# Why didn't Art Garfunkel play any instruments? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 4, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738 "2012-03-04T18:46:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738/61 "2012-12-24T11:27:38Z")
O.K., you’re talking about this, I presume: [http://www.artgarfunkel.com/articles/may1998.html](http://www.artgarfunkel.com/articles/may1998.html) There’s also this: [http://www.artgarfunkel.com/chrono/1970-1974.html](http://www.artgarfunkel.com/chrono/1970-1974.html) The first one says this: \> How did your decision to teach at the Litchfield School come about? \> \> I had come off of Bridge Over Troubled Water. I craved normality. I was in a \> relationship living in a country house I had brought. I knew I had a talent for \> teaching (I had tutored math to pay for college). The school was nearby. The second one says this: \> Art spent the rest of the year teaching mathematics at a private school in \> Litchfield, Connecticut. If this is your idea of detailed, I shudder to think what your idea of sketchy is. This doesn’t much answer my questions. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738/62 "2012-12-24T14:00:31Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Clark Cello writes: > > \> It is worth mentioning, I think, that Paul Simon to some degree feared breaking > \> up because he was afraid that Garfunkle would end up being the bigger star. > > If this is true, why did Garfunkle take a job as a high school math teacher when Simon and Garfunkle broke up in 1970 and do that for two years? That doesn’t sound to me like someone who’s convinced that he has a brilliant career ahead of him. That sounds to me like someone who figures that he has no chance of making a living as a soloist, so he better fall back on something more stable. I think you read the allegation wrong, as **Gary T** tried to point out. The allegation is that \*Simon \*didn’t want the band to break up because \*Simon \*thought Garfunkel would end up being the bigger star. Garfunkel, apparently, was at least as happy to teach for a bit, and doesn’t seem to have chased after stardom after all in the intervening years. But that doesn’t mean Simon didn’t fear he might. ---
**Author:** ![Will2568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Will2568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will2568)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738/63 "2023-04-22T06:02:41Z")
If I’m not mistaken, Art played piano on Silent Night on their third album. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738/64 "2023-04-22T07:07:12Z")
He also plays acoustic guitar on “Bye Bye Love”, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2023, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738/65 "2023-04-24T02:12:29Z")
Wow, ten years dormant. _I got up to make some toast_ _When I come back to thread someone’s written a post_ mmm ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2023, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738/66 "2023-04-24T06:17:25Z")
You’re breaking my heart. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-art-garfunkel-play-any-instruments/614738.md?page=3)