# My Favourite Instrument Is..........



## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

What is your favourite instrument to play and what is your favourite instrument to listen to?

Options 1-5 are for the instrument you prefer to play and options 6-10 are for the instrument to prefer to listen to.

They may both be the same but often it's a bit of the "I wish I could play that" scenario. Maybe you would like to tell us why as well.

As for me, I prefer my electric guitar for playing but there is nothing like a well played steel guitar. That "whine", if that's what you want to call it, has a sound like no other.


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

The electric guitar is the One True Instrument. 

But, heck, I'd listen to someone chewing porridge with their mouth open if it had rhythm.


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## -ST- (Feb 2, 2008)

Play: Guitar (typically electric, but almost as much: acoustic)

Listen... Guitar - usually electric, but a close second I'll watch and listen to a _great _ drummer.

oh - and Miles Davis


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

posting on a guitar forum may get skewed results. 

after guitar, I like listening to trumpet. (Chet Baker style)


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## Woof (Jan 13, 2010)

The only one in the list I can play and make acceptable music is guitar so that was easy. And I listen to guitar more than anything else but I like to hear the other instruments too.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Yeah, guitar both sides for me. I do love steel guitar, but it's just another guitar to me also.

Hate hate hate hate hate sax, they could all be melted and the players thrown onto the remaining fire as far as I'm concerned. Keyboard of the electronic variety are close behind, though a good real or even real sounding piano is mostly OK.

Drums I am OK with.

Clarinet, now THAT I can get behind! Vernon Reid (Living Colour) put out a solo album called Mistaken Identity in 1996 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistaken_Identity_(Vernon_Reid_album) . *It is brilliant*. Not metal like LC. And the feature player on the whole CD, which is a lot of rap, wierd beats, guitar playing of various flavours and etc, is some jazzy clarinet player who just goes nuts over almost the entire album. Again, very brilliant. Hate jazz, but big band stuff that features clarinet makes me smile.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

I wish there would have been more than 10 choices allowed, I could have put in a few more instruments and the beloved Jews Harp.

So, Keto, you don't like the group, Chicago?


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Dbl. post.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

puckhead said:


> posting on a guitar forum may get skewed results.
> 
> after guitar, I like listening to trumpet. (Chet Baker style)


No kidding, eh?

So not surprising to see the results so far.


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## -ST- (Feb 2, 2008)

Giving this a little more thought: If you allow me the latitude to call the human voice an instrument - then that's my favourite to listen to.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

-ST- said:


> Giving this a little more thought: If you allow me the latitude to call the human voice an instrument - then that's my favourite to listen to.


Certainly my favourite to listen to is the voice, and though I am a MUCH better guitar player, the voice might be my favourite to "play" as well.

A well played violin or cello might rival guitar as second choice to listen to.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

-ST- said:


> Giving this a little more thought: If you allow me the latitude to call the human voice an instrument - then that's my favourite to listen to.


You may have latitude AND longitude. The voice is an excellent choice. I should have put that in the choices. 

You made me remember something by you post. There is a bird (it's a warbler, I believe) that can sing two notes at once. We still haven't figured out how it does it. It's amazing when you consider many human struggle with just singing one note at a time.


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## fredyfreeloader (Dec 11, 2010)

Steadfastly said:


> There is a bird (it's a warbler, I believe) that can sing two notes at once. We still haven't figured out how it does it. It's amazing when you consider many human struggle with just singing one note at a time.


Yes even when using computer voice enhancement.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

of course i picked guitar to play and to listen to but erhu, cello, and this would be really cool too http://youtu.be/MLTpmn7DaQs oops, she did it again


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

I agree with cheezy's choice of cello as a very emotion evoking instrument - to me it sings like a human voice and if I could attend a string quartet concert or a Metalica concert, I would choose the quartet every time.

That being said, I can't change the love I have had for playing bass from mid-sixties onward. I now am concentrating on electric guitar but I do get off on the thrill ride of playing a well made acoustic guitar. Actually, I love playing any instrument I can get 8 bars of coherent notes out of.

As for listening, I can't say that I have a habit of listening to any particular instrument or genre. I tend to listen to what the artist does with a solo or group of instruments. Kate Bush is a good example of what I like to listen to.

So I guess my favourite instrument to listen to is actually the heart and soul of the artist using it to express his or her unique twist on the world.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Steadfastly said:


> So, Keto, you don't like the group, Chicago?


Horn sections in rock, in general, are wasted on me. Couple of the early Chicago tunes, with Terry Kath on them, are really cool. Mostly, I would turn the station to something else though.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

keto said:


> Horn sections in rock, in general, are wasted on me. Couple of the early Chicago tunes, with Terry Kath on them, are really cool. Mostly, I would turn the station to something else though.


Fair enough. If you don't like the horns on the Chicago albums, you obviously just don't like horns. In Edmonton, it's not an instrument you would want to be playing outside in the winter, anyway.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

keto said:


> Horn sections in rock, in general, are wasted on me. Couple of the early Chicago tunes, with Terry Kath on them, are really cool. Mostly, I would turn the station to something else though.


Fair enough. If you don't like the horns on the Chicago albums, you obviously just don't like horns. In Edmonton, it's not an instrument you would want to be playing outside in the winter, anyway.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

keto said:


> Horn sections in rock, in general, are wasted on me. Couple of the early Chicago tunes, with Terry Kath on them, are really cool. Mostly, I would turn the station to something else though.


Even Big Bad Voodoo Daddy? Downchild? Tower of Power? Fabulous Thunderbirds? Later Janis Joplin? Oingo Boingo? Royal Crown Revue? And many more where horns are figured prominently in their music?

I can agree that it isn't easy to effectively incorporate horns into rock music. Too often they sound like they've just rearranged an old 70's porno track. But in a good arrangement, the horns can compliment the music to the point where they are integral and complimentary to the other instruments.

When and if you get a chance to listen to Danny Elfman's Oingo Boingo, for example, especially the Boingo Alive album, perhaps you might appreciate horns in rock a bit more. Maybe not. Maybe it's just me. As usual.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

My favourite instrument to listen to is the Hammond B3. This is one of many examples from the 60s/70s

[video=youtube;FBnSWJHawQQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBnSWJHawQQ[/video]


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Robert1950 said:


> My favourite instrument to listen to is the Hammond B3. This is one of many examples from the 60s/70s


I love what Jon Lord did with one.


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