What's your favorite instrument that really gets through to you?

cheese_greater@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 84 points –

Mine's a bit of a strange one...

Music box/celeste

๐Ÿงšโ€โ™‚๏ธ

86

The oboe ๐ŸคŒ๐Ÿฝ๐Ÿ’‹

One of my more decent pieces has an oboe and a horn duet as the melody. The oboe is such a unique and beautiful sounding instrument that pairs well with many more softer instruments

Allegedly George Bernard Shaw said this about the oboe: "An ill wind that nobody blows good."

Electric guitar, preferably with heavy distortion. Louder := better.

No but seriously I love heavy music so much. It's fun to listen to, fun to play, and it's just had a positive impact on my life. If you want to really tug on my blackened heartstrings, you gotta do it through distortion, preferably an HM-2, in as low a tuning as your guitar can handle.

1 more...

I find the speculum to be excellent at letting me see deep inside myself. Instruments like ribcage spreaders are too infrequently used to count I think. A good seasonal look with the speculum could save you a lot of heartache.

Pipe Organ. The only instrument with the versatility of an orchestra at your fingertips. It can make the room shake or fill it with quiet whispers.

Sadly, Churches are one of the few places, in the US at least, where you can hear the organ regularly. Ones that can afford to maintain such a large instrument and pay an organist.

I posted a similar response. There is a huge Casavant in KC at Helzberg Hall. I heard it when Dr Jan Kraybill was the conservator; may still be, and it was incredible. Worth a trip, and not a church.

The sax

A Kora! It's an African instrument that is considered a guitar harp, with 21 strings ranging from the size of bass guitar string to fishing wire. The way it is played allows you to play the bass, lead, and rhythm at the same time. Here is a short example of a master kora player Toumani Diabate showcasing the instrument: https://youtu.be/8luhdxS2KuM?si=llpa2YVyIOf77_Nd

As a guitarist I found this guy who transcribed Toumani's work onto a classical guitar, very interesting listen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=55QnOlXckOk

My other thing would be trippy out there instruments that seem to put you in a different state of mind like the Yaybahar or "The Beam" that the grateful dead likes to break out sometimes

Yaybahar example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_aY6TxC1ojA&pp=ygUWeWVoYWJhciBhdCBpbnN0cnVtZW50IA%3D%3D

The Beam example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0h8o-1IQ5G0&pp=ygUSZ3JhdGVmdWwgZGVhZCBiZWFt

The french horn gets me in the feels every time. I think it's because it reminds me of dressing up fancy and going to the symphony with my aunt as a school aged kid, as well as candle lit Christmas eve services that heavily featured them.

The french horn is the feelings guy in the horn section. The trumpet is often used to shout the main idea at the audience, and then the french horn lays back on the couch and tells us how that makes him feel.

Piano! Call me basic, I do not care! Versatile, beautiful, fun to play. I could talk for hours about it.

A large Casavant. Any pipe organ really, but a large one with tones below the human hearing threshold really hit hard in person. They give me nonstop frisson. Almost canโ€™t handle it, and tears stream down my face the whole time, but not from sadness; just a physiological reaction.

I really appreciate strings in general, but no instrument can emotionally move me like the violin. A melancholic violin section in an already sad song is a surefire way to make me tear up. I've never been very good at playing any instrument, but I've been tempted to pick up the violin to see if it feels as good to play as it does to hear.

As a Deaf person, anything that gives good vibration/bass: Drum and Bass Guitar, make or break the music for me.

I'm curious if you've ever held a guitar, or touched one as it was played? Acoustic guitars, especially when playing on the lower strings, vibrate quite a lot, sometimes it feels like a purring cat.

Yeah, all instruments pretty much vibrates. It's just that I like certain ones.

Marimba

one of my friends rents one and played a few pieces for me. it was like existing outside of the rest of space and time. he's really good at it and it just sounds magical

Hammond organ played well really makes me feel warm to the core

There is a great Spotify playlist for the Hammond.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2z3UdHynR5SMUu1xW45EfI

The instrument I want to learn to play (but have no reason to do so) is the hammered dulcimer.

The instrument that most makes me perk up when I hear it in a song is the bass (or contrabass) saxophone.

Most instruments played well grips my heart and holds. But steelpan. People see it as something carnival something something, but it fits well for a surprisingly wide span of music! The power of the bass pans in death metal as much as the "synthiness" in a melody from some NES game, it fits!

Pedal Steel. First time I saw one played live was at a Bright Eyes show when I was in high school. I know theyโ€™ve been around for a long time and are prominent in country music, but watching and hearing it played in person just blew me away. I feel like the instrument conveys so much emotion in its sound

Vibraphone

Very cool too and vaguely consistent with my other picks. They're all metallic percussive keyboard type instruments involving mallets to some extent

Edit: Metallophones seem to be my sweet spot, in terms of instrument category

As a musician the Monome Norns raspberry pi shield and lines community has been inspiring me a lot lately. It's a FOSS "sound computer" that can take on hundreds of uses.

I'm going with the Mellotron.

It's a keyboard that uses strings of tapes for each note. It pulls the tape over a head and plays that note until the tape runs out. When you're playing fast, sometimes the tape isn't all the way down, so it makes everything sound super custom.

Think Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. That's a Mellotron you're hearing.

It's simple, piano. It's funny, I've trying to learn this instrument since back when my late father bought one, yet I still can't play one.

Uilleann Pipes

As heard on Bryan Adams, When You Love Someone.

I can play this one and doing so has always felt pleasant.

Can you give the name in the comment, kinda hard to peruse when its a link you gotta follow to find out :)

Ukulele. It's so easy to play, C is just one string! And they're small enough to take in your carry on if you travel. I own 5...

Hard for me to choose just one. I love these three instruments because they are so peaceful and calm. Though people do use them to do covers of heavier music as well.

The Guzheng is a 21-26 string zither instrument. I love Zithers in general. There are many types from different countries.

The Guquin is a 7 string instrument.

The Erhu is a 2 string instrument. Part of the huquin instrument family.

Harpsichord. Almost forgot about that one. when Tori Amos breaks out the dual piano/harpsichord, great things happen.

Harpsichord. Below the streets of St Paul in (that) London.

If you know, you know.

The warm tone of an EP, mostly used in jazz and fusion. Second would be a distorted synth lead, like Derek Sherinianโ€™s signature lead sound.

My oma played a zither so I give that a mention for another thing Iโ€™ve not heard in nearly 30 years.

But, my serious go to for relaxation is the erhu. Iโ€™m surprised that hasnโ€™t had a mention.