I’d be delighted to accept, should the occasion ever arise.
My cousin’s husband (I am currently staying with them) recently acquired a banjolin.
I combines all the musical limitations of a mandolin with those of a banjo.
(Actually, having just had a look at the thing, I see it has 8 paired strings, so, if Wiki is to be trusted on this subject, technically it may really be a mandolin-banjo. That doesn’t really help. :()
Electronic drums…except for The Cars, who somehow knew how to incorporate them fairly well. The autoharp and the pan flute aren’t big favorites either.
Soprano saxophone. The shrieking of the banshees and the wailing of the harpies cannot approximate the ear-grating noodling of someone on the soprano sax. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at YOU, Branford Marsalis.
Oh, and the rest of you are just plain nuts. Except for the bagpipe haters; I can see that.
Sounds like one of the Far Side Cartoons showing how Hell actually works.
Yup, in that it’s the instrument I like the least. I like it a lot sometimes, but most of the time it’s better being replaced by some other instrument.
Bagpipes are usually horrible on recordings. In real life they can be awesome in the old sense of the word. There was even a piper in Oxford St - a hardly conducive setting for any musical instrument - who I loved as a kid.
I’ve never heard harp music which I’ve enjoyed.
The recorder. Only because I was forced to play one in school. Not a fun time for my parents.
I can’t think of any instruments I actually hate, but there are some for which a little goes a long way, and I don’t want to hear them every day. Among such instruments would be the harpsichord, the sound of which Sir Thomas Beecham famously described as “two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.” As a solo instrument or an accompaniment to early classical music, it’s easy to OD on its jangly tinkliness.
Also, the instrument on Good Vibrations wasn’t exactly a standard theramin. It was a an instrument called the Electro-Theramin or the Tannerin. The difference isn’t just hair-splitting; the way you interact with these two instruments is different.
For example, Here’s a theramin and a Tannerin side by side. The tannerin works with a slider to control the pitch and a knob to control the volume rather than requiring you to wave your hands around in empty space.
ETA: Better yet, here’s a video of the electro-theramin/tannerin in action.
I apologize. I’d still say it’s still somewhat similar to a fan, but I was stupid to say it amplifies anything. My point was yours: that it can be used without the motor. I don’t think I ever thought of it as an electric instrument.
If I was thinking of electric vibes, there would be electricity flowing through the bars to be amplified by a speaker.. (Electronic would, of course, be like electronic drums, with the bars making no sound at all.)
Good Heavens, no need to apologize - I’m just a pedantic old git who likes to ramble on about instruments and their specifics.
And there are purely electronic mallet instruments - they are MIDI controllers shaped like vibes/xylophone/marimba. MalletKAT is but one example…
Ooh, that’s a good one. Horrible sound.
Not me, but I once read that the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams couldn’t stand the sound of the piano.
They gave away kazoos in cereal when I was a kid. Never heard a kazoo I liked.
Or that whistle thing with the stick in it. Can’t recall what it’s called.
Slide whistle.
That high-pitched clarinet-horn-ish thing that Kenny G plays. Ugh. Painful to listen to.
Soprano Sax. Listen to it when played by a better player, like Coltrane or Branford Marsalis…
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.
I may have heard a song featuring a clarinet that I liked but I don’t recall. I’m sure someone out there can coax a pleasing sound from one. I guess for some reason I associate them with Dixieland which is one of my least favorite genres.
See post #44.