Everything Is an Instrument: Difference between revisions
m
markup
m (clean up) |
m (markup) |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:cat-piano 4126.jpg|link=Values Dissonance|
{{quote|''"Is mayonnaise an instrument?"''|'''Patrick Star''', ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''}}
Music has a long tradition behind it, and with any tradition comes traditions of form and style. For music, there are certain things that are considered musical instruments and certain things which aren't. For example, you wouldn't be surprised to hear a violin playing music, but if you were to hear a chainsaw playing a well-known melody, you would be.
Many people have found the idea appealing, and make an effort to make musical sounds out of things that wouldn't necessarily be considered musical. Body noises like belches and flatulence are rather popular, as are animal noises and violence used to produce melodies. Whatever is used, it's something removed from the norm. Sometimes it's done for comedic effect, but just as often it's used by serious artists who have found that [[Crazy Awesome|weird instruments make good music.]]
Line 16:
* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_CTYymbbEL4#t=93s Blue Danube Waltz] is very popular for this kind of treatment.
** An ''[[Animaniacs]]'' short had Wakko performing the Blue Danube using belches.
** Happens in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', with Homer munching the Blue Danube whilst in space.
** ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' has used "The Exploding ''Blue Danube''."
** An episode of ''[[House of Mouse]]'' has Mickey and Baby Shelby playing "The Blue Danube". Mickey plays on Shelby's shell like a xylophone, and Shelby does "ha ha"s to do the notes.
Line 62:
** The drums of one of their most famous songs, "Personal Jesus", was created by jumping on their instrument cases.
* Negativland was an experimental music band known for using various non-musical sounds as an integral part of their music, though with some songs the "music" designation is questionable.
* Xoc and Heavy Friends' music is created by the eponymous "heavy friends" sending sending any sound they like to [http://www.xocmusic.com/ Xoc], who then assembles them. This naturally results in the occasional use of non-standard instruments, such as drills, combs, and people reading software license agreements.
* Music for the ballet "Parade", composed by Erik Satie (known for his gentle, contemplative style), had a typewriter and pistol, among other things, added to it by the ballet's writer Jean Cocteau. Satie was not amused.
* Avant-garde composer György Ligeti (often heard in the films of [[Stanley Kubrick]]) wrote "Poéme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes", wherein one hundred metronomes are fully wound, set to different tempos, and released simultaneously to tick away until they have all wound down.
Line 95:
*** Most impressively, some of his pieces were written for the Oscar Meyer Wiener Whistle, several centuries before the advent of the Oscar Meyer Wiener.
* Lucas Abela has used, among other things, amplified plate glass, bits of steel, homemade turntables, and amplified needles. He once took it [[Up to Eleven|one step further]] by releasing an album that he claims was composed and performed entirely by his Volkswagen.
* Various things are used as instruments in many [[Songs to Wear Pants To]] songs, like spoons and [https://web.archive.org/web/20130510062532/http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/songs/toilet-flushing-shelving-unit/ the sound of the toilet flushing]
* A popular instrument for people wanting to invoke this trope is the cactus. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh8eHDN9MK0 for example]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd7gS88QbLs&feature=related This video demonstrates some of the different sounds you can get when playing the cactus].
* The rhythm section of [[Havalina Rail Co.|Havalina]]'s "Murder" includes a metal library cart being beaten within an inch of its life.
* Anathallo, on the album ''Floating World'', used sounds of shuffling cards and rattling chains as percussion. And, while everybody and their mom has used hand-clapping before, Anathallo's use in [http://tiny.cc/nn0z1 "A Song for Christine"] goes [[Up to Eleven]]
* The entire album Gizmodgery by Self features songs composed only using toy instruments.
* The album Hidden by These New Puritans has foley recordings made by the band of clashing swords, rattling chains, shattering glass, guns being cocked, and a melon wrapped in cheese crackers being hit with a mallet to simulate the sound of a crushed human head(!) all used as percussion.
* Artis the Spoonman is a street performer who is known for using a set of spoons as his instruments. He has since been featured on many musician's songs, most notably the [[Soundgarden]] song named after him, "Spoonman."
* In his earlier years, [[Beck (musician)|Beck]] often employed a Gameboy to make [[Noise Rock|noise music]].
** During one tour, he'd play [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXiTnsSn9wU "Clap Hands"] on acoustic guitar, while his backing band sat around a small dinner table and provided percussion by rhythmically banging on silverware with utensils. The studio version uses more normal instrumentation though.
* The intro to "Hardware Store" by [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] features a hammer, an unspecified power tool, and a hand saw.
* Japanese musician 黒電話666 (Literally, "Black phone 666") uses old telephones (known for the black plastic used to make them) as well as various [[Xenophone|custom-made phones]] from various like-minded artists.
Line 112:
* A band called Clayhill (supporting [[Beth Orton]]), whose set included a track called "Weird Beard" which required somebody to play a pair of scissors.
* Tilly And The Wall earn credit for ditching the drummer and having their rhythm provided by Jamie Presnall's tap dancing.
* [[
* On [[Bjork|Björk]]'s ''Vespertine'' (in which Matmos played a role in the programming), there are various sampled sounds, like shuffling cards on "Cocoon" and "Hidden Place", snow being walked upon on "Aurora", and ice being cracked and smashed on "Frosti."
* CDR has done this on and off since he began. He's done tracks with tape machines, squeaky toys, bits of cellophane and other things.
Line 129:
* The piano player on Mary Chapin Carpenter's debut album shakes a Cream of Wheat can on one track.
* The whole premise of [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1108831/ROBERT-HARDMAN-Traffic-cone-concerto-A1-minor--The-oddball-orchestra-thats-hit-playing-instruments-junk.html The Lost And Found Orchestra]
* Gerard Hoffnung: "Compositions specially commissioned for the Festivals included Malcolm Arnold's A Grand, Grand Overture, Op. 57 [2] which was dedicated to U.S. President Herbert Hoover and was scored for several vacuum cleaners and other domestic appliances." [https://web.archive.org/web/20130811223120/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824825,00.html ]
* Motograter. Instead of a bass guitar, they used the Motograter; it is made of industrial cable and guitar parts. It's played by hitting the cables with a drumstick and tightening or loosening them to create different notes. Seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hOExrLVKj0
* The Spinto Band have performed a version of their song "Later On" entirely using [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1cra71YVUM silverware, utensils, and food].
* At a time long before synthesizers were even realistically possible, let alone affordable, The Silver Apples were making electronic music using a home made instrument nicknamed the Simeon. Essentially just a collection of 30 something oscillators tuned to different pitches and triggered using telegraph keys, playing it required using ones hands, feet AND elbows. Oh, and the guy playing it was also the singer. A detailed schematic of the instrument is supplied in the liner notes for their eponymous album, as well as a breakdown of the drummers (equally impressive) drum kit.
* The Vaselines' "Molly's Lips" features a bicycle horn in the chorus. In recent live performances they typically get someone from the opening act to sit in on bicycle horn.
* [[OK Go]]'s Chevrolet-sponsored video for [http://youtu.be/MejbOFk7H6c "Needing/Getting"] involves the band playing the song with a car. The main way this is done is with retractable pneumatic arms on the vehicle, which strike carefully arranged and "tuned" objects as the band drive by them. There ''are'' some very unconventionally-used pianos and guitars involved, but mostly these are things like barrels, steel poles, and tires.
* A few songs on [[Nirvana]]'s ''Nevermind'' (most notably the instrumental breakdown in "Drain You") feature some toys [[Kurt Cobain]] brought to the studio.
* Charlie McDonnel, i.e. [[Charlieissocoollike]], uses a box of buttons, a toy TARDIS, a clothes iron, and other such 'instruments' in "A Song About Love."
Line 153:
* ''[[Penn & Teller]]'s Smoke & Mirrors'' (unreleased videogame) had a level which aurally imitated the aforementioned ''The Typewriter'' except as an arcade shooter instead of a typewriter.
* ''[[The Late Show]]'' often had these kinds of acts - one had glass soft drink bottles which they stuck their fingers in and popped out for the sound.
* Top Gear once had a segment when James May recreated the theme song using the exhaust sounds from various car engines.
* The opening theme of ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'' started with cash register sounds forming a melody. [[Older Than They Think|This was a couple years before Pink Floyd's "Money".]]
* Some of the percussion "instruments" in the score from ''[[Lost]]'' are pieces of the original airplane from the pilot.
Line 161:
* In on Episode the Cylon Theme in ''Battlestar Galactica' was played on pots, pans, and a toaster.
* In ''[[Lost]]'', Michael Giacchino used some pieces of the destroyed plane used for the Oceanic 815 wreckage for percussive sounds.
* On a few episodes of ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'', the K&B Construction Crew would appear on ''[[Show Within a Show|Tool Time]]'' to perform a musical number using mostly tools such as power saws, wrenches, screwdrivers, and an actual musical saw.
* In a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm2xYptDtkk joke episode] of [[New Zealand]] farming TV show ''Country Calendar'', a wire fence was used as a set of orchestral strings.
* One of the later themes for the BBC show ''Food and Drink'' was "Food, Glorious Food" from ''Oliver!'' performed on saucepans and other kitchenalia.
** The tension music used for the announcement of the winner on ''Great British Menu'' is also performed on utensils.
== [[New Media]] ==
Line 171:
* Prominent [[YouTube]] artist Joe Penna, alias [http://www.youtube.com/user/MysteryGuitarMan MysteryGuitarMan,] makes frequent use of things that aren't conventional instruments. Take, for example, [http://youtu.be/lhiP4cNgHxs a Mozart overture performed with root beer bottles.]
* [[Demoscene]] compositions occasionally make use of this, with [[MOD]] formats being well-suited to utilising this trope.
** "[http://ftp.scene.org/file.php?file=/mirrors/hornet/music/songs/1995/k/k_found.zip Found (Part I)]{{Dead link}}" - Uses sounds of keys, combs, brushes, aerosol cans, car door, car horn, hammer on axe blade, hammer on anvil, squeaky door, and an electric sander. As weird as that assortment of instruments sounds, the piece makes for an okay listen every once in a while.
** "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120624013642/http://lite.modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=52502 Mouth Music II]" - All instruments are actually voice-based, but a few of them don't sound like it.
* One of the many old "fads" at YTMND.com features songs remade using Windows XP sound effects. A list of examples can be found [http://wiki.ytmnd.com/XP/collection here], including the [http://supermarioxp.ytmnd.com original].
* Heh, how about [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYwdyu48bbI Legos]?
Line 190:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Katamari Damacy|We Love Katamari]]'', the track "Sunbaked Savanna" is a medley of songs from the first game rescored with animal noises and tribal drums.
* The soundtrack for ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'' had a track called Pooland, that was a a jazz song played with... ahem... colon trumpets.
* In one video of ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'', a series of hack-created stages are set up [[Mickey Mousing|so that Mario's movements]] ([[Automatic Level]] due to the design of the stage) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz0PaPpmGa8 play various videogame themes].
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': A common [[Memetic Mutation|Memetic Mutator]], fans often take the sound effects (like the Scout's "BONK!") and make music of it. The Mario 1-1 theme and the Mortal Kombat theme are two of the most popular.
Line 221:
== [[Real Life]] ==
* The "jug band" of American folk music is built around this concept, using instruments made from common rural household items such as jugs, washboards, wash tubs, kazoos (comb and tissue paper), saws, and spoons. Before using spoons, the Irish played animal bones in the same manner.
* The pig organ. The idea was that pushing a key on the organ would pull a pig's tail, making it squeal.
** And similarly, [http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/28/cat-piano.html the Cat Piano].
* Josef Pujol performed under the stage name "Le Petomane" at the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s. The name means essentially "The Farting Maniac", and that's ''exactly'' what he did. From [[The Other Wiki]]:
Line 235:
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOyEw9bT8yQ Hand farting.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGEqlNU30Tg Car engines] have been used to play tunes.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100207171946/http://www.viddler.com/explore/epicwinftw/videos/1/140.083
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xr82RHyCj8 This] street performer using a bunch of buckets and other things to make a drum set.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BILAFuSi-i0 A two slot toaster and a pair of forks.]
* Michael Iceberg's composition ''Pigs in the Wind'' used the titular sounds to make a concerto.
* The Infernal Noise Brigade, an anti-globalization, anti-consummerist marching band, preferred to make their "instruments" out of trash as part of their message.
* The musical piece "4'33"", by John Cage, was essentially intended to be the sound of the audience getting annoyed at him sitting in front of the piano like a lemon for the four-and-a-half minutes of the piece. Modern audiences are in on the joke, though, rather ruining the effect.
* The General MIDI standard defines programs 119 through 127 as the sound effects Reverse Cymbal, Guitar Fret Noise, Breath Noise, Seashore, Bird Tweet, Telephone Ring, Helicopter, Applause and Gunshot, respectively.
| |||