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Flute
Last week we asked about your favorite musical instruments. Now tell us about the ones you hate.
I haven't acquired a taste for pipe organ music. Saint Saens Symphony No.3 makes me want to chew the legs off of my futon. The saxaphone is irritating when it is used to play any type of music other than jazz (classical crossover wears real thin after a few listens). Then there is the harmonica, which really gets on my nerves. There is nothing worse than a bad harmonica player. Finally, I despise the misuse of the human voice for rap (which just sounds like one long fast food commercial) and Gaelic Mouth Music (an audible form of mime).
I REALLY hate computer "creations" where a program creates a midi sequence that "plays" music; don't have the album in front of me, but on Flim & the BB's CD "Big Notes" I belive cut 4 was Funhouse and was a complete PC-created piece. I can think of nothing more representative of the general decline in the spirit and humanity of our society than the concept that a computer spitting out formulatic note sequences according to algorythmically derived patterns and timing is somehow "musical". I'd rather listen to a bunch of 3 year olds banging on washtubs and blowing kazoos - at least it would have some hint of human awareness.
Can't stand is a bit harsh, yet if forced to chose I would say the electric piano, early seventies (like the Fender Rhodes). As a jazz lover I prefer to see the keyboard player playing an acoustic piano rather than an electronic "replica"!
1: Bagpipes. Without a doubt the most horrible sound on the planet---like a dying sheep infested with a million angry bees. Why do Scotsmen walk while playing the bagpipes? They are trying to get away from the noise! 2: The "talking guitar" as used by Peter Frampton, Steve Miller and others. Hideous. 3:Baroque trumpets, as in Mouret's "Rondeau." The most incredibly pompous music ever. Funny, I like Baroque string music, though. 4: Screeching castrati vocalists of pop bands from the '70s and '80s---groups like Boston, Journey, Foreigner. Makes me want to kill.
If an instrument is performing within the context it was designed/created for it is fine. Too many times we try to orchestrate or arrange music outside of their range, technical or musical characterisitcs. Even the hammered dulcimer can sound good in context.