Are you your instrument?

Hey puckrock, you and I both look and sound like bassoons, by the sound of it! Like you, I'm tall, thin and red(dish)-haired - with a deep voice (well, deep for a woman.) However, my sense of humour tends to be more twisted than dry...

Thing is, I'm actually a frustrated oboist! For a start, methinks my thin lips give away my dastardly dark secret...you see, all other bassoonists I know have nice fleshy lips!

I also err more on the melancholy side - just like the mournful sound of the oboe; I don't really possess the clownish cheerfulness of so many bassoonists. Plus I'm more neurotic than your usual laid-back bassoonist! Oboists are famous for being pretty uptight...it has a lot to do with the relatively short lifespan of their reeds and the associated stresses - as well as the enormous pressure within their skulls when they play.

Now I feel like a real hybrid! Talk about confuzzling...hmmm, maybe I should take up cor anglais...

Cheers,

Hafwen.

Hafwen asked a question like this some time ago... http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av8E5...

There we go... I can't say I'm too much like a piano... Or an organ...

If I had to choose a "soul mate" instrument, I'd probably end up being the English horn, which coincidentally is my tertiary instrument, (well actually the oboe not the English horn) after the piano and organ.

I'm too skinny for my own good and annoyingly tall at times, just like an oboe. Just like the bore of the English horn is very big, I wear size 13 shoes. Although the English horn is more of an alto instrument, I am a tenor which is close enough. (close, but no cigars there...) Hafwen talked about the stereotypes, and yes, I do have skinny lips as oboists are thought to have.

Thinking of more similarities...

Well, that's it for now...

I do hate playing the english horn though... Much prefer the oboe.

...Does that mean I hate myself?

--Schumiszt

My main instrument is piano, and as much as I love it more than anything,

I wouldn't call it my "Musical soul mate."

Reason being, I'm much rather like the Harpsichord. I don't play it (yet...),

but It fits my personality, style and interests in numerous ways.

The harpsichord was most widely used in the Baroque era, which is my favorite era, most harpsichords have patterns, paintings and artwork decorated on its case, which also fits me because I'm an artist of some sort. The sound reflects my personality in one way or another, bright and lively (sometimes...)

I'm sure there's a lot more that associates me with the harpsichord that I just can't think of at the moment...But it's by far the instruments that suits me best.

Oh and, If I was associated with a certain harpsichord piece, it would be the Goldberg Variations by J.S Bach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLI8oh8wY6A

I agree that many people see similarities between themselves and their "soul" instrument. I think we purposely or subconsciously pursue some of the traits that are similar, and pull on the traits that are already there. My instrument is definitely the organ though I play many others, and I notice that there are many different . . . um. . . colours to me (as there are many tone colours to an organ), I guess I'm complex, but I don't weigh several tones, and I am not in any particular organ shape. It's interesting though, that many PASSIONATE organists (look up Cameron Carpenter) seem very eccentric. Though eccentricity MAY be because of the hours of practice alone, I think it is because we are used to overcompensating emotion in playing as it is easier on wind instruments to display your emotions in a piece. After all, what is music but another form of communication of emotion.

So I really think it is left up to whether or not you are passionate enough to WANT (consciously or subconsciously) to associate that particular instrument with yourself.

To answer the two parts of your question in reverse order, a full-compliment, Wagnerian orchestra reflects me, who and what I am(as I see myself): more accurately than any one instrument I've ever played: Richard Wagner probably being my "most" favorite composer, with Tchaikovsky and Sibelius being the other two of my favorite three.

I began playing the piano at age 6, and have played for many years, although no longer.

One of the many psychiatrists I've seen over my lifetime once told me that I took the piano, like most men take a mistress: it, she was my greatest love, and I constantly always made love to her.

A great loss, no longer being able to play - back injuries and vision problems(and I miss her something terrible).

Alberich

Everybody has given the 'figurative' answers - i.e. the personality of self compared to instrument. So I'll give a more 'literal' answer, since I've already written more than enough on Hafwen's question last time.

Yes, I am my instrument. I'm a singer. :)

Edit: Sorry, not Hafwen's question. I just checked. It was Kalibasa's question on instruments' personalities.

I also play a few instruments but I feel that me and the saxophone have this bond,I don't find it hard to play and I have a very...jazzy personality and am legendary :-D

interesting question!!!

i play the flute and it's my most prized possession :) and i guess i'm kind of like it...i'm not exceptionally tall or thin but i am sweet and cute and delicate like the sound. and i guess i also have what my band director calls "flutitis" - we always have to be heard!! which is like me also. :)

I think a person's character tends to push them in the direction of music, but otherwise it is often outside pressures which make us all learn a particular instrument. I know a few people who have changed to another instrument because they have experienced music for themselves with their first instrument (but nonetheless prefer the second instrument).

To an extent I believe certain characters and even appearances do go for particular instruments (though obviously most instrumentalists do not fit an exact stereotype). Pianists and especially organists are reputed to be eccentric (probably due to the fact that they practice alone, away from society), and I know plenty of eccentric pianists/organists. Oboe players seem to often be bald (I'm hoping no oboists are reading this!), and French horn players seem to always hang around with each other. The brass section in general is thought of as more social and extrovert (makes sense since a lot of orchestral brass playing involves solo or exposed lines and thus being the centre of attention) and strings as more serious. Maybe I am just looking for these attributes in instrumentalists, but they often can be observed.

I play the trumpet, piano, and sing (low baritone/high bass), and love all of my instruments.

I associate trumpet with either modern trumpet concertos or slightly modern melodies (eg. Rondo for Lifey, Bernstein) or that glorious orchestral brass sound which just cannot be compared to anything else!

I associate singing with very intimate expression, partly because of the fact that there is no instrument between singer and audience- the singer is simply singing to the audience, and songs have words to add to their meaning. I also feel the human voice is the most 'natural' of all instrument sounds (this does not necessarily make it better),and that really comes across in folk songs. I suppose I find singing most expressive, and I do enjoy expressing myself! Folk songs make the repertoire timeless, which I really love, but also voice is basically the oldest instrument written for so it generally is not associated with a particular style/period (except for some people who instantly think of 'Nessun Dorma').

Piano, honestly, has a slightly boring sound, but I love the subtle differences between tones in the treble and bass as well as from the player. I also like the cleanness of the sound and the fact that, unlike in an orchestra, there's a sort of democracy of sounds where every note has a say because no note has a particular timbre which demands more attention than another (eg. solo oboe playing over double basses). Perhaps the pianist's trying to find the interesting in the fairly same-ish, almost mundane, sounds rubs off onto his/her character and makes him/her more humourous or eccentric. Most of the repertoire is post 1700 ish, and though there are plenty of keyboard pieces transcribed for piano from this period, I believe that the piano is more of a mid-late Romantic instrument or modern Russian one, which are particular periods/styles I love.

I suppose my instruments conflict each other with how they rub off onto my personality and appearance. I reckon if I was a particular instrument I'd be piano- I'm not particularly sociable, and slightly eccentric. I started with he trumpet (age 5) but there has always been a piano in our house and every now and then I'd love to just play something on it since I was tiny (not that I played the piano at the age of 5; I only started at about 12 or something) and I always wanted to learn it. On the other hand (and kind of strangely) I quite like the attention of others (trumpet here I suppose) despite not enjoying socialising that much. Come to think about it, there are quite a few short trumpet players, or at least all my teachers have been short, and I'm fairly short, so maybe that's a physical characteristic from the trumpet. Except for the Italian associations (I do have Italian blood in me) I do not fit in with a lot of the signer stereotypes (e.g. being fat (you don't have to be fat to be a good singer) and singing for fame rather than love of music in opera). Some jealous musicians think of singers as less talented because a fair amount of it is due to natural skill; this has a small amount of truth in it but really is not the case in the professional world. I can personally say that singing has come easier to me than piano and trumpet, but maybe its because I learnt the two instruments before taking voice seriously and also trumpet helps various aspects of singing.

Hm. I didn't except to give such an epic answer. Maybe it answers your question somewhere though ;)

To lolwut: I'd love to be associated with a masterpiece like that!