# What musical instruments are in your home?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-instruments-are-in-your-home/116699>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 30, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-instruments-are-in-your-home/116699 "2002-06-30T14:25:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-instruments-are-in-your-home/116699/61 "2002-07-12T13:42:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \*  
> \*\*Okay, time to make a band!
> 
> I notice a lot of home recording types in here. Has anyone ever come up with a ‘collaborative’ music project? I’m thinking about one in which someone does a drum part, posts it to the group, then everyone takes a crack at adding a rhythmn track to it. Everyone posts them, the group votes on the best one, then moves on to the lead track. Then vocals, fills, etc. Eventually, you have a song!
> 
> Sounds like a fun thing to try, and I’ve never heard of it being done before, although it wouldnt’ surprise me to learn that it’s common. \*\*

**Sam** , my uncle’s band used to write their songs that way. Two members were in CA, one in Boston and I forget where the others were. Once they had enough material they’d get together once and record everything. Sadly, I think the daily grind took its toll, as I don’t think they write any more. My uncle even had groupies!

As for the OP, I sadly don’t have anything in my apartment, for which the neighbors are probably grateful. Oh wait, the pitch pipe. However, at my mother’s place:  
[ul]  
[li]50+ year-old Wurlitzer piano[/li][li]Her Bb and A clarinets[/li][li]My old violin[/li][li]My electric bass, 5-string Alvarez, with amp[/li][li]An old classical guitar[/li][li]The occasional saxophone or oboe, whenever she needs one[/li][/ul]  
That may be enough.

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**Author:** ![mr.greg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@mr.greg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.greg)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-instruments-are-in-your-home/116699/62 "2002-07-12T14:12:34Z")

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**I have a skin flute and meat whistle** but my wife is the only one who knows how to play them 😉

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**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-instruments-are-in-your-home/116699/63 "2002-07-12T14:29:01Z")

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ummm…let’s see…

1 Flute (never used)  
1 Chanter (the thing that you finger for playing the bagpipes)  
2 Banjos  
1 Lap Harp  
1 Mandolin  
1 hammered dulcimer  
1 Fender Strat  
1 G+L something or other guitar (strat-style body and neck, humbucker pickups and lots of switches)  
1 G+L P-bass  
1 Fernandes J-bass  
1 Taylor 7-something (grand auditorium style)  
1 unusable Yamaha 12-String  
1 pair tabla  
1 pair Congas  
1 pair Bongos  
1 Djembe that weighs 100 pounds  
1 medium-small talking drum  
1 Indian 2-headed drum  
1 small frame drum  
3 roto-toms  
1 set Simmons Drums  
1 half-dead Roland Octapad  
1 Roland SPD-something octapad (the cool one with all the sounds)  
shakers, cowbells, yada, yada  
1 Roland D-50  
1 Marimba (the handmade African kind)  
1 Yamaha recording custom drum set  
1 dummy midi keyboard  
2 Boss drum machines  
1 Dijeridoo  
1 Dell computer (basically a grand midi module)  
1 old emu proteus  
1 akai sampler

and in my other room I have…😃  
If my apartment (yes, this is all in an apartment) was on fire, and I was able to grab one thing, it would be the Taylor.

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**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-instruments-are-in-your-home/116699/64 "2002-07-15T20:08:20Z")

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A few comments:  
To **Dreamer:** Benny Hill did a short bit as a stammering, agitated Australian naturalist, with what he said was a “didgeridoo.” He said the aborigines play didgeridoos now instead of using blowguns that shoot poison darts. He said the instrument had “a sound all its own.” He blew into the mouthpiece and–guess what!! Instead of getting the ‘unique sound,’ he shot a poison dart into a girl’s but! (I still don’t know how a didgeridoo sounds.)  
To **Pldennison** and others: In the liner notes for a “Best of” CD of the music he recorded with Mary Ford, Les Paul said he used an Epiphone when recording “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise.” 🙂  
To **Balance:** My older brother got an ocarina when he was about 10; I’ve always liked the ocarina’s happy sound. 🙂 About the same time, we loaned an extra TV we had to a friend of my parents who was recuperating from hernia surgery; I didn’t know about anaesthesia then and I cried myself sick thinking what the man supposedly suffered. Since Gary got the ocarina about the same time I have an indelible association of this simple musical instrument and its happy tone color with the ignorant anguish I felt at the time… ☹

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