to dislike it. Banjo simply has very little dynamic capability but can contribute to an arrangement's texture, like harpsichord.

Yeah, if we're gonna be serious about it, there aren't any instruments that I'd shun. But there are a few that TEND to get used in ways that annoy me.

Albatross wrote:Yeah. Preach!

Bastard.

Hey, Blue asked me to do that.

Skin flute.

(I am the anti-BLT.)

QotD: I want to say Accordian but then Weird Al wouldn't exist and that would be a disaster.

What instrument do you use Rone?

Caravan Ray wrote:What instrument do you use Rone?

fluffy wrote:Skin flute.

(I am the anti-BLT.)

I thought you were a big fan of the skin flute? Cha, just when you think you know a guy, he switches teams.

roymond wrote:I'm not a big fan of the flute.

and yet, you like jethro tull!
i wouldn't eliminate any instruments, they're all fun in their way.
unless you can count mariah carey's voice as an instrument.
-bill

HeuristicsInc wrote:

roymond wrote:I'm not a big fan of the flute.

and yet, you like jethro tull!

Until Ian starts playing flute

Just as I love Peter Gabriel, but not his flute on Cat Steven's Katmandu

last day of finals - now we grade...

QOTD: My first instinct was to say guitar, they are just so ubiquitious. every one is always picking one up and strumming some same song over and over and thinking its just so col that they can play the guitar and....

But I play guitar and love it, so that is probably not fair.

Maybe Autoharp.

DEFINITELY the autoharp.

I could do without bagpipes.

QOTD: I don't think that there are any bad instruments. I want to learn how to play all of them.