Mine’s a bit of a strange one…
Music box/celeste
🧚♂️
Cello. No idea why. Yo-Yo Ma slays me.
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.
Hell yeah.
Yes everything about this, except downtuning is overrated imo
The oboe 🤌🏽💋
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.”
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.
I’d go to church if… Cory Henry played the organ.
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
🔥🔥🔥😍
Do synthesizers count?
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.
Violins can turn anything epic
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 can’t handle it, and tears stream down my face the whole time, but not from sadness; just a physiological reaction.
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.
Oh man a nice cold speculum, nothing better
synths, especially when using longer stretched out notes like in Kavinsky’s Outsider
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.
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.
😂 I love it!
French horn, for sure. You’d be surprised at just how prevalent it is in music.
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
Reminded me about vibraphone ;)
