# Instrument you like the least **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847 "2011-05-23T02:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/61 "2011-05-23T21:58:34Z")
Tambourine. Childhood television has irrevocably associated this instrument with either: 1. The child band member who wasn’t talented enough to play anything else but you couldn’t kick her out of the band so you gave her (it was invariably a girl) one of these; or 2. The cute/hot chick (often the girlfriend of one of the band members) who had to have something to do but couldn’t be trusted with a “real” instrument. I remember as a kid being annoyed a lot because the female band members were _always_ stuck playing either the tambourine or the keyboard. I wanted a female \*drummer \*or _lead guitarist_, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/62 "2011-05-23T22:04:42Z")
_And the oboe it is clearly understood Is an ill wind that no one blows good._ – Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/63 "2011-05-23T23:07:38Z")
I dislike the tuba. It just sort of always sounds…well…DUMB, to me. I also don’t like the string bass as a solo classical instrument. It definitely has a function in an ensemble (and I don’t mind it in jazz), but I’ve never heard a solo bass piece that I liked. I don’t dislike bagpipes, but I have heard badly played ones, which is definitely awful. There was a guy playing them near the booth I was working in at the Renaissance Festival, and I seriously considered paying him to go play somewhere else. (By the time I was ready to, though, he’d already left.) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/64 "2011-05-24T06:09:07Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Also, the instrument on Good Vibrations wasn’t exactly a standard theramin. It was a an instrument called the [Electro-Theramin](http://www.electrotheremin.com/ET.html) or the Tannerin. The difference isn’t just hair-splitting; the way you interact with these two instruments is different. Yeah, in the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t a normal theremin, but it always seems to be the example trotted out by people who say that some theremin music can be enjoyable. Actually I forgot my all-time least favourite instrument, the [Didgeridoo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo). God, what an awful sound. Not helped by being taken to too many corroborees as a child in the stifling heat and dust and having to listen to the damn instrument for what seemed like hours on end. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/65 "2011-05-24T06:13:19Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > Yeah, in the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t a normal theremin, but it always seems to be the example trotted out by people who say that some theremin music can be enjoyable. > > Actually I forgot my all-time least favourite instrument, the [Didgeridoo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didgeridoo). God, what an awful sound. Not helped by being taken to too many corroborees as a child in the stifling heat and dust and having to listen to the damn instrument for what seemed like hours on end. Didgeridoo is the one I was going to mention, too, before I got distracted and my thoughts ran away from this thread. I actually have one sitting in my living room, from my aunt who lives in Australia. Never could figure out what the hell to do with that thing. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/66 "2011-05-24T06:18:38Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Although I already answered “bagpipes,” I have to mention something else. It’s classical music played on “original” instruments or string instruments played without vibrato. I shouldn’t have to point out that there were good reasons why these instruments and techniques were replaced. Like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNQLJ1_HQ0)? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/67 "2011-05-24T06:25:11Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNQLJ1_HQ0)? Oh god, yes. And they’re playing one of my least favorite pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/68 "2011-05-24T08:23:25Z")
To be fair, playing period instruments is very difficult - we’re basically researching what they might have done and what it might have sounded like. If done right (and there are very, very few orchestras who can) the sound is very slender and elegant. (I can’t play the YouTube clip in Germany, unfortunately - what is it?) If you’ve ever listened to a 1930s performance of Bach’s Matthäuspassion, you know why this movement was highly necessary. That music was not written to be performed by an 80 piece symphony orchestra with 160 singers. However, I agree: unless you’re going to do period instruments right, don’t do it! ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/69 "2011-05-24T08:33:13Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Drumming… just a high bass beat. No melody or rythym to accompany. Drumming is useless, and drummers are hacks. Don’t get this modern bass beat econo9my of rap. That’s a drium and somebody speaking… not melodious… not music. If these aren’t fighting words, I have never read them here at the Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/70 "2011-05-24T11:00:05Z")
If it’s any consolation, Stalin did have Leon Theremin sent to the Gulag. There’s a Yakov Smirnov joke there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/71 "2011-05-24T11:23:13Z")
Pedal steel - That distinctive twang is pretty much synonymous with “Bad country song” as far as i’m concerned. Fiddle - Ditto. Acoustic guitar in rock songs - Unless it’s supposed to sound like Bob Dylan, the acoustic is either unnecessary, or it gets washed out by the electric instruments and percussion anyway. Rock saxophone - As the above poster noted, it always, always, ALWAYS sounds cheesy. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/72 "2011-05-24T11:47:47Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Hate banjos completely. I don’t think I’ve ever heard any banjo being played that didn’t sound like corny faux-patriotic Americana tripe. Then you clearly have never heard [Bela Fleck & the Flecktones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzZXvivo4c). Electric jazz banjo. ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/73 "2011-05-24T14:04:51Z")
I must be the most musically intolerant person around. Here’s what I hate: Accordion. Harmonica. Harp, when not part of an orchestra. Any instrument, when a child plays it (even if it’s a prodigy). Saxophone, when playing something other than jazz. Zurnai and shawm. Sitar . Acoustic guitar. Trumpet, when played with vibrato. Actually, any instrument (including voice), when it’s played with vibrato. Didgeridoo. Melodica. Flexatone. Temple block. Clarinet in E-flat. Piccolo trumpet. Steel drums. Hawaii guitar. Jew’s harp. Xylo-, vibra- and marimbaphone. And to think that I’m a musician… ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/74 "2011-05-24T15:10:55Z")
Strings/violin. I hate the way they rise up out of a perfectly good song and overwhelm it. The 70’s were particularly bad about this in pop and country songs. As another posted said though fiddle is good. I guess fiddle and violin are the same instrument, but fiddle just played differently, like in “Devil Went Down to Georgia.” ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/75 "2011-05-24T15:40:28Z")
Piccolo. Too damn high. Ice pick through the eardrum. > [@installLSC](#): > > Any musical instrument you just don’t like hearing? My vote is the vibes. Every time I’ve heard it, it’s just this annoying plinky sound. Play it fast, it’s plinky. Play it slow, it’s plinky. Plus isn’t it kind of pointless to have an electrical instrument that can’t distort or be played loudly? Vibes is my second favorite jazz instrument to listen to (it would have been first except I play the guitar). I guess other posters have explained how vibes really work so I won’t rehash that. But the point of electrification is not always to distort or play loudly, it’s just that a certain genre of music uses it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/76 "2011-05-24T15:43:37Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Then you clearly have never heard [Bela Fleck & the Flecktones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzZXvivo4c). Electric jazz banjo. Though Fleck would be the first to tell you that he has enormous respect for, and learned much from, acoustic bluegrass banjo. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/77 "2011-05-24T15:44:00Z")
Put me down for brass, too. It just sounds loud and annoying to me. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/78 "2011-05-24T17:20:15Z")
> [@K364](#): > > Saxophone unless: > > For Jazz, Paul Desmond can play all day long. And for R&B/Rock, King Curtis is God. The rest of them can screw off. > > One more exception - the guy that played on “Baker Street” You mean you don’t like this? https://www.youtube.com/embed/JcNhDstL4-k?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque (Benny Hill theme) ---
**Author:** ![banjoDavid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@banjoDavid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/banjoDavid)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/79 "2011-05-24T17:30:16Z")
Part of the sound of the harpsichord is it’s lack of dynamic range, no notes softer or louder than any other. That’s one of the reasons the piano was so revolutionary, the full name is pianoforte, meaning soft-loud. Carry on, folks ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847/80 "2011-05-24T17:39:57Z")
When I was playing with Bluegrass/Mountain Music/Folkie musicians, we would invariably resurrect the old joke: What’s the definition of ‘Perfect Pitch’? Answer: Throwing a Button Accordion into a dumpster and having it land on a Banjo. - We thought we were so damn funny \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instrument-you-like-the-least/582847.md?page=5)