hardest instrument

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 03:25 PM

how many great DOBRO players are there ?

Answer = 1.

QED.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: gnu
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 03:28 PM

Hran.... just because REAL musicians think it's just banging on a drum.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:16 PM

Surely it all depends on the individual. Physically speaking some people are just better suited to some instruments. (Doesn't mean a bloke with titchy fingers can't play the bass but it'll be harder.) And I don't know temperament or feel for the instrument in question or whatever. Then it depends on when on the learning curve- it's a bitch to get decent tone out of a fiddle, but once you can it's not all that hard. I'm sure there are other instruments that are easy to get the basics on and then turn out to be devilishly difficult later on. (Maybe ones designed with a particualr key in mind- you aren't really good on an instrument until you can play in any key in my opinion- not a qualification I've got yet on the fiddle really before people accuse me of taking the high ground.) Then there's the issue of whether technique is the most important thing. All I can really say is I've no bloody idea but the pipes look difficult as does any instrument you have to take an hour tuning up.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: DonMeixner
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:33 PM

Murray, there are much more than 1.

Don

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: DPF
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:48 PM

I have to admit after playing hurdy gurdy for the past four years that I don't think it's one of the most difficult to play. Especially the left hand (melody). When you get into right hand and trompette technique (the kazoo sounding rhythmic portion of the instrument) that separates the competent from the merely hopeful. Maintaining the beast is another story altogether.

Personally, I think anyone here who is taking the time and energy to play an instrument and wanting to do so in the vaster culture we're embedded in is doing the hardest work. Anyone turned away from the spectator sport mentality towards music is taking a vaster leap philosophically than even the progression towards mastery.

However, I still want to know how many cornetto players can fit in a phone booth.

"The Flight of the Bumblebee on the tuba?"
Somewhere in my very strange collection of vinyl is an album called "virtuoso tuba" which contains said piece on said instrument. It can be done. We have the technology.

"I still maintain the hardest instrument to play is the one you really don't want to play - the easiest is the one you have fallen in love with and have an aptitude for and are prepared to dedicate time to."

I couldn't agree more. The passion and desire to make the sounds that strike you down to the core is the greatest inspiration. When you do what you love, you love what you do wherever you are in the process.

Dan

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 02:49 PM

Don, I beg to differ.

Jerry Douglas stands alone.

There are many "very good" players, (I have heard many "very good", totally unknown dobro players in bluegrass sessions during my sojourn in the States), but there is only one truly great player.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:26 PM

Where would you put Tut Taylor and Josh Graves. Jerry Douglas is certainly in a league apart.

I could say I've heard many adequate Concertina players but there is only Alistair Anderson thats really any good. But I haven't traveled the world and my experience isn't broad. The US is a big place. Trust me, there are many Dobro players you may have missed.

D

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Tootler
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:52 PM

you aren't really good on an instrument until you can play in any key in my opinion

A good criterion, but there are instruments for which that is an impossibility. The twenty button anglo and the diatonic harmonica are both examples.

Perhaps then the measure of a really good player is someone who can go beyond the apparent limitations of an instrument.

I also suspect that all instruments are equally hard to play at some level. Some make it relatively easy to get started, but then the difficulty level ramps up when you go beyond the beginner stage. Others are hard to get started on but then plateau so you can make fairly rapid progress after you are over the initial stages.

To play at top level on any instrument takes total dedication and hundreds even thousands of hours of work. Much as I enjoy playing my instruments I am never going to be better than competent, but as long as I enjoy my playing, can hold my own in a session and occasionally give others some pleasure, then I am happy. It is also important to continually strive to improve.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: deadfrett
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 10:31 AM

Pedal Steel Guitar...Murray, check out Rob Ickes. Also, look for an album called the Great Dobro Sessions. Dave

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Jack Campin
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 10:55 AM

"The Flight of the Bumblebee on the tuba?"
Somewhere in my very strange collection of vinyl is an album called "virtuoso tuba" which contains said piece on said instrument. It can be done. We have the technology.

It's a standard party piece, a lot of brass band players can do it.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 12:14 PM

"vacuum cleaner hose".

Try getting a precise melody out of this instrument
whilst holding one end and whirling the rest of the hose
in a rapid circular motion
around and around over your head.

Back in the late 60's/early 70's there was a commercially available
virulent neon green plastic variant
of this instrument
on sale at fairgrounds and seaside novelty gift shops.

Wish I could remember it's proper name ???

I used to have an avant guard prog rock LP featuring this instrument
on at least one track.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 12:20 PM

remembered now, and it should still be in a box at my mum's attic..

David Bedford - "Nurses Songs With Elephants"

(Dandelion, 1972) collects the title-track, a minimalistic work for ten acoustic guitars, Trona (1967) and Some Bright Stars for Queen's College (1969), a composition for 80 college girls' voices and 27 plastic pipe twirlers.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 01:22 PM

Many years ago, I saw on TV a guy who played tunes on a bicycle pump....you would NOT pay admission for it, but it sorta demonstrates ingenuity.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 04:20 PM

Ever heard the album "A Tool Box Christmas"? There are lots of musical concepts that come off better than you might expect; this, to me, was definitely not one of them.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: fumblefingers
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 06:10 PM

Pedal Steel

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Darowyn
Date: 27 Sep 09 - 04:03 AM

I'd agree with the people who nominate the Pedal Steel.
I can play a lot of different instruments, mostly stringed ones but including fretless ones. One of my favourites is the non-pedal steel guitar.
I had some money to spend on myself a few years ago so I went to Music Ground to buy a pedal steel.
After an hour and a half trying various models, and trying to sort out the copedant (that's the tuning and pedal/knee lever setup) I realised that I could not manage the basic trick of playing a simple major scale in one bar position.
I left without one. I still don't have one.
It was this imaginary conversation that kept running through my mind...
Wendy:- Did you find a nice one, darling?
Me:-    Yes, at a good price too.
Wendy:- How much?
Me:-    Only £1500. It's a beautiful thing.
Wendy:- Can you play it?
Me:-    No.
Wendy:- You're a Wazzock!

So I just fake the PSG licks on my non pedal, and I'm happy with that (and richer).
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Sep 09 - 11:13 AM

On the standard Brinnell scale of hardness, I'd guess that a National Metal-Bodied Guitar probably tops the list.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 02:09 AM

I would have said a Lithophonic instrument of some sort...

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: banjoman
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 09:44 AM

Its easy to play any instrument badly - the hard part is learning to play properly. personally, as someone who has played five string banjos for over 50 years, I find that the hardest instrument for me is the Tenor Banjo. Although I can get a tune out of it I have never mastered being able to make it sound the way really good players do.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 02:26 PM

Surely this could be tested scientifically by bouncing various instruments off of someones head and asking which is the hardest? I await your nominations with trepidation.

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 28 Sep 09 - 08:24 PM

Could be quite cymbalic that?!
Of course, in the Les Barker parody of "The Roseville fair" the head went right through the middle of the banjo!

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: GUEST,banjoman
Date: 29 Sep 09 - 07:35 AM

That reminds me of the old joke about an octopus and a set of bagpipes.
Barden - sounds like a great idea - suggest we use your head to start with

I was once challenged to make a banjo from an old Tefal Frying Pan - that was pretty hard but its still in my collection and plays well. Especially useful for playing at banquets and barbeques. Its a very hard instrument

Subject: RE: hardest instrument
From: Cod Fiddler
Date: 29 Sep 09 - 09:04 AM

Take a look at the Bandoneon - a type of concertina Argentines play the Tango on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandone%C3%B3n

I think anyone who knows about concertinas will acknowledge that the bandoneon ifs insane!