The Big Picture by Lennie Peterson for April 17, 2024

Kazoo players? Yeowch!

I don’t know even one kid in my school who played a bassoon in our orchestra.

I read a book on music theory and it defined the saxophone as ‘A brass woodwind played out of tune in a jazz band.’ My instrument in high school.

Nothing worse than the accordion. (Except, maybe, the bagpipes.)

It is not the instrument, but the person trying to play it that is so produces sounds that are disagreeable and has no idea how bad it sounds.

Lennie, where are those meetings? I played the Oboe… ☺

Fun Fax: in French, the usual word for “paper clip” is trombone. And also, for reasons I’ve never been sure of, trombones are specifically associated with church music. And in orchestral music, in or out of church, are traditionally scored in threes. (Go figure.)

For many years, the trombone players in the Ohio State University marching band played instruments with valvesinstead of slides. They couldn’t figure out at that time how to make slides work in the complex formations they formed. Eventually, they must’ve figured it out because now they play slides and the band does amazing halftime shows. Check them out on YouTube.

Btw I played cornet in my youth. Don’t know how many times I had to say “IT’S NOT A TRUMPET!!!!”

Trombones are the sexiest of the brass instruments. Trumpets, meh, I don’t like the sound of them (or violins – too whiny sounding).

Bassoon, contrabassoon, bari, tenor and alto saxes. And bagpipes. (That’s a requirement when you marry a Scotswoman)