What's your favorite instrument that really gets through to you?

Bagpipes. One of the few instruments that can both make you cry and make you want to charge into battle.

The oboe 🤌🏽💋

Cello. No idea why. Yo-Yo Ma slays me.

a hurdy gurdy

Accordion... I love the sound of it, especially the Italian ones with chambers.

The sax

A trumpet properly played cuts directly to that bittersweet, blue part of my soul.

Do synthesizers count?

French horn, for sure. You'd be surprised at just how prevalent it is in music.

Hammond organ played well really makes me feel warm to the core

Electric guitar, preferably with heavy distortion. Louder := better.

No but seriously I love heavy music so much. It's fun to listen to, fun to play, and it's just had a positive impact on my life. If you want to really tug on my blackened heartstrings, you gotta do it through distortion, preferably an HM-2, in as low a tuning as your guitar can handle.

pedal steel or any sort of slide guitar

Singing, although I guess it's kind of cheating since it can be emotionally charged (I get goose bumps from certain songs).

Instrumental... Cello or bass guitar, depending on mood. Give me a good bass line and it'll get me going.

I find the speculum to be excellent at letting me see deep inside myself. Instruments like ribcage spreaders are too infrequently used to count I think. A good seasonal look with the speculum could save you a lot of heartache.

Pipe Organ. The only instrument with the versatility of an orchestra at your fingertips. It can make the room shake or fill it with quiet whispers.

Sadly, Churches are one of the few places, in the US at least, where you can hear the organ regularly. Ones that can afford to maintain such a large instrument and pay an organist.

Bass is so fun

otamatone

A Kora! It's an African instrument that is considered a guitar harp, with 21 strings ranging from the size of bass guitar string to fishing wire. The way it is played allows you to play the bass, lead, and rhythm at the same time. Here is a short example of a master kora player Toumani Diabate showcasing the instrument: https://youtu.be/8luhdxS2KuM?si=llpa2YVyIOf77_Nd

As a guitarist I found this guy who transcribed Toumani's work onto a classical guitar, very interesting listen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=55QnOlXckOk

My other thing would be trippy out there instruments that seem to put you in a different state of mind like the Yaybahar or "The Beam" that the grateful dead likes to break out sometimes

Yaybahar example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_aY6TxC1ojA&pp=ygUWeWVoYWJhciBhdCBpbnN0cnVtZW50IA%3D%3D

The Beam example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0h8o-1IQ5G0&pp=ygUSZ3JhdGVmdWwgZGVhZCBiZWFt

Clarinets. Absolutely love those when played right.

The french horn gets me in the feels every time. I think it's because it reminds me of dressing up fancy and going to the symphony with my aunt as a school aged kid, as well as candle lit Christmas eve services that heavily featured them.

Spanish guitar.

I really appreciate strings in general, but no instrument can emotionally move me like the violin. A melancholic violin section in an already sad song is a surefire way to make me tear up. I've never been very good at playing any instrument, but I've been tempted to pick up the violin to see if it feels as good to play as it does to hear.

Piano! Call me basic, I do not care! Versatile, beautiful, fun to play. I could talk for hours about it.

I have three.

Piano -> Violin -> Cello

A large Casavant. Any pipe organ really, but a large one with tones below the human hearing threshold really hit hard in person. They give me nonstop frisson. Almost can’t handle it, and tears stream down my face the whole time, but not from sadness; just a physiological reaction.

Drums, but I may be slightly biased because I play them

Pedal Steel. First time I saw one played live was at a Bright Eyes show when I was in high school. I know they’ve been around for a long time and are prominent in country music, but watching and hearing it played in person just blew me away. I feel like the instrument conveys so much emotion in its sound

As a Deaf person, anything that gives good vibration/bass: Drum and Bass Guitar, make or break the music for me.

Would also accept calliope if I'm feeling quaint ;)

The sitar!

Handpan

Marimba

one of my friends rents one and played a few pieces for me. it was like existing outside of the rest of space and time. he's really good at it and it just sounds magical

synths, especially when using longer stretched out notes like in Kavinsky's Outsider

song - https://youtu.be/_Dhk_e2DmhI?si=DdEdPj6LMOlZGQFw

Hammond organ

If it's got strings, it's good. This includes piano.

A mandolin.

A lot of my instrumentation works on LVDTs, and I think they are pretty neat anyway. Great for position sensing.

Vibraphone

Very cool too and vaguely consistent with my other picks. They're all metallic percussive keyboard type instruments involving mallets to some extent

Edit: Metallophones seem to be my sweet spot, in terms of instrument category

Harpsichord. Almost forgot about that one. when Tori Amos breaks out the dual piano/harpsichord, great things happen.

Only the scalpel gets through to me, because I don't believe in acupuncture.

:-)

The instrument I want to learn to play (but have no reason to do so) is the hammered dulcimer.

The instrument that most makes me perk up when I hear it in a song is the bass (or contrabass) saxophone.

Most instruments played well grips my heart and holds. But steelpan. People see it as something carnival something something, but it fits well for a surprisingly wide span of music! The power of the bass pans in death metal as much as the "synthiness" in a melody from some NES game, it fits!

A singing saw, love the ghosty sound of it.

It's simple, piano. It's funny, I've trying to learn this instrument since back when my late father bought one, yet I still can't play one.

I'm going with the Mellotron.

It's a keyboard that uses strings of tapes for each note. It pulls the tape over a head and plays that note until the tape runs out. When you're playing fast, sometimes the tape isn't all the way down, so it makes everything sound super custom.

Think Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. That's a Mellotron you're hearing.

B A S S

As a musician the Monome Norns raspberry pi shield and lines community has been inspiring me a lot lately. It's a FOSS "sound computer" that can take on hundreds of uses.

For anyone looking to get into brass instruments, this is a great example of how a horn can be made to sing. It’s the first time I had ever heard someone put their soul into a horn.

To be clear, this isn’t something a novice can play. The notes he’s hitting are hard.

The Theremin and not just weird sci-fi/horror way of playing it. It can be a real instrument if it is played in a way that treats it as such.

https://youtu.be/ajM4vYCZMZk?feature=shared

Idk, compasses are quite cool and useful?

I can play this one and doing so has always felt pleasant.

Agree on music box. For me, it's also violins.

Whatever instrument Peter Pringle is playing in this vid:

Lament for Enkidu

Frickin haunting

obsidian scalpel

PS controller

My oma played a zither so I give that a mention for another thing I’ve not heard in nearly 30 years.

But, my serious go to for relaxation is the erhu. I’m surprised that hasn’t had a mention.

The warm tone of an EP, mostly used in jazz and fusion. Second would be a distorted synth lead, like Derek Sherinian’s signature lead sound.

Synth.

Fight me.

The tekerő. It's the Hungarian version of the hurdy-gurdy.

Hard for me to choose just one. I love these three instruments because they are so peaceful and calm. Though people do use them to do covers of heavier music as well.

The Guzheng is a 21-26 string zither instrument. I love Zithers in general. There are many types from different countries.

• Blue and White Porcelain
• Butterfly Lovers
• AC/DC - Thunderstruck

The Guquin is a 7 string instrument.

• Nameless Song
• The Untamed

The Erhu is a 2 string instrument. Part of the huquin instrument family.

• To Love's End
• Rain in Jiang Nan

Ronroco!

Synth

Ukulele. It's so easy to play, C is just one string! And they're small enough to take in your carry on if you travel. I own 5...

Rhodes Piano, hands down.

Harpsichord. Below the streets of St Paul in (that) London.

If you know, you know.

This

(Recommend skipping to about 1:45.)