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Performance - Share your Stories
The Hierarchy of Instruments
The Hierarchy of instruments... according to me - I'm talking about solo instruments -
Stand alone - no accompaniment - it goes something like this...
1 - Organ
This is the PIPE organ I'm talking about - not the one with coloured, glowing keys.
Because :
- it's the biggest instrument!!
- ..... and the loudest,
- and it has the most parts (up to 10,000).....
- and you play it with two hands AND your feet.
- ... and --- it has a godzillion number of different sounds, including percussion.
- it has a pretty good solo repertoire
- Classical Repertoire - mostly known for Baroque and Romantic pieces - and of course the religious repertoire.
-
Popular repertoire - mmmm..... hasn't been seen there lately... at least not for a century or two. It's smaller electrically powered cousins get the occasional look-in on hard rock (viz. Deep Purple and Uriah Heep) and sometimes in Jazz.
2 - Piano
- Basically one sound (timbre) - Hey - all you piano players, settle down.... please.... I mean - in the general sense it has only one colour available.
- 2 hands only
- Classical Repertoire - at home in anything.
-
Popular Repertoire - Popular in country ballads, as backup during the guitar solos.
3 - Guitar !!!!!!!
- Works just as well as the 2 above as a solo instrument
-
----- the performer can bring his/her own instrument to the gig -------
this point bears repeating :
------ the performer can bring his/her own instrument to the gig -------
- heaps of different sounds
- when electrified it is as loud as the organ and with many many sounds.
-
Classical Repertoire - Had a good run in the 18th and early 19th centuries and then got booted as pianos got bigger and louder. Mmmm..... payback time methinks!
-
Popular Repertoire - Guitar is the instrument of today - from the 1950's onward it has
totally dominated popular music.
4 - all the rest of the orchestra
- Huh ?! I hear you say. Well... do you really want to listen to 3 hours of solo
(insert any other instrument here) ?
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