# Most recently invented instrument **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355 "2007-01-17T18:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/41 "2007-01-18T15:24:33Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] One of the most innovative new instruments I have seen is the [Emmett Chapman Stick,](http://www.stick.com/) basically a guitar and bass sharing a fingerboard ca. 1974. Since human beings have only 2 hands and both are occupied with fingers on frets, Chapman had to invent a better way to amplify the sound so a separate hand wasn’t necessary to pluck it. Some new, some old concepts..\* [/QUOTE] Jeff Beck was one of the early chapman stick innovators… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/42 "2007-01-18T17:02:32Z")
I don’t have much time for attributions of invenvtions such as the ‘pv instrument’ or the ‘airpole’ to the Blue Man Group. I was using homemade instruments, identical in principle, in primary school. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/43 "2007-01-18T17:03:38Z")
\*pvc instrument ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/44 "2007-01-18T17:14:43Z")
I’m not sure a synthesizer is a musical instrument, it’s a tone generating device. If the manner of controlling it counts than there may be questions because there are so many ways to trigger one but none are unique. Piano keyboard, guitar, wind instrument… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/45 "2007-01-18T17:15:44Z")
[The Branching Corrugaphone](http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=52fp08) More on it [here](http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2163). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/46 "2007-01-18T17:22:13Z")
[QUOTE=Burton] I’m not sure a synthesizer is a musical instrument, it’s a tone generating device. If the manner of controlling it counts than there may be questions because there are so many ways to trigger one but none are unique. Piano keyboard, guitar, wind instrument… [/QUOTE] I think you’d have a hard time convincing a professional musician that his keyboard synthesizer is not a musical instrument. By your definition, a sax isn’t an instrument either. It’s a tone generating device, controlled by the fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/47 "2007-01-18T17:29:51Z")
New, but not really new, more “discovered recently,” how about the instruments popularized by Peter Schickele such as the tromboon, the horn & hardart, the double-reed music stand, and the pandemonium? ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/48 "2007-01-18T17:51:24Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] New, but not really new, more “discovered recently,” how about the instruments popularized by Peter Schickele such as the tromboon, the horn & hardart, the double-reed music stand, and the pandemonium? [/QUOTE] Well, the OP did ask for instruments “that [are] used regularly”. Oh, and it’s called just plain “Hardart”, as in Concerto for Horn and… ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/49 "2007-01-18T19:03:27Z")
[QUOTE=scotandrsn] I think the saxophone, being invented later, would trump that one. [/QUOTE] Yep Plus, playing the sax is more likely to get you laid than playing the accordion. ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/50 "2007-01-18T19:22:00Z")
“I think you’d have a hard time convincing a professional musician that his keyboard synthesizer is not a musical instrument.” What would this person be called professionally? A synthesizer player or a keyboard player/pianist? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/51 "2007-01-18T19:49:52Z")
[QUOTE=Burton] “I think you’d have a hard time convincing a professional musician that his keyboard synthesizer is not a musical instrument.” What would this person be called professionally? A synthesizer player or a keyboard player/pianist? [/QUOTE] Yes. Either. Generally if you say your instrument is “keyboards,” that includes the many sounds that are most easily controlled by a keyboard. Also called a programmer whether or not actual pressing down of black & white keys is needed. A piano player that does not dabble in electronic versions of anything is usually just a pianist or piano player. At least that’s been my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/52 "2007-01-18T19:56:31Z")
[QUOTE=Burton] “I think you’d have a hard time convincing a professional musician that his keyboard synthesizer is not a musical instrument.” What would this person be called professionally? A synthesizer player or a keyboard player/pianist? [/QUOTE] I play the synthesizer. I do not play the piano (unless you want to call it “playing the piano” when I use my MIDI keyboard to control a piano module). Why would I be called a “keyboard player/pianist”? The term for a synthesizer player is “synthesist.” BTW, I cast a vote for the laptop computer, which is increasingly being used as an instrument in live performance. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/53 "2007-01-22T13:28:27Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I don’t have much time for attributions of invenvtions such as the ‘pv instrument’ or the ‘airpole’ to the Blue Man Group. I was using homemade instruments, identical in principle, in primary school. [/QUOTE] The airpole is a bit of a stretch, I’ll grant you (although they have elevated the skill in playing significantly - I can’t find a good clip online, but I’ve seen them playing it as more than just a percussion device - they can actually vary the note it produces). Anyway, I think you do the PVC instrument an injustice - it’s a fully playable musical instrument with a unique sound and works in a novel way - I think it makes an excellent candidate instrument to the OP’s question - I can’t see why it should be disqualified. Did you really have something like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlfRrZPfXs) at primary school? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/54 "2007-01-22T13:59:49Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Did you really have something like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlfRrZPfXs) at primary school? [/QUOTE] Nope. But we didn’t have a six-octave xylophone, nor a grand piano. The PVC instrument is an elaboration on much older traditional percussion instruments - take a look at the third one down [here](http://bamboo-orchestra.lafriche.org/site_anglais/instrument-gb.html). Using plastic tubes has expanded the possibilities of such instruments, sure. But it’s not a new invention. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/55 "2007-01-22T14:15:58Z")
Oh, that is almost exactly the same - I therefore withdraw the suggestion it’s a new instrument. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355/56 "2007-01-22T14:19:16Z")
Interestingly, the bottom ends of the bamboo tubes are closed in that instrument - I would imagine this makes it less resonant and more percussive than the BMG’s PVC instrument, which has pipes open at both ends. Still, they’re clearly related. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-recently-invented-instrument/388355.md?page=2)