The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-03-16 03:03
Just a thread for fun. And let's limit it to the usual professional orchestral instruments (so all you kazoo haters out there have to pick something else)
For me, it'd have to be the trumpet. I really find myself not liking the tone of trumpet solos. Whether they be in an orchestral work or some solo piece (nor jazz trumpet either). Something about it's tone just doesn't do anything for me. I think it's a great addition to the overall sound of a piece, but when a trumpet is played solo, ESPECIALLY if it's tried to play in a slow, soothing, and lyrical manner, it really rubs me the wrong way.
Yours?
US Army Japan Band
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Author: VermontJM
Date: 2005-03-16 03:47
I know its not usually in the orchestra, but I truly believe that sax sounds like a poorly played clarinet... just my humble opinion.
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Author: thechosenone
Date: 2005-03-16 03:56
contrabassoon, although bassoon has a very good sound.
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2005-03-16 04:05
I know this is going to sound odd, but I don't like the String Bass. It works as a bass instrument in a string section, but I've heard some bass solos (on recordings and live) and it's just so scrathcy and dull sounding...
I also agree that Trumpet is irritating. The only brass instrument that can tolerate is the French Horn...
DH
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-03-16 04:13
Any drum solo which lasts longer than 10 seconds
...GBK
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Author: SomethingCopland
Date: 2005-03-16 04:15
I love the sounds of nearly all instruments. All of them have different purposes from dijeridos to bass trombones. Tambourine is great. It matters how they are played, of course. For saxophone, if you haven't heard a good performance of L'age D'or by Shostakovich, the sop. sax solos are amazing. As for trumpet, I mean, Marsalis. He's got this thick, human sound. Contrabassoon is rather cumbersome. It's just so big. So it's difficult to play.
GMDC
Stanley, Sydney, Russ, Michelle, David, Deborah, Chuck, Jon, Ricardo, Marc, Sabine, Elsa, Laura, John, Larry, Robert, Paul---They all know Copland.
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Author: diz
Date: 2005-03-16 04:29
Trumpet
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: mkybrain
Date: 2005-03-16 04:30
Holy crap GBK, I had to watch a video on Buddy Rich in jazz band today since my director was out rehearsing for a show(since when can they do that), the solos were disgustingly long, they were really cool, but after the first one I wanted to die. Howeer seeing him perform along side a screaming muppet was quite funny.
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Author: Aussiegirl
Date: 2005-03-16 10:30
I love trumpets, but they must be played sublimely to be good...any small hiccups and it ruins everything...more so than any other instrument i think...lucky ive been spoilt for good trumpeters lately!
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2005-03-16 10:52
The most popular of solo instruments are the most demanding - when was the last time you sat through a recital of beginning Suzuki method kids?
Or lived next door to the next Maynard Ferguson?
I believe instruments of sufficient power to be heard without amplification in a concert hall are barely caged monsters...
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-16 11:44
I have a hard time with this one, because it all DEPENDS. I tend not to like alto saxes, but there is one band piece (cyclone coaster) that has a cool alto sax part...and if a good musician plays in a jazz band, then that's fine too. I have also heard one on the klezmatics' CD, "Possessed" and really like it. I detest the sound of a young musician playing anything, but if you are talking pro, I really can't say that anything is horrible. I used to hate the trumpet, but have since changed my mind. I also used to detest the oboe until I heard someone GOOD play it, and now I love it. The bassoon is questionable. Lovingly nick named the "farting bedpost" it does have that quality...but yet again, a kid in my band is top-of-the-line and has made some beautiful sounds come out of it. but if i had to choose, I would say the bassoon. oh. and maybe soprano sax.... that's a hard one. it's easier to name the instruments I like!
-Lindsie
Post Edited (2005-03-16 11:55)
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Author: Dan1937
Date: 2005-03-16 11:54
Bagpipes! Nothing else comes close!
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-16 11:56
dan- agreed...I forgot about the bagpipe...
-Lindsie
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Author: OpusII
Date: 2005-03-16 12:01
Definitely the Oboe... Not because of the instrument but mostly by some very irritating players, who think that they're the best thing that's ever been born on earth.... It's a shame because there are some very good Oboe players without these illusions....
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Author: Avie
Date: 2005-03-16 12:31
Any instrument that is'nt played in tune is annoying including vocalists.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2005-03-16 12:46
I suppose I would say *any* instrument, played poorly.
Flute sections are my personal peeve. Ours are so frequently sharp to the rest of the band, and out of tune with each other.
And I have actually never really cared much for the sound of the clarinet, believe it or not.
Just a masochist, I guess.
Susan
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2005-03-16 12:50
The saxophone is my absolutely least favorite instrument. In fact, I really hate the sound they make, although I don't mind Kenny G or other good soprano sax players. Alto sax is the worst. I can tolerate the Tenors and Baris.
And, they're making their way into more and more orchestras these days.
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2005-03-16 12:55
"Kenny G.......good soprano sax players." [!]
Comment dites-on oxymoron!
Larry
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-03-16 13:28
Bassoon and Oboe - I don't like much.
Woodwind Quintets don't have much appeal to me. I'd much rather hear a Brass Quintet. Even the music for Woodwind Quintets I typically find to be pretty trite. Come to think of it, I don't really like the French Horn either in the combo........
Just my opinion, and yes, it's kind of a bummer when a woodwind player doesn't really like woodwind quintets.
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Author: johnsonfromwisconsin
Date: 2005-03-16 14:04
My least favorite orchestral instrument:
The soprano Clarinet. I just find it's sound and tone uninteresting compared to most everything else.
-JfW
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-03-16 14:12
Synthesizer. Has put too many real musicians out of work, so I hate it.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-03-16 14:20
David Spiegelthal wrote:
> Synthesizer. Has put too many real musicians out of work, so I
> hate it.
Same has been said of piano and organ, though, in years past.
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Author: Dano
Date: 2005-03-16 14:26
Most all musical instruments in an orchestral setting sound horrible. They sound dull and lacking any life. You get the same instruments on their own and they really shine up pretty nice. I can't see the point of playing the same notes as everyone else, with no more or no less feeling than the guy next to you. I find that it totally lacks in creativity. Even the "solos", if that is what you want to call them, sound like they are coming from a sound machine and lack any individuality. I suppose that the point is to play the music exactly as written and that is what people like to do. Fun to do? Yes. Nice to listen to? No.
While not kazoos, the bagpipes and the banjo are two of the most annoying, difficult-to-keep-myself-from-jumping-out-of the-window instruments I have ever listened to. I don't get the use of bagpipes at every cops funeral. I would die if someone started to play bagpipes at my funeral.
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Author: William
Date: 2005-03-16 14:58
Any poorly played one.
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-16 15:20
Quote:
I would die if someone started to play bagpipes at my funeral.
hmmm...one would hope that you were already dead at your own funneral!
-Lindsie
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-03-16 15:24
Wm [briefly] summarized the above likes/dislikes quite well,IMHO. Ive heard both terrible and divine music from nearly every inst AND composer, so my 2-bits worth is that it takes the combo of BOTH writing and playing to become good. I tend to agree that the higher pitched insts can be the most irritating, but some of the very "lowies" are [intentionally] as musical as thunder and explosions. I can recall great and awful pieces played by all of the insts mentioned above. AM thots. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2005-03-16 15:26
Bugle. Especially when the bell is 1 foot away and pointed directly at the back of your head and and the band is alternating with the drum & bugle corps.
A fife near your ear is pretty bad too.
But any 1812 Overture with cannons is in a class by itself.
Ken Shaw
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Author: clarinets1
Date: 2005-03-16 15:31
in response to the Kenny G thing, I think HE is the most irritating instrument sound on the planet. what a sell-out.
you know, when you visit the jazz section of record stores and find kenny there, you pick him up and move him to the "easy listening" section. Kenny G is not jazz.
~~I'm usually very tolerant of others' opinions, but this particular sax player makes me over-the-top annoyed.
~~~JK
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Author: javier garcia m
Date: 2005-03-16 16:20
I don't like flutes. I find its sound so charmless and devoid of "body"
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Author: GoatTnder
Date: 2005-03-16 16:37
In an orchestra, I don't really have a least favorite instrument to listen to. But! I absolutely hate playing sax. Sadly enough, most of my playing now is on sax. Crappety crap crap crap!
By the way, I like contra bassoon. I'm sure it's horrible to play, but it's so low and growly and fat. No other sound quite like that.
Andres Cabrera
South Bay Wind Ensemble
www.SouthBayWinds.com
sbwe@sbmusic.org
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Author: dummer musiker
Date: 2005-03-16 16:43
TRUMPET! The worse sound to me...and then saxs are a close second.
On the other hand, contrabassoons are one of my favorite. You havent heard the contrabassoon really played unless youve heard Susan Nigro, one of the very very few contrabassoon soloists. :-) Amazing!
My favorite sound is bassoon.
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2005-03-16 17:21
A violin being scratched away on two inches of bow. And a bassoon played without regard to tuning and the potential for beauty and subletely it has.
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-03-16 18:20
When I see a straight soprano sax I have two reactions. one is "get a clarinet!" The other is "get one that looks like a real saxophone!", since I have heard some curved bell soprano saxes played in a way that is pleasing to my ear. And don't even get me going on the SSSO's that are marketed to the junior high aged Kenny G wannabe.
As far as violins go, way back in high school I remember our youth symphony director teasing the violins about needing to have their bows rehaired every month or two, because that two inches got so much use.
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Author: Bill
Date: 2005-03-16 18:43
oboe
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-03-16 18:55
"... SSSO's that are marketed to the junior high aged Kenny G wannabe..."
-SSSO's-
Good one!! ...GBK
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Author: Jen L.
Date: 2005-03-16 18:58
Solo violin. Violin concertos have always made me want to gnaw my own ankle off in order to escape. (So does string quartet music). I know, there are pieces for violin out there that require skill, talent, and so on, and there are very skilled performers, but I've never been able to stand them. Nails on chalkboard. Orchestral parts are fine, but as soon as there's a soloist, I have the urge to flee.
Jen L.
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-03-16 19:03
Ah, GBK, I take it you have experienced the horror?
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Author: glin
Date: 2005-03-16 19:07
Piccolo. Hard on the ears.
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2005-03-16 19:12
The saxophone, especially in the right hands, has a good sound in the right context, and sounds great when used in ensembles. However, it generally sounds like a cross between a truck horn and a shawm.
What is the difference between a lawnmower and a baritone saxophone?
About an octave.
Trumpets are great, but I agree that in a solo situation they get overbearing after a while. I think it is partially because they basically play two volumes: loud and very loud.
The sound of the oboe is wonderful, but the sound is too rich for me to listen to for extended periods. Give me a bassoon solo any day!
-------------
"You have to play just right to make dissonant music sound wrong in the right way"
Post Edited (2005-03-16 19:15)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-03-16 19:27
"...Ah, GBK, I take it you have experienced the horror?..."
Every so often, one of my students shows up with a soprano sax that they convinced their parents to buy.
Aside from the very limited life span of these SSSO, they soon find out that the instrument cannot be used in concert band, and VERY RARELY used in their jazz ensembles. Thus, the novelty soons wears off and the instrument gets relegated to the closet.
The money would have been better spent on a clarinet, so they could learn to double ...GBK
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Author: massa
Date: 2005-03-16 22:23
I used to hate the trumpet sound (or scream?). After I
was exposed to warm beautiful brass ensemble sounds
I fell in love with it. Actually, I've got myself a trumpet too!!
Anything "Piccolo" can sound traumatically harsh...
I really appreciate / deeply respect these in-tune "piccolo"
players to add nice spice in harmonies though.
My ultimate dislike of instrumental sound (non-orchestral)
has to be the hurdy-gurdy, closely followed by the bagpipe.
- m
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Author: Robert Moody
Date: 2005-03-16 23:09
GBK cheated!!!
How did you get that smiley in here!!!!
Robert Moody
http://www.musix4me.com
Free Clarinet Lessons and Digital Library!
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Author: psychotic lil clarinet girl (don't as
Date: 2005-03-16 23:57
Haha... trumpets can get pretty loud, to the point you want to go back there and hit the trumpet player over the head with your clarinet... Of course, that would damage your clarinet, so then that would be doing more harm than good... ^_^ Hehe... Of course, you could always take the stand and hit them over the head with it... ^_^
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-17 00:16
Mary- bring them to my band...we need people who PLAY trumpet...rather than just hold some conviniently configured brass...
-Lindsie
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Author: psychotic lil clarinet girl (don't as
Date: 2005-03-17 00:43
^_^ sure... Just call 1-800-867-5309 ^_^ (number from a song... kinda)
This will connect you to trumpeters anonymous... I'm pretty sure some of our trumpet players are part of this secret society... HAHA! Not so secret, now is it?! MWUAHAHAHA! I'm a clarinet player and I know all this!!! ^_^
Anyways, trumpeters anonymous moto is "Play Loud. Be Obnoxious. Blow Out Someones Eardrums, and then hire a lawyer arguing you don't have to pay the doctors bill for the poor woodwind players who's eardrums are blown out"... Their goal is to kill all of the woodwind players off, in order for brass to ultimately rule... Just ask poor Kenny, he requested to be burried with his clarinet... So, they had sympathy on him and followed his request... At his funeral, they played taps on a trumpet!!!!!!! OH THE IRONY!
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Author: Bradley
Date: 2005-03-17 01:07
Post Edited (2008-03-28 23:33)
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Author: pewd
Date: 2005-03-17 01:37
"trumpeters anonymous moto is "Play Loud. Be Obnoxious. Blow Out Someones Eardrums"
Touche'
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-17 01:42
> "trumpeters anonymous moto is "Play Loud. Be Obnoxious. Blow
> Out Someones Eardrums"
hmm...sounds like the pricipal clarinetist in the wind ensemble in my school...
-Lindsie
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-03-17 01:47
Perhaps sadly, the instrument I find has the least favorable sound is the one I happen to be playing at the time.
But with practice.....maybe ....
And let me defend the sound of a trumpet from far away. Haydn Eb Major from across the lake in Vermont on a summer night was absolutely siblime - the player was pretty good too.
Fondest memory of the camp summers.....
JDS
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2005-03-17 02:49
In the following order:
An English Horn played horrendously out of tune with the director yelling across the stage for her to get IN tune.
An alto saxophone played too loud and out of context whether it's in an orhcestral setting OR band setting.
A stuffy sounding oboe played by an incompetent oboist.
An obnoxious piccolo player...although the sound isn't bad, just too loud.
But I wouldn't want to mention names.
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Author: ned
Date: 2005-03-17 04:49
""Synthesizer. Has put too many real musicians out of work, so I hate it.""
It seems that musical proficiency is required to play a synth,would you not agree? Got to keep up with the times you know, even if it is irksome.
Me, I dislike DJs. They ARE putting musos out of work. I read all of the interviews with these pseudo musicians about their ''latest album" and so forth, and wonder in despair, how anyone can have the gall to equate this stuff with original music.
''Hey man..... I'm really pleased with my latest mix(of real musicians work heh,heh), the dance crowd really grooves......blah, blah''.
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Author: ned
Date: 2005-03-17 04:54
''But any 1812 Overture with cannons is in a class by itself.''
Hopefully these are a little further away from the back of your scone than the bugle!
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Author: BassClarinetGirl
Date: 2005-03-17 11:00
i have a few least favorites...
The "three too many" saxes that we have in our concert band. Don't get me wrong, I love playing tenor sax, but we should save it for Jazz band. We have 5 alto saxes, and we could use two. They make the nicer alto clarinet parts pointless because they can overpower just about anyone.
Trumpets. They couldn't even hit their note at the end of Chorale and Shaker Dance yesterday at contest. Their articulation is horrible. They sound "pepbandy". Enough said.
I also really really really dislike flutes. They have such an airy, wobbly sound that makes me cringe.
And at the moment, ANY musical instrument playing Simple Gifts! There were 4 out of the 6 bands at contest yesterday playing it. Two played A Copland Tribute... New Ulm played Simple Gifts: Four Shaker Songs (although their piece was EXCEPTIONALLY well played), and we played Chorale and Shaker (the trumpets really really messed it up).... If I hear it one more time, my brain will explode.
BCG
Post Edited (2005-03-17 11:01)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-03-17 13:20
Quote:
I also really really really dislike flutes. They have such an airy, wobbly sound that makes me cringe. Although I started it, it took me a day of listening and trying to decide between the flute and trumpet (based on listening to WQXR classical radio for about a day . . . this way I was guarenteed that all the performances I heard were from professionals and I couldn't base it on an "amateur" player)
The flute came in a VERY CLOSE second to the trumpet. (I also thought that most of the time it's played too airy for my taste)
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2005-03-17 13:20
Celeste. But then again, the most famous celeste passages immediately precede bass clarinet and clarinet solos. (Think Sugar Plum Fairy.)
If we hadn't been limited to orchestral instruments, I'm sure someone would have said accordion. I might have even mentioned scratched LPs.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-03-17 15:46
I don't think I can think of one instrumnet I dislike the sound of in general. Some instrumnets sound better than other in a certain context.
For example I usually don't like chembalo (spelling?) in any baroque music but a few days ago I heard a modern orchestral piece with chembalo and he used it in a very original way that sounded very good.
GBK, have you heard (or maybe I should say seen) any Lional Hampton or Gene Krupa solos? I saw about 20-30 minutes of drum solos by them and it wasn't even close to getting boring.
I agree sax can be pretty ugly sometimes, like Kenny G, and all the Michael Brecker copies (probably 50% of all sax players), but some sax players has very good sound.
Now that I think about it, only instrument I don't really like the sound of is humans. Some singers have a really great voice, but some has very bad voice, and unfortunately there isnothing they can do about it. If you have a really horrible trumpet or clarinet, you can buy good ones and have a much better sound. Some singers are just born with bad voice.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-03-17 17:09
clarnibass wrote:
> GBK, have you heard (or maybe I should say seen) any Lional
> Hampton or Gene Krupa solos? I saw about 20-30 minutes of drum
> solos by them and it wasn't even close to getting boring.
Drum solos, for the most part, all follow the same formulaic pattern:
Playing for 3 minutes rapidly "around the horn" on all the drums (yawn), then showing the many nuances of cymbal playing, adding the cymbals, one by one, into the rotation (yawn), followed by 4 more minutes on the multiple subtleties of the floor tom-tom (yawn), moving next to the snare drum and demonstrating, for 6 minutes, a few high school rudiments along with how a roll can amazingly be slowed down like a train and then sped up again (double yawn), as we have now reached the half-way point, next comes some dedicated cacophonous cymbal work (zzzzz...), followed by (last but not least) the foot pedal work - showing how fast their feet can tap dance to different rhythmic patterns on the pedal(s) - this invariably elicits wild applause, and shouts of "how does he do that?" (snore), then the big climax of everything together - hands flailing wildly, feet pumping and head shaking with tremors (total deep sleep), concluded by a screaming verbal count-in for the rest of the band to finally come out of their self-induced slumber so they can resume playing.
You've heard one - you've heard them all.
...GBK (who once watched Buddy Rich do a Friday, Saturday and Sunday show - all virtually identical)
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-03-17 17:18
Yes, if the drummer is bad then you are right. If it's a good drummer they can be as intereting as any other instrument.
The amazing solo by Lional Hampton was only on a floor drum. He could make a lot of different sounds and rhythms just on that. The best Gene Krupa solo was on pipes. On the stage they had a lot of pipes to make steam (old version of smoke machine) and he solos on the pipes.
I also heard a lot of good drum solos on a drum set.
Also this is only from "mainstream" jazz. A lot of drummers I dare saying you haven't heard about (maybe you have heard of some of them) like Paul Lovens, Paul Lytton, Francois Merville, Vladimir Tarasov and a lot more, are nothing like what you described.
Post Edited (2005-03-17 17:26)
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Author: johnsonfromwisconsin
Date: 2005-03-17 18:55
Well, if we're listing our least favorite. Let me also list my most favorites (assuming they're played with a high level of proffesional competency):
1)saxophone(s)
2)oboe
3)bassoon
4)flute
5)cello
6)violin
These are instruments i actively listen to/for.
:)
-JfW
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Author: Robert Moody
Date: 2005-03-17 22:43
Least favorite: String Bass, Piccolo/Flute, many...er...most oboists.
Favorite: Clarinet (go figure) as played like Karl Leister or Jon Monasse, Cello, dark Piano sound and Trumpet as played like Phil Smith.
Robert Moody
http://www.musix4me.com
Free Clarinet Lessons and Digital Library!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-03-17 22:48
The dental drill..........
Bob Draznik
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Author: Elizabeth
Date: 2005-03-17 22:51
Saxophones make me sick! RRRRRRREEEEEEEE!
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Author: psychotic lil clarinet girl (don't as
Date: 2005-03-17 23:05
hm... yes, saxophones, when played incorrectly (such as the ones in my school), can sound horrendous.... eek.... But not nearly as much as a clarinet with unfocused tone that wavers like mad...
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Author: Contra
Date: 2005-03-17 23:33
Flutes by far. I prefer to listen to a nice, solid tone. Flutes always seem airy to me. It can make me cringe sometimes.
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-20 01:17
I think the general conclusion that can be drawn (at least for me) is that 1. any instrument that is not played well will be considered unfavorable to the ear, some moreso than others, but are we in agreement?
2. opinions on different instuments is based a lot of the type of music that is being played and whether or not you like it.
3. and of course on your personal taste in music and timbre...and "color"
-Lindsie
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Author: Liam
Date: 2005-03-20 08:07
oboe (the clarinet with a cold)
Post Edited (2005-03-20 08:08)
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The Clarinet Pages
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