# Your Least Favorite Instrument **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669 "2006-04-28T23:34:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![docandjean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7993a0/32.png) [@docandjean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/docandjean)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/61 "2006-04-30T02:29:12Z")
I’d like to check in as a lover of the pipes. Except when on the field at a highland game and EVERY BLOODY pipe band plays _Scotland the Brave_. That exceeds my limits. I can’t think of an instrument I don’t like. Including all the ones mentioned here. I just like things that make music. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/62 "2006-04-30T03:39:22Z")
> [@](#): > > The smaller cousin, the illen pipes, is a more melodic instrument. It has an elbow-powered bellows (so the player can sing,) and it lacks that yowling rank of drones that the highland pipes use to overpower the melody. A full set of uillean pipes has the same number of drones as a set of GHB (though they play on 3 different pitches rather than 2), and also has regulators, which are like drones except they can play a full chord. And mark me down as another lover of the bagpipes (with the Northumbrian smallpipes being my favorite). I can’t think of any instrument that I truly hate, though xylophone and marimba and their various relations would have to be my least favorite of all instruments. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/63 "2006-04-30T04:33:38Z")
I like bagpipes. In fact, I started a thread asking for bagpipe and accordion music a while ago. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/64 "2006-04-30T04:33:50Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > Listen to Glenn Gould playing Bach and then tell me if you still feel that way. Well of course, but that’s because it’s Glenn Gould, not because it’s a piano. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/65 "2006-04-30T11:53:08Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > **Kilvert’s Pagan** , are you referring to the grace notes when you mention “moseying around”? The grace notes are the accidentals that are played inbetween the melody notes and are one of the characteristics of the bagpipes. Or do you mean that you think the notes themselves are not steady? The latter. Thanks for allowing me to clarify. ---
**Author:** ![Barely\_Adequate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Barely\_Adequate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barely_Adequate)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/66 "2006-04-30T15:39:15Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > Steve Lacy kicks major ass. > > Try [Paris Blues](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000APVDR/sr=1-3/qid=1146359250/ref=sr_1_3/002-8954924-6565655?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=music), his two-man collab with master arranger Gil Evans. There you go again… 🙂 But you’ve never done me wrong so far, so I’ll give it a try… \*\* Gil Evans would be the major attraction for me, in spite of his unfortunate dalliance with Jimmy Hendrix’s works. \*\*_…sounds like a line in a mediocre blues tune from the 70s by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee._ [sup]…the tune being mediocre, not ST+BMcG[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/67 "2006-04-30T15:52:25Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Farfisa organ, and maybe the oboe. Other than that I can’t really think of any. I used to hate the accordian until I spent a 4th of July at the home of a couple of old Seattle TV kiddy show hosts. They and their neighbors played accordian, and were concert-quality, too. I changed my mind about the instrument that day. > > And I _love_ the bagpipes! Would that be Stan Boreson? As a kid I use to watch him with his dogs Slo Mo and No Mo. Also, add me to the absolutely hates bagpipes group. Especially Amazing Grace. I would like to propose legislation to ban that song from ever being played on bagpipes again. Hearing it makes my skin crawl. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/68 "2006-04-30T16:36:38Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Would that be Stan Boreson? As a kid I use to watch him with his dogs Slo Mo and No Mo. That’s him! He’s real old friends with my uncle and aunt. My cousins always used to get a kick out of playing with a real TV star. Stan’s pretty much limited to a wheelchair these days, but he still plays a wicked accordian. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/69 "2006-05-01T17:27:10Z")
Well, **Northern Piper** and **yBeayf** have exposed me as a bluffer. I’ve never actually seen anyone play the uillean pipes. I didn’t even know they existed until I heard them played on Fiona Ritchie’s _Whistle and Padlock_:rolleyes: radio show. That’s why I didn’t know how uillean (Ms. Ritchie claims it means _elbow_) is spelled, and why I didn’t know any physical details of the instrument. I’m glad someone was here to provide actual information, and I’m grateful they didn’t throw a lot of mud at my ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669/70 "2006-05-03T10:17:50Z")
Not a real big fan of the bagpipe, but when you graduate from Scotland High School you learn to tolerate them - -and if you can get five people together, you can do a fairly good impression of them (four choose a drone pitch to hum\*, and the fifth does the melody). - - OK - not so much a hum as a nasal “WHEEEE” noise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-least-favorite-instrument/354669.md?page=3)