Question: What is the definition of a musical instrument?

[Elias Graves]

Frank Zappa played a bicycle once.

I've seen that. Classic Frank.

 

[Kerouac]

Exactly!



Don't own it and never will. Besides my musical tastes are Fusion, Jazz, Modern Country and Blues.

That's cool. I don't listen to Jazz, Fusion, or Modern Country. But I don't use unconventional vocals as an excuse for not digging in.

 

[tgk03]

And that is why Tom Waits is fucking amazing.

Right-fucking-on!

 

[T-BoneBarnet]

Bill Evans said it best, IMO: "To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument."

This sums it up best for me.

I think it depends on whether you're passively listening or actively attempting to use those devices to create a new performance.

Agree.
Without trying to sound like a dick, when people ask me what I play, I usually answer with "Whatever".

 

[T-BoneBarnet]

Hell, I don't know. I knew a guy who could play Row Row Row Your Boat with the exhaust notes on his old Datsun pickup truck.

A friend of mine told me once he read a newspaper article about a train driver on the London Underground who was fired for farting the national anthem over the PA. Music to my arse, I mean ears.

 

[Goldtop11]

It's cool... you guys just enjoy the new Van Halen album and I'll listen to something good.

Too far man… never accuse me of liking the new Van Halen album… that's just uncalled for…

Rofl.

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

 

[tgk03]

Frank Zappa played a bicycle once.

Frank incorporated a lot of objects not necessarily thought of as instruments. I saw him conduct an orchestra and at times one of the string players would use a New Years noise maker.
His comments on the Ensemble Moderne:

"One of the things I like about the Ensemble Modern is that they're interested in sound just for its own sake," Zappa said of the Frankfurt-based group.
"At one rehearsal, one of the horn players picked his horn up off the floor, and it scraped and made a noise. And I said, 'Do it again,' and the next thing you know, we had the entire brass section taking their instruments and scraping the bells back and forth across the floor, making this grinding, grunting sound. Just try to imagine that at a Hollywood recording session. There's a French horn instruction in classical music--I don't know how to say it in French, but it means 'bells in the air'--well, imagine this 'horns--bells on the floor!' "

 

[dodgechargerfan]

A musical instrument is anything used to create something musical.



At the same time, something traditionally called a musical instrument is not always musical.

Worse is one that is not played at all.

 

[Elias Graves]

My son's recent band concert featured the members wrinkling, crumpling and tearing sheets of paper as percussion.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

My second cousin uses an old, manual typewriter in her musical act, . . . as a percussion instrument.