Comments on: The Origins of 7 Musical Instruments

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:13:06 +0000

Strange sentence: “The modern accordion was first designed in Austria in the early 19th century—unlike modern accordions, however, it only featured a keyboard on one side, with the other end was used to operate the bellows”.

By: Jason!

Jason! — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:28:49 +0000

I am a concertinist. A concertina is NOT an Accordion… thank you very much.

For more info (if you are really bored):
http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8040

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:58:32 +0000

Instrument makers are currently manufacturing saxophones from the sopranino to the bass (so that’s six-soprinino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass) although the extremes on either end are in low demand, thus they’re usually special order. There’s also a small handfull of contrabass saxophones out there, which I believe selmer was offering as a custom built option a few years ago.

One other fun fact that I like to mention regarding the saxophone is that, since Adolphe Sax studied instrument design for years while making other woodwinds, from a technical standpoint, the saxophone is the perfect woodwind instrument. The mechanisms for the octave key and pinky keys make a lot more functional sense than what we see on the bassoon, oboe and clarinet. Because of this the saxophone is incredably easy to play. The downside to this, of course, is that the saxophone makes it easy for someone to initally sound good and go several years developing bad techniques (because it’s so forgiving) which really makes it impossible to become really good. Thus, the music world is flooded with “okay” saxophone players who aren’t really up on their chops like the other instrumentalists are. And I should know, I’m one of them :)

By: Roneesh

Roneesh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:34:19 +0000

The sax entry had some glaring omissions. As pointed out already, the Alto is not on the list, which makes me wonder how well this was researched. Also, the saxophone was poorly receive upon its creation. The first factory to make them was blown up actually.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:52:13 +0000

I’m surprised I’m the first nerd to point out that Weird Al’s name is spelled with no H on the end… cool article, though. Another instrument to profile might be the steel drum. I heard somewhere that it was one of only a few instruments invented in the 20th century.

Josh

By: John C

John C — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:41:27 +0000

Another thing not mentioned is the instrument that gave birth to the lute. The oud (pronounced ood) is an instrument that is very similar to a lute, only slightly larger. It was developed in the Middle East and brought to Europe during the Crusades.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:40:03 +0000

Also, you can get a soprano saxophone in the classic saxophone shape, but it looks stupid and the placement of the keys is such that your hands feel like giant gorilla paws, which is why the soprano is generally straightened out.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:37:30 +0000

It’s interesting to find out that the three alto saxophones I currently own don’t actually exist. ;-)

By: BassMan

BassMan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:19:03 +0000

Since the subject is the origin of these instruments, Les Paul doesn’t have a place. He did things to perfect and popularize the electric guitar.
Actually, Leo Fender didn’t originate it, either. Again, that was a matter of perfecting.
Oh, well.

By: Zach C.

Zach C. — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:57:09 +0000

In addition to the alto sax there is also a bass sax, but it is not widely used. Actually, after pulling up the wikipedia page, there appear to be at least 10 members of the saxophone family.