Musical Instruments Which Grate

[Melvil]

The piped bagpipe musak you get from the cheap tat tourist shops at the west end of Princes St in Edinburgh - dreadful

+1 - Bagpipes are horrible horrible things which set the nerves jangling and the mind reeling...presumably they were invented as weapons to use against the English.

And that shop...I know the one. I wonder how the staff can work 8 hours at a stretch listening to the same 'tune' over and over again...

 

[rich p]

The kazoo

 

[Mr Pig]

[quote name='swee'pea99']How in the world has this thread got this far without a mention of the bagpipes? [/quote]

Ok. they are pretty bad. But you need to remember they were designed as a weapon of war! ;0)

 

[User169]

On the other hand, the best sound in the world - the bagpipes......receding into the distance..

 

[swee'pea99]

By a strange coincidence I was discussing this with a mate last night outside the pub in Covent Garden, and he said bagpipes didn't sound too bad 'at a distance', to which I added, 'yeah - Scotland'.

 

[Greedo]

One of my sisters used to play the cello. jesus christ that noise of her practising scales etc.... was dreadful. Not an instrument to be played on its own.

 

[Graham O]

+1 for the piano. All that Shostakovich "dah dah di dah" noise. Hate it. Can't even be bothered to check if I've spelt his name correctly.

Unsure about the bagpipes. Close up, okay with a military pipe band, but a lone piper has to be heard at a distance. At university some 30 years ago, there was a piper who used to practice on the fields about half a mile away. Sounded very good, but he was warned never to play them in his room!

PS The other dah dah di dah is quite musical, if anyone knows what I mean.

 

[NickM]

Bagpipes are horrible horrible things...

That (to ears accustomed to tonic sol-fa) may be is true of Scottish bagpipes, which do not obey the rules which usually govern the interrelationships of notes; but the Northumbrian pipes produce a beautifully sweet sound.

Of course, they're from the civilised side of the border

 

[srw]

The electric guitar. It's vile. Take a moderately pleasant, if undemanding instrument, make the body solid so that it loses any resonance it once had and then amplify and distort the hell out of it.

Drum machines and synthesisers are pretty nasty too.

 

[Maz]

The kazoo

Most definitely. It's just whistling gone wrong.

 

[PaulB]

Anyone saying the bagpipes can never have heard them played properly and in the appropriate setting. As you enter the portals of Glencoe and descend down towards Loch Linnhe, there are a couple of big lay-bys which have been colonised by pipers. To hear them play well here in this setting is one of life's great pleasures. If you ever go there, take the time to stop and listen to one without prejudice and see if I'm not correct.

 

[Fab Foodie]

You miserable b*stards... I've just started (Alto) Saxaphone lessons...

 

[swee'pea99]

One of my sisters used to play the cello. jesus christ that noise of her practising scales etc.... was dreadful. Not an instrument to be played on its own.

My sister, who used to have the bedroom next to mine, said to me years later that the day I gave up the violin 'was the best day of my life'.

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Human Beatbox. STFU you Muppet!!!

 

[palinurus]

Human beatbox! good suggestion, invariably some human beatboxing bastard'll turn up at an open mic night and somehow get the crowd on their side- how do they do it?

Slap bass? (although I just heard a Chairlift track which used an 80's style bass sound with prominent pull-offs- the kind often preceeded by a slap- which I quite liked).

Didgeridoos played by long-haired surfer types with piercings.

Possibly also all other instruments played by long-haired surfer types with piercings.