Favourite unusual instruments
Outside of the standard drums, guitar, bass, piano, which instruments are you most pleased to hear when they pop up in a song?
Throw in your most hated ones as well if you like.
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Jew's harp
Haven't heard it used in a song for bloody ages - any suggestions out there?
^not a raciscm btw
Also, surprisingly given how annoying they are in real life, I quite like the use of bagpipes on some tracks. Bigpipe Style by Orbital is my favourite....
Actually, having read the theremin discussion down below...
...I've remembered that my favourite unusual instrument is the saw. <3 a bit of saw in a track - Tom Waits uses it periodically to good effect.
black heart procession are good for a bit of saw
Niiice. Will investigate...
The Music Tapes (Julian Koster of NMH fame)
use Saw loads along with other unusual instruments.. You might be into that as well
Check Out The Singing Saw at Christmastime
Julian's Christmas album of nothing but instrumental tracks made with multiple singing saws. Great stuff!
Mercury Rev
were big on saws in Deserter's Songs. probably more as well.
not that unusual but I love the sound of harmoniums/reed organs in general, since I became aware of that they seem to pop up all over the place
i don't recall a particular song it's used in
but i went to my friend's house a couple of months back and he had impulse purchased a pedal steel. impulse purchased. ridiculous. it sounds great though.
pedal steel is a great instrument.
I bought one a few years back, you really do need a solid understanding of music theory to play I think though, something which I dont have!
yeah, it's totally baffling to me
I love pedal steels
extra percussion like bongos, congas and tablas etc
i like a good sitar drone too
JFC
Do you wear sandals and have a little ponytail?
i wish...
i've never actually heard one in a song but I am really interested in the Taus, it is bowed sitar like instrument in the shape of a peacock, looks amazing
Didn't you tell me you owned a theremin?
Maybe that was someone else but I'm going to insult you anyway. You nobhead.
So in summary: not a theremin.
Love theremins in principle rather than in practice
Can't think of a song with one in. Apparently it isn't one in the Star Trek music.
that beach boys song
Couple of Pixies songs
Can't remember which ones.
Maybe Veloria and Is She Weird
the Messer Chups had a theremin heavy album, it was performed by the grandaughter of its inventor, went well with their horror-louge-surf sound
pretty much all of Eat The Low Dogs by U.S Christmas has a theremin in
but it's allowed as the album is awesome
theremins are amazing.
shut up.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA-ryAI0oQM
Flute
See Thee Oh Sees for how to deploy this instrument like a badass
such a great post
like, what a stupid instrument. there's nothing cool about it at all. but you're absolutely right about TOS
the zither!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zither
^used brilliantly on the soundtrack to The Third Man...
recently found out this was what is played on the pumpkins we only come out at night, I always thought it was a harpsichord
I really like the glass sounds that kick in 4:24 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLFHPI04aIA
no idea if they are just glasses full of water or one of those glass armonica things
playing glass?
Justice Yeldham is yer man for that
on his own:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuuSTtkqWek
For the less faint of heart:
http://vimeo.com/48645336
and with Zach Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2dnd-kTbAw
that second video is quite a sight
the camera is pretty close up
What about a stroh violin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroh_violin
I've seen so many buskers with these things.
Big fan of accordian
vibraphone
especially of the type used in american analog set stuff. sounds nice and warm
Tortoise are great users of it as well
Hurdy Gurdy
slightly less unusual but I do like a Mandolin or Ukulele also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFyv6t3OS3c
The tubax on Bish Bosch is incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ih7KzKLLWA
ctrl + f theramin
you kidding me guys? cementimental?
Try ctrl + f theremin
gutted
THE DUBE!!!
http://thedube.com/
Marimba
Goes great with shit drums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxnr2KyLAbw
hurdy gurdy
really haunting sound
Melodica all day long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds26yl8siD0
Kotolin
There's a Kotolin room at the South Bank Centre (London, sorry) and they often do workshops for children to try it. I took my daughter last year and we gleefully messed with different parts of it while the instructor tried to keep control. The largest gongs have the most amazing pure sound to them I've ever heard. I don't think it's possible to record the effect of hearing one in person.
I like the saz, the oud, the bouzouki
other things like that
also the weird things that Harry Partch constructed
the tesla coil, and a load of other weird electronic 'instruments'
I have a musical saw (well, an extra bendy saw and a bow)
because I'm a knobhead. Got asked to play it in front of a few people and just about died trying to get a clear sound out of it, then a friend tried, let go of it and took some of the skin off her nose. Probably will try and actually learn to play it at some point because I do like the sound of it.
I'm always impressed at people who play those massive glockenspiel-type things with two sticks in each hand (musical knowledge really coming across here) and a good old harp.
metallophone
those likembes what Konono Nr 1 use
they don't pop up that often tbf
Sufjan + Banjo <3