# Totally deleting a musical instrument **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496 "2012-03-01T23:10:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [March 4, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/121 "2012-03-04T18:53:05Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > I guess all of the orchestras of the world better practice instrument twirling because, according to you, just playing their instruments is pointless. Why? Isn’t playing an instrument a “visual”? Besides, if you want baton-twirling-type arm-waving, I’d say some conductors do a pretty good imitation. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/122 "2012-03-04T19:08:30Z")
Can I pick two? Both the oboe and the bassoon. Damned double-reeded disasters. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/123 "2012-03-04T20:18:52Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Well, I don’t like violins. But I wouldn’t delete them. I just don’t tend to listen to music that has violins. Also, they can work as a sort of background. > > Also, flutes. Again, I wouldn’t delete them. I would limit them to one per orchestra, however, and NO SOLOS. Oddly enough, the flute was one of my instruments. (And we had a saying: You know how to get two flute players to play in tune? You have to kill one of them.) > > Also odd, I generally like fiddles. And piccolos. Uh, you do realize that “fiddle” is just another name for a violin, right? ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/124 "2012-03-04T20:40:07Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Why? Isn’t playing an instrument a “visual”? Let’s say yes. In which case, why is instrument twirling needed? Can blind people enjoy concerts too? Is it possible they can get something out of the live interpretation of music without visuals. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/125 "2012-03-04T21:47:11Z")
> [@Harvey\_Ferguson](#): > > I’m amazed that no one said the banjo. > > I love hearing a good banjo picker but a lot of folks don’t. One of the favorite quips among my folk-musician friends… Q: What’s the definition of Perfect Pitch? A: Tossing a Banjo into a dumpster and having it land on a Button Accordion.:smack: ---
**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:** [March 4, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/126 "2012-03-04T21:51:53Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Or [Corky](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRchJ40rLdE) [Seigel.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf5Mh7WYkpo) Can you say “Siegel-Schwall”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/127 "2012-03-04T22:03:44Z")
> [@Anduril](#): > > Bagpipes. They’re god-awful. Yes. I agree 125%. I would have said the accordion, but, ya know, Weird Al! ---
**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:** [March 4, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/128 "2012-03-04T22:42:55Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > Let’s say yes. In which case, why is instrument twirling needed? Nobody said was. But if it is included in the performance, an audio feed won’t be adequate. It’s a visual thing. > [@](#): > > Can blind people enjoy concerts too? Is it possible they can get something out of the live interpretation of music without visuals. Sure, the blind can watch TV, too, but do you think the experience might be missing a little something? ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Mama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Atomic\_Mama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Mama)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/129 "2012-03-04T23:16:48Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > The Theremin is alive and well. > > Blues great Joe Bonamassa talks about his use of it in [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7S9bQNkr7k) clip. “blues great Joe Bonamassa” whaaaaaaaaaaaaa ??? :eek: You’ve GOT to be kidding. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/130 "2012-03-05T07:08:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, I was waiting for that one to come out, so I could post some [Bela Fleck and the Flecktones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Q4CBDFaEc), as it also features harmonica and a keytar/electronic drums/synth-type instrument crafted by one of the band members, which would make it 3 for 4 in featuring Doper’s desired banned instruments. In my mind, that song’s making a case for the banning of the instruments. It’s also making a case for the elimination of the bass guitar. Mind you: I like the banjo and the harmonica, and am a bass player. However, bass solos that aren’t a trip to Guitar Center are few and far between. Bela might as well be playing a guitar for how banjo-ish his sound is, and I dislike the tone coming out of every instrument played by the multi-instrumentalist. That Roland guitar synth isn’t going to be saved by me from the dustbin, either, but it’s no worse than any other synthesiser. (Sorry if it seems overly harsh, you’re entirely welcome to your own taste. But people have been trying to get me to like contemporary jazz in general, and Bela Fleck in particular, for awhile now. It’s not working.) Since I have fond memories of listening to each of those instruments elsewhere, I figure even I’d still save those instruments. Really, I normally don’t want to ban any instrument, but then I read this: > [@SeldomSeen](#): > > And where would Jimmy Buffet and _Margaritaville_ be without recorders? Ok, if we can get rid of Magaritaville, I’ll go without Stairway. Do it. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/131 "2012-03-05T08:31:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Saxophone can stay. But the soprano variety, that’s got to go. Because Kenny G, that’s why. No. Because Branford Marsalis, that’s why. > [@installLSC](#): > > I’m stunned nobody has said the vibes. Play them fast or slow, hard or soft, you still get the same mushy sound with little dynamics. They fail utterly both as a melodic and a percussive instrument. Plus they can be replaced easily by a number of instruments–electric piano, celeste, marimba. Even when you hear a master vibist like Lionel Hampton or Milt Jackson, you always think “this guy would sound way cooler with a lot more sonic options on the piano.” Listen to a Dire Straits track called “Love over Gold” and get back to me. And personally, I can’t stand pedal steel guitar. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/132 "2012-03-05T10:00:55Z")
> [@BACI](#): > > Solo harpsichord is without mercy and an unalloyed misery. Oooh…them’s fightin’ words. Clavichord, sure, there’s no point to an instrument that is inaudible more than three feet away but harpsichord music is a beautiful thing. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/133 "2012-03-05T17:37:56Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > And the mailing tuba. I think you mean the “windbreaker” and its close cousin, the slide windbreaker, which can move from one note to another without sacrificing a moment of its obnoxious tone. Schicklele was unable to figure out the origin of the name - the instrument doesn’t resemble a jacket as far as he can tell. **Robot Arm** , I had forgotten the **lasso d’amore** from the collection of banned instruments. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/134 "2012-03-05T18:12:01Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Saxophone can stay. But the soprano variety, that’s got to go. Because Kenny G, that’s why. Witness the pure evil that is the soprano saxophone at 4:12 in [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfnIBnz2_zw)! > [@blondebear](#): > > So far it seems as if the glockenspiel is safe! The glockenspiel is one reason I’ve never enjoyed Bruce Springsteen. There was that one album where his keyboard player used that glockenspiel sound on every song … > [@SeldomSeen](#): > > \*\*The Acoustic bass guitar: These things don’t produce enough sound to be heard 10 feet away. Even with amplification they sound muzzy and indistinct. Anything an ABG can do, a mandobass, **bajo sexto** or upright bass can do ten times better. I think you mean [guitarron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitarr%C3%B3n_mexicano), not [bajo sexto](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajo_sexto). The bajo sexto is more of a “baritone” guitar than a “bass” guitar. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/135 "2012-03-05T22:24:41Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > Let’s say yes. In which case, why is instrument twirling needed? > > Can blind people enjoy concerts too? Is it possible they can get something out of the live interpretation of music without visuals. Sometimes, a little bit if theatre is nice. It’s not _only_ about the music. Not for me, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496/136 "2012-03-06T02:27:11Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I think you mean [guitarron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitarr%C3%B3n_mexicano), not [bajo sexto](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajo_sexto). The bajo sexto is more of a “baritone” guitar than a “bass” guitar. :smack: I did indeed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-deleting-a-musical-instrument/614496.md?page=6)