Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: SunRay
Date: 10 May 11 - 04:49 PM

The clarinet is the instrument which I think could best imitate the attitude of a human voice.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Luigi Umbelino
Date: 10 May 11 - 04:03 PM

My high school band director told me that the instrument closest to the human voice was the one I was playing...the Euphonium!!!! alson known as the Baritone Horn. Really cool!!!

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Rayzor North Carolina USA
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 10:48 PM

The Theremin (I hope I spelled that right)can sound very much like a human voice but also like some music from space.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 09:23 PM

Don, you have opened doors to worlds I never dreamed existed.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Smokey.
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 05:54 PM

In expert hands, a cornett, not to be confused with a cornet.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:47 PM

To me, in the hands of many musicians, the saxophone sounds like someone is torturing a duck!

But let's get serious here.

How it all started.

And the glorious career it led to.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 03:53 PM

Fear not, Leeneia - he only plays two at once on that clip (and stylophone during the intro rap) but he did do three as can be seen in this picture HERE. He was one of the few people who could circular breath on the flute whilst playing a recorder up his nose. No gimmick either - pure genius!

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:41 PM

Forgotten Acker Bilk, haven't we! That throbbing, woody sound that he could wring out of his E-Flat clarinet.
Or clarionet, as he called it.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:26 PM

You may think you are going to trick me into clicking on that link and subjecting myself to three saxophones at once, but you're not.

:)

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:15 PM

I love saxophones; especially three at time in the mouth of Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Otherwise, I suppose it all depends on the voice really - the one most favoured in this respect was the zink / cornett / cornet a bouquin, call it what you will.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 09:13 AM

My friend the music major tells me that all instruments oscillate around the note they are playing. i.e,, they move up in pitch and down in pitch while playing a given note. If they played a note 'pure' it would sound like a computer beep.

The saxophone is the instrument which wobbles the most. The pipe organ comes in second. To me, the saxophone wobbles too much. I do not like it and never have. When I was younger, I didn't like pipe organ either, but now I've changed and pipe organ is okay.

I guess if a singer wobbled a lot, then a saxophone would sound like that singer. However, it's up to the listener whether he likes either one.   
=========
I think one instrument that resembles a voice is the recorder, especially a lower recorder such as a tenor or bass.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: kendall
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 08:28 AM

I still say the Sax sounds like a hungry cow.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 07:57 AM

Armenian duduk/Azeri balaban.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 07:25 AM

The Sonovox

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Doug
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 07:02 AM

I am going with Percy Grainger and saying Saxophone...

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 02:08 PM

When some voices approximate the sound of an instrument such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby McPheron, Al Jarreau or others, they can do it quite convincingly but not to the point where it replaces the ability of the instrument in the hands of a master musician but their voice then becomes their instrument.

I advocate, kendall, that every good musician's instrument is his/her "voice" and carries that uniqueness in phrasing, tone, rhythm, breathing etc. There is no disputing that Miles Davis' angelic horn was his unique "voice" when he played although he spoke with a raspy growl.

You might ask which voice is closest to what instrument and find some interesting comparisons there. A lot has to do with the individual frequencies of either human voice or instrument which affect the timbre. It's interesting to hear any master musician play different instruments and they bring to each one their own "voice". They often (if they can) sing the way the play or vice versa.

Some folkies baffle me because they react to the "harshness" or "edge" of a saxophone but tolerate the nasal growling or belting of their fave folk singer.

Again, one person's taste is another's bitterness.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Bert
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 08:46 PM

Well somebody has to say it.

"Kendall, I though you had got your voice back" *HEE HEE*

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 11:05 PM

I can't find it now, but somebodynominated "trombone." I might make a difference if the voice is speaking or singing, but in all the John Wayne movies I ever saw, the Duke sounded just like a trombone to me.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 10:46 PM

The Kazoo! It IS the human voice.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 12:57 PM

There's often a stop on an old harmonium (the reed-organ thing with foot pumps) called 'vox humana'. That sounds nowt like anybody I know.

'Sparky's Magic Piano' used a vocoder. You can get an approximation by speaking through a harmonica. This record was mentioned earlier but I should point out that the boy is called Sparky not the piano.

I'll get me anorak!

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: John Hardly
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 12:47 PM

Like catspaw, I would say that an instrument that requires air to sound is quite probably going to contain similar phrasing to the human voice. I've always thought that the harmonica was the most imitative of the human voice in phrasing, timbre, and pitch.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Alec
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 12:44 PM

Sparky,who I mentioned upthread,was actually a vocoder.His adventures are still available on C.D.(Think we had a thread on this about a year back)If I remember correctly the Tuba was called Tubby.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 12:34 PM

Funny they didn't manage that on T.V. Bubblyrat. You don't think they were having you on?

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 12:31 PM

I think the answer is a piano !! When I was quite young,about 50 years ago, I remember hearing a record,on the radio,where the piano actually said "Sparky ! " several times ! AND-- There was a TUBA that could not only talk, but did impreesions of Danny Kaye,or someone like that.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:43 AM

Yamaha! Why don't you put in a few Blue Click thingies so we can hear the recordings that you consider as resembling the human voice?

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Scrump
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:43 AM

Good point GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler - he's brilliant, I didn't think of him earlier.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human vo
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:33 AM

Generally, and subject to debate, of course ('though not to my mind)"

Number 1: cello
Number 2: tenor sax

Sidenote - human voice most resembling a tenor sax: Barbra Streisand (specfically listen to the opening of her early recording of "What Are You Doing With The Rest of Your Life")

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 04:24 PM

Have a listen to Rory McLeod when he does one of his Harmonica/vocal numbers. It's difficult to spot thje change with your eyes shut.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: patriot1314
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 03:51 PM

it's got to be the kazoo as it is after all just a distorted human voice.

Blues Guitarist Walter Trout does a song in his stage act where his guitar plays the part of his girlfriend!
He "mimes" the words whilst he plays the notes....... And you can understand every word!

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:01 AM

Sorry: I meant "Tape Recorder"






There are lots of good answers here. I'd lean towards cello, saw & clarinet. (serious answer this time)

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 11:35 PM

Definitely, the musical saw.

Art

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:29 PM

That's interesting, JimLad. I wouldn't have thought of recorder, but now that you mention it, the low ones definitely resemble singing.

About the saxophone - I have friends who are professional musicians, and they tell me that all instruments (and good voices) play impure notes. Meaning, that when playing pitch, they actually wobble, moving up a bit, then back to the note, down a bit, and back. etc.

The instrument that wobbles the most is the pipe organ, and the second-most wobbly is the saxophone. So how much one dislikes the sax depends in part on how sensitive one is to wobbling.

Another factor is that there is quite a tradition of playing the sax in an ugly manner. I mean such things as making it honk, spit and break. These things are just gimmicks, and they get on the nerves after a while. (I remember eating in a Cajun restaurant once where I wanted to take an Uzi to the speakers.)

On the other hand it can be quite beautiful, as in the Serenade in Pictures at an Exhibition as arranged by Ravel.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:28 PM

In choral singing, such as Handel's Messiah, we often deliberately imitate instruments, even while singing words. Sometimes the choral director specifically asks for this, other times it's up to our own interpretation. Since I'm a soprano, the instrument is very often a trumpet highlight. There's a place in Messiah where the majesty of a trombone sound is needed from the singers, though no trombones are actually in the orchestration. Other times, when we are low in our range we have to think the bright nasal sound of "saxophone" in order to cut through and be audible. Sometimes you consciously sing runs as if you are bowing, other times as if on a fingered and blown instrument. How you attack the notes, how you hold your face and body, depend on what instrument you are at the moment.

If you aren't thinking about being a character, such as an angel dropped from the ceiling by a wire (sopranos get all the good parts!), then you are often thinking what instrument you are. It makes it much more fun for everybody.

Linda

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 09:47 PM

I would have to say.. "Recorder".

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human vo
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 09:27 PM

In my judgment (and believe me, I can be judgmental!), sax is almost two instruments.

As I generally hear it, (e.g. in jazz), it is for some reason generally used to produce sounds that I can only characterize as SNUFFLE, RASP, GARGLE, SNEEZE, GROWL, GURGLE, SCRATCH, AWK, AWK, AWK!

But it's possible, with a sensible, sensitive musician, to produce really lovely song-like sounds. For some reason, the French seem to do this best.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Richie
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 08:59 PM

The Talk Box or voice box that was popularized by Peter Frampton is close.

There are some synth keyboard sounds that are also close. The synth can also play with vibrato.

Kazoo is also a close one,

Richie

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: melodeonboy
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 06:31 PM

Kazoo!!

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 06:10 PM

Depends on the voice. Trombone is in the tenor range. Flute and violin soprano. Viola and upper cello..alto. Baritone....baritone horn. Bass, small tuba or bowed bass. As to the frequency range by which the "timbre" of the instrument is measured, every voice is slightly different. The flute can sound like some sopranos...breathy and high-pitched without jarring frequencies. The sax can be played smooth like Paul Desmond or Lee Konitz and more cutting like Charlie Parker. These instruments really are the "voice" of the players.

The difference in vocal quality is more contrasting then these other instruments mentioned.
Louis Armstrong vrs. Jussi Bjorling for example. Apples and oranges.

I find many human voices irritating to listen to if they don't have the musical phrasing and sophistication of a Louis Armstrong or Renee Fleming. I like the shouters if they are the real deal like Big Bill Broonzy.

I may be one of the few folkies that likes Ethel Merman..the belt queen. You woulda' had to seen her to believe it.

i would rather hear the cutting edge of a Bird solo than the baleful whining of some of the new folkie-types with their breathy and innocuous made-up ballads.

The African-American voices are beautiful and sound trumpet-like and some like a sax.

The sax is fundamentally a jazz instrument, Sigfried Rasher aside. (Classical sax player..think I have his name right if not please correct)

Some love the wide vibrato of Sidney Bechet, others hate it. I have heard African-American voices that sound this way.

Louis when he sings growls like Kid Ory's trombone.

Some baritones with rich voices in the folk field such as Stan Rogers remind me of baritone horns or low french horns.

Billie Holiday reminds me of a soft clarinet...with a bit of a growl.

I love the sound of the Celtic Women and Mairead Nesbitt makes her violin sing like a great soprano voice.

Almeda Riddle and Texas Gladden remind me of the sound of an folkie oboe. The appalachian trad male singers (Horton Barker) like an English horn. This would be true also of Bulgarian Women's choruses.

Judy Collins sounds like a smooth viola.

The human voice may be the most versatile instrument of all because of its variety of tonal quality. It can sound like many instruments.

Frank

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:09 PM

The Sonovox was the closest sound to a human voice I've ever heard.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: kendall
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:06 PM

I love the highland pipes, but I can understand why many people don't.I don't hate them because they don't like what I like. That's silly.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: charles92027
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 04:46 PM

Everything I've read says the cello is the closest, in timbre and range, to the human voice.
However some people (myself included) would argue that the human voice is an instrument - which would make it the closest instrument to a human voice.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Bee
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:41 PM

There's an enormous variety in human voices - it would be easier to ask what human voices sound most like what instrument. My mother's voice, when she was younger, had an almost guitar like quality, while my brother sounded like a badly played trombone (tone-deaf, poor fellow). I've certainly heard flute-like voices.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human vo
From: mrdux
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:22 PM

Wordsmith:

is it Toots Thielemans playing harmonica with Cleo Laine, maybe?

michael

ps -- in my earlier post I was thinking of Coleman Hawkins playing "Body and Soul". . . but "Sophisticated Lady" works for me, too.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Bernard
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 12:35 PM

Highland Bagpipes...? Okay, only when someone has the singer by the throat - which is usually what happens to me when I play my Highland Bagpipes...!

I don't really think the issue should be which instrument sounds like the human voice, but rather which instrument accompanies it best?

I would agree, though, that Kendall is right to object if a sax doesn't suit him... I play Alto, but I would never inflict it on someone who didn't like it... don't like hands around me throat, dost see?!

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,mick burke
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:59 AM

Your friend is right imo. The sax sounds like a jazz singer's voice. You don't play the sax ,you speak with it ,like Louis Armstrong spoke through the trumpet.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: Grab
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:54 AM

Cello for low voice. Viola for high voice. Violin for boy chorister.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Opinions please-instrument closest to human voice?
From: GUEST,Cod Fiddler
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:36 AM

'Cello is definitely closer to a human voice than a violin. It is much more resonant than a violin and covers the male and female ranges.

Subject: RE: Opinions please
From: Wordsmith
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:39 AM

Bobby McFerrin, (I got booted again, but managed to save) I know of a couple of times I've heard Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan approximate instruments masterfully. I think it depends on the singer's voice and elasticity. I have heard people make trumpets sound almost like human laughter. I also don't want to leave the impression that I only like the sax and violin. I'm listening to Cleo Laine, right now, singing, My One and Only Love, and there's someone playing a harmonica fantastically. I think I know who it is, but, thanks to aging, I can't quite remember it now. I'm sure it'll come to me. He used to play jazz harmonica for quite a few jazz singers. Quite mellow. BTW, now, I'm listening to Coleman Hawkins playing Sophisticated Lady, and I can hear the smokiness. See, it's not just the instrument, it's what the artist can wring out of it, too. Maybe it is just the lady who's playing the sax in such a way that it hurts to listen to it, Kendall?

Subject: RE: Opinions please
From: Wordsmith
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 01:27 AM

I actually love this conversation, even if it doesn't solve the original dilemma. I'll admit I don't know which is a closer approximation to the human voice, but Wolfgang's response reminded me of Peter and the Wolf, which, as you may know, creates all of the characters' voices with musical instruments - along with a narrator. I think it's a great teaching and learning piece.

Thanks, Bill D. for that link - it brought back memories of Benny Hill.
Thanks, Alec, for the Electric Sitar reference - I'll try to locate the piece.

As for replicating instruments with the voice, besides someone like Bobby McFerin

Subject: RE: Opinions please
From: Gurney
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 12:10 AM

I like most instruments that use reeds, and don't much like bowed instruments smaller than a viola.

Which sax? There are several. Which human? Base or soprano?


Many animals DON'T like reed instruments. I'll try to take comfort from that.